MARTIAL LAW

In 1922, the type of martial law that was imposed in Johannesburg can be defined as the temporary suspension of civil law by the Union of South Africa’s government. Martial law was declared in response to a temporary emergency that occurred after the South African Police and South African Mounted Riflemen had virtually been overwhelmed by the strikers. During the 1922 strike, as far as can be determined, the South African Police had 29 members killed in action and 68 were wounded.

On 9 March, the mobilisation orders were issued for identified Active Citizen Force units and 26 Burger commandos to mobilise. On 10 March 1922, Martial Law was declared and the armed revolt started. The mobilisation instruction included the Transvaal Horse Artillery, Royal Durban Light Infantry, Transvaal Scottish, Rand Light Infantry, Witwatersrand Rifles, Imperial Light Horse and the 1st Field Ambulance. Twenty-six commandos were mobilised from outlying areas.

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The mission given to the mobilised Active Citizen Force units and the government commandos was to contain and stop the actions of the striking miners. Due to their militant actions against both the mines and the government, the strikers were disrupting civil society and usurping all lawful authority.

Railway property and police posts were attacked and the strikers gained control of parts of Johannesburg and adjoining towns and suburbs.

Banks, shops and offices were closed by order of the local strike committees. The committee’s issued restaurants, cafes and hotels permits to open at meal times.

The strikers commandeered food and chased newspaper vendors away. Telegraphic communications were disrupted and some train lines were sabotaged.

The post offices only opened when they were protected by the South African Police. The citizens of Johannesburg foraged for food and many women were left to their own devises for their selfdefence arrangements and measures. Snipers were especially active in the southern suburbs of Johannesburg.

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As background to the strike and to describe some of the circumstances, the 8th Infantry or Transvaal Scottish Regiment will be used in this article to symbolise and represent the commitment and the involvement of the Union Defence Force. After the Regiment’s mobilisation was ordered, the Regimental Headquarters was accommodated in the Johannesburg Drill Hall from where the regiment’s operations and other activities were planned and coordinated. The strength of the regiment that was mobilised during the strike was 10 officers and 548 other ranks. It was apparent that the standard and speed of mobilisation and the effectiveness of the Union Defence Force had increased drastically since the 1913 and 1914 miner strikes. The Active Citizen Force’s capabilities had dramatically improved after the conclusion of the First World War. On 9 March 1922, the members of the 8th Infantry were mobilised with the headquarters being deployed in Johannesburg. The infantry rifle companies were deployed where and when they were required due to the dynamic and fluid operational situation. Operations were conducted in conjunction with the loyal government commandos who were commanded by General van Deventer. Actions were fought at Benoni, Boksburg, Brixton Ridge, Fordsburg, Braamfontein, and Forest Hill. These actions included the fight at Dunswart Station where heavy casualties were sustained by the regiment.

SEQUENCE OF EVENTS FOR THE TRANSVAAL SCOTTISH REGIMENT3 DATE TIME ACTIONS & ACTIVITIES 10-Mar 16H35 Regiment is forced back from Benoni to the Dunswart railway siding. The regiment is fully committed and in action at the Benoni Trades Hall. 20H00 Casualties are 3 officers and 15 other ranks killed and 26 wounded. 11-Mar 270 members of the regiment are in action at Benoni and Boksburg. Rest of regiment under command of Colonel Thackeray in the Fordsburg area. 12-Mar The regiment occupies Vrededorp and the Ridge. 13-Mar 300 strikers have set up defensive positions with trenches and barbed wire at the Benoni Trades Hall. Benoni. The regiment captures the Trades Hall and kills between 12 and 15 strikers and arrest 60 strikers.

14-17 Mar

12H00 Fordsburg. The railway line is captured and secured by the regiment from the subway to Solomon Square. 12H36 The Transvaal Scottish and the Durban Light Infantry capture Market Square. 14H35 The regiment advances down Main Road and occupies Cuthbert’s Building 15-Mar Approximately 300 members of the regiment arrive at Forest Hill from Benoni 18-Mar Demobilisation is completed.

3 Endley, William. (2020). From the Dust of Africa to the Mud of Flanders. Groep 7 Drukkers.

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Colonel Macleod was a highly decorated veteran of the Sudan campaigns, the Anglo Boer War, and the First World War where he had been wounded at the Somme during the Battle of Delville Wood. Lieutenant Colonel Donald Macleay Macleod, DSO, MC, DCM, from Inverness, is believed to have been the youngest sergeant major in the British Regular Army during Kitchener's 1898 Sudan Campaign. Macleod was a member of the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders and he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his gallantry at the Battle of Omdurman.

Sergeant Major Macleod fought in the Anglo-Boer War. At the Battle of Lake Chrissie, Macleod was recommended for the Victoria Cross. In 1902, Macleod transferred to the permanent staff of the Transvaal Scottish Volunteers.

From 1902 until 1905, Macleod was the Regimental Sergeant Major. Macleod’s career continued after the Transvaal Scottish Volunteers became the Transvaal Scottish Regiment. From 1908 until 1912, Macleod again served as the Regimental Sergeant Major.

Macleod was later commissioned. During the First World War, Donald Macleod served as the adjutant of the 1st Battalion of the Transvaal Scottish Regiment with the rank of captain during the German South West Africa campaign. After the establishment of the 4th South African Infantry Regiment or the South African Scottish, Major Macleod was appointed as the second-incommand.

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Macleod served extensively on the Western Front. In July 1916, Macleod assumed command of the regiment following the death in Bernafay Wood of Lieutenant Colonel F. A. Jones. At the end of the First World War, Colonel McLeod served in North Russia against the Bolsheviks and was awarded the Russian Order of St. Anna, 2nd class 4. From 1920 until 1923, Lieutenant Macleod commanded the Transvaal Scottish Regiment.

After mobilisation, a force from the regiment under command of Lieutenant Colonel Macleod was sent to Benoni to relieve elements of the South African Police who had been besieged by the strikers. Three officers and 290 other ranks were deployed to the Benoni and Boksburg areas. At Dunswart, McLeod and his force was ambushed by a heavily armed and well positioned striker commando.

4 The Imperial Order of Saint Anna was a Holstein ducal and then Russian imperial order of chivalry. It was established by Karl Friedrich, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, on 14 February 1735, in honour of his wife Anna Petrovna, daughter of Peter the Great of Russia.

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Throughout the strike, due to the intensity and number of clashes, heavy and significant casualties were suffered by the regiment. The regiment was used for both defensive and offensive 21

operations against the strikers. The Transvaal Scottish Regiment were mainly deployed in and around Johannesburg where seven officers and 258 other ranks remained at the regimental headquarters. Private Wallace was one of these members of the regiment left behind because they could not be equipped in time. Wallace and his comrades were used as a reaction force and as a reserve during the ongoing operations.

The 250 soldiers remained at the Drill Hall in Johannesburg but took part in the Brixton engagement which was to relieve the South African Police and also to capture the strikers’ headquarters and leaders in Fordsburg.

The attacks started with a heavy preliminary bombardment by the Transvaal Horse Artillery on Cottesloe School, a revolutionary strong point.

The school was captured by the Infantry in the face of determined sniping and rifle fire. The advance continued on Fordsburg, the centre of the strikers’ movement. After heavy shelling, the infantry converged on the Market Hall and after vigorous street fighting, took possession of the Market Buildings at 16h20. In the two days’ fighting, this Transvaal Scottish detachment lost two officers and three other ranks killed while three officers and twenty-nine other ranks had been wounded.

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“Johannesburg, the workers’ commandos took possession of the working-class suburbs of Fordsburg and Jeppe. They also entrenched on the neighbouring low hills overlooking the military camping ground. Here half a dozen aeroplanes operated on these positions with deadly effect. 23

Here where no bourgeois property was endangered, the aeroplanes could operate with impunity. The bombardment was expected to last ten minutes. It went on for seventy minutes ... It was only a question of time, and the issue was never in doubt, for Smuts only directs final assaults for political acclaim when the issue is absolutely safe.”5

The South African Air Force had dropped pamphlets into Fordsburg prior to the ground assault. The pamphlets were written in four different languages on both pages. The languages included English, Afrikaans, Zulu and Sotho.

“Women and children and persons well disposed towards the Government are advised to leave between 6 and 11 a.m. today that part of Fordsburg and vicinity where the authority of the Government is defied and military operations may take place.

They will proceed to Show Ground with such blankets, food, and personal belongings they can carry with them … No immunity from arrest and punishment is guaranteed to any person coming out under this notice who has broken the law.” The 8th Infantry had suffered grievous losses in their encounters with the strikers.

5 https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/revhist/supplem/hirson/1922.html

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SUMMARY OF TRANSVAAL SCOTTISH CASUALTIES: KILLED AND WOUNDED6 ACTION KILLED OFF OTHER RANKS WOUNDED OFF OTHER RANKS TOTAL

Dunswart 12 3 9 26 2 24 12 killed 26 wounded

Brixton Ridge 3 _

3 29 2 27 3 killed 29 wounded Fordsburg 2 2 _ 2 1 1 2 killed 2 wounded

Robinson Compress or 2 1 1 2 wounded

Forest Hill 1 1 wounded

TOTAL (ALL RANKS) Killed Wounded 9 Killed in Action, 8 Died of wounds; TOTAL = 17 58

THE SOUTH AFRICAN AIR FORCE IN SUPPORT

On 1 February 1920, the South African Air Force (SAAF) was established under the Directorate of Air Services. The establishment included Headquarters and clerical staff, an aircraft depot with

6 Endley, William. (2020). From the Dust of Africa to the Mud of Flanders. Groep 7 Drukkers.

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During the strike, Number 1squadron was tasked to fly reconnaissance missions and bombard/strafe the strikers’ positions. From 10 to 15 March 1922, the squadron flew intensive operations and 127 hours were flown during the strike.

On 10 March 1922, the SAAF deployed a Whippet tank. On 13 March 1922, Air Corporal W. J. Johns was killed in the tank when a bullet fired by a striker pierced the tank’s visor. During the 1922 strike, Number 1 Squadron suffered two dead, two wounded, and two aircraft were destroyed. Colonel Sir Pierre van Ryneveld’s7 observer, Captain W. W. Carey Thomas8 MC, was shot and mortally wounded by ground fire during a bombing mission over Benoni. Carey Thomas was the squadron adjutant.

25657 SERGEANT W BATES: “C” COMPANY, DURBAN LIGHT INFANTRY WOUNDED IN ACTION, FORDSBURG, 14 MARCH 1922

Campaign medals from left to right, the 1914-15 Star; the British War Medal 1914-20; the Allied Victory Medal; and the Africa Service Medal

“After crossing three streets, the leading elements of “C” Company emerged into Mint Road, and immediately drew fire from a sandbagged post at the corner of a building about 100 yards to the right. No maps of Fordsburg had been provided and the DLI was quite ignorant of the neighbourhood. Sergeant Billy Bates was immediately ordered: Take that strongpoint with your

7 General Sir Hesperus Andrias van Ryneveld, KBE, CB, DSO, MC, known as Sir Pierre van Ryneveld, was a South African military commander. He was the founding commander of the South African Air Force. 8 Captain W. W. Carey-Thomas MC, Adjutant of the SAAF, had been a senior Mine Official on the East Rand prior to the First World War, and serving as aerial observer because of his knowledge of the area, was mortally wounded by a bullet through the heart.

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The intensity of the fighting is apparent in the casualty lists. Other Active Citizen Force regiments did not go unscathed. The Durban Light Infantry had fifteen men wounded, The Imperial Light Horse lost 9 men killed in action and 14 wounded, and the Rand Light Infantry had one man who died from his wounds, one man who suffered an accidental death while 3 men were wounded.

Mopping up operations continued in the Wemmer Pan, Rosettenville and Regents Park areas. On Tuesday 16 March, two unfortunate incidents occurred that caused major widespread outrage when W. E. Dowse, three Hanekom brothers and a Smith were shot by members of the Transvaal Scottish regiment.

The shootings took place in a valley and all the victims were accused of attempting to escape. The detachment was under the command of Captain Walter Kirby10. By 17 March 1922, the strike had been ended and 4692 strikers were arrested. On 18 March 1922, the Union Defence Force units were demobilised. On 16 August 1923, Private Wallace was transferred to the SMG Military District. On 1 July 1926, Wallace was placed on the reserve list with an “A” Class medical classification. During the Second World War, Sergeant William Wallace served with the Special Service Battalion in the Union of South Africa, North Africa and Italy. After qualifying as an artisan, Wallace worked as a plumber before and after the Second World War. Sergeant Wallace spent his twilight years working as the Quartermaster of the Non-European Affairs Department’s municipal police and he was based in Dube in Soweto.

9 Martin, A.C., The Durban Light Infantry Volume 1, 1854-1934, published by the Headquarters Board of the Durban Light Infantry, Durban, South Africa, 1969. 10 On 22 November 1941, the 53-year-old Lieutenant Colonel Walter H. Kirby, officer commanding of the 3rd Battalion of the Transvaal Scottish Regiment, was killed in action at the Battle of Sidi Rezegh during the Second World War. The battle was fought during Operation Crusader in Libya from November until December 1941. The objective of Crusader was to retake Cyrenaica, the eastern region of Libya, and ultimately drive the Italians and Germans out of North Africa.

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