MAGERSFONTEIN DISASTER.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 6626, 19 February 1900, Page 4

MAGERSFONTEIN DISASTER.

STORIES Oi? THE MEN WHO TOOK PART IN IT. London, January 13. The accounts of the Magersfontein disaster sent Home by the soldiers who were in the thick of it afford very unpleasant reading. One says " Why did the Brigade advance in quarter column formation ? It was not righting ; it was simply suicide. Men were hung on the wire like crows, and were simply riddled, with bullets." The other describes it more in detail. "We were given to understand that we had only to walk over the hill, but, as a private remarked, 'we shall get either hell or heaven in a minute or two,' and we got hell. We had no scouts on this occasion, and when we were about 100 yards from the trenches and were just congratulating ourselves on an easy job, we got the hottest reception I ever heard of. The Black Watch came to a wire entanglement 6ft high, and the front rank were doing their best to climb over, and we were just getting enough light to see. when thousands of rifles spoke out at once from the enemy's trenches. Someone shouted ' Eetire,' and the whole Brigede fled for their life, and in that retreat several hundreds must have fallen. We tried to form up in decent fighting line, but it was impossible. When we could return the fire we crept forward among the bushes, hut it was like fighting nothing but bullets. After ten hours' fighting we could not get near the enemy, and we had had enough of it. Our hearts, I think, were broken after the reception we got at the start." Another says :—" What could we do? It was dark : the men did not know where they were. Somebody shouted 'Retire' and we did -well, not retire, but a stampede ; 4000 men like a flock of sheep running for dear life. Had we opened out in attacking or skirmishing order, we could have rushed the trenches, but in the formation we were in, we were hopeless. After they rallied they had not the heart to fight, after being led into a trap at the start; but we stood it wonderfully well, although only a half hearted affair. All through stupid blundering and bad generalship we had lost confidence," Here is a painfully pathetic picture of the sequel to the* battle. A sapper of the Royal Engineers, who helped to bury the dead on that occasion, writes : —"The first grave we dug was about 30ft long and 3ft deep. We put 53 Scotsmen into it—34 of the Black Watch alone. It was something horrible, and every man of us was crying all the time we worked, and when, after we had placed them all in, the burial service was going on before we covered them over, three or four fainted. Aftel thf 1 bagpipes had played the "Dead March" we covered them over, and started on another grave, when some of our gallant sailors came and relieved us, and we all went back to our train crying."