Byng's
Column Was Left Behind The Driving Line To Be Ready For The
Expected Backward Break.
All came off exactly as expected.
De Wet
doubled back through the columns, and one of his commandos stumbled
upon Byng's men, who were waiting on the Vlei River to the west of
Reitz. The Boers seem to have taken it for granted that, having
passed the British driving line, they were out of danger, and for
once it was they who were surprised. The South African Light Horse,
the New Zealanders, and the Queensland Bushmen all rode in upon
them. A fifteen-pounder, the one taken at Tweefontein, and two
pom-poms were captured, with thirty prisoners and a considerable
quantity of stores.
This successful skirmish was a small matter, however, compared to
the importance of being in close touch with De Wet and having a
definite objective for the drive. The columns behind expanded
suddenly into a spray of mounted men forming a continuous line for
over sixty miles. On February 5th the line was advancing, and on
the 6th it was known that De Wet was actually within the angle, the
mouth of which was spanned by the British line. Hope ran high in
Pretoria. The space into which the burgher chief had been driven
was bounded by sixty-six miles of blockhouse and wire on one side
and thirty on the other, while the third side of the triangle was
crossed by fifty-five miles of British horsemen, flanked by a
blockhouse line between Kroonstad and Lindley.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 804 of 842
Words from 215189 to 215445
of 225456
