All through the early months of the summer the preparations for the final
advance were steadily proceeding. A second British brigade was ordered to
the Soudan. A new battery of Howitzer artillery - the 37th - firing enormous
shells charged with lyddite, was despatched from England. Two large
40-pounder guns were sent from Cairo. Another British Maxim battery of four
guns was formed in Cairo from men of the Royal Irish Fusiliers. Three new
screw gunboats of the largest size and most formidable pattern had been
passed over the indefatigable railway in sections, and were now launched on
the clear waterway south of the Atbara encampment; and last, but not least,
the 21st Lancers [The author led a troop in this regiment during the final
advance to Omdurman; and it is from this standpoint that the ensuing
chapters are to some extent conceived] were ordered up the Nile. Events now
began to move rapidly. Within three weeks of the arrival of the
reinforcements the climax of the war was over; within five weeks the
British troops were returning home. There was no delay at the Atbara
encampment. Even before the whole of the second brigade had arrived,
some of its battalions were being despatched to Wad Hamed, the new point of
concentration. This place was a few miles north of Shabluka, and only
fifty-eight miles from Omdurman. It was evident, therefore, that the
decisive moment of the three years' war approached. The Staff, the British
infantry, one squadron, the guns, and the stores were carried south in
steamers and barges.
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