Long Months Of Commando Chasing Had Imbued Them Too
Much With The Idea That These Were Fugitive Sheep, And Not Fierce
And Wily Wolves, Whom They Were Endeavouring To Catch.
It is said
that 700 yards separated the four pickets.
With that fine eye for
detail which the Boer leaders possess, they had started a veld fire
upon the west of the camp and then attacked from the east, so that
they were themselves invisible while their enemies were silhouetted
against the light. Creeping up between the pickets, the Boers were
not seen until they opened fire at point-blank range upon the
sleeping men. The rifles were stacked - another noxious military
tradition - and many of the troopers were shot down while they
rushed for their weapons. Surprised out of their sleep and unable
to distinguish their antagonists, the brave Australians did as well
as any troops could have done who were placed in so impossible a
position. Captain Watson, the officer in charge of the pom-poms,
was shot down, and it proved to be impossible to bring the guns
into action. Within five minutes the Victorians had lost twenty
killed and forty wounded, when the survivors surrendered. It is
pleasant to add that they were very well treated by the victors,
but the high-spirited colonials felt their reverse most bitterly.
'It is the worst thing that ever happened to Australia!' says one
in the letter in which he describes it. The actual number of Boers
who rushed the camp was only 180, but 400 more had formed a cordon
round it.
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