Yet The
Engineer Who Could Face Evil Sights And Nauseous Smells Was Repaid
By An Inspection Of The Deep Narrow Trenches In Which A Rifleman
Could Crouch With The Minimum Danger From Shells, And The Caves In
Which The Non-Combatants Remained In Absolute Safety.
Of their dead
we have no accurate knowledge, but two hundred wounded in a donga
represented their losses, not only during a bombardment of ten
days, but also in that Paardeberg engagement which had cost us
eleven hundred casualties.
No more convincing example could be
adduced both of the advantage of the defence over the attack, and
of the harmlessness of the fiercest shell fire if those who are
exposed to it have space and time to make preparations.
A fortnight had elapsed since Lord Roberts had launched his forces
from Ramdam, and that fortnight had wrought a complete revolution
in the campaign. It is hard to recall any instance in the history
of war where a single movement has created such a change over so
many different operations. On February 14th Kimberley was in danger
of capture, a victorious Boer army was facing Methuen, the lines of
Magersfontein appeared impregnable, Clements was being pressed at
Colesberg, Gatacre was stopped at Stormberg, Buller could not pass
the Tugela, and Ladysmith was in a perilous condition. On the 28th
Kimberley had been relieved, the Boer army was scattered or taken,
the lines of Magersfontein were in our possession, Clements found
his assailants retiring before him, Gatacre was able to advance at
Stormberg, Buller had a weakening army in front of him, and
Ladysmith was on the eve of relief. And all this had been done at
the cost of a very moderate loss of life, for most of which Lord
Roberts was in no sense answerable. Here at last was a reputation
so well founded that even South African warfare could only confirm
and increase it. A single master hand had in an instant turned
England's night to day, and had brought us out of that nightmare of
miscalculation and disaster which had weighed so long upon our
spirits. His was the master hand, but there were others at his side
without whom that hand might have been paralysed: Kitchener the
organiser, French the cavalry leader - to these two men, second only
to their chief, are the results of the operations due. Henderson,
the most capable head of Intelligence, and Richardson, who under
all difficulties fed the army, may each claim his share in the
success.
CHAPTER 20.
ROBERTS'S ADVANCE ON BLOEMFONTEIN.
The surrender of Cronje had taken place on February 27th,
obliterating for ever the triumphant memories which the Boers had
for twenty years associated with that date. A halt was necessary to
provide food for the hungry troops, and above all to enable the
cavalry horses to pick up. The supply of forage had been most
inadequate, and the beasts had not yet learned to find a living
from the dry withered herbage of the veld. [Footnote: A battery
which turned out its horses to graze found that the puzzled
creatures simply galloped about the plain, and could only be
reassembled by blowing the call which they associated with feeding,
when they rushed back and waited in lines for their nosebags to be
put on.] In addition to this, they had been worked most desperately
during the fortnight which had elapsed. Lord Roberts waited
therefore at Osfontein, which is a farmhouse close to Paardeberg,
until his cavalry were fit for an advance. On March 6th he began
his march for Bloemfontein.
The force which had been hovering to the south and east of him
during the Paardeberg operations had meanwhile been reinforced from
Colesberg and from Ladysmith until it had attained considerable
proportions. This army, under the leadership of De Wet, had taken
up a strong position a few miles to the east, covering a
considerable range of kopjes. On March 3rd a reconnaissance was
made of it, in which some of our guns were engaged; but it was not
until three days later that the army advanced with the intention of
turning or forcing it. In the meantime reinforcements had been
arriving in the British camp, derived partly from the regiments
which had been employed at other points during these operations,
and partly from newcomers from the outer Empire. The Guards came up
from Klip Drift, the City Imperial Volunteers, the Australian
Mounted Infantry, the Burmese Mounted Infantry and a detachment of
light horse from Ceylon helped to form this strange invading army
which was drawn from five continents and yet had no alien in its
ranks.
The position which the enemy had taken up at Poplars Grove (so
called from a group of poplars round a farmhouse in the centre of
their position) extended across the Modder River and was buttressed
on either side by well-marked hills, with intermittent kopjes
between. With guns, trenches, rifle pits, and barbed wire a
bull-headed general might have found it another Magersfontein. But
it is only just to Lord Roberts's predecessors in command to say
that it is easy to do things with three cavalry brigades which it
is difficult to do with two regiments. The ultimate blame does not
rest with the man who failed with the two regiments, but with those
who gave him inadequate means for the work which he had to do. And
in this estimate of means our military authorities, our
politicians, and our public were all in the first instance equally
mistaken.
Lord Roberts's plan was absolutely simple, and yet, had it been
carried out as conceived, absolutely effective. It was not his
intention to go near any of that entanglement of ditch and wire
which had been so carefully erected for his undoing. The weaker
party, if it be wise, atones for its weakness by entrenchments. The
stronger party, if it be wise, leaves the entrenchments alone and
uses its strength to go round them. Lord Roberts meant to go round.
With his immense preponderance of men and guns the capture or
dispersal of the enemy's army might be reduced to a certainty.
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