As They Marched The
Blue Hills Of Wepener Lined The Sky Some Twenty Miles To The South,
Eloquent To Every Man Of The Aim And Object Of Their March.
On April 20th, Rundle as he advanced found a force with artillery
across his path to Dewetsdorp.
It is always difficult to calculate
the number of hidden men and lurking guns which go to make up a
Boer army, but with some knowledge of their total at Wepener it was
certain that the force opposed to him must be very inferior to his
own. At Constantia Farm, where he found them in position, it is
difficult to imagine that there were more than three thousand men.
Their left flank was their weak point, as a movement on that side
would cut them off from Wepener and drive them up towards our main
force in the north. One would have thought that a containing force
of three thousand men, and a flanking movement from eight thousand,
would have turned them out, as it has turned them out so often
before and since. Yet a long-range action began on Friday, April
20th, and lasted the whole of the 21st, the 22nd, and the 23rd, in
which we sustained few losses, but made no impression upon the
enemy. Thirty of the 1st Worcesters wandered at night into the
wrong line, and were made prisoners, but with this exception the
four days of noisy fighting does not appear to have cost either
side fifty casualties.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 453 of 842
Words from 121190 to 121440
of 225456
