DE WET, GUERILLA.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3114, 24 April 1922, Page 2

DE WET, GUERILLA.

The death of de Wet two months ago revives memories of the important part he played in the Boer war. He was with Cronje at Magersfontein, and commanded part of the reinforcements which vainly sought to relieve that leader at Paardeherg. But it was during the long halt at Bloemfontein while Lord Roberts was preparing tor Ins next leap forward to Pretoria that the name of De Wet first became famous. With a. splendid daring which compelled the admiration even of his foes, he took every advantage of the enforced immobility of the British Army, and boldly struck down to the south. Sauna’s Post was the scene ol his first exploit, where he captured seven 12pounder guns and inflicted casualties amounting to >‘lo officers and 300 men killed, wounded, and missing under Broadwood’s command. The ambuscade was completely successful, and left the all-important waterworks in the hands of the enemy.

After the brilliant coup at Sauna’s Post Do Wet moved swiftly upon Reddereburg, and) there snapped up three companies of the Irish Rifles and two of tho 2nd Northumberland Fusiliers. From Reddereburg he passed on to Wepener, and laid siege to the place, but was foiled by the tine defence of Da-Igoty’s Colonials, and when at last Lord Roberts was able to detach a powerful force to clear the south-eastern corner of the Free State, and it was hoped) that the raider would be trapped, he evaded his pursuers, slipped past Thaba’nchu, and got clear away on the Ladybrand road. Lord Roberts loft Bloemfontein on May 3, and his army hardly drew breath until Pretoria was reached on Juno 5. De Wet remained on. the flank of our desperately long line of communications, and began his dashing series of rail-cutting expeditions. Me was here, there, and everywhere. His first feat was the capture of Col. Spragge’s Yeomanry at Lindley at the end of May: on .June 4 he seized a long convoy of 55 waggons, and on dime 9 he cut the line at Roodeval, and took prisoners the whole of the-4th Derbyshire Militia. Regiment. For three days lie held l the railway, blew up bridges, and destroyed the metals—completely severing: communication between Pretoria and the South —and then, when Lord Methuen came upon the scene, he and his men vanished into thin air. But not for long. On June 14 he appeared at Rhenoster, but was beaten off; then he came within ;in ace of capturing Lord Kitchener; and on the 2lst he was at Honing Spruit, hut was once more forced to retire. This time he made off to rejoin Olivier and Prinsloo in the neighborhood of Bethlehem, towards which a number of British columns were converging, under the command of General Hunter. The net was made complete in the Branclwater Basin at every point save one —Slabbert’s Nek — through which De Wet dashed) just in time, leaving Prinsloo and his 4000 to surrender. He raced north, with Paget and Broadwood in pursuit, lighting a running rearguard action until he shook himself clear, and then cut the railway again at Honing Spruit- —where he lucked up 100 prisoners—and flung himself into the hilly country near the Vaal t Vrcdefort. . These repeated successes infused new heart into' the Boers and put an end to all the negotiations for peace which had passed between Lord Roberts and Louis Botha. A great effort, therefore, was made to capture De Wet. At the beginning of August the British began to' close round his lair, and lord Kitchener himself left Pretoria to take command of the operations. But neither De Wet’s nerve nor good fortune failed him. At the critical moment, on August 7, he piloted his convoy across the Vaal, raced past Methuen, and was off, with Methuen and Kitchener following fast at his heels. Once more he fought continuously a series of rearguard actions, in which he shed wagons and even guns that hampered his flight, crossed the Krugors-dorp-Potsehcfstroom Railway, in spite of Smith-Dorrien’s rapid march to delay him, and made straight for the Mag aliesberg. There were only three passes through which he could pierce the range, and it was; fondly hoped that all had been closed against him. But to the bitter mortification of tbo troopers who had hunted him at top speed for nearly a fortnight, it was found that Olipliant’s Nek had been left open, and De Wet rode through in triumph, to join Delarey in the plains beyond. It was but little consolation to know that his subsequent effort to join Botha by crossing to the north of Pretoria was foiled by Baden-Powell .and Paget, and five raider then retraced his steps with a few followers, and reappeared again in the Free State in his old haunts, after making things lively for General Barton in the neighborhood of Krugersdorp, Once again he collected of daring spirits around 1 ’ him, and in the middle of September was surprised by General Macdonald near the Vet River, and had to leave thirty wagons and (10,000 round's of ammunition in order to get away. Then followed three weeks of quiescence, but early in October be was at Vrcdefort again, only to be driven by De Lisle across the Vaal. Until the end 'of the month be was busy rail-cutting, but on the 27th General’Charles Knox came upon the scene, and after a hard chase Colonel Le Gallais succeeded in administering to De Wet a severe blow, for he captured three guns and surprised a laager. The price, however, was heavy, for tho gallant Le Gallais was mortally wounded in the tight. As usual, De Wet broke away, and ranged up and down the railway line, but towards tho end of November he once more turned to the south, with the intention of crossing the Orange River and invading Cape Colony. On his way he visited Dewetsdorp, capturing two guns' and -150 men of the Gloucester* and Irish Rifles. But/ on nearing the river he found the drifts ton strongly guarded for him to attempt the passage, while, by a series of rapid movements, Charles Knox had interposed himself between the river and the raider. De Wet. therefore, was headed off. and again the chase began. He crossed the Caledon in flood, and rode straight for the north with a large force of pursuers at his heels. A chain of fortified posts hail been drawn across from Bloemfontein to Ladybrand. and it was hoped that these would prove too strong to be pierced. But it was not to he._ Just when Charles Knox was within an hour's march of his slippery toe. the whole commando rode at a gallop through a pass between two posts, and the onl'v recompense of tho* British, after all their exertions, was the recovery of one of the captured _fif-teen-pounders ..and a handful ol prisoners. De Wet had escaped again.

The glpsing days o( 1900 saw the raider surrounded at Leuwkop hy Generals Charles Knox, Barker, Pilcher, and White. He constantly strove to shake himself free, hut failed, yet they, in their turn, could make little or no impression upon him. Kventnally he broke out towards Bethlehem’, hilt was

headed hack to Bindley, and on dan.*7 was near Heilhron, where Lord Kitchener’s. Bodyguard ventured too near him, and were badly mauled. Then, after a few days of silence, there came the unwelcome news that he was again making a dash for the south, and had

a second time got through the Bloem-/'ontein-Ladyhrand fortified line. When-

ever authentic tidings came, the /talc was ever the same—Do Wet was always just out of reach.

Crossing the railway south of Jagersfontcin Road, he made for tho Orange River, and finding Zand Drift temptingly—and as our war correspondent explained—purposely unguarded .crossed on February 12 into Cape Colony. Me thus stepped into what was a welldesigned trap. ’ His attempts to push south of Do Aar were checked, and he

never got south of the line passing east and west, through that town, and forming the diameter of the half-circle bounded on the north by the curving course* of the Orange River. An attack on Philipstown, where large-stores- presented a tempting bait, was repulsed with heavy loss, and -from that timo he was incessantly hustled by wellmounted columns under such leaders as Plumer, Knox, Lyttelton, and Thorneycroft, dropping guns, horses, and ammunition in the course of his flight. On February 15 he was defeated by Colonel Crabbe, and lost twenty wagons, a Maxim, and some prisoners, it soon became evident that De Wet’s invasion of Cape Colony was a complete failure, and for some days hjs capture was once more regarded, if not as an absolute certainty, yet extremely probable, for the Orange River, swollen by heavy rains, presented a serious obstacle to tho passage of the Boer force. Do Wet was attacked on February 23 by Colonel Owen, who took a. 15-pound-er gun and a pom-pom, and the Boer leader’s efforts were now concentrated on escape.

On the 24th he broke back again across the railway, making for the river, ‘ hotly pursued by Colonel Thorneycroft. The following day saw De Wet and Steyn camped at Petrusvillc, and on the 26th, having united the 300 men who- were left out of their original 1500 to the commando under Hertzog, the enemy, now about 2000 strong, moved further south, to a point east of Philipstown, whence on Thursday night, February 28, they managed by swimming to get across the river back into the Orange Colony, at Lilliefontein, near tho spot where they originally entered Cape Colony. T hey saved, however, only a very few of their transport wagons, and they sustained considerable loss from a party of Nesbitt’s Horse, who peppered the retreating Boers, many of whom were quite mule. On March 4 Lord Kitchener reported that Do Wet, having been headed off from Philippolis, was making for Fauresmith, about ,100 miles north of the Orange River, and thirty miles west of Edenbnrg, on tho Cape'-Bloemfontein Railway. In the middle of 1902 the Boer powers of resistance failed, and General Botha was ready to accept the very honorable terms of surrender which were offered by Lord Kitchener. De Wet was for holding out still longer, but the game was up, and further bloodshed would have been madness in view’ of the British conditions of peace. De Wet came to London with Botha and Delarey soon after the Peace ol Yerccniging, and the three Boer generals who had defied' for so long' the power and the arms of the British Empire were cheered in tho London streets. Bid De Wet remained a thorough irreconcilable at heart, even after the British Government had conferred complete self-government upon the Boer i x-Rcpublics amljihe Union of South Africa had been established. He was elected member of the Legislative. Assembly for Vrcdefort, and in 1907 appointed Minister ot Agriculture. Orange River Colony, but he never had any sympathy with Botha’s ideal of fusion of the two races, and clung to the old. intensely narrow race-nationalism of the hack-veldt Boer, sullenly nursing the hone that the day would come when the Boers would recover their independence and turn the Union Jack out of South Africa. When, therefore, the Great War broke out in 1914. De Wet strongly opposed’any suggestion of participation on the British side, and entered into relations with the treacherous Maritz, who was Botha’s comman-der-in-chief of the Union forces,, and with Hertzog, the leader of the Nationalists. Jii September the revolt broke out. Maritz. with German assistance from South-West Africa, began to overrun the north-west part of (Jape Colony, bill Lite- insurrection was put down in a lew weeks by Colonel Deventer. De Wet. with a small commando, seized Heil-bre-nn. m the Orange State, and Beyers seized Unstenburg. Tbeir appeals for volunteers, however, met with poor response. Delarey’s accidental death was a great blow to the rebels, and Botha struck bard at bis old colleague and gave him no time lo consolidate. General Smuts first crushed the rebellion n. the Transvaal before' Botha entered Hie Orange State, and De Wet, alter a slight success a I Doomberg, was completely routed near Win berg on Nowin--I,er 11, That was the end of wbal might have been a most dangerous rising. De Wet. again as fugitive, was eventually hunted down in the Kalahari desert and forced to surrender. Me was condemned to six years’ imprisonment and the payment of a fine of L’2o • 000. In December. 19b". the line Inning been paid, lie was released on the undertaking to abstain from polities and public meeting:,. De Wet- was a firstrate guerilla leader, with the cunning of a fox and the slipperiness of an eel. His patriotism was sincere but ol the narrowest and most ignorant kind. He did not understand the incomparably fine qualities and noble ideals ol General Botha and Smuts, and Ins reputation was fatally smirched' by the treachery and rebellion of lus later years. Amongst the Boers themselves there were curious differences of op nion about De Wet. To the “Hopper.' ’’ as those of the backveldt are termed, he was more or loss of a hero, but be never captured' the imagination of fne more intelligent and better informed Boers in the same way as Delarey. Botha. and some of then other chiefs