There were no
bayonets, but that was a detail. At the word the gunners were off,
and there in the darkness in front of the storming party loomed the
enormous gun, gigantic in that uncertain light. Out with the huge
breech-block! Wrap the long lean muzzle round with a collar of
gun-cotton! Keep the guard upon the run until the work is done!
Hunter stood by with a night light in his hand until the charge was
in position, and then, with a crash which brought both armies from
their tents, the huge tube reared up on its mountings and toppled
backwards into the pit. A howitzer lurked beside it, and this also
was blown into ruin. The attendant Maxim was dragged back by the
exultant captors, who reached the town amid shoutings and laughter
with the first break of day. One man wounded, the gallant
Henderson, is the cheap price for the best-planned and most dashing
exploit of the war. Secrecy in conception, vigour in
execution - they are the root ideas of the soldier's craft. So
easily was the enterprise carried out, and so defective the Boer
watch, that it is probable that if all the guns had been
simultaneously attacked the Boers might have found themselves
without a single piece of ordnance in the morning. [Footnote: The
destruction of the Creusot was not as complete as was hoped. It was
taken back to Pretoria, three feet were sawn off the muzzle, and a
new breech-block provided. The gun was then sent to Kimberley, and
it was the heavy cannon which arrived late in the history of that
siege and caused considerable consternation among the inhabitants.]
On the same morning (December 9th) a cavalry reconnaissance was
pushed in the direction of Pepworth Hill. The object no doubt was
to ascertain whether the enemy were still present in force, and the
terrific roll of the Mausers answered it in the affirmative. Two
killed and twenty wounded was the price which we paid for the
information. There had been three such reconnaissances in the five
weeks of the siege, and it is difficult to see what advantage they
gave or how they are to be justified. Far be it for the civilian to
dogmatise upon such matters, but one can repeat, and to the best of
one's judgment endorse, the opinion of the vast majority of
officers.
There were heart burnings among the Regulars that the colonial
troops should have gone in front of them, so their martial jealousy
was allayed three nights later by the same task being given to
them. Four companies of the 2nd Rifle Brigade were the troops
chosen, with a few sappers and gunners, the whole under the command
of Colonel Metcalfe of the same battalion. A single gun, the 4.7
howitzer upon Surprise Hill, was the objective. Again there was the
stealthy advance through the darkness, again the support was left
at the bottom of the hill, again the two companies carefully
ascended, again there was the challenge, the rush, the flight, and
the gun was in the hands of the stormers.
Here and only here the story varies. For some reason the fuse used
for the guncotton was defective, and half an hour elapsed before
the explosion destroyed the howitzer. When it came it came very
thoroughly, but it was a weary time in coming. Then our men
descended the hill, but the Boers were already crowding in upon
them from either side. The English cries of the soldiers were
answered in English by the Boers, and slouch hat or helmet dimly
seen in the mirk was the only badge of friend or foe. A singular
letter is extant from young Reitz (the son of the Transvaal
secretary), who was present. According to his account there were
but eight Boers present, but assertion or contradiction equally
valueless in the darkness of such a night, and there are some
obvious discrepancies in his statement. 'We fired among them,' says
Reitz. 'They stopped and all cried out "Rifle Brigade." Then one of
them said "Charge!" One officer, Captain Paley, advanced, though he
had two bullet wounds already. Joubert gave him another shot and he
fell on the top of us. Four Englishmen got hold of Jan Luttig and
struck him on the head with their rifles and stabbed him in the
stomach with a bayonet. He seized two of them by the throat and
shouted "Help, boys!" His two nearest comrades shot two of them,
and the other two bolted. Then the English came up in numbers,
about eight hundred, along the footpath' (there were two hundred on
the hill, but the exaggeration is pardonable in the darkness), 'and
we lay as quiet as mice along the bank. Farther on the English
killed three of our men with bayonets and wounded two. In the
morning we found Captain Paley and twenty-two of them killed and
wounded.' It seems evident that Reitz means that his own little
party were eight men, and not that that represented the force which
intercepted the retiring riflemen. Within his own knowledge five of
his countrymen were killed in the scuffle, so the total loss was
probably considerable. Our own casualties were eleven dead,
forty-three wounded, and six prisoners, but the price was not
excessive for the howitzer and for the morale which arises from
such exploits. Had it not been for that unfortunate fuse, the
second success might have been as bloodless as the first. 'I am
sorry,' said a sympathetic correspondent to the stricken Paley.
'But we got the gun,' Paley whispered, and he spoke for the
Brigade.
Amid the shell-fire, the scanty rations, the enteric and the
dysentery, one ray of comfort had always brightened the garrison.
Buller was only twelve miles away - they could hear his guns - and
when his advance came in earnest their sufferings would be at an
end.
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