Famous Modern Sieges.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 29, Issue 39, 22 May 1917, Page 2

Famous Modern Sieges.

ONE THAT LASTED NEARLY

FOUR YEARS,

General Townshend’s gallant defence of Kut for 143 days against overwhelming odds will go down to history as one of the most magnificent episodes of the Great War. In the war between Russia and Japan, Port Arthur only gave in after a siege of 210 days. By far the longest of modern times was the last siege of Gibraltar. It commenced on June 21st, 1779, and ended in February, 1783. It thus lasted for the long .period of three years and eight months, or more than 1,300 days.

The besieged were the British garrison, under the command of General G. A. Elliott, a most abstemious and methodical man, who never slept more than four hours at a time. The besiegers were a joint French and Spanish force, 30,000 strong, who attacked from land and sea. The siege utterly failed, and Britain still clings to the Rock which held out so valiantly and for such an unparalleled length of time.

Perhaps the most desperate siege was that endured by Potchefstroom in the Boer War of 1880-81. In that a handful of British, 300 strong, held out for three months in an area of only twenty-five square yards. The town itself had to he abandoned, and the small garrison, which could muster only 105 rifles and two nine-pounders, retired, with the British civilians, to the tiny fort of the limited dimensions above states. With rnealie sacks, biscuit boxes, and tins of beef the walls - were strengthened, but with the exception of trenches, which were dug, there were no other means of defence.

Yet for ninety-four days the garrison held out. It was not till death from starvation stared him in the face that the commander, Colonel Winslow, felt constrained to surrender. On a certain Sunday in March, 1881, the remnant of the garrison marched out with all the honours of war, only to learn that a truce had been long before declared. Knowledge of it had been kept from them until they were starved into surrender.

The siege of Plevna lasted exactly as long as that of Potchefstroom. For ninety-four days, from September 7th to December 10th, 1877, the Turks, under the redoubtable Osman Pasha, held back the flower of the Russian army. During that time they made repeated sorties, inflicting serious losses upon the Russians, and this while suffering the keenest pangs of hunger.

Indeed, they were practically without food throughout the siege, and even when the last scrap had been consumed there was no question of giving in. They essayed to cut their way through the besieging forces, but the latter were too many for them. It is no exaggeration to say that in the siege of Plevna the Turks astonished the world. No town in Spain ever covered itself with more glory than did Saragossa when invested by the French for the second time in 1809. After being defeated just outside the town, the citizens, under their leader, Palafox, prepared a desperate resistance within.

Street, by street, house by house, room by' room, was most fiercely contended for, being, like the outworks of a fortress, frequently lost and recovered. The French found this method of progression far too costly, so they abandoned it in favour of mining.

After they had become masters of a, very small portion of the city, they received the help of an irresistible ally in the shape of an epidemic of fever, which broke out among the besieged. By this Palafox himself was stricken down, and ultimately the whole town was forced to capitulate. No fewer than 54,000 of the be-

cieged had perished, amongst whom were nearly 14,000 soldiers. Heroic General Gordon held Khartoum for eleven months against the Mahdi and his hordes. The siege was also remarkable for the fact that Gordon was the only white man with-, in the beleaguered city. The investment began on February 18th, 1884, and is believed to have terminated in the tragedy of the great General’s death on January 26 th, 1885. — “Tit Bits.”

German people have, as a whole, weaker eyesight than Britons,