LETTERS FROM THE FRONT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6717, 13 February 1900, Page 4

LETTERS FROM THE FRONT.

FROM AN OFFICER AT CHIEVELEY. The following extracts from a letter written by a British officer from the Chieveley Camp, Natal, on New Year's Day, to relations in Christchufeh, are interesting: — "We have had two turns under fire since I last wrote. The first was at Brynbeliah, when we made a night attack on the Boers. We had to lie oiife all night on a hillside, through drenching storms* till about 1 p.m., when we started to attack ther Boer position, }vhich was on the top of another big hill. We got on to the top of this without being discovered by any of their outposts, but, just as we came over the top, one of their sentries challenged, but it was too late. Poor fellow, they were the last words he ever said in this world. Hd dropped with a bayonet through him before he had properly finished. Then the Boers opened fire on us, but we went straight on, without a sound, till we were about two hundred yards off. We dropped down, to let the other companies come up to us. All the time, the Boers kept on firing, but as it was dark, and we were lying down, they could not see ■us, and all the shots went over our heads, 1 ping, ping,' all the time. When the others reached us, we all got up and rushed the trenches, and as we closed tip we heard the enemy clearing down the hill to another position further back. About 5.30 a.m., as soon as it was light, they commenced firing on us, but only in a casual way, with Mauser bullets and a few 12-pounder shells, which hurst very badly. By this time, as we hau been hard at it since about 2 p.m. the previous day, and had had no food except a little hard biscuit since about 12.30 p.m. the previous day, everyone was about done, and a lot of the men went to sleep with the bullets and shells whistlirig over us. I dozed off, but, of course, one had to sleep with one eye Open. About 7.30 the enemy got up a couple of quick-firing guns, and matters got lively. We had no artillery, and had to do our best with rifle fire, but they were stronger in numbers than we were, and, besides, had big guns, arid matters got too warm altogether. Down in the firing line one Was covered with the dust kicked up by the shells, and the air simply screamed with Maqser bullets and the l-attlc. of our volleys in regjy. j My subaltern had bis helmet cut by splinters •f a shell, and the man next me had his face cut by stones thrown up by another shell, and I was blinded by the dust of it. About 9.30 we were told to retire, and then this hell upon earth got, if anything, worse. •We 'had to cross a Tittle bare patch about thirty to fifty yards across on the hill top," and every gun nnd rifle Avas laid on this. 4 o this day I do not know how anyone crossed that spot unhurt, but we did, somehow. My company lost six killed and seventeen wounded crossing this patch, and in the retirement I was knocked over by the explosion of a shell, but, miraculously, was not hurt. We got back to shelter by twos and threes. We returned to camp abcut i p.m., having been practically twenty-four hours on the go without any food except biscuits. Everyone was thor.otighly used up. I found out for certain hotf Ba an y were tilled and Wounded. 1 did j

not think much at all when I was /tinder fire. I was much too cold and Mingiy, and, beyond a passing thought or two that I would end my days on that hill, I can't say I thought much about it. But, after the whole thingwas over, the thwitfhls be- ; ga<n to come. The other occasion in which ,1 was engaged was tub Colenso, but there we were jn the third line, so Ave saw nothing, and only came under distant shell fire for about half an hour ; but >we saw i one thing I shall never forget, and that . was the destruction of two of our batteries. Of twelve guns, they only brought J two out of action, and it was \jb, terrible sight 16 See these two coming 1 along, one with only four horses, and one i with two, and the drivers with their whips up, driving for their lives, harder than they ; sever did on a review at Aldershot, and be- \ hind them an ammunition waggon, with j only two hoi-ses instead of six, and never j a man to guide them, following these two guns, while all round the dusty African j veldt fairly boiled with the Mauser bullets and small shells, and behind on the ridge the ten guns left behind stood silent and desetted. save for the d«ad and wounded j men and horses. Over oil, a hot African j smn blazed down in all his midday heat. The Whok iwas « picture which no man who ea-w it can ever forget. We have 'been very quret since the battle of Cclcnso. The big naval guns shell tho Boers' poßition every day, and sometimes they reply, but they can't get the range. Every fourth diy we are on outpost dutjr— twenty-four hours at a stretch, In fine weather it is all right, and sleeping out is no great hardship, hut when it fains hard for twenty-four hours, and all th£ ground is mud, a>fid the spruits^ as 'they call the water-courses here, are foaming torrents, it is a very different game. The N6w Zraland Contingent out here seems ' to have done very well on the western side under Methuen. * We have no Australian troops over here— oluy Imperial and Natal or Cape volunteers."