OPERATIONS IN NATAL.

Colonist, Volume XLIII, Issue 9692, 23 January 1900, Page 2

OPERATIONS IN NATAL.

Advances of General Buller's Forces. / Further Successes- > Durban, January 21. General Warren has obtained further successes in his advance on the enemy. To-day the enemy's fire was oooasionally severe. Hard Fighting. Besieged hear the Guns and are Jubilant. London, January 21, General Buller has cabled that Genera Clery, with part of General Warren's force, had 13 hours hard fighting yesterday. By a judicious use of artillery he fought his way up, capturing ridge after ridge for three miles, bivouacking on the captured ground. The British casualties were not heavy, but 100 wounded were brought in by an early hour of the evening. The number of killed is not ascertained. The Boer trenches are being shelled continually. General Lyttelton has occupied a kopje within 2000 yards of the Boers' position at Brakfontein. The besieged at Ladysmith are jubilant at hearing the guns of the relieving oolumn. The pontooning of the Tugela river for the passage of the relief column was accomplished by the Royal Engineers in two hours, which is a record. Attack on Boers North TugelaLondon, January 22. News has been received that General Sir Charles Warren on Saturday, with field artillery, attacked a strong force -occupying the northern ridge of Spionkop. The Boers replied with their machine guns and rifles, while the British infantry fired at long range and kept up their firing till dark. Meanwhile a demonstration was made on the Boers front, the sailors shelling the trenches and silencing the enemy's fire. In the evening the British infantry occupied an excellent advanced position, but on Sunday Sir C. Warren found himself again conconfronted by strong entrenchments. He bombarded and captured three more positions. The Lancashire Begiment and Irish Brigade are steadily advancing in face of the enemy's fire. General Bullev has cabled that Sir C. Warren was engaged the whole of Sunday, chiefly with his left flank, which be swung forward a couple of miles over difficult ground, the fighting being all uphill, but substantial progress was made. General Buller's Strategy. Durban, January 22. The turning of the main Boer position has been successfully begun. The enemy's extreme right, to the east of Acton Homes, has been occupied, as well as a ridge four miles north-west of Trickhart's drift. Sir Charles Warren with the principal column, and General Clery together operated on Saturday near where the Oliver-shoek-Ladysmith road which crosses the Ventespruit. During General Sir Charles Warren's turning movements the Boers on the western slopes of Spionkop engaged the British right and rear, but General Warren drove them to the higher crests, the defences of which are semicircular, consisting of stone sangars. The York and Lanoaster regiments, and the Lancashire Fusiliers advancing on the left, along the uneven spurs, entered the semicircle under a heavy fire from three

directions, but taking advantage of all available cover, they came within 500 yards of the enemy's right wing. I The massed batteries of the British ! periodically silenced the enemy's intermittent artillery fire, and during the night the enemy's right wing evacuated the position. CorrectionLater. During the night the Boers eyaotuated portions, not the whole, of their right wing positions. -ft _