La Pintura y la Guerra

[Luis M. García]

Un tipo bragado el Basilone, sí señor.

[Hlodowig]

Seguiremos con el tema, a pesar de la reciente afrenta...


Rushing the orchard
Johnny Shumate

Boer view: The Boers generally preferred to fight dispersed among the protection of natural features, but at Bothaville the speed of the unexpected British attack had forced the Boers to take shelter in the walled orchard. This at least provided some cover and commanded open ground towards the British position, while the right of the orchard looked towards the ‘Red House’ and farm buildings which Le Gallais and his staff had occupied.
Le Gallais had tried to press an attack from this position, but it was too exposed to accurate Boer return fire, and indeed Le Gallais and several of his officers were killed or wounded inside the buildings themselves. The Boers were also able to pick off the gun-crews of the British artillery as it arrived and deployed for action. Even so, British return fire caused casualties at the orchard wall and, without their horses, the Boers were largely trapped, unable to escape or even move to a different position without breaking cover. The fighting had been going on for about four hours when, taking advantage of the arrival of reinforcements, Major Lean launched his charge; here the British, with bayonets fixed, are beginning to rush forward across the intervening ground. With no line of retreat, and with no tradition or training in close-quarter combat, the Boers in the orchard will raise a white flag and surrender before the charge strikes home.

British view: The climax of the battle of Bothaville at about 0945hrs on 6 November 1900. De Wet’s forces, attempting to avoid two British mounted columns pursuing them, had passed the town of Bothaville and bivouacked on the Doornkraal farm a few miles away. The terrain was typically open Free State grasslands and the farm consisted of a small cluster of buildings, a walled orchard and a dammed water-hole. De Wet had camped in a traditional laager close to the farm buildings.
At 0500hrs, Lean’s detachment of the 5th Mounted Infantry had surprised a sleeping Boer picquet, occupied a rise looking across to the Boer camp and opened fire; many of the Boers fled while others, unable to reach their horses, sheltered behind the stone wall around the orchard and returned fire.
The British had occupied the farmhouses on their left, but here Le Gallais and several of his officers were shot through the open doors by Boers sheltering around the orchard. By 0700hrs, however, troops from Knox’s column began to reinforce the position and at about 0945hrs Major Lean assembled a storming party of men of the 5th Mounted Infantry, supported on his right by men of the Western Australian Mounted Infantry, who all fixed bayonets and rushed forward in open order from the cover of the ridge across the open ground towards the walled orchard. The view shows the farm buildings on the left where Le Gallais was mortally wounded, the orchard centre, and beyond to the right De Wet’s artillery park and wagon-laager.

Un saludo

[Hlodowig]

Major Brownlow’s sortie
Johnny Shumate

This scene shows the height of the battle of Ingogo (Schuinshoogte) at about 1300hrs on 8 February 1881. To break the stalemate Colley directed Brownlow’s Mounted Squadron to charge out on his flank in an attempt to prevent the Boers from encircling him completely. Advancing past the British line, the Mounted Squadron moved to the open ground beyond, where they attempted to deploy to charge. They were now exposed to the fire of Boers sheltering behind rocks only 160yd away down the slope, however, and attracted a hail of bullets. The Boers seem to have aimed particularly at the horses and within a very short space of time the majority of them were hit, although only one man was wounded. Brownlow’s force was effectively destroyed before the charge had even begun, and he was forced to withdraw his men back to the centre of the plateau.

Un saludo

[Hlodowig]

'All that was left of them', 17th Lancers near Modderfontein, 17 September 1901.
Richard Caton Woodville, Jr.

Chromolithograph after Richard Caton Woodville (1856-1927), 1901. Published by Gilbert Whitehead and Company Limited as a supplement to 'Holly Leaves Christmas Number', 1902.

On 17 September the presence of a squadron of the 17th (The Duke of Cambridge's Own) Lancers at Modderfontein farm, 25 km north-west of Johannesburg, was reported to General Jan Smuts, whose commando was starving and short of horses. Smuts ordered a section forward to locate the British cavalry, while he brought up the rest of his men. The advance section ran into a troop of the 17th Lancers which at first mistook the khaki-clad burghers for British troops from another column. When the Boers opened fire, bringing down several of the Lancers, the survivors withdrew to a low, stony ridge further down the road which was held by the rest of the squadron armed with rifles, a machine gun and a mountain gun.

At this point, Smuts arrived with the main body of his commando and attacked the Lancers from a hill to their rear. Close-quarter fighting developed in which the gun crew were killed; the rest of the squadron fought to the finish, though one troop, posted a little further away, was able to escape after expending all its ammunition, the last few rounds being used to shoot their horses to prevent them falling into the hands of the Boers. The total strength of the 17th Lancers engaged was 140, of whom four officers and 32 men were killed and four officers and 33 men wounded.

Un saludo

[Hlodowig]

The Dawn of Majuba
Richard Caton Woodville, Jr.

Un saludo

[Hlodowig]

The Relief of Ladysmith, 27 February 1900.
John Henry Frederick Bacon

Oil on canvas by John Henry Frederick Bacon (1868-1914), 1900.

The Siege of Ladysmith was one of the most famous incidents of the Boer War (1899-1902). Following initial successes against the invading Boers at Talana and Elandslaagte (20 and 21 October 1899), Lieutenant-General (later Field Marshal) Sir George White (1835-1912) commanding the Natal Field Force, was driven back. White concentrated his forces at the strategic town of Ladysmith where he was besieged by Boers. Some 13,500 troops, the vast majority British regulars, were confined with 7,500 civilians within a 22.5 km perimeter.

The Boers began their bombardment on 2 November with 17 guns, later increasing to 22. During the siege, the inhabitants of Ladysmith made a number of unsuccessful sorties, while the Boers tried hard to take the town by storm. By the end of January the full rigours of the siege began to be felt in the town, where there was an alarming increase in sickness. The serious shortage of food led to the introduction of horseflesh into the rations.

General Sir Redvers Buller (1838-1908) and his troops finally relieved the town on 28 February. In this painting, which may not depict an actual event, Lieutenant-General Sir George White shakes hands with Colonel (later Lieutenant-General) Lord Douglas Hamilton, 12th Earl Dundonald (1852-1935), representing Buller's relieving force at nearby Pieter's Hill on the outskirts of Ladysmith.

Known as the 'Bovril War Picture', the photogravure of this picture was sponsored and offered free to those who collected 21 shillings-worth of special coupons which accompanied bottles of the product sold in 1901.

Un saludo

[Luis M. García]

Seguiremos con el tema, a pesar de la reciente afrenta...

Pero hombre, si ya os hemos dado satisfacción...

Con su permiso, cítome...

Había pasado por alto esto...

En todo caso somos nos, quienes estamos en deuda con el señor caballero, y si un día se acerca por estos andurriales astures, será festejado convenientemente, ea!

No lo pongo en duda. Otra cosa sería que pretendiera VM que se estirara el caballero.

Moral nos haría falta, después de lo siguiente...

caballero alcoyano

Creo que ha cometido cierto error de bulto, con perdón.

La infamia de ayer no caerá en el olvido...

Rayos! Doyme a todos los diablos, señor Caballero; mas os he de asegurar que fue ignorancia supina y no fatal villanía quien tal dislate me fizo afirmar.

Más aun he de argüir, pues fue cierto elemento, quien con ligereza zascandileó en mis oídos la equívoca especie, y a buen seguro fue el mismo que a los vuestros acercó el nefando soplo...

Pero ya el cilicio mortifica mis magras carnes en muestra de expiación, tened pues por presentadas mis excusas más sinceras.

Y ya pasado el trago, he de decir que esta última serie de 6 láminas pareciéronme maravilla; especialmente la primera y las dos últimas de la serie.

Reciba vuecelencia gentil reverencia.

Muy agradecido por las nuevas láminas que, como todas las que ha traído, son muy de nuestro agrado.

[De Güiner]

Pero hombre, si ya os hemos dado satisfacción...

¿Tiene VM documentación gráfica?.

[De Güiner]

'Carthaginian Elephant'

Johnny Shumate

[De Güiner]

'Night Riders of the Tobacco Wars'

Johnny Shumate


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Patch_Tobacco_Wars


The Black Patch Tobacco Wars were a period of violence in the dark tobacco region of the U.S. states of Kentucky and Tennessee at the turn of the 20th century circa 1904-1909

[De Güiner]

'Ahab of Israel'

Johnny Shumate

[Hlodowig]

Lord Kitchener and General Cronje’s Messenger, Paardeberg
Unknown

Orange Free State, South Africa, February 19th, 1900 during the Second Boer War. Cronje had requested a cease-fire to bury the dead after Bloody Sunday, the first day of the Battle of Paardeberg.

Un saludo

[Hlodowig]

Australians and New Zealanders at Klerksdorp, 24 March 1901
Charles Hammond

The furious moment depicted in this painting occurred during an action near Klerksdorp in the Transvaal, about 160 kilometres south-west of Johannesburg, during Lord Metheun's operations in the district after the fall of Klerksdorp itself, against the forces of Boer General De la Rey. This art work was inspired by an illustration by British military artist R Caton Woodville, which appeared in 'The Illustrated London News'. Field Marshal Paul Sanford Methuen (Lord Metheun) (1845–1932) was a British Army officer, who took a prominent role as General Officer Commanding the 1st Division in the Second Boer War. General Jacobus Herculaas de la Rey (1847–1914), known as Koos de la Rey, was a Boer general during the Second Boer War and is widely regarded as the bravest of the Boer generals and as one of the leading figures of Boer independence.

Un saludo

[Hlodowig]

Within Sound of the Guns
Lady Elizabeth Butler

The picture shows a despatch rider coming under fire from Boer Marksmen. The picture is also known as 'A Yeomanry Scout Galloping With Despatches in the Boer War'.

Un saludo

[Hlodowig]

Saving the guns at Colenso, 1899
Stanley Berkeley


Saving the guns at Colenso
Sidney Paget

Meanwhile, as Hildyard moved towards Colenso, the two batteries of field guns under Colonel Charles James Long forged ahead of him, and deployed in the open well within rifle range of the nearest Boers. Once again, this was too tempting a target, and the Boers opened fire. The British gunners fought on, even though suffering heavy casualties, but ammunition could not be brought to them and they were eventually forced to take shelter in a donga (dry stream bed) behind the guns. The bullock-drawn naval guns had not been able to keep up with the field pieces, but were able to come into action 1,500 metres (1,640 yd) from the Boer trenches.

Buller, who had also heard that his light horse were pinned down at the foot of Hlangwane and unable to advance, decided to call the battle off at this point, even though Hildyard's men, advancing in open order, had just occupied Colenso. He went forward (being slightly wounded himself) and called for volunteers to recover Long's guns. Two teams approached them, hooked up and brought away two weapons. One of those mortally wounded in this action was Lieutenant the Honourable Frederick Roberts, the only son of Field Marshal Lord Roberts, who was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. Corporal George Edward Nurse was also awarded a Victoria Cross for his efforts in retrieving 2 of the Guns that day amongst other actions. Several other VCs were also awarded. A second attempt to recover the rest of guns failed when horses and volunteers were shot down by Boer rifle fire.

During the afternoon, the British fell back to their camp, leaving ten guns, many wounded gunners and some of Hildyard's men behind to be captured during the night. Although Buller had committed few of his reserves, he reasoned that a full day under a boiling sun would have sapped their morale and strength. Lyttelton committed some of his troops to help Hart's brigade withdraw, but the cautious Major General Barton refused to support Dundonald's or Hildyard's hard-pressed troops.
Buller's army lost 143 killed, 756 wounded and 220 captured. Boer casualties were eight killed and 30 wounded.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Colenso

Un saludo