The Town Itself Stood More Than A Thousand Yards From The
Nile, But Six Substantial Mud Forts, Armed With Artillery, Lined And
Defended The Riverside.
Creeping leisurely forward along the east bank,
remote from the Dervish works, the flotilla came into action at a range of
4,000 yards.
The fire was at first concentrated on the two northern forts,
and the shells, striking the mud walls in rapid succession or bursting in
the interior, soon enveloped them in dust and smoke. The Dervishes
immediately replied, but the inferiority of their skill and weapons was
marked, and, although their projectiles reached the flotilla, very few
took effect. One shell, however, crashed through the deck of the Zafir,
mortally wounding a Soudanese soldier, and two struck the Fateh. After the
long-range bombardment had continued for about an hour the gunboats moved
forward opposite to the enemy's position, and poured a heavy and continuous
fire of shrapnel and double shell into all the forts, gradually subduing
their resistance. The fugitives from the batteries, and small parties of
Baggara horse who galloped about on the open plain between the works and
the town, afforded good targets to the Maxims, and many were licked up
even at extreme ranges.
No sooner had the gunboats passed the forts than the Dervish fire
ceased entirely, and it was discovered that their embrasures only commanded
the northern approach. As the guns could not be pointed to the southward,
the flotilla need fear nothing from any fort that had been left behind.
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