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This is the cache to replace the Randvaal cache that was destroyed
in a veldt fire. It is placed in view of the Kliprivier Drift block
house. Read below some history on the now famous block houses that
criss crossed our country at the turn of the last century! The
container is small camouflaged, and contains a log sheet, pencil,
bumble button and FTF button.
Blockhouses
The popular image of a blockhouse of the Second Anglo-Boer War
(1899-1902) is that of a circular metal construction entangled by
wire fortifications sitting forlornly in the middle of the veldt.
Correct as this is, there were however, two other types of
'blockhouses'. The first blockhouses were built on the orders of
the British Commander-in-Chief, Field Marshal Lord Roberts, in
March 1900 following the capture of Bloemfontein.
Roberts was eager to protect his army's main supply route, the
railway connecting Bloemfontein to the Cape. These blockhouses were
large two storey constructions of stone. At one corner on the roof
was a platform for mounting a machine gun. The entrance was through
a door on the first floor, seven to eight feet off the ground,
accessed by a ladder. The walls on both floors were loopholed. Each
blockhouse cost between 800 pounds to 1,000 pounds and took 3
months to build. However, they were very effective. Not one bridge
where one of these blockhouses was sited and manned was blown.
Nonetheless, the Boers still managed to blow up plenty of other
railway features that were not guarded.
In the eastern Transvaal a smaller and less elaborate blockhouse
was built, again to protect the railway. This was a rectangular
building made from corrugated iron. The walls were made from two
layers of corrugated iron about ten inches apart, the gap filled
with sand and gravel. Loopholes cut from steel and encased in wood
were put into the walls.
The first blockhouse of this type was located at Nelspruit, built
by a civilian contractor from Portuguese East Africa. A water tank
was placed on the roof. When the Boers took to the veldt and the
guerilla phase began in late 1900 they proved eluslve and were very
difficult to bring to battle.
Lord Milner, the British High Commissioner at the Cape, suggested
extending the blockhouses away from the railway across the veldt.
The idea was to literally fence the Boers in by constructing an
obstacle against which pursuing British columns could trap them. In
addition, supply depots could he established away from the railway
along the blockhouse line giving the pursuing columns greater
range.
Cheap Blockhouses
Lord Kitchener, the new Commander-in-Chief, took this suggestion
up. However. to build a large number of Roberts' two storey stone
blockhouses across the veldt it would be impractical and hugely
expensive. So, Kitchener asked Major S.R. Rice, 23rd Field Company,
Royal Engineers, to design a cheap, easily constructed blockhouse
based upon the corrugated iron type first built at Nelspruit.
Rice's new blockhouse maintained the basic design and construction
principles; double skin corrugated iron loopholed walls filled with
rubble. To speed up construction and reduce costs the blockhouse
was circular not rectangular.
The circular design provided good all around visibility and the
lack of corners did away with the need for wooden posts. Wood rots
and also splinters when hit by bullets or shrapnel putting the
occupants at greater risk. The door to the blockhouse was sheltered
by a another piece of corrugated iron. The blockhouse had an
interior diameter of 13', a gabled roof provided standing spaee of
6'. The first blockhouse cost 44 pounds, this was redueed to just
16 pounds when produced in large numbers. A blockhouse could be
erected in six hours by six trained men. This design proved
successful, the only significant change in design was the
introduction of a circular roof. Blockhouses with this roof were
known as 'pepper pots'.
The double skin blockhouse walls were generally bullet proof, but
would not have withstood pom-pom or artillery shells. This was not
a serious problem, during the guerilla phase many Boer columns did
not have any armament heavier than their rifles. But, the Buffs
stationed in the eastern Transvaal reported an attack on a
blockhouse at Lydenburg with dynamite which severly wounded all the
blockhouse garrison. Protecting the blockhouse a low wall, built of
stone or sandbags, was built and a trench dug. Wire entanglements
were erected around the blockhouse, many strands were twisted
together and anchored to the ground with stays. Often annealed
wire, which is impervious to wire cutters was used. The wire
obstructions were extended along to the next blockhouse usually
1,000 yards away. Bells and tin cans were hung on the wire to act
as alarms. Many times trip wires were connected to a loaded rifle
aimed along the wire. Towards the end of the war flares were also
used. A blockhouse line was not straight, but wavelike, so one
blockhouse did not fire on its neighbour. This also provided
interlocking fields of fire transforming the area around the
blockhouse and along the wire into a killing zone. Many blockhouses
were connected by telephone, especially those along the railway
where the existing telegraph poles could be used.
The first line of circular blockhouses was built in January 1901 in
the eastern Transvaal, from Kaapmuiden to Komati Poort. July and
August 1901 saw a major extension of the blockhouse system across
south Africa. By the end of the war in May 1902 over 8,000
blockhouses had been constructed over 3,700 miles, an average of
one blockhouse every half mile. For the seventeen months from
January 1901 to May 1902 blockhouses were erected at a rate of 40 a
month.
The typical blockhouse garrison consisted of seven men, a junior
NCO and six men. A lieutenant would have charge of three to four
blockhouses, a captain ten to twelve. A battalion could occupy up
to 60 blockhouses. The blockhouse system required an enormous
amount of manpower. Well over 50,000 British troops, or 50
battalions, were involved in blockhouse duty, greater than the
approximately 30,000 Boers in the field during the guerilla phase.
Many of the troops guarding the lines of communication and manning
blockhouses were from the militia, part time civilian soldiers. In
addition up to 16,000 Africans were used to patrol the line at
night.
Life in a Blockhouse
Life in the blockhouse was very dull and tedious. The routine was
simple and unchanging, the possibility of Boers trying to cross the
blockhouse line always present. There was little scope for
amusement on the veldt. A common diversion was the erection of
dummy sentries. Blockhouse sentries, especially at night, were
understandably nervous and tended to shoot at any sound. Many times
animals on the veldt set off the alarms causing a sentry to start
shooting. On occassions a burst of fire from one blockhouse could
set off a chain reaction and neighbouring blockhouses up and down
the line would join in.
The blockhouse was part of a successful strategy that eventually
brought the 'bittereinder' Boers to the negotiating table. Although
the Boer general, Christiaan De Wet, thought they prolonged the war
because the great expansion of tht blockhouse system in mid-1901
allowed the Boers to regroup and fight on.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)