ON ACTIVE SERVICE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CIII, Issue 12159, 24 March 1900, Page 3

ON ACTIVE SERVICE.

A BRITISH OFFICER’S EXPERIENCE IN SOUTH AFRICA. The following extracts from letters written by an officer now at the front in South Africa will be read with interest; S.s. Mohawk, Oct. 28. I have not much to write about, as sea life is fairly monotonous. We have had a very busy time, leaving Aldershot, and i was heartily glad to get to the -Docks. There we had a great deal to do, and I' had not time to speak to anyone- Lots of people were there to see us off, but I hardly sar them. The fog was so thick tha* we could not leave the docks on Sunday, and was so bad on Monday that we got no farther than Gravesend till Tuesday morning. vVe are in a .great state of excitement about the war, as we have heard nothing since General French's victory; when we left, our force was falling back from Dundee, and Sir G. White seemed to be in rather a ticklish position. If wc have won the fight I don’t believe the war will last lcn 0 , i we have lost it, goodness knows what may not happen. g Nov . 5. You would not believe what a lot there is to do on board a ship with so many . horses. My daily routine is; 6.45 a.m , I just walk round all the horses in my pyjamas and note down which are not feed-, fni Stables go on from 8.50 to 12.30, and a if this time I am hopping about, as we exercise about thirty horses at a time, and clean out their stalls whilst they are l on deck At 12 30 men’s dinners ; after which 1 tro round the horses to see which are not feed in f ; one can only do this properly when the men are away. Wc lunch at 1, and at 2 the men parade for musketry or inspections ; this keeps one going till about 3.30. Stables, 5.15 to 6. At 9.30 p.m. I go round the horses again, and generally again about 2.30 a.m. I have now got about niteen horses which are running at the nose, coughing, fever or .some other ailment, and temperatures varying from 101 to 106. These all require special care, diet and change of atmosphere ; so really I don t believe I sit down for more than an hour in the day between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m., except for meals. However, it keeps one fairly fit, I wonder how many horses i shall have lost by the time we get to Capetown : at present I have lost one, and have three at 105 deg. This fever knocks them down in about six hours. Our excitement to hear news when we get to Capetown will be terrific. We heard of our victories at Ladysmith, and that our two forces had concentrated there; but the latest told us that the Boers were massing a large force and that they were placing heavy guns. I cannot believe that bir George White can be defeated there. Wednesday, Nov. 15. A moderate gale for the last three da vs, with the wind bang against us, has • delayed us; the machinery of the ship has also twice broken down, and left us lying in the trough of the sea. This was most unpleasant, as we rolled terribly and frightened the horses; so we don’t get to Capetown till middle day to-morrow. I hope we shall not disembark then, as we have lots .of things to buy/ and when we leave the ship we .shall probably go off miles to our base. Nov. 19, Camp, three miles from Capetown. We have been here two days. I. spuadyon has already gone, we don’t know where. It left very suddenly this morning. iWe seem to be ,in a pretty bad way; but I trust we shall get even with the Boers soon. When the tide once turns, I think it will turn with a vengeance. Nov. 24, 1899. In train, 100 miles south-west of De Aar. I started from Capetown yesterday at 5 . p.m. with 130 horses, 107 men and six officers. The remainder of the regiment are coming up in two trains, each about two hours behind me. The horse-boxes are awfully bad for our horses, as the latter are too big for them. I have got nine horses into each truck, and have left them loose ; they have kicked a great deal, ans have smashed a good many boards, but I don’t think they have done themselves any very serious damage. R. had to shoot one, and had five others very badly hurt- It is very difficult to water and feed them in the train, as they get themselves jammed up in all sorts of positions. The men are splendidly keen, and are as cheery as crickets. We shall arrive at De Aar about 4 a.m., and I expect we shall go .forward in a couple of days at the latest. If Kimberley is relieved, I expect we shall be at ■the theatre in Bloemfontein in a fortnight, and that should have an enormous effect on the Boers in Natal. If the Boers had started a fortnight earlier, I have been told on the best authority, that they would have gone straight into Capetown and Durban, and we might have whistled for out South African Empire, as 50,000 men would have xisen in Cape Colony alone. We are about 400 miles from Capetown now, and have been through the most extraordinary country. Lots of mcmntaiiis the whole way, very volcanic and crater-like; smoke was coming from one of them. Hardly any vegetation, and very few people. Although we have been in Cape Colony the whole time, every single bridge has been guarded clay .and night by two •or four men. We have passed about half a dozen small camps of local soldiers for this purpose, and very smart men they seem to he. Otherwise, nearly .every native is a rebel; yesterday they caught a chap with dynamite close here, and they have sent him to Capetown to be shot. All the railway people are loyal to the core. I was also told that if this war had been put by for another two years we should have had a still harder nut to crack; as not only would the Boers have been much more efficient themselves, but they would have got the whole of the Afrikander Bond organised. Nov. 27, Naauwpoort. We get absolutely no news here, though \; T e have heard that Lord Methuen has won two fights nm the way to Kimberley, but .that he has incurred heavy loss in both. ■Prom what I can gather now, the Boers will fight to the bitter end, though I don’t believe they will. The majority of them have such contempt for us that they don’t believe wc can fight at all; but these last two fights on the way to Kimberley have really startled them; A Canadian whom I met at He Aar junction saw the fight at Belmont, and told me that the advance of tour troops was perfectly magnifieent. Dec. 2, 1899. I Between De Aar and Orange River. ! We are in for a big fighjh.at last, .as we Were wired for late last night to go up to the Modder River. They are short of cavalry, and, if we win this next battle, we shall have a lot to do, as it will be .a big defeat this time. The fighting has been Very severe, as our fellows at Modder River could not see a single, Boer —they were so marvellously concealed amongst rocks and .trees. ' j One of the marvels of this war is the extraordinary excellence of the commisBaria* and transport department. It is a most gigantic affair, and will cost many millions. Also please note the intense disloyalty of the Capetown colonists as a .whole; one never dreams of such a thing in England. Dec. 9, Modder River. 1 marched my squadron up here from Orange River, but the two others came up by train. My first day’s march was uneventful, but Very'hot, Vs we did not start ■till 11.30.a.m. The river is very low, but ffi .very fine .stream and very picturesque, ’The next day, after about eight miles, v;~ Icame to the battlefield of Belmont, where ■the Boers had a very good position, but I [think it might have been turned. When we •got there we were ordered to bivouac; wc [found no water—the place was dry! My (native guide told me of another place, in '.Orange Free State territory, abmt two 'miles away. We went there and found it close to f'he final position of the Boers in 'the Belmont fight, with their camping ground in ■ rear of the hill. It was rather a dangerous place for us to bivouac, as .'it was in the enemy’s country, and close to '.misty hills. ■ However, I put out Cossack ■posts all round, and sent all parties armed j to water, and our stay there was uuevent- 1 fui but very interesting. We were without tents, and had only tea, bouilli 1 beef and Ship’s biscuits for food. The fourth day’s •

march got us in here. I forgot to say that the third day’s march was over the battle of Graspan. It was most unfortunate that the 9th Lancers’ horses were so beat, as the Boers had to retreat over an open plain, and would have lost 1000 men if we had had cavalry on fresh horses and' horse artillery. But this climate is taking it out of the horses terribly. The battlefields are sad sights ; dead) horses, helmets, and lots of huge vultures. The fight to get in. hero must have been a terrible one, and no doubt the Boers ought never to have left their position. The river has steep bunks, with trees on the top, and they were entrenched in the trees. The approach to the river is an absolute flat plain for about five miles, with absolutely no cover at all. This plain was swept by a hail of bullets, and, as smokeless powder is used, our men could not see where the bullets came from. How they ever won goodness only knows. Hie day before yesterday at 7 a.m. we got news that the Boers were destroying the line near Graspan and attacking two companies ■of infantry there. So we were sent off eighteen miles with a battery of Royal Artillery. We got there about noon, and had our “ bapteme du feu.” However, they had been there at work since 4 a.m., blowipup two culverts, destroyed two miles of wires and one mile of railway; 900 of them with two guns were then attacking these two companies of infantry (Northamptonshire). As soon as the Boers saw us coming, they hustled away their guns and took up a position on a line of kopjes. Our guns drove them from place to place, and finally they retreated across a broad valley. Each of our squadrons was working separately : I got rather close to a hill once, and .got one horse killed, another hit in the neck, ' and W. and one man wounded. Both very slightly. The bullet went clean through the fleshy part of W.’s thigh, but he did not tell me he was hit for a long time. The horse, which was hit in the neck, seems to be perfectly right. Another man had a bullet through his coat sleeve and another through his lance. The fight between here and Kimberley will be a desperate big affair, but we have some fine guns now, and I hope shall not try to do everything by a frontal uttacK. The, Boers have not been at all considerate to us, and have made us work our horses far too soon after' their long voyage and before they are thoroughly acclimatised. As a rule, they only get sandy water to drink, whilst the heat is very great in the daytime. We know absolutely nothing of what is going on in other parts of South Africa. I have heard no news for over a week. I 1 think that the result of the fighting which will take place here to-morrow or the next day will be a disaster for the Boers. I think the result, will be very great. If we were to get beaten the disaster to us would be enormous, as I believe that our line of communications would be cut in many places; knowing this, we are bound to win. We should like more cavalry. Trie Boers are very skilfully led, and their positions are admirably chosen; but if they had been as good shots as they are supposed to be, to judge by the battlefields which I have .seen, our losses would have been five times as great. Dec. 13, Modder River. The fight (Magersfentein) began on Sunday afternoon, when a. large force of artillery, with the 9th Lancers and a lot of infantry, left this camp. The Boer position is only six miles (from here, and we began to shell it at about 4 p.m. We have a big naval gun about one mile and a half from here, which commenced operations at about 7000 yards. The artillery fire was entirely confined to our side, and .went on for about three hours and then stopped. We left hers at 11.45 p.m. I joined the Brigade of Guards at 1 a.m., the 11th, in a nasty cold, wet night. By 4 a.m. -we had reached our rendezvous, and then the fight began. I really did not see what was going cn for some time, but I.saw their Vickers Maxim put about eight shells in about eight seconds amongst the 9th Lancers, which rattier terrified me. Then bullets began to fly about ns, and the infantry went on.

At 6.20 a.m. I was ordered to dismount my squadron and to go into, the bush against the Boers. I was then told that our infantry were retiring, and that I was to try to carry them on again. I had about seventy men, and got to the top of a very slight rise, when I gathered from the men who. were retiring and from ethers . who were lying down, and who were not keen about advancing, that the Beers were about 1000 yards off-' I now know why our infantry were retiring, but I did not; know it then. The Highland Brigade under General Wauchope, had advanced under cover of darkness close to the Boer entrenchment. They had not the faintest idea how close they were, and were in the densest possible formation. Suddenly a terrific fire was poured into this mass from not more than 200 yards, and they fell like corn. Poor chaps ! it is too awful to think off! They did not have a ghost of a chance, and most of their ■officers 'were hit. Well, I knew nothing of this when I went forward. I'passed little groups of 91st Highlanders, hut they would not come on—a few did. Then a most gallant man, a Major Milton, in the .Mounted Infantry, appeared and cheered on the men enormously. He danced about in front of them and laughed and joked and drew a lot on; I kept ray lot together as well as I could, but we were playing at infantry tactics to which we are not accustomed, and my seventy men must have covered a line of 150 to 200 yards in extended order. As this was in scrub, I could not keep hold of them, but those behind me did not hesitate one second. Poor Milton was hit very soon .afterwards, and we eventually got to about 300 yards .off the Boer line. I had about fifteen to twenty men, and there were about ten Highlanders on rny left. I heard another squadron of ours firing to my right rear. To make a long story short, we staved there till about 3 p.m. The High: landers retired at about 10 a.m., I should say. My odor?] joined me at about 9, and the entire credit of our performance is due to him. He crawled about in the bush and collected thirty-two men in all, of whom three were 81st, the remainder my squadron. The first messenger we sent'back to ask for help was shot before he bad gone ten yards, You had only to show yourself between bushes for hundreds of bullets to come Hying round. I'must have fired 100 cartridges, and I only once saw a Boer to fire at, and that was at aJmit 800 yards. A very dangerous part of the performance was that our own side eventually began to “fire from behind, and three of my men were shot in this way—l- had two men killed and eight wounded. Eventually we got an ambulance waggon up. collected our wounded, and then buried poor Milton 1 and one of my men. The Boers behaved splendidly. The Colonel and I. walked about with the ambulance, putting in the men, and then we dug a grave and buried tha poor chaps, all within 500 yards of their entrenchments, and they did not five a shot. We did not put up a white Hag, but trusted to their courtesy, and they behaved like gentlemen. I think they must have suffered very heavily from our shell fire in their trenches, rind there are various rumours as to theft lossesTheir position was a tremendously strong one, and I am not sure if it was possible to take it. There was nothing really to ■show that they had a long entrenchment, and the pern Highlanders were taken .up to it, only to be shot down without doing anything in their own defence. ,Their entrenehmsnts are deep 'enough to take their ponies in as well as themselves, and there lire about ten yards of wire entanglement in front of the trench. These troops, who have fought all the battles from Orange River, have had. nearly enough of it. They have always hud a concealed enemy to light against, with no object to shoot at, rod they have always had to make direct frontal attacks, and now they have hardly ::ny officers left. We got enormously complimented by everyone on our performance, for our little force stayed out unsupported end alone for many hours, and gave the infantry a real object for another advance. Wo retired here the following day under rather a warm shell tiro, which was quite exciting. One shell burst five yards from me, or rather it Hopped into the ground, and did not burst. It made my bay horse jump a. bit to one side! We don’t know what our next move will be, but it will be madness to try to attack that place again without at least another 5000 to 10,000 men. Wc had no reserve. If the Boers had attacked us in the morning wc should have had a disaster. One cause of our failure was

that everyone made such a terribly ear.., start, that the men did not have a props; meal, and the infantry were almost entirely without water. They had to send men back (three miles to the river to get waiter. I am sure that it was this that matje them retire nearly as much as the Boers. For an hour or two on Monday I did not think there was much chance of our coming out of the show alive'. I hope I may never be in such a tight hole again. Modder River, Dec. 20, 1899. Our failure the other day was due (to the awful blunder with the Highland Brigades. Whenl they actually .came under five the Brigade was” in the formation of quarter column, i.e. (as one of the officers of the 91st has since told me), sixty-four ranks deep ! If this had not happened, I think that "we should have driven the Boers out of their position ; .but now we have a, fair •lot to do before we relieve Kimberley. The other day our infantry fought without any brigade or regiment being held in support. If the Boers had assumed the offensive on that same evening we should have had a sorry time, but I believe that they lost enormously by our shell fire. Evidently orders have been given that we arc to fight no more until reinforced, but this seems to be carried to an absurdity, as now wc retire directly a Boer appears. Our big guns are firing on them this morning, I don’t know with what result. I wonder if England can supply another 100,000 men; I really think that they will be wanted. I feel sure that this will end in a great change in our army. Dec. 21. I don’t think that I ever told you that the Boers had some very strong barbed wire entanglement in front of their trentehes, and a long way in front of that they had alarm wires and bells like keepers have for. poachers, and it was these that gave them notice of the Highlanders’ advance. Details of the fight at Colenso’ have come in to-day; 1100 men killed and wounded and ten guns lost is a terrible day. Our losses here' were so large entirely through the Highland Brigade disaster; and I believe that if they had charged instead of going the other way, they would have taken the trenches. As it is, the situation is very bad all round, but we hope that reinforcembents will change the order of things. We hear to-day that Cronje has sent in his A.D.C. requesting an adjournment of two days for Christmas; also that the New State Boers are very much at loggerheads with the Transvaalers. Modder River, Dec. 26. I prophesy that, after Ladysmith is relieved, a very large force will be given to Generals Gatacre and’ French, and that they will make a big advance. This would necessarily force" our friends in front of us to retire, as their connection with Bloemfontein would be cut off. It would take a terrific big fores, with terrific loss of life, for us to take the position which' we tried to take the other .clay, as 'the Boers have been entrenching themselves ever since. News from England now is very stirring. Lord Roberts has sailed, and I devoutly hope he will Ibe able to 'avenge his son’s death.' He must have felt it terribly, but he died nobly !

. Tha night before last the Boers,,got the “ funks ” on, and fired three bigs (guns about 9 p.m., and then started a furious rifle fire for about a' quarter of an hour. They 'thought we were attacking. As a matter of fact, no one was within four miles of them. Last might at 10.30 p.m. our big naval gun fired three shots into itheir position. This utterly upset ,th® m ) an d set their lines of entrenchments off firing for half a.n hour. I expect they remained under arms all night, and were in great fear this morning. They are mightily afraid of a night attack and the bayonet. However, there is not the least chance of our attacking them. Our naval gun is a very fine chap ; his range is over 9000 yards. He is called Joe Chamberlain; another has just arrived, and is called Josephine. The Boers yesterday made splendid practice at Joe, and quit a lot of shells within fifty

I.uds of him; they fired seventy-eight ■ -.hells, but did not do one atom of damage to us. It is very exciting to watch this shelling. We had a very jolly Christmas Day, but the men’s plum'puddings had not arrived. I gave my horses some carrots, which I bought at the market. The market is composed of about twenty carts, which come in daily at 6 a.m., and sell vegetables, milk, eggs, etc., but the latter are very scarce. They are -mostly Boer farmers who sell. I suppose that the result of this war in England will be a very great change ,in our War Office and in all our military arrangements.