Colonel Owen Engages De Wet.

Thames Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 9879, 26 February 1901, Page 2

Colonel Owen Engages De Wet.

SIGNAL BRITISH SUCCESS.

DE WET SURPRISED.

HIS COMMANDO IN FULL FLIGHT.

LONDPN, February 25.

Colonel Plumer reports., that Colonel Owen's detachments of the King's Dragoons^ Victorian Imperial Bushmen, .and Imperial Light Horse on Saturday captured De Wet's'fifteen pounder and pom poms.' The Boers are in full retreat and dispersing, and are being vigorously pursued. ' .

Fifty prisoners and some carts of am munition were captured.

There were no British casualties.

Other reports state that De Wet on Friday thrice failed in his attempts! to cross the Braik and Orange Rivers.

"General. Phtmer on Saturday chased him, from Kameldrift towards Hopetown.

Fancying the British force, was exhausted -De Wet lab gered in the evening, and then Colonel Owen s force charged, capturing thY enemy's artillery; • i;

. The Boers fled-, leaving- their horses, saddles, and cooking pots full,' '

Mr Bennett Burleigh ; the war correspondent, states that Colonel Owen ajsocaptured a portion of the main Boer force, which scattered into small bodies. De Wet's party. is now reduced to 300; Steyn told the Boers, many of whom were shoeless, to shift as. best they could, and return- to the Orange River Colony. He and De Wet took 300 of the best horses, and crossed the railroad at'Kranknil, 60 miles north of De Aar, early on Sunday, going ■ eastward. ; ,. . ' Colonel Thorneycroft and others, with fresh horses,' are closely pursuing the fugitives.