The Crash Of The Percussion, And The Strange Musical Tang
Of The Shrapnel Sounded Ever In Their Ears.
With their glasses the
garrison could see the gay frocks and parasols of the Boer ladies
who had come down by train to see the torture of the doomed town.
The Boers were sufficiently numerous, aided by their strong
positions and excellent artillery, to mask the Ladysmith force and
to sweep on at once to the conquest of Natal. Had they done so it
is hard to see what could have prevented them from riding their
horses down to salt water. A few odds and ends, half battalions and
local volunteers, stood between them and Durban. But here, as on
the Orange River, a singular paralysis seems to have struck them.
When the road lay clear before them the first transports of the
army corps were hardly past St. Vincent, but before they had made
up their mind to take that road the harbour of Durban was packed
with our shipping and ten thousand men had thrown themselves across
their path.
For a moment we may leave the fortunes of Ladysmith to follow this
southerly movement of the Boers. Within two days of the investment
of the town they had swung round their left flank and attacked
Colenso, twelve miles south, shelling the Durban Light Infantry out
of their post with a long-range fire. The British fell back
twenty-seven miles and concentrated at Estcourt, leaving the
all-important Colenso railway-bridge in the hands of the enemy.
From this onwards they held the north of the Tugela, and many a
widow wore crepe before we got our grip upon it once more. Never
was there a more critical week in the war, but having got Colenso
the Boers did little more. They formally annexed the whole of
Northern Natal to the Orange Free State - a dangerous precedent when
the tables should be turned. With amazing assurance the burghers
pegged out farms for themselves and sent for their people to occupy
these newly won estates.
On November 5th the Boers had remained so inert that the British
returned in small force to Colenso and removed some stores - which
seems to suggest that the original retirement was premature. Four
days passed in inactivity - four precious days for us - and on the
evening of the fourth, November 9th, the watchers on the signal
station at Table Mountain saw the smoke of a great steamer coming
past Robben Island. It was the 'Roslin Castle' with the first of
the reinforcements. Within the week the 'Moor,' 'Yorkshire,'
'Aurania,' 'Hawarden Castle,' 'Gascon,' 'Armenian,' 'Oriental,' and
a fleet of others had passed for Durban with 15,000 men. Once again
the command of the sea had saved the Empire.
But, now that it was too late, the Boers suddenly took the
initiative, and in dramatic fashion. North of Estcourt, where
General Hildyard was being daily reinforced from the sea, there are
two small townlets, or at least geographical (and railway) points.
Frere is about ten miles north of Estcourt, and Chieveley is five
miles north of that and about as far to the south of Colenso. On
November 15th an armoured train was despatched from Estcourt to see
what was going on up the line. Already one disaster had befallen us
in this campaign on account of these clumsy contrivances, and a
heavier one was now to confirm the opinion that, acting alone, they
are totally inadmissible. As a means of carrying artillery for a
force operating upon either flank of them, with an assured retreat
behind, there may be a place for them in modern war, but as a
method of scouting they appear to be the most inefficient and also
the most expensive that has ever been invented. An intelligent
horseman would gather more information, be less visible, and retain
some freedom as to route. After our experience the armoured train
may steam out of military history.
The train contained ninety Dublin Fusiliers, eighty Durban
Volunteers, and ten sailors, with a naval 7-pounder gun. Captain
Haldane of the Gordons, Lieutenant Frankland (Dublin Fusiliers),
and Winston Churchill, the well-known correspondent, accompanied
the expedition. What might have been foreseen occurred. The train
steamed into the advancing Boer army, was fired upon, tried to
escape, found the rails blocked behind it, and upset. Dublins and
Durbans were shot helplessly out of their trucks, under a heavy
fire. A railway accident is a nervous thing, and so is an
ambuscade, but the combination of the two must be appalling. Yet
there were brave hearts which rose to the occasion. Haldane and
Frankland rallied the troops, and Churchill the engine-driver. The
engine was disentangled and sent on with its cab full of wounded.
Churchill, who had escaped upon it, came gallantly back to share
the fate of his comrades. The dazed shaken soldiers continued a
futile resistance for some time, but there was neither help nor
escape and nothing for them but surrender. The most Spartan
military critic cannot blame them. A few slipped away besides those
who escaped upon the engine. Our losses were two killed, twenty
wounded, and about eighty taken. It is remarkable that of the three
leaders both Haldane and Churchill succeeded in escaping from
Pretoria.
A double tide of armed men was now pouring into Southern Natal.
From below, trainload after trainload of British regulars were
coming up to the danger point, feted and cheered at every station.
Lonely farmhouses near the line hung out their Union Jacks, and the
folk on the stoep heard the roar of the choruses as the great
trains swung upon their way. From above the Boers were flooding
down, as Churchill saw them, dour, resolute, riding silently
through the rain, or chanting hymns round their camp fires - brave
honest farmers, but standing unconsciously for mediaevalism and
corruption, even as our rough-tongued Tommies stood for
civilisation, progress, and equal rights for all men.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 65 of 222
Words from 65085 to 66088
of 225456
