TOPIC:

Can anyone help me with queries about two images?
The first is a picture taken from Swartkop and shows the battle of Vaalkrans in progress. I'd very much like a high resolution version of this if anyone were kind enough.


The second is a picture of a pontoon bridge, which (I think) is the bridge thrown across the Tugela on 21 February 1900, during the relief of Ladysmith, with the Colenso koppies [Rooikoppies] behind and Grobelaars / Onderbroek hills on the skyline. Has anyone a high resolution copy of this, if possible with a caption confirming its location?


With thanks in anticipation
Rob

Rob,

Is this the pontoon bridge you are referring to, photographed during construction and from the other side of the Tugela (upstream to right)? Captioned "Engineers constructing a pontoon bridge across the Tugela River". Photographer: J.E. Middlebrook, Durban.

Note that it spans the river at a point where there is an island in the middle of the Tugela, thus requiring only 5 or 6 pontoons for the section in the foreground. The bridge in your image appears to cross a much wider expanse of water, requiring 14 pontoons.




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After further investigation, it turns out that the pontoon bridge pictured above is the one that was built at Trichardt's Drift on 17 January 1900.

This tallies with Middlebrook's image number, Q.201, which is in the Spion Kop range. For instance, Q.202 is a photograph of ambulance waggons returning from Spion Kop.


Times History, Vol III, p. 219.

It was not till 6 a.m. [17 Jan] that Warren took down Major Irvine, R.E., commanding the pontoon troop, and with him proceeded to reconnoitre a place for the bridge. A spot was chosen a quarter of a mile above the drift, where there was an island in midstream.







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Thanks, Neville;
the photo you post is indeed the Trichardt's Drift pontoon, built 17 Jan 1900 for the Upper Tugela (Spioenkop) actions. The image I am after is (I think) the pontoon at the site shown here (Maurice Maps Vol 2 map 30), built 21 Feb 1900. It could well have been Middelbrook who took the photo. There are numerous low-res copies online which have been scraped from Breytenbach (Vervoer van Britse artillerie oor die pontonbrug oor die Tugela ). I can find a slightly better copy online but not quite the detail I'd like:
Rob

Unfortunately, I don't have that one. Likewise, I only have the preliminary bombardment photograph in Middlebrook's Vaal Krantz series (see below). I do, on the other hand, have the complete set of the Pieter's Hill battle images (bombardment, massing of troops and attack). The latter are a bit scruffy though.





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Rob,

Turns out that I do have the Vaal Krantz image you are looking for after all. Found it in an album I had forgotten about.





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