Episode 59 - Freda Schlosberg goes home as an icy rain lashes the Canadians

Mercurial Boer commander Christiaan de Wet has just avoided being captured along with Free State President Andries Steyn at the brutal "small" battle at Bothaville. The Boers lost 25 killed and 130 captured. Another 30 were wounded. De Wet also was forced to abandon four Krupps field guns, a pom pom, and two artillery pieces captured from the British at the battles of Colenso and Sannah's Post. British losses were also serious: 38 men either wounded or killed in action. But now it’s time to direct our gaze back to the east of Pretoria, where the 14 year-old school girl Freda Schlosberg’s family had suffered the effects of the climate in the lowlands near Rhenosterkop. Her story was being repeated over and over as the civilians caught in this war tried to rebuild their lives once the conventional war ended and the insurgency began. She and her mother, father and a brother had been prevented by the Boers from leaving Rhenosterkop for their small holding near Pretoria at a town called Bronkhorstspruit. They had applied for a permit to move from the Boer General Erasmus in early October and it was now a month later and they were still refused permission to travel home. But there was to be good news for the family. In the North Eastern Transvaal, the Canadians and Australians in particular had been busy since mid October. To these men it seemed as though the solemn annexation ceremonies in Pretoria and the departure of some of their colleagues only seemed to encourage the Boer commandos to renew their offensive. Lord Roberts and Kitchener or Bobs and K as they were known, had ordered the scorched earth policy to begin in earnest. And the man charged with scorching the Eastern Transvaal area of Belfast and driving Boer women and children from their homes was the much admired General Smith-Dorrien. He was highly regarded by the Royal Canadians because of his active service throughout the war. An icy rain was to dent his image somewhat as we find out in this podcast.