Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Bunyip (Gawler, SA: 1863 - 1954) Friday 26 July 1901
TROOPER B. H. MAY.
SENSATIONAL ADVENTURES.
The following letter has been received from Trooper B. H. May of the Fifth Contingent by his parents: — Tafel Kop, May 8. At last I have another opportunity of writing you. The last letter I wrote you was at Roodeval. We left Roodeval Spruit on March 25 for a place called Paardekraal, near Heidelberg, about five miles east of Roodeval. As we left Roodeval I had a good chance to see General Elliott and his staff. He has an Indian with him, who has the task of a lieutenant. We arrived at Paardekraal at 1 p.m., and we stopped there till next morning, when we moved on and then camped in a hollow for the day. We had some hard fighting on the 26th April, and I was under fire that day (what I should call under fire) for the first time. We were advance guard that day and the Boers were thick. We had two men wounded, Troopers Taverner and Koloski. Taverner's wound was rather a bad one, the bullet going at in the wrist and coming out at the back of the elbow, the bone being smashed pretty bad. Koloski's was more of a flesh wound in the leg just above the knee. We also had several horses shot dead and wounded. My mate had his horse shot as we were riding along together. D squadron did nearly all the fighting that day and I think the Colonel was more than satisfied. It is really marvellous the narrow escapes some of the fellows had; the bullets whistle all around you. You never know how many Boers get killed or wounded. We had to put the pom-pom on to the Boers the same night from a hill just above the camp, as the picket couldn't got out the Boers were so thick. On Saturday, April 27, I went out with Lieutenant Edmunds with a commandeering party, and I got several interesting things, which I will try very hard to send home. I have a Kruger tickey or 3d, a Kruger 6d., 1s., 2s., 2s, 6d., and £1 to date, and other valuable things. While we were out with Lieutenant Edmunds we had the pleasant experience of being shelled. We had a Dutch scout with us and they thought he was Boer, and they began to shell. We soon did a get. Sunday, April 28, we arrived at at Drielfontein. From Drielfontein we went on to Klebbank and it rained all the night we were in Drielfontein and all the next day on the march. On Tuesday we were up at 4.30 a.m. and went out to escort a convoy which Bethune's column brought for us from Heilbron. We picked it up about 10 o'clock and brought it into camp safely and then had to escort our wagons containing the sick and wounded and prisoners and refugees back to Colonel Bethune's lines so that he could take them back to Heilbron. I was in the saddle that day from 4.30 a.m. until 5 in the afternoon. From Klebbank we went on to Frankfort, but we didn't reach it before we had a lot of fighting and hard riding. We had just off saddled and put our dinner on when we got word that the Boer convoy was in sight, and so we had to leave our dinner and gallop after the convoy. It got away from us that day, all we captured being one wagon containing all sorts of things in the scrimmage I had the worst buster I have had since I have been out here, my horse getting in a hole and falling. As we were coming back with the wagon we had captured we called at a farm which was deserted. The Boers had left it in a hurry and we found a keg of fresh butter and plenty of eggs. There were also a splendid organ and beautiful oil paintings in the place. We reached Frankfort at 8 o'clock that night tired and completely knocked out. We had to cross the Wilga River to reach Frankfort, but fortunately it was spanned by a fine big bridge, the C squadron doing a little fighting before they could cross it. We had hardly settled down when the order came out that every man with a good horse had to be up at 2.30 in the morning ready to move off at 4 o'clock after the Boer convoy, which was only seven miles in front of us, and being lucky enough (in a sense) to have a good horse I had to get up at 2.30 a.m. after riding hard the day before. So on May 3 at 4 a.m. we moved off, about 100 South Australians under Captain Watt and about 200 of the 6th M.I, accompanied by two 15-pounders and a couple of pom-poms. We went on from here for about a mile and then we met the Boers' rear-guard and the fun began. The fire was very hot for a time. But having the convoy in sight Colonel DeLisle meant to stop at [?] and up we galloped, the Boers firing like billy-ho all the while. We drove the Boers back on their main body after fighting them from 6 o'clock to 11, when we caught up with nine of the Boer wagons, and then Colonel DeLisle reckoned it was not safe to go further as the Boers were some 500 to 600 strong and we had to look after the wagons and prisoners we captured, and the horses were done. When the 6th M.Is. rode up to the wagons you could see the women waving handkerchief, &c., showing they wanted to surrender. One of the 6th M.Is. got wounded in the thigh, and some of our fellows had very narrow escapes. We travelled about six miles the first day with the captured wagons and then camped at Vrede, situated between a big kopje called Tafel Kop, which takes an hour to climb and from the top of which I am writing (as I am on outpost duty here), and another large kopje called Sugarloaf. May 4th we fired the big gun from the camp, as the Boers, got in too close and started firing on the camp, but they only killed a mule. On May 5 Colonel DeLisle left us to take charge of another column, and Colonel Fashawe has taken charge of us. We are burning everything around here and bringing in all the people. Quartermaster Schumann was our first man to go, through being shot dead. He was withini20 yards of the Boers when they asked him to surrender, and he turned and tried to gallop away, but the Boers had him covered and he threw his life away. We buried him the same night at sundown, the Colonel reading the burial service. The Boers fired on our camp the same night and we all had to turn out. On May 7 twenty of us, including myself, went out at 4 in the morning to capture a Boer outpost, and although we made a gallant attempt with fixed bayonets to do so, we miserably failed, as the Boers had flown. A big patrol of mounted men also went out the same day and had a good deal of fighting. They captured two Scotch carts and a lot of stock. The 15-pounder made a mess of about 30 Boers who were in a Kaffir kraal and blew them in all directions.
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