Did You Know?
The monument in Haenertsburg, Limpopo, commemorates the last Long Tom gun used during the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902). The gun in question is a 155 mm Creusot fortress gun, commonly known as a Long Tom, which was part of the Boer artillery. After the Battle of Bergendal in August 1900, the Boer forces retreated eastwards, and several Long Toms were eventually disabled or buried to prevent capture by British forces. The specific barrel remnant at this site is associated with one of these guns that was destroyed or abandoned in the Haenertsburg area in 1901, during the guerrilla phase of the war. The site also serves as a memorial to multiple South African wars, reflecting the broader history of conflict in the region, including the First Anglo-Boer War (1880-1881) and the Second Anglo-Boer War. Haenertsburg itself was a small gold-mining town established in the 1880s, and the surrounding Magoebaskloof area saw skirmishes and Boer guerrilla activity during 1901. The monument includes remnants of the gun barrel, which are preserved as physical evidence of the artillery piece's final location. Contextually, the Long Tom guns were manufactured by Schneider et Cie in France and were among the most effective Boer artillery pieces, with a range of about 10,000 yards. By 1901, most Long Toms had been lost or disabled, and this monument marks the last known operational or intact example in the region. The exact provenance of the barrel remnant is not fully documented in public records, but it is locally recognized as a relic of the war's final phase in the northern Transvaal (now Limpopo).
AI-assisted · may contain inaccuracies