Before The Move To Arundel On December 13th His Detachment Had
Increased In Size, And Consisted Largely Of Mounted Men, So That It
Attained A Mobility Very Unusual For A British Force.
On December
13th there was an attempt upon the part of the Boers to advance
south, which was easily held by the British Cavalry and Horse
Artillery.
The country over which French was operating is dotted
with those singular kopjes which the Boer loves - kopjes which are
often so grotesque in shape that one feels as if they must be due
to some error of refraction when one looks at them. But, on the
other hand, between these hills there lie wide stretches of the
green or russet savanna, the noblest field that a horseman or a
horse gunner could wish. The riflemen clung to the hills, French's
troopers circled warily upon the plain, gradually contracting the
Boer position by threatening to cut off this or that outlying
kopje, and so the enemy was slowly herded into Colesberg. The small
but mobile British force covered a very large area, and hardly a
day passed that one or other part of it did not come in contact
with the enemy. With one regiment of infantry (the Berkshires) to
hold the centre, his hard-riding Tasmanians, New Zealanders, and
Australians, with the Scots Greys, the Inniskillings, and the
Carabineers, formed an elastic but impenetrable screen to cover the
Colony. They were aided by two batteries, O and R, of Horse
Artillery.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 269 of 842
Words from 72110 to 72360
of 225456
