The main talk for the evening was yet another maiden effort. Long
standing fellow-member, Dave
Matthews gave us a talk on the little known "Siege of Okiep" which
took place towards the end of the
Anglo-Boer War. Using overhead projections and colour slides as
illustrations, our speaker started off with
a brief history of the copper mining town of Okiep and its environs.
He then went on to describe how, with
the intensification of the guerilla warfare by the Boers after the
defeat of their conventional forces by the
British in July 1900, no region in Southern Africa could be regarded
as being secure.
In January 1901 Col. Shelton was ordered to Namaqualand to organize
its defence against a possible Boer
attack. It was a Herculean task - this vast tract of barren,
waterless stony desert is some 17 500 sq. miles in
extent and stretches from the Orange River in the north to
Vanrhynsdorp in the south. It is bounded in the
west by the Atlantic Ocean and in the east by the waterless
Bushmanland. Okiep was the main mining
town in the area and it was connected to Port Nolloth in the
north-west by some 90 miles of narrow-gauge
railway line*. The town itself was overlooked by surrounding hills
and high ground and consequently
extremely difficult to defend.
Notwithstanding, Col. Shelton with the aid of a Major Dean of the
Cape Copper Company, built a
comprehensive set of defence works comprising an outer chain of
blockhouses which completely encircled
the town. His artillery was mounted on Fort Shelton which was also
his HQ. His inner defence line was a
barbed wire entanglement, which also surrounded the town and
encompassed the waterworks, mines and
most of the houses. He also set up blockhouses at Springbokfontein,
Nababeep and Concordia.
A Town
Guard was formed in the latter and was under the command of a Capt.
Phillips with 5 Officers and 215
NCO's and men. He also set up blockhouses at strategic points to
protect his vital railway line to Port
Nolloth. Finally he founded the Shelton's Border Scouts and,
although they did engage the Boers on
several occasions, their role was to be purely defensive.
This situation prevailed for most of 1901, but with ever increasing
Boer incursions, until on 26 January
1902 a Boer Commando isolated Garies in the east. Then a week later
intelligence indicated that Gen.
Smuts' commandos had linked up in the vicinity and now numbered some
3 000 men.
Springbokfontein
was the first to be attacked and, although the settlement was
protected by 3 blockhouses and barbed-wire
entanglements, it was soon overrun. The Boers had found some
dynamite in a disused mine and with the
expertise of two expatriate Irishmen (Lang and Gallagher) turned
them into very effective hand grenades
which were used to attack the blockhouses. On the strength of this
attack, Shelton wanted to withdraw his
men from Nababeep and Concordia as a matter of urgency.
While the
garrison from the former needed no
second bidding, Capt. Phillips at Concordia refused to evacuate
saying that neither his men nor the
residents were prepared to leave their homes. Shelton eventually
agreed, but exhorted him not to let the
Boers capture any military supplies.
However, when Capt. Phillips
was finally confronted with the Boers,
he surrendered without a single shot being fired! Unfortunately he
did not destroy his supplies and the
Boers were able to capture 150 rifles plus 50 000 rounds of
ammunition and a large quantity of dynamite.
The Siege began in earnest on 8 April with heavy attacks on the
three southern blockhouses.
General
Smuts who was in charge of the Boer commandos used dynamite bombs to
great effect against the
blockhouses and managed to capture all of them without too much
trouble.
Col. Shelton, realizing that
there was more shock than damage caused by these dynamite bombs,
re-assured his men accordingly. The
secret was to maintain a withering rifle fire at the enemy and keep
the attackers out of throwing distance.
On the 10th April, Smuts offered "safe conduct" out of Okiep to the
non-combatants, but after the
Concordia debacle, they scornfully rejected it. They wanted to be in
their own homes with their menfolk.
Meanwhile, a Col. Cooper with a substantial relief force had been
dispatched from Cape Town to Port
Nolloth, arriving there on the 12th. They set off immediately by
train and travelled as far as they could go.
Although the tracks had been torn up in places, the bridges and
viaducts that had been guarded by
blockhouses were still intact. They first encountered the enemy at a
place called Klipfontein which was
about 45 miles out of Okiep, but the Boers had withdrawn to some
higher ground that commanded the
railway line. On the 14th, Col. Cooper managed to clear the Boers
out of the area by the use of a shrapnel
bombardment that caused heavy casualties.
At that stage he signalled
to Shelton by means of heliograph
that he would be in Okiep within two days, but it was not to be. His
relief force was again held up at
Steinkopf and it was not until the end of April that the Boers
pulled out and retreated towards Okiep.
Back in Okiep, the Boers had captured the Shelton Blockhouse after
its garrison had run out of ammunition
and a dynamite bomb had collapsed its roof. However, Fort Shelton
managed to hold out. Further attacks
continued on the 13th, but were repelled by concentrated artillery
fire. Bitter fighting continued unceasingly,
but the defence held.
Then on the 25th April, General Smuts had to
leave the Siege and make his way by
special pass through the British lines, as he was required to attend
the Peace Conference at Vereeniging.
Maritz, who had taken over from Smuts, tried to send a rail wagon
packed with dynamite and driven by an
unmanned steam locomotive along the railway line into Okiep.
Fortunately for the defenders it was
derailed by the barbed-wire entanglements and overturned. It caught
fire and burned with a brilliant light
for rest of the night.
The relief column finally arrived in Okiep at noon on 4th May when
Col. Cooper, who was the senior
officer, took over from Col. Shelton. Shortly afterwards, the
dispirited Boer commandos withdrew from
Springfontein and Nababeep and by the 5th May the area was cleared.
Ten days later the Peace Conference
started in Vereeniging culminating in peace being signed on 31st May
1902.
*After the usual question time, the comment was made that the Port
Nolloth to Okiep railway line had
originally been surveyed by a forebear of the late Major Darrell
Hall and, because he liked the country so
much, the Hall family emigrated from Cornwall and settled in South
Africa during the late 1800's.
Our Chairman, Paul Kilmartin took it upon himself io express the
thanks of the meeting to both our
speakers for these most intriguing and informative talks.
ANGLO-ZULU WAR TOUR: The British Cultural and Heritage Association are organizing a three-day bus tour to celebrate the 120th Anniversary of the Battle of Isandlwana from 2lst to 23 January 1999. Contact Mrs C Newton for details on (031)2026174. Cost: R1 170.
Dr Ingrid Machin
Secretary: Durban Branch
S.A.MILITARY HISTORY SOCIETY
4 Hadley,101 Manning Road,Glenwood,Durban,4001
Telephone: (031) 21 3983