CHAPTER I.

THE RAISING OF THE BRIGADE.

The Purpose of the Book—South Africa in History—Her Problem at the Outset of War—General Botha’s Proposal to Furnish a Contingent for Europe—The Composition of the Brigade—The Officers—Brigadier-General Lukin—The Heavy Artillery Batteries—The Field Ambulance—The Medical Services—The Contingent arrives in England—The Situation at the close of 1915—The Brigade ordered to Egypt.

This book is the tale of a great achievement in war. It is a record of the deeds of that expeditionary force which represented South Africa on the front in the West. There were South Africans in many British battalions, in cavalry regiments, in the Flying Corps, in every auxiliary service; but here we are concerned only with the contingent which, with its appurtenances, was the direct contribution of the Union Government to the main battle-ground. It is a tale to be proud of, for among the many brigades in that field the South African Infantry Brigade may be said, without boasting, to have had no superior and not many equals. In the fellowship of war great deeds go to a common stock, and the credit of one is the credit of all. But it is permitted to detach the doings of a single unit, not to make petty comparisons, but to hearten ourselves with the contemplation of exploits which offer an incontrovertible proof of manly virtue and civic vigour. In such a spirit let this story be told.

South Africa is no newcomer among the nations, for she has interested the world for three thousand years. She was the port of Phœnician adventurers centuries before the birth of Christ; she was the goal of the great Portuguese captains in the first dawn of the Renaissance; Holland claimed her when Holland was the first of sea-Powers; she received the flower of the Huguenots scattered by the French religious wars. During the century which has elapsed since Britain first acquired an interest in her soil, she has been the theatre of many wars, as she has been the cradle of many industries. “From Africa comes always some new thing”—the proverb is as old as Aristotle; and the ancient continent has not lost her power to surprise the world. South Africa has had some magic in her to beguile the hearts of all races, and he who has once been captured by the love of her wide sun-steeped spaces will never forget them, and, though he leave her, will assuredly return. For her charm lies in the paradox that she is long-descended and old; and yet eternally young. Distant as she is from the main centres of the world, scarcely one of the great crises of modern history has left her untouched; and it was right, nay inevitable, that in a war of nations she should play a conspicuous part. She who had passed through so many furnaces, could not stand aside when that for which her sons had often fought was challenged, and the hard-won gains of civilization stood in jeopardy.

* * * * *

Of all the nations of the British Commonwealth she had at the outbreak of war the most intricate task. Australia and New Zealand, once the Pacific Islands were cleared, were free to look to Europe; Canada had no nearer enemy than the Germans in France and Flanders; but South Africa had foes within and without her gates. She had to contend with internal revolution and with the enemy across her border, while a thousand miles off, in German East Africa, there awaited a problem which she must help to solve. Hence the first business of her Government was her own security. When on September 8, 1914, General Botha announced that, after due consideration, he and his colleagues had resolved to carry the war into German territory, “in the interests of South Africa as well as of the Empire,” he could not foresee what this most honourable resolution involved. Germany had been engaged for years in putting temptation in the way of restless spirits within the Union. In a month Maritz was in revolt in the north-east part of the Cape Province, and conducted a guerilla campaign till the end of October, when Brits and Van Deventer drove him over the German frontier. About the same time, within the confines of the Union, rebellion broke out under De Wet and Beyers, and it was not till the close of the year that the treason was crushed by Botha with firmness and far-sighted humanity. Early in 1915 began that great “drive” in German South-West Africa which brought the troops of the Union on 12th May to Windhoek, and on 2nd July to Otavifontein, and on 9th July forced the enemy remnant to an unconditional surrender. Of this campaign let General Smuts speak: “Not only is this success a notable military achievement, and a remarkable triumph over very great physical, climatic, and geographical difficulties. It is more than that, in that it marks in a manner which history will record for all time the first achievement of the United South African nation, in which both races have combined all their best and most virile characteristics, and have lent themselves resolutely, often at the cost of much personal sacrifice, to overcome extraordinary difficulties and dangers in order to attain an important national object.”

[Sidenote: _July 1915._]

General Botha did not rest on his laurels. He saw the great war in its true perspective, and recognized that no part of it was alien to South Africa’s interest. She was as intimately concerned in the decision now being sought on the battlefields of Europe as in clearing her own borders. He was in the highest sense a patriot, for, while abating nothing of his loyalty to the land of his birth, he saw that the fortunes of that land were indissolubly bound up with the fortunes of the British Commonwealth, and of that civilization which Germany had outraged. Hence, he could not acquiesce in South Africa’s inaction after the close of the German South-West campaign. But the old problems were still there. He dared not denude the country of too many of her most loyal and vigilant citizens so soon after the Rebellion. Moreover, there remained German East Africa, where at the moment the British troops were precariously situated, and it was already becoming clear that South Africa must take a hand in that campaign. As early as April 1915, the Union Government had discussed the matter with the Imperial Government, for it was reasonable to suppose that the troops would return from German South-West Africa shortly after midsummer, and it was necessary to decide on a plan. In July the Imperial Government accepted General Botha’s proposal to furnish a contingent for Europe. South Africa’s exchequer, already depleted by her local wars, could not undertake the equipment and payment of these troops throughout the campaign. It was accordingly arranged that the contingent should be equipped, as far as possible, from stores in hand and paid by the Union up to the date of their embarkation. Thereafter they would be paid at the rate of British regular troops,[1] and have the status of the new service battalions of the British army.

The War Office had asked especially for infantry, and an infantry contingent was bound to be raised largely from the inhabitants of British blood. The Dutch had provided mounted troops, who had done fine service in German South-West, and were to do still finer work the following year in German East Africa. They were natural light-cavalrymen, and the infantry service had not for them the same attraction.[2] But throughout the land there were men who had served in the war of 1899-1902—some of them old regulars; there were the various volunteer regiments; and there were many young men in town and country whose eyes turned naturally towards Europe. Sir Charles Crewe was appointed Director of Recruiting, and there was no lack of response to the appeal. It was generally agreed that, considering the smallness of her white population and the complexity of her other tasks, a brigade of infantry was the most that South Africa could raise and keep up to strength. The war in Europe was costly in men; 15 per cent. per month was the estimated rate of reinforcements required, and in the event of heavy fighting it was clear that this figure must be exceeded. Accordingly a brigade of four battalions was decided upon, and at the same time it was resolved to dispatch to Europe five batteries of Heavy Artillery, a General Hospital, a Field Ambulance, and a Signal Company to be attached to the Royal Engineers. The battalions were designed to represent the main divisions of the Union, and recruits were given the option of joining the regiment affiliated to their own province.

The four battalions were constituted as follows: the 1st South African Infantry was the Cape of Good Hope regiment, drawn largely from the “Old Colony;” the 2nd South African Infantry was the Natal and Orange Free State regiment; the 3rd South African Infantry was the Transvaal and Rhodesia regiment; the 4th South African Infantry was the South African Scottish regiment, recruited from the Scottish regiments existing in the Union, the 1st and 2nd Transvaal Scottish and the Cape Town Highlanders, and from the members of the various Caledonian societies. This last regiment is of special interest to the historian, for it had a long ancestry. It descended from the 77th (Atholl) Highlanders, through the Scottish Horse and the Transvaal Scottish regiments, and had, therefore, something of the continuity in tradition of the old regular Army.[3] As originally formed it numbered 1,282 of all ranks, of whom 337 were Scottish born, 258 English, 30 Irish, 13 Welsh, 595 South African, and 49 of other origin. In nearly every company the Scots were stronger than any other element except the South African born, who, of course, included a large proportion of men of Scottish descent. We may take the constitution of the 4th as in other respects typical of all the regiments. It showed 292 men not older than twenty years, 350 between twenty and twenty-five, 232 between twenty-five and thirty, 212 between thirty and thirty-five, and 196 between thirty-five and forty. Only 344 of the rank and file were without previous military training; of the rest 64 had been in the Regular Army, 760 in territorial, volunteer, or irregular units, 97 in both regulars and irregulars, and 17 in the police. Occupations were thus represented: mining, 234; agriculture, 69; police and military, 21; government service, 145; business, 722; and the various professions, 91.

Few of the new brigades were better supplied with men of the right kind of experience, for many of the old South African irregular corps had records of which any army might be proud; and no brigade showed a better standard of physical well-being. It should also be remembered that the level of education and breeding was singularly high. The Brigade resembled indeed the famous 51st Division of Highland Territorials, which was largely a middle-class division. In the slow intricacies of a modern campaign there is need of intelligence and responsibility and power of initiative in every man; and these are found at their best among those who fight not only because they like it, but because they have much to fight for, and are determined to get the job finished. The possession of some education and a serious purpose in no way lessens dash and tenacity in the field. This was the moral of the Highland Territorials who were given first place in Germany’s catalogue of her most formidable opponents, and it was also the moral of the South African Brigade.

Sir Charles Crewe was appointed Honorary Colonel of the 1st Battalion, General Botha of the 2nd, General Smuts of the 3rd, and Colonel Dalrymple of the 4th. The commanding officers selected were all permanent members of the Union Defence Force. They were—for the 1st, Lieutenant-Colonel F. S. Dawson, who was then in command of the 4th South African Mounted Rifles; for the 2nd, Lieutenant-Colonel W. E. C. Tanner, District Staff Officer, Pietermaritzburg; for the 3rd, Lieutenant-Colonel E. F. Thackeray, District Staff Officer, Kimberley; for the 4th, Lieutenant-Colonel F. A. Jones, D.S.O., District Staff Officer, Johannesburg. Major J. Mitchell Baker, of the General Staff of the Union Defence Force, was Brigade Major; Captain A. L. Pepper, Staff Captain; and Lieutenant-Colonel P. G. Stock, Senior Medical Officer. The depot of the Brigade was fixed at Potchefstroom, where there existed large cantonments and all facilities for mobilization.

[Illustration: MAJOR-GEN. SIR HENRY TIMSON LUKIN, K.C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O., Commanding South African Brigade to December 1916, and 9th Division from December 1916-February 1918.]

To the command of the Brigade was appointed Brigadier-General Henry Timson Lukin, C.M.G., D.S.O., the Inspector-General of the Union Forces. General Lukin was a man of fifty-five, who had had a long and distinguished record in South African campaigns. He had fought in the Zulu War, and had been severely wounded at Ulundi. He was in Basutoland in 1881, and in the Langeberg affair in 1896-7. In the war of 1899-1902 he commanded the artillery at the siege of Wepener, and was thereafter in charge, first of a mounted column, and then of the 1st Colonial Division in Cape Colony. In the German South-West campaign he commanded a mounted column in the northern force under Botha, which marched east from Walfisch Bay; after Botha’s departure he was entrusted with the details of the final German surrender; and at the time of his appointment to the Brigade was the General Commanding the Union Forces in German South-West Africa. He was the essential fighting man, inured to the hardships of war; but a life spent in campaigning had in no way impaired his genial humanity. By virtue of his wide experience and his resourceful temper he was a commander well fitted for a brigade so varied in composition and destined to fight on such diverse battle-grounds.

At the same time the five batteries of heavy artillery were assembled. In the German South-West campaign a Heavy Artillery Brigade, armed with 4.7 and 4-inch naval guns, had been formed at Cape Town, the _personnel_ being drawn from non-commissioned officers of the Royal Marine Artillery and from the various South African artillery regiments. In June 1915 this Brigade was disbanded, and in July, largely from the old Brigade, a regiment of heavy artillery was recruited for Europe. Only men of fine physique and of a standard height of 5 feet 8 inches were accepted, and the roll was closed when it reached a total of 600. The regiment contained five batteries, the 1st representing the Western Cape Province, the 2nd the Eastern Cape Province, the 3rd the Transvaal, the 4th Kimberley and the Diamond Fields, and the 5th Natal. Before they appeared on the fighting front the War Office decided that they should be rated as siege artillery, armed with 6-inch howitzers, and affiliated to the Royal Garrison Artillery. This involved each battery receiving an R.G.A. number. The 1st Battery became the 73rd Siege Battery, R.G.A., under the command of Major Brydon; the 2nd, the 74th, under Major Pickburn; the 3rd, the 71st, under Major Harrison; the 4th, the 72nd, under Major Alston; the 5th, the 75th, under Major Tripp.[4]

The 1st South African Field Ambulance was mobilized at Potchefstroom during August, under Lieutenant-Colonel G. H. Usmar, S.A.M.C., and was attached to the Infantry Brigade. This was a departure from the usual practice, for a field ambulance is classed as divisional troops under the orders of the Assistant-Director of Medical Services in the division, and a new-formed brigade usually meets its field ambulance for the first time when it joins its division. The General Hospital mobilized at Wynberg, its _personnel_ being largely composed of volunteers from the staffs of No. 1 General Hospital, Wynberg, and No. 2 General Hospital, Maitland, and included representatives from all the provinces of the Union. It accompanied the Brigade to England, and provided the staff for the depot there, and for the South African Military Hospital at Richmond, as well as for No. 1 South African General Hospital in France.[5]

[Sidenote: _Aug.-Oct. 1915._]

Between the 28th of August and the 17th of October the whole contingent embarked at Cape Town for England. The Infantry numbered 160 officers and 5,648 other ranks; the Heavy Artillery, 34 officers and 636 other ranks; and the Signal Company, 6 officers and 198 other ranks. By the beginning of November all the services were safely established on English soil—the Infantry being quartered at Bordon, the Field Ambulance at Fleet, and the Heavy Artillery at Bexhill. For two months the units were busy with their training, varied by the customary inspections. On 3rd November the Brigade was reviewed by General Sir Archibald Hunter, the G.O.C. Aldershot Command, and on the 19th the same officer, accompanied by the Duke of Atholl, visited the 4th Battalion. On the 9th the South Africans furnished a detachment for the Lord Mayor’s Show. On the 21st the senior officers went to France for three days’ duty with the army in the field, and on 2nd December the Brigade was reviewed by the Queen.

[Sidenote: _Dec. 30._]

It was an obscure and critical moment in the war. The great Russian retreat had come to an end, but Mackensen had overrun Serbia and driven the Allies back to the entrenched camp of Salonika. Gallipoli was about to be evacuated. The ambitious attacks of Loos and Champagne had achieved no decision. The first instalment of the new British levies had taken the field; Sir Douglas Haig had replaced Sir John French as the British Commander-in-Chief, and had begun that elaborate system of training which was to make his army in two years the most formidable in the world. The early hopes of the Allies had been dashed, and men were slowly recognizing that the war was a longer and grimmer business than they had foreseen. Already there were mutterings of that storm in the west which in two months time was to break around Verdun. The South African Brigade was at first attached to the 16th (Irish) Division, and it was expected that the middle of December would see it in France. But on 7th December the plans were altered. For its first taste of war the Brigade was to retrace its course, and return again to the continent which it had left. On 30th December the four battalions embarked at Devonport for Alexandria.