AT THE FRONT.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 8703, 23 December 1899, Page 3

AT THE FRONT.

AN AMBULANCE MAN'S EXPERIENCES.

(Cape Times, Nov. 14.)

The following ure extracts from a letter received in Durban from <me of the N. M.R. Ambulance Corps, who was present at Elands L-iagte, M odder Spiuit, and the last battle at, Lombaard's Kop : — " I must now take advantage of the Dutch to pencil a few lines, as we are having a bit of a rest. lam going along all well as yet, but for how long we don't know. \Ye hail the most terrible time I ever saw in my life yesterday (Monday). There are swarms of Dutch all round Lady smith, but they are giving us a rest to-day ; I mean to say, we are giving ihem a rest. By Jove ! didn't wo give them 'what for' on Monday. We simply massacred them. There nag the 42nd Royal Artillery standing about 50 yards from our ambulance waggon, and they cut up three detachments of Boers in less than half an hour, as they came over the ridge of the hill where they were stationed. Our men knocked them down as they came over, a small guess about 200 of them. That was only a fleabite. Then the infantry gave them ' what for ' next. Then the Lancers ga c them a. little bit of a reminder. They have as many guns as we have, and they stick in the rocks and will not- move. Our men are right in the open veldt. We hxve to go out, as they get in those rocks, and will not come to the front. I must say some of the Dutch are brave men, but they build stone walls all round, and the only thing for us to do is to shell them out of it and charge them, ( the same as we always have to do. This was the commencement of the battle on Monday (.TOth). The Dutch opened fire at five o'clock. They sent seven shells into the to«;n and frightened the townspeople out of their wits. The women and children began to think we were beaten, but we soon put an end to that. Our artillery took up position, and made it regularly warm for them, I tell yon. We silenced them for a time. They have a 43-ponmier with them that they brought from Dundee. " We knocked one of the wheels off the gun, but they managed to stand it up again ; but we knocked it over next time by our 45-pouoder that the navals brought from Durban. They are the buys for them. We have still a much larger gun than that we are fixing up, and won't we give them il rough time to-morrow ! Both sides have ceased fighting for twenty-four hours, so as to bury the dead. " Well, I saw some of the most horrible sights on Monday, and this is my third battle. There was one of the officers brought in by our men on a gun carriage, and he (lied while they were bringing him to our ambulance waggon. He had his head half blown off, and his right leg just hanging with about an inch of skin to his hip, just like a piece of liver. Then a gunner came in — lost his leg and his inside hanging out, and he was just as sensible as you or I, but the pain he could not Btand any longer. That is what he said to the doctor. The priest was on the field, and whispered in his ear ; he lay down for a while, then tried to sit up, and called the doctor and asked him to poison him, the pain was too great to bear ; so yon Bee what we have to put up with. It almost makes one sick to look at them and other casualties. We had any amount shot in the arms, legs, chest, and neck. You could not realise what a battle field is like. I will now tell you my experience of yesterday.

"We came in in the afternoon; the fight was finished about 3 o'clock. Then we went out looking for the wounded. We got about seven miles out, and then tho Dutch pickets stopped us and wanted to know what we wanted ; but as soon as they saw the red cross they let us go right through. We went into their camp. There were about 500 of them, and a leader asked me if we had many wounded, so just to • square ' him I told him we had a lot, so they all smiled. They asked us to have some tea. We had a little ; then they wished us good bye. One of them asked my officer when the war would be fiuished. He said he had had enough. We had to keep a keen eye on them and show a bold face. Then we came baok to Ladysmith, and, thank God, we are safe. We all shook hands with ourselveß to think how they let us go. There were only 11 of us, and all the troops were in town. We had simply nothing to defend ourselves with— only bandages and stretchers."