the blowing up of another gun west of
Ladysmith, belonging to the Pretoria Commando. The other side have
written enough about this, and made enough capital out of them; and
many a D.S.O. and V.C. has been awarded on account of them.

Alas, I can put forward nothing to lessen our dishonour. As regards
the "Long Tom" which was blown up, this was a piece of pure treachery,
and a shocking piece of neglect, Commandant Weilbach, who ought to
have defended this gun with the whole of his Heidelberg Commando, was
unfaithful to his charge. The Heidelbergers, however, under a better
officer, subsequently proved themselves excellent soldiers. A certain
Major Erasmus was also to blame. He was continually under the
influence of some beverage which could not be described as "aqua
pura"; and we, therefore, expected little from him. But although the
planning and the execution of the scheme to blow up "Long Tom" was a
clever piece of work, the British wasted time and opportunity amusing
themselves in cutting out on the gun the letters "R.A." (Royal
Artillery), and the effect of the explosion was only to injure part of
the barrel. After a little operation in the workshops of the
Netherlands South African Railway Company at Pretoria under the
direction of Mr. Uggla, our gun-doctor, "Long Tom's" mouth was healed
and he could spit fire again as well as before. As to the blowing up
of the howitzer shortly after, I will say the incident reflected no
credit on General Erasmus, as he ought to have been warned by what
happened near Lombardskop, and to have taken proper precautions not to
give a group of starving and suffering soldiers an opportunity of
penetrating his lines and advancing right up to his guns.

Both incidents will be an ugly blot on the history of this war, and I
am sorry to say the two Boer officers have never received condign
punishment. They should, at any rate, have been called before the
Commandant-General to explain their conduct.

The storming of Platrand (Caesar's Camp), south-east of Ladysmith, on
the 6th of January, 1900, also turned out badly for many reasons. The
attack was not properly conducted owing to a jealousy amongst some of
the generals, and there was not proper co-operation.

The burghers who took part in the assault and captured several forts
did some splendid work, which they might well be proud of, but they
were not seconded as they should have been. The enemy knew that if
they lost Platrand, Ladysmith