SPECIAL WAR LETTERS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 31, 6 February 1900, Page 5

SPECIAL WAR LETTERS.

NEW ZEALANDERS AT THE FRONT.

GRAPHIC ACCOUNT OF

THEIR DOINGS

LINDSAY'S COMPANY AGAIN IN A HOT CORNER

(Press Association—Special.)

(By Telegraph from Wellington.)

Rensberg, January 7th.—Here we

are six miles south of Colesberg. In my last-letter (to 29th December), I had little of importance to write about and plenty of time for writing it. Now conditions are exactly reversed.. However, in the short uncertain time at my disposal I will endeavour briefly to recount all our proceedings during the past week. On the 30th at 2.30 a.m., the Carbineers, two guns of the Royal Horse Artillery, and the TSew Zealand Mounted Rifles left camp in the order named, under Colonel Porter, to make

A RECONNAISSANCE AT DAWN. We passed through our line out-, posts and soon ascertained that the Boers had, as persistently rumoured, evacuated their position on Tableashlaagrte. and retreated towards Colesberg-. We. pushed on to get in touch with them and located their position a few miles further on. We cautiously approached Rensberg range kopjes running across our front, and at right angles "to the railway line along which we were working. Here we expected to find the enemy, but instead found that this strong position also had been abandoned, and on topping the ridge we looked across about four miles of flat veldt to another range of kopjes beyond which lay the town of Colesberg itself. The main line crosses the Orange river at Xorvals Pont, whence |it is a straight- run to Bloemfontein. About'a mile and a-half away lies Pinrling's farm. Two guns ami our two Companies held the. Rendsberg range, while the Carbineers went forward across the plain towards the [ Colesberg ranges. . Here the P.oers were located. 11 edger, the owner of j the farm in view was with us, anx- j iously awaiting an opportunity to re- | visit his farm to see what sort of jum-1 ble the Boers 'had left it in.. After: waiting an hour or two in our position j two guns were ordered to move for-; I ward as rapidly, as possible and shell I the Boers before they.brought up their guns, which, were being . hurried up from Colesberg. Our No. 2 Company was told off to. cover their advance, and in a few minutes we were cantering away across the veldt in an extended line with the guns following close behind. When they were about j 2500 yards from the Boer hills bang j came'a shell and burst just in front, | followed quickly by another just behind. The guns at.once galloped away ; to a flank position, came into action, arid sent shell after shell singing away; to the kopjes opposite. A few more Boer shells burst harmlessly near our Company, then they were turned on to our guns, and a pretty little artil-j lery duel ensued. In the meantime i about 'half our Company went on. and j occupied some kopjes to the left-front to prevent the Boers getting round and enfilading our guns with rifle fire. The. Boer gun was a light quick-firer which could let oft" eight or ten shots in rapid succession, each shot fallingabout ten yards further than the previous one;* but unless the shell were to directly •hit a man or horse it did very .little damage. This gun was christened "Ten a-penny." The breech mechanism of one of our guns went-wrong and so temporarily put. the gun out of action, and as no particular object was to be gained by continuing- our fire, the two guns limbered up and moved ofi' behind a kopje already held by our men. "Ten apenny" fired at them all the way, but only' succeeded in slightly wounding one' trumpeter. No. 2 Company remained in their position all day carefully watching the Boers in their extended position. The nearest ones were about 2500 yards away, and could be plainly seen moving about building- ■ "' STONE EMPLACEMENTS FOE -■■■ THEIR GUNS, and shelters for their riflemen. No. 2 Company came up from Rensberg and held another kopje still more to the left and we thus prevented any attempts on the part of the Boers to get round our left flank and reoccupy Rensberg and cut us off, a game they are much addicted to playing. In the evening No. 1 Company were relieved by the New South Wales Lancers, and expected a long march back to Arundel but on reaching Rensberg found that, nearly the whole oftthe Arundel camp had arrived there, arid- our own camp was already pitched by the men who are. always necessarily left (behind, such as "cooks, farriers, and those whose horses are sick, etc. The Royal Fn°-ineers had repaired in about half-an-hOlir the railway, which the Boers imagined they had rendered impassable for many weeks, and so enabled all the vast collection of. stores and i transport at Arundel to be brought iro at once. No. 3 Company bivouacked -on the kopje they occupied^ (since named Porter's Hill). We had all started out that morning expecting to ibe back at Arundel at midday, so were quite unprepared to bivouac, and only )had a small supply of food, and we had come across no water all day. In the evening a small ispring was discovered, and the poor horses.were able to get an indifferent drink. A strongline of outposts was put .out for the night and to watch all possible approaches. Then a cold, sleepless, anxious night was passed. The Boers, however, remained quiet and did not shell our Company. At dawn, as fully exnected, at about G a.m. (31st Decem* her) the water cart and some supplies were sent out to the Company which again had to remain all day in occupation of Porter's Hill. At midday our boys had a slight diversion. Four Boers were observed to come j out on to the plain to drive in some, horses. Colonel Porter directed that as ! long as they confined their attention Ito the horses they were not to be fired on.- Two of them, however, when the horses were rounded up became inquisitive and advanced towards our position, evidently trying to"get a look at the back of it. They made straight- .for a gateway in a wire fence about SOO yards away, and our boys got ready and awaited their arrival there. Before they got there, however, they either saw our horses

or our men moving among the rocks, and got suspicious, but before they had made up their minds what to do they found themselves, under a pretty hot fire, and galloped away as hard as ever they could. They soon caught up the other two, who joined their flight,. and our bullets continued to whizz alf round them. They seemed to reach cover safely, but we afterwards ascertained from, a reliable Kaffir prisoner "that one of them had been shot through the. body. Colonel Porter only remarked, "I don't think they will try that game on again." In the evening No. 1 Company relieved No. 2 Company from their, long and weary vigil, and enabled them to return to their new camp at Rensberg. They had been continuously on duty for "forty-four hours with very little rest. On arriving- in camp after dark it was found that the second'brigade, consisting-'/of the '10th Hussars, 6th Dragoons, half of the. Royal Berkshire Regiment," some of the Eijuingfon Scouts,, and ten .guns of the Royal Horse Artillery had just started on a night'march to get right round the Boer .position if possible. The infantry were being1 carried half; at a time in mule waggons, some of which were borrowed from each unit. Dawn of the New Year broke to the SOUND OF A DISTANT CAN NONAD 15. which boomed and crashed away incessantly for several hours. Those in the camp at Rensberg could distinctly hear the deep roar of the Boers' "Long Tom," the pitter patter of their "Ten-a-penny," the sharp crack of their Hotchkiss quick firers, and the continuous booming of our Horse Artillery 12-pounders; but nothing could be seen, although every glass: and telescope in camp was turned towards Colesberg. No. 2 Company expected ,to have a much-needed day's rest in camp, but this turned out to be a delusion- as no less than five times did they turn out and'saddle up only to: receive the order to unsaddle and remain ready. About forty men were also sent off in detachments at odd times ]to escort ammunition and supplies to the front. These men only went as far as Porter's Hill, about four miles away, where they were retained, and their waggons handed over to another escort sent back from the front, who knew the way: so. they were disappointed at seeing nothing of the battle going on. In fact, we were all dis-

appointed at not'being" in it. and only consoled ourselves with the thought that "they also serve who only stand 'and wait," and thnt our turn with the first brigade would soon come. Tn the afternoon a force of about 100 disI mounted men from the Cavalry, i Mounted Infantry, and Lieut. Lind- \ say's division from No. 1 Company. I about twenty-five strong-, sallied forth from Porter's Xlill to try and gain possession of a point of the Boer position otwosite .which' hrid apparently been almost' evacuated for some time. The advance was splendidly carried out. nnd it looked as if it would be entirely successful. Oiir men advanced across roekyground,takin<>" advantage of every bit of cover, and were in I comparative safety from the Mnuser ! rifle fire ovmocHe: bur nn r^aehino- a I certain noiht they si'ddenlv enrnp into ; a very hot cross fiv*> f'-om n lfom'e from whi""H they hr>rl previous"l'- lir>»n covpred. F«nvv firing from both sides confi'M'^d. hi*A THEY HELD THEIR GROUND, being- well sheltered behind rocks and stones; but Colonel Porter, seeing that a.further advance wus impossible without supports ordered the retirement , and sent. Major ltobin across to bring- them ' in. The retirement was the most dangerous part of the business, as the Boers, coming round the' hill were able to command the ground over which the party had to return. In the withdrawal our boys had necessarily to expose themselves, but fortunately the move was Carried out r without loss, although the bullets were humming" all round. The whole of Lindsay's division (mostly. Aucklanders) seem to bear charmed lives. At .Tealsfontein farm mam- of his men had miraculous escapes. No one was hurt. The guns, which were on Porter's' J-11X. shelled the Boers both during the advance and the retirement I and probably caused the Boer fire to jbe unsteady and inaccurate. The I Boers lost some men, probably about i ten or twelve. It was not till, evening ■that we got anything more definite than wild rumours as to what had taken place at the front under Genera) French. We hn.d heard the artillery firing more or less incessantly, all day! All the Tiber guns had been'.■temporarily' silenced and the Berkshire : "Regiment had ;occunied jA STRONfj POSTTTOX OVERLOOK- | ING COLESB.ERG, '■" ; and only about.Soo yards from a similar position occupied by Boers ooposite. No oneSpn either side dared to 23 ut his head above the rocks-under pain of being immediately picked off. by an opposing marksman from a loophole. A poor" young officer of the Berkshires attempted to have a look through his glasses to see if. he could see any. of the Boers to fu-e at, arid immediately got a bullet through his head. The. Tenth Hussars and four guns of the. Royal Horse Artillery made a dash right round to the back, of the Boer position, and located all the four laagers, and successfully planted some shells into them. They came under a heavy fire at times. The 6th Dragoons also did some good.work and took some useful!kopjes. The day was a great success, the Boers losing heavily in horses and probably in men; but it is hard to ascertain ..their losses in men. Our losses Avere one officerand four, men killed and twenty-seven wounded..'Early "in.' the morning thir.ty.-six provision trucks which had been' brought.up from Arundel were left .standing at : Rensberg railway station and started, off

f DOWN THE INCLINE TOWARDS ; : COLE&BERG. , ! They soon gained, rnomtentiim and dashed on to within two miles of the "nek" in the Boer position, where the line had been blown tip. The'front trucks went on safely lor some little -way over the break, but the rear half of the train came to terrible grief. It contained 22,000 rations, 300 gallons of rum, a large quantity of limejuiee, chocolate and immense quantities of forage and miscellaneous stores. The loss.to us was really a trifle, and was hot felt by us individually at all. We still got-our rations of rum arid chocolate, and within two days all the lost stores were replaced. It was the gain to the Boers which was our trouble. .When about twenty Boers had collected, at the train our two guns at Porter's Hill opened fire on them and made them drop their loads and run, but the range was too ; long for, the Royal' Horse Artillery guns to do much damage. Towards.'evening- a train containing a company of infantry-ami some' engineers under escort of the

New South Wales Lancers left Rensberg to try and recover some of the trucks if possible, and, if not, to set fire to them. Despite a xJ^tty hot shell fire and long range rifle fire the wreckage was successfully set fire to, and thus we saved the spoils from falling into the hands of the Boers. The little force retired under cover of the. darkness, having had five horses killed and two men L very slightly wounded.

About midday Colonel Porter had sent a detachment of New Zealanders, under Lieut. Chaytor, to try and obtain sufficiency of cover to enable them to remain "within rifle range of the train. He got within 1500 yards, but wasi una.ble to get into cover any closer. Here the Boers opened fire, and several shots 'were exeTiangtd. They were then busy looting, but. with the help of our gun fire we made them temporarily retire. No. 1 Company had an ■imrestful night on the 3rd and returned to camp* on the 4th at 7. a.m., being relieved by some infantry, large, "closes" of which had been continually arriving. A battery of. 15-pounders also arrived in camp at 8 a.m., and very heavy firing reached our ears from the direction of the 2nd Brigade. We received orders to turn out at once, and proceeded to Porter's Hill again, but at 5 p.m. were ordered back to Rensberg. The firing had continued more or less all day. T^Lie Boers had tried to cut off a squadron of the Gth Dragoons', and also tried to attack the Suffolk Regiment.

THE DRAGOONS WERE CAUGHT . NAPPING,

but got out of it well, though they lost some five or six men_and fifteen horses. The Boers-were repulsed with heavy losses, and twenty of them were taken prisoners by the Mounted Infantry. The 10th 'Hussars lost their second in command and had another officer wounded. A shell fired by 'the Boers was picked up and found to be one of our 15-pounders. The enemy have evidently got one more of our guns here which were Lost at the Tugela. "The prisoners were brought into camp after dark and sent straight avvav by train.

About half of the No. 2 Company j went out with a troop of Carbineers, New South Wales Lancers and some scouts under Colonel Porter, to seek a camping ground away round to the right of the Boer position. They had an uneventful day, returning at 4 p.m., having found a nice camping ground, !to which the Ist Brigade may soon move. Captain Davies' services were utilised to assist in mapping that part of the country, he being a surveyor by profession in New" Zealand. The 2nd Brigade, under General French, were to attack an important kopje on the left of tho. Boer position, while the Ist Brigade were to make, demonstration on the right flank, and, if possible, draw the Boers' artillery fire. At 3 a.m. wo marched off, and at dawn the whole Brigade formed one long line, keeping an interval of about five yards between each file, and enveloping the right flank of the Boers. The Artillery (only two guns) then'went forward and opened fire at very long range at a supposed artillery position. This soon drew a re-sponse from our old frierid —"Long Tom"' —whereupon our artillery retired to where we were, "Long Tom" continuing to shoot. ONE OF THE SHELLS FELL IN OUR LINE, ■ and within two feet of Trooper Enderby. who was lying down. The shell came down almost perpendicularly and buried itself in the ground, where it burst harmlessly, only throwing up some small stones and dust. Enderby rolled over, merely making some disparaging remark about the rudeness of the guns.