LATEST NEWS

There is a cottage available at Bakoven over the period 8-22 December due to a late cancellation.

BORDER CAMPAIGN REMEMBRANCE SERVICE

 

Springbok Redout Celebrates its 80th.

 

 

Battle of Square Hill Remembrance Parade. Invitation 

 

+++  NEW SHELLHOLE  +++

 

National Bowls

 

Rorkes Drift Parade 27th January 2008

9 VCs Stolen

 

 

GHQ Conference and Recruiting Workshop.

Mainline quiz Evenning.

Books written by Moths

www.crestpublishing.co.za

This is how to attract new members and have fun at the same time

 

 

NEW OLD BILL OF THE ORDER

INSTALLED 18th.NOVEMBER 2007

MOTH CAS AUCAMP. see GHQ

 

LAST YEAR WAS THE 80th.ANNIVERSARY

OF THE MOTH ORDER  (see 80th.link)

SUIKERBOSRAND SHELLHOLE -  VAN AS PARADE

 

Datum -  29/6/2008

Tyd - 11:30 Vir 12:00

Plek - Suikerbosrand Shellhole Jordaan str Heidelberg

Drag - MOTH drag Met Medaljes

Koste - R40-00 per persoon (Middag ete)

Navrae - Wiele Strydom               082 962 5309       

Kom geniet gerus die dag saam met ons.

DELVILLE WOOD PARADE 11.00hrs Sunday 13th July 2008 Pietermaritzburg


Delville Wood 1916

The Weeping Cross

In Pietermaritzburg there is a simple wooden cross which "weeps" every year in July, when it oozes a reddish-brown resin. For more than 65 years this inexplicable phenomenon, which borders on the supernatural, has regularly occurred for a week or two around the 14th July, the anniversary of the Delville Wood Battle. A legend has grown to the effect that when the last survivor of the battle fades away, as old soldiers are reputed to do, the cross will cease its mysterious weeping. This wooden cross is made from salvaged timber taken from the ravaged trees of Delville Wood and it was originally erected shortly after World War 1 in the Natal Carbineers Garden, next to the City Hall in Pietermaritzburg.

The vertical beam is inscribed "JULY 1916" and the crossbar is inscribed "2nd SAI" which honours the Second Battallion of the South African Infantry Brigade. This Brigade, in carrying out its orders to hold the front line at all costs, decimated in 6 days of heroic fighting under hellish conditions.

In 1958 the cross was moved to its present site in the MOTH Circular Garden of Remembrance and since then the "weeping" has become particularly noticeable from the knots at either end of the crossbar and the mystery has often been reported in the press. This "miracle cross" as it has been dubbed, has been the subject of research and found to be constructed of timber from Pinus Sylvester, a pine commonly found in Europe and the annual exudation is normal pine resin with a trace of linseed oil, the latter being accounted for by the application of the oil as a preservative when the cross was moved. The mystery deepens when it is considered that the existing trees in France ooze resin during the heat and moisture in summer, whereas the Pietermaritzburg cross only "weeps" in winter.