An Early Relief Appeared
Probable, However, As The Advance Of Methuen's Force Was Already
Known.
One pound of bread, two ounces of sugar, and half a pound of
meat were allowed per head.
It was only on the small children that
the scarcity of milk told with tragic effect. At Ladysmith, at
Mafeking, and at Kimberley hundreds of these innocents were
sacrificed.
November 25th was a red-letter day with the garrison, who made a
sortie under the impression that Methuen was not far off, and that
they were assisting his operations. The attack was made upon one of
the Boer positions by a force consisting of a detachment of the
Light Horse and of the Cape Police, and their work was brilliantly
successful. The actual storming of the redoubt was carried out by
some forty men, of whom but four were killed. They brought back
thirty-three prisoners as a proof of their victory, but the Boer
gun, as usual, escaped us. In this brilliant affair Scott-Turner
was wounded, which did not prevent him, only three days later, from
leading another sortie, which was as disastrous as the first had
been successful. Save under very exceptional circumstances it is in
modern warfare long odds always upon the defence, and the garrison
would probably have been better advised had they refrained from
attacking the fortifications of their enemy - a truth which
Baden-Powell learned also at Game Tree Hill. As it was, after a
temporary success the British were blown back by the fierce Mauser
fire, and lost the indomitable Scott-Turner, with twenty-one of his
brave companions killed and twenty-eight wounded, all belonging to
the colonial corps.
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