The casualties at Wepener from April 9th to 18th were:—
Killed:—Cape Mounted Rifles—Major Sprenger, Lieutenant E. A. Taplin. Brabant’s Horse—Lieutenant Tharston. Severely wounded:—Cape Mounted Rifles—Major J. C. Warring, Lieutenant J. Heilford, Lieutenant L. Martin, Lieutenant R. Ayre, Lieutenant W. H. Nixon, Lieutenant H. G. F. Campbell. Brabant’s Horse—Lieutenant W. J. Holford. Driscoll’s Scouts—Lieutenant W. Weiner. Kaffrarian Rifles—Lieutenant C. Lister. Slightly wounded:—Cape Mounted Rifles—Captain C. L. M. Goldsworthy. Brabant’s Horse—Surgeon-Captain L. C. Perkins (returned to duty), Lieutenant Turner Duncan, Lieutenant and Quartermaster P. Williams. 1st Royal Scots Mounted Infantry—Lieutenant C. G. Hill (1st Berks Regiment, attached).
The total losses were 33 killed and 132 wounded—a somewhat heavy bill for so small a force, when it is remembered that many of the wounded did not report their injuries but remained on duty during the siege.
In his diary the officer before quoted wrote: “We were relieved to-day at last, and march to-morrow. We have gone through an awful time, and some of the men look quite ghastly. They dragged their wasted forms from the trenches to-day at a crawl to the camp, which had been repitched. I had to give up the night before last, and after visiting my sentries, got back into the trenches in agony. At midnight I reached the hospital, where they injected morphine, and, after twenty-four hours lying on a stretcher, I am on my legs again.... Seventeen days and nights under fire, and the disgusting part of the whole is that it has been in vain. The Boers have slipped through our fingers after all.”
The relief of Wepener may be said to have taken place on the 25th. To discover how this was automatically accomplished, it is necessary to follow Lord Roberts’s strategic plan, and to return to the events of the 22nd of April.
SCOUT—6th DRAGOON GUARDS
(Carabineers)
Photo by Gregory & Co., London
OPERATIONS FOR RELIEF
As a continual reorganisation of the forces was taking place, it will assist us, before going further, to examine a rough table of the date, as compiled from various authorities by the Morning Post:—