HOW THE BRAVE ARABS BROKE A BRITISH SQUARE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 8, 13 June 1884, Page 27

HOW THE BRAVE ARABS BROKE A BRITISH SQUARE.

Ik describing the battle of Tamasi, the correspondent of the Standard says :—• " The British troops on their part advanced to meet the enemy. The companies of the 65th and Black Watch in front swept forward against the foe, but the remaining companies of those regiments, which formed the sides of the square, and which were also expecting attack, did not keep up with the rapid forward movement of the front face, and the consequence was that many gaps appeared in what should have been a solid wall of men. As the front line approached the foe tfle men began to chenr, and with fixed bayonets advanced at the double, thereby still further increasing the gap between them and their companions forming the sides, and at this moment immense hordes of Arabs were seen charging down on the right face of the square. The front line was halted, and the officers of the companies of the 65th which fronted" tho fresh foe, now pouring down, made every effort to close up the gaps, and steady the men to receive the charge. The time, however, was too short to accomplish this, and the rolling fire which was opened upon the enemy both in front and flank drowned the voices of the officers. With a fierce rush the Arabs burst down on our right face. The 65th wavered and began to fall back on the Marines and 42nd, opening great gaps in the square. Through the smoke the dark figures could be seen rushing on, unchecked, even for an instant, by the hail of bullets, and in another minute they were upon us, and the fight became hand to hand. The breaking up of the square by the recoil of the 65th threw the Marines and the Black Watch also into confusion, and the square no longer existed. The enemy pressed upon the front as well as on the right flank, dashing in upon what was now a confused mass of troops, spearing many and dying themselves on our bayonets or by our bullets. la spite of the efforts of the officers the whole body now began to retreat. The Naval Brigade, surrounded by our own men, had no time to use their guns, and as the mass fell back, had to leave these behind them." The London, Daily News correspondent, in describing this part of the battle, says, so fierce was the rush of the Arabs that some, if not all, of the non-combatants within the square became combatants for once. "As the Arabs pressed onwards the Highlanders and 65th continued pressing on the rear, aud for a few moments the scene suggested a strange resemblance to that of Baker's square at El Tet>, but there was a difference. The Highlanders and their comrades were retiring like lions at bay. The spectacle did not so much terrify as exercise a weird, terrible fascination. Though retreating, our men literally mowed down their assailants. In the smoke and dust of the battle, amid the bright gleam of their myriad spear-heads, the semi-nude, brown-skinned, black, shaggy-haired warriors were falling down in scores. Of all the savage races of the world none were more desperately brave than the Soudani Arabs who were breaking upon our ranks like a tempestuous sea." The correspondent of the Times states that the Arabs *' crawled on their hands and knees beneath the bayonets, and beneath the muzzles of the Gardners and G-atlings, and thus got into the square,, when they commenced stabbing and slashing our men, doing terrible execution among them. At close quarters with the cold steel our men were no match for these powerful savages, who dodge the bayonets or catch them on their shields, and deliver two or three spear thrusts before the mau armed with the bayonet can recover." Several hundreds of marines and Highlanders (says the Daily Tele' graph's correspondent) fought back to back, firing and retiring in excellent order. They were over 200 yards to the brigade front when it was halted and re-formed, and to their great coolness and steadiness is largely due the final success of the day. "In that single struggle we lost over seventy men killed. I counted the boiie3 of over thirty of the Goth and about an equal number of the 42nd within a radius of fifty yards, all shockingly mangled and hewn with sword cats and spear wounds. The Arabs lay dead in hundreds."