Within Its Borders Are To Be Found
Carolina, Ermelo, Vryheid, And Other Storm Centres.
Its possession
offers peculiar strategical advantages, as a force lying there can
always attack either railway, and might even make, as was indeed
intended, a descent into Natal.
For these mingled reasons of health
and of strategy a considerable number of burghers united in this
district under the command of the Bothas and of Smuts.
Their concentration had not escaped the notice of the British
military authorities, who welcomed any movement which might bring
to a focus that resistance which had been so nebulous and elusive.
Lord Kitchener having once seen the enemy fairly gathered into this
huge cover, undertook the difficult task of driving it from end to
end. For this enterprise General French was given the chief
command, and had under his orders no fewer than seven columns,
which started from different points of the Delagoa and of the Natal
railway lines, keeping in touch with each other and all trending
south and east. A glance at the map would show, however, that it
was a very large field for seven guns, and that it would need all
their alertness to prevent the driven game from breaking back.
Three columns started from the Delagoa line, namely,
Smith-Dorrien's from Wonderfontein (the most easterly), Campbell's
from Middelburg, and Alderson's from Eerstefabrieken, close to
Pretoria. Four columns came from the western railway line: General
Knox's from Kaalfontein, Major Allenby's from Zuurfontein (both
stations between Pretoria and Johannesburg), General Dartnell's
from Springs, close to Johannesburg, and finally General Colville
(not to be confused with Colvile) from Greylingstad in the south.
The whole movement resembled a huge drag net, of which
Wonderfontein and Greylingstad formed the ends, exactly one hundred
miles apart. On January 27th the net began to be drawn. Some
thousands of Boers with a considerable number of guns were known to
be within the enclosure, and it was hoped that even if their own
extreme mobility enabled them to escape it would be impossible for
them to save their transport and their cannon.
Each of the British columns was about 2000 strong, making a total
of 14,000 men with about fifty guns engaged in the operations. A
front of not less than ten miles was to be maintained by each
force. The first decided move was on the part of the extreme left
wing, Smith-Dorrien's column, which moved south on Carolina, and
thence on Bothwell near Lake Chrissie. The arduous duty of passing
supplies down from the line fell mainly upon him, and his force was
in consequence larger than the others, consisting of 8500 men with
thirteen guns. On the arrival of Smith-Dorrien at Carolina the
other columns started, their centre of advance being Ermelo. Over
seventy miles of veld the gleam of the helio by day and the flash
of the signal lamps at night marked the steady flow of the British
tide. Here and there the columns came in touch with the enemy and
swept him before them.
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