A Strong Boer Patrol, Caught Napping For
Once, Rode Into An Ambuscade Of The Irregulars.
Some escaped, some
held out most gallantly in a kopje, but the final result was a
surrender of twenty-four unwounded prisoners, and the finding of
thirteen killed and wounded, including de Mentz, the field-cornet
of Heilbron.
Two killed and two wounded were the British losses in
this well-managed affair. Dundonald's force then took its position
upon the extreme left of Warren's advance.
The British were now moving upon the Boers in two separate bodies,
the one which included Lyttelton's and Coke's Brigades from
Potgieter's Drift, making what was really a frontal attack, while
the main body under Warren, who had crossed at Trichard's Drift,
was swinging round upon the Boer right. Midway between the two
movements the formidable bastion of Spion Kop stood clearly
outlined against the blue Natal sky. The heavy naval guns on Mount
Alice (two 4.7's and eight twelve-pounders) were so placed as to
support either advance, and the howitzer battery was given to
Lyttelton to help the frontal attack. For two days the British
pressed slowly but steadily on to the Boers under the cover of an
incessant rain of shells. Dour and long-suffering the Boers made no
reply, save with sporadic rifle-fire, and refused until the crisis
should come to expose their great guns to the chance of injury.
On January 19th Warren's turning movement began to bring him into
closer touch with the enemy, his thirty-six field guns and the six
howitzers which had returned to him crushing down the opposition
which faced him. The ground in front of him was pleated into long
folds, and his advance meant the carrying of ridge after ridge. In
the earlier stages of the war this would have entailed a murderous
loss; but we had learned our lesson, and the infantry now, with
intervals of ten paces, and every man choosing his own cover, went
up in proper Boer form, carrying position after position, the enemy
always retiring with dignity and decorum. There was no victory on
one side or rout on the other - only a steady advance and an orderly
retirement. That night the infantry slept in their fighting line,
going on again at three in the morning, and light broke to find not
only rifles, but the long-silent Boer guns all blazing at the
British advance. Again, as at Colenso, the brunt of the fighting
fell upon Hart's Irish Brigade, who upheld that immemorial
tradition of valour with which that name, either in or out of the
British service, has invariably been associated. Upon the
Lancashire Fusiliers and the York and Lancasters came also a large
share of the losses and the glory. Slowly but surely the inexorable
line of the British lapped over the ground which the enemy had
held. A gallant colonial, Tobin of the South African Horse, rode up
one hill and signaled with his hat that it was clear. His comrades
followed closely at his heels, and occupied the position with the
loss of Childe, their Major. During this action Lyttelton had held
the Boers in their trenches opposite to him by advancing to within
1500 yards of them, but the attack was not pushed further. On the
evening of this day, January 20th, the British had gained some
miles of ground, and the total losses had been about three hundred
killed and wounded. The troops were in good heart, and all promised
well for the future. Again the men lay where they had fought, and
again the dawn heard the crash of the great guns and the rattle of
the musketry.
The operations of this day began with a sustained cannonade from
the field batteries and 61st Howitzer Battery, which was as
fiercely answered by the enemy. About eleven the infantry began to
go forward with an advance which would have astonished the
martinets of Aldershot, an irregular fringe of crawlers, wrigglers,
writhers, crouchers, all cool and deliberate, giving away no points
in this grim game of death. Where now were the officers with their
distinctive dresses and flashing swords, where the valiant rushes
over the open, where the men who were too proud to lie down? - the
tactics of three months ago seemed as obsolete as those of the
Middle Ages. All day the line undulated forward, and by evening yet
another strip of rock-strewn ground had been gained, and yet
another train of ambulances was bearing a hundred of our wounded
back to the base hospitals at Frere. It was on Hildyard's Brigade
on the left that the fighting and the losses of this day
principally fell. By the morning of January 22nd the regiments were
clustering thickly all round the edges of the Boer main position,
and the day was spent in resting the weary men, and in determining
at what point the final assault should be delivered. On the right
front, commanding the Boer lines on either side, towered the stark
eminence of Spion Kop, so called because from its summit the Boer
voortrekkers had first in 1835 gazed down upon the promised land of
Natal. If that could only be seized and held! Buller and Warren
swept its bald summit with their field-glasses. It was a venture.
But all war is a venture; and the brave man is he who ventures
most. One fiery rush and the master-key of all these locked doors
might be in our keeping. That evening there came a telegram to
London which left the whole Empire in a hush of anticipation. Spion
Kop was to be attacked that night.
The troops which were selected for the task were eight companies of
the 2nd Lancashire Fusiliers, six of the 2nd Royal Lancasters, two
of the 1st South Lancashires, 180 of Thorneycroft's, and half a
company of Sappers. It was to be a North of England job.
Under the friendly cover of a starless night the men, in Indian
file, like a party of Iroquois braves upon the war trail, stole up
the winding and ill-defined path which led to the summit.
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