Tuesday, December 31

Turning the Tide of War

In every war there comes a critical period when the tide turns. This is triggered sometimes by the outcome of a particular battle; sometimes by the unknowing and often uncaring intervention of ignorant politicians; sometimes by the life and death decisions of generals. In our conflict with the Boer, this period came early, just two months from the outset, and was primarily characterised by the arrival of General Sir Redvers Buller as supreme commander. His early successes in the field were soon followed by three crushing defeats, with many hundreds of men lost, killed and captured. This led to Buller's ultimate subordination and demotion but it was his leadership, battle-skills and bravery in the face of these adversities - and the way in which he was able to lift the minds of his men - that put us back on the path to victory. This is December 1899 and in my diary notes for the month I have attempted to chronicle the events of these trigger days and the ways in which they brought about the turning of the tide ...

1st December - General Hildyard moves camp to Frere and oversees superb effort to rebuild bridges destroyed by the Boer so that General Clery can advance
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2nd December - General Clery arrives at Frere and assumes command south of the Tugela in preparation for the immediate relief of Ladysmith
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2nd December - General Hildyard joins forces with Lord Dundonald and chases the fleeing Boer to within two miles of Colenso before withdrawing
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2nd December - General Buller arrives in Natal to personally lead major operations in the area and establishes his HQ at Pietermaritzburg
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3rd December - The railway line is now fully restored to Frere and trains are arriving rapidly at the front with troops, ammunition and stores
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4th December - No General or correspondent can understand why the Boer retreats so readily in the face of our forces as they are still building
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4th December - Scouts from Ladysmith report that despite constant shelling through November, losses have thankfully been relatively small
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4th December - Reinforcements arriving daily by train at Frere are mobilised to forward positions to prepare for the advance in force to Ladysmith
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5th December - Today, I ride out with Major Elliot (RE) to sketch the Boer positions beyond the Tugela - he risks his life daily gathering this reconnaissance
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6th December - Sir Redvers Buller arrives at Frere in the early hours - hundreds of eager troops turn out in the dark to welcome their Commander in Chief
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6th December - General Buller's first duty is to officiate at the funeral of the 47 heroes who died in the armoured train disaster - 2000 officers and comrades are in attendance
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6th December - Just hours after his arrival, General Buller joins Lord Dundonald’s cavalry to reconnoitre the Boer positions on the Tugela - our attack is being formulated
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7th December - After many failed attempts Captain Cayzer of the Dragoons has established heliograph communication with General White at Ladysmith
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7th December - Signals from Ladysmith confirm that casualties are light but lack of food and water poisoned by the Boer are the real killers
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7th December - A strange air of mirth and jollity pervades our preparations for battle at the news that today is General Buller's 60th birthday
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8th December - High morale today at the news that a sortie from Ladysmith last night under General Hunter spiked the Long Tom at Lombards Kop
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9th December - A second Long Tom atop Surprise Hill destroyed by a 250 strong sortie under Lieutenant Jones but at a cost of 60 killed and 28 captured
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9th December - General French outflanks the Boer with his horse artillery to attack and hold the vital railway at Naarport Junction
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10th December - The Boer is under heavy attack on all fronts: General Gatacre is closing on Stormberg and Lord Methuen is moving against Magersfontein
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10th December - My brief is still to be with General Gatacre so I am leaving today with a supply column to join him outside Stormberg
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11th December - General Gatacre is crushed by the Boer at Stormberg with 135 battle casualties and more than 600 captured in the field after retreat
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11th December - Lord Methuen attacks the Boer at Magersfontein but after a day long battle is forced to withdraw, losing 800 killed and wounded
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11th December - Relief for Kimberley and Mafeking is now delayed because of the repulses today of Lord Methuen and General Gatacre - a critical time
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12th December - General Clery has readied 22000 men and 44 guns for General Buller's attack on Botha's forces at Colenso, opening the road to Ladysmith
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12th December - On hearing of the losses at Stormberg and Magersfontein, General Buller changes his plan and decides to attack Colenso directly
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12th December - General Barton's Fusiliers set a battery of 6 naval guns to dominate the Boer entrenchments menacing the bridges over the Tugela
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12th December - Despite the defeats of Gatacre and Methuen, the Ladysmith relief force of 22000 men under General Clery is now fully prepared
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13th December - Failing to reach General Gatacre, I have been re-assigned to General Hildyard's brigade for the forthcoming attack and the onward press with the relief force
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13th December - General Barton opens the assault on Colenso with a massive bombardment but there is no reply from the Boer - have they withdrawn?
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13th December - After the devastating losses at Stormberg, General Gatacre has withdrawn to Molteno. I can not reach him so I stay with General Buller
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14th December - General Barton's guns are re-sited at Chievely and again pound the entrenched enemy positions but, again, the Boer remains silent
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14th December - There is much celebration in General Hildyard's camp tonight at the news that Churchill has escaped from the prison camp at Pretoria
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14th December - General Buller orders a full advance to a position beyond Chievely in preparation for an attack in force on Colenso tomorrow
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15th December - Camp at Chieveley was struck at 8 am and General Buller's entire force of 22000 men moved forward towards the Tugela and Colenso
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15th December - We passed over empty trenches and thought the Boer had fled, but then burst a thunder as if all the fiends of hell were loosed
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15th December - As the clock ticked to 9.15 am, from every ridge and trench in front of us, a terrible small arms fire burst in our faces
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15th December - The small arms assault on our front line was now joined by batteries of Maxims from across the river and the surrounding hills
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15th December - Within four hours of launching our attack, we were pinned down by the Boer on all sides and trapped in a cauldron of slaughter
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15th December - As his men and officers fall around him, General Buller orders a retreat - but hundreds are still trapped and can not escape
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16th December - An early morning armistice reveals 145 of General Buller's men killed and 1200 missing or wounded, with only 40 Boer casualties
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17th December - We carry our 300 wounded back to Chieveley but leave more than 800 of our comrades in the hands of Botha and his Boers
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17th December - How quickly disaffection spreads - the men who loved their leader yesterday now speak of him, not as Redvers but as Reverse
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18th December - After our recent defeats, the drive for victory has faltered and this war is reduced to a hotch-potch of minor skirmishes
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18th December - It is now beyond all doubt. General Buller's reputation is in tatters, he has lost the respect of his men and he must be replaced
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19th December - Our scouts report that General Joubert, now recovered, has returned to the front ... will he attack us as we regroup at Frere?
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20th December - Morale is once again lifted at the news that Lord Roberts is just days from Durban to take overall command from General Buller
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21st December - The news of Lord Roberts' imminent arrival has whetted the men's appetite for fighting and stiffened their resolve for victory
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22nd December - It seems from our field scout reports that the Boer is expecting us to desist and retreat after the defeat at Colenso - fools!
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23rd December - Confirmation received that Lord Roberts has left Southampton today on board the Dunottar Castle and is expected by mid January
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24th December - We remain locked at Chieveley with the Boer still barring any progress to Colenso or onwards - stagnation of men and minds
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24th December - The Boer has us trapped - so why are they now setting their limber and removing their guns, leaving the road to Colenso open?
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25th December - A truce on the Tugela fields today, but a fearful bombardment from the Boer robbed Ladysmith of any goodwill or peace on earth
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25th December - Our stores from home are delayed but a handful of Hussars march in with a dozen oxen stolen from the Boer .. dinner is served
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26th December - The distant thunder of an artillery storm over Ladysmith tells us now why the Boer removed their heavy guns from Colenso
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26th December - We are joined at Chieveley by seven units of Australians - ill-trained as regular soldiers, but highly effective against the Boer
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27th December - We hear today of a society event for the ladies of Cape Town - a day trip by train to see and touch the Long Toms at Ladysmith
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27th December - Bennett Burleigh arrives with four cartloads of cake, cigarettes and beer - men die while our war becomes stranger by the day
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28th December - Churchill returns and is greeted as a hero - he tells us of the excitement in Durban about Lord Robert's imminent arrival
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29th December - General Buller orders reconnaissance sorties to assess the strength of the Boer at Colenso, Fort Wylie and along the Tugela
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29th December - The incessant thunder of the shelling at Ladysmith increases by the hour - we must move soon or slaughter will surely follow
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30th December - The Tugela is in flood after massive overnight storms - hundreds of Boer on the Chieveley side are stranded and captured
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30th December - General Hildyard requests an attack on the Boer stronghold at Hlangwane after floods sweep away the bridge that they have built
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30th December - General Buller accepts General Hildyard's plan but orders that the attack must be meticulously planned in order to ensure success
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31st December - The Boer celebrates the century's end with a murderous shelling of the garrison and hospital at Ladysmith ... Happy New Year!

Generals and Commanders - December and January 1900

Lord Roberts
Lord Kitchener

General Buller
General White

General Gatacre
Lord Methuen

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Monday, December 30

Downfall of a Commander

Military Incompetence? Public Reaction? or Political Panic?

General Sir Redvers Henry Buller, known to all as “Reevers”, arrived at Frere during the early hours of December 6th 1899, the eager troops turning out in the darkness to give their leader a welcome that must have touched his soldier heart. A veteran of numerous campaigns, General Buller has earned no feather-bed honours; his V. C., G. C. B., and K. C. M. G. have been won with the sword in a literal sense and in the ranks he is respected as a stern disciplinarian. He combines the essential qualities for a commanding general; the strict discipline of the soldier, toned with tactful geniality as an administrator.
      His first duty as commander-in-chief was to officiate at the service held over the graves of the first heroes to fall in the relief of Ladysmith, the victims of the armoured train disaster. Over two thousand troops attended, with General Hildyard, Colonel Cooper, Prince Christian Victor, and many other officers. Doctrinal differences are forgotten in war, and since Dublins and Colonials lay together, Father Mathews, the plucky chaplain of the Fusiliers, and Rev. Mr. Twemlow, of the Colonials, combined for a simple and touching service, a possible tribute to the reunion of Christendom. As the farewell volleys echoed over the kopjes, the bugles softly sounding the last post, distant guns boomed out at Ladysmith as if conscious of the ceremony, and a fierce salvo of heaven's artillery reverberated through the mountains, typifying the insignificance of man in all his martial power.
      A few hours later, General Buller accompanied Lord Dundonald's cavalry brigade in a reconnaissance along the Tugela. The force halted on a ridge within range of Colenso, and the staff carefully studied the Boer position, apparently unnoticed by the enemy. The fords of the river were carefully noted, and the party returned safely, to formulate the plan of attack on Colenso and, subsequently, the relief of Ladysmith.
      During the next few days, buoyed by news that the Boer is under heavy attack on all fronts - General Gatacre is closing on Stormberg; and Lord Methuen is moving against Magersfontein - morale in camp reaches a new high. On the 10th news was heliographed from Ladysmith of two successful sorties made by the garrison to destroy the enemy's artillery. The first assault took place on the night of the 7th when, to preclude espionage, orders were only issued after "Lights out!" had sounded and the garrison retired. Two squadrons each of the Light-horse, Natal Carbineers, and Mounted Rifles, and sections of the diminished gunners of the 10th Mountain Battery and Royal Engineers were selected. Under General Hunter, with Major Henderson and twelve guides of the Intelligence Department, this force moved out at 11pm. against the Boer lines at Lombard's Kop, seven miles distant, which were breached without incident. Three explosions then announced to anxious Ladysmith that the enterprise was successful. The breech-fitting of the massive 40 pounder was torn out, the bore scored, the muzzle split, and the gun rendered useless. The Sappers completed the wreck with sledge hammers, smashing the sights, recoil buffer, and elevating gear, removing the breech-block as a trophy.
      General White arranged a second sortie two nights later to destroy a 4.7 inch howitzer on Surprise Hill, only three miles from camp. Colonel Metcalf with five hundred men of the Rifle Brigade followed General Hunter's tactics from the previous sortie, and two companies of stormers reached the hilltop unobserved. The Boers, however, were bivouacked in force close behind the gunpit, and though they were surprised and retreated hurriedly, they sustained a heavy fire from a further position. Lieutenant Jones coolly placed charges round the howitzer under a spatter of bullets, and lit the fuse. It failed to explode, and other commandoes closed in, but the Rifles held their ground steadily while another charge was prepared and ignited, this time successfully demolishing the piece. These successes by the Ladysmith garrison, however, were soon overshadowed by a series of critical defeats, which forced General Buller’s hand.
      General Gatacre, known in the army as "Backacher" from the feats of endurance that he has accomplished with his forces, marched his column against the Boer position at Stormberg, intending to surprise the laagers in the darkness and re-conquer the annexed district of Cape Colony. General Gatacre had only two thousand available men in his command, but, with an experienced guide, the column moved out from Putter's Kraal at 4 am. on December 9th, swooping down on Molteno, which was hovering between British and rebel control. Rapidly mobilising in the town, the force pressed forward after sunset along the left road to Steynsburg, intending to turn off at right angles to take the Boer position in flank.
      The risks of night operations in South Africa are stupendous, not the least of which are caused by the falsity of compass bearings among the ferruginous rocks and, unfortunately, the guide missed the turning and led the troops sixteen miles instead of nine. More faulty bearings finally placed the force on a further turning from the main road, which ran directly parallel to the reverse of the Boer position. Day was just breaking, the General was urging on his worn-out men, expecting every minute to find the target position looming up on his direct front, when a sudden and furious fire burst at close range along the entire length of his column. After a moment of confusion the leading companies took a sharp right turn, and dashed up the enfilading ridge. But perpendicular rock surmounted by loop-holed stone walls checked their onslaught, and the line was hurled back to the road as the British bugles sounded "Retire !"
      Shot at every foot of the way and worn-out by twenty four hours of continuous exertion, the column slowly extricated itself, fighting as it retired to Molteno, harassed by bullet and shell into the very outskirts of the city. When roll was called six hundred men out of the small column failed to answer their names, either killed, wounded or prisoners. It is little credit to the Boers that General Gatacre was not overwhelmed. Far superior in number, they had the column in a trap which simple tactics could have closed. But the Boer’s dislike of open fighting, even when great things might be accomplished thereby, enabled the British to execute their masterful retirement with three-fourths of their force intact.


General Gatacre’s forces trapped and under fire at Stormberg

On the western border Lord Methuen, after fighting severe but successful actions at Belmont, Graspan, and Modder River, hurling the Boers back at each step, moved against their main position at Magersfontein on December 11th. The Boers had been located along a line of steep kopjes, strongly entrenched. But the advance, which had appeared clear on the previous day to the scouts was found to be intersected by a long, cunningly concealed trench running along the base of the kopjes, and strongly defended by an impenetrable tangle of barbed wire.
      For two days a terrific bombardment had been sustained against the Boer position, and the column advanced confidently at midnight, expecting to surprise and overcome a demoralized enemy entrenched as of yore along the ridges. The Highland brigade was in the van, the men marching in quarter-column to sustain touch and direction in the darkness, the order being to extend along the base of the positions at dawn, after crossing the open without loss, and then press the attack.
      By 3.45 am. General Wauchope had led his men almost to the base of the kopjes, the Boer outpost guards, sleeping quietly, were captured, sleeping quietly and the men had even loaded without discovery. Then a rifle was discharged accidentally, there was a hoarse challenge from the long trench, awaking the Boers, who sprang to their arms and opened wild volleys into the darkness.
      Individual soldiers fired back, their flashes revealing the brigade, caught in massed formation but one hundred and sixty yards from the rifles. Men fell in heaps, but Wauchope rallied and hastily extended his regiments, and then ordered a charge. In the face of terrific volleys, the Highlanders swept into the wire defences, and though officers and men strove to break down the obstruction, mesh succeeded mesh, and the attacking line melted away before the point-blank fire, the supports falling back. Wauchope fell riddled with bullets at the head of his men.
      The supports rallied, reinforcements moved up, and, checked but undismayed, the British formed on the open veldt and lay pouring ineffectual volleys at the sheltered enemy from sunrise to sundown, exposed to a pitiless fire in return. At midday the Boer fire slackened, and again the Highlanders sprang up and dashed forward with the bayonet. Again the barbed wire checked them, the leading lines were swept away, and the remnant were driven back in dire confusion, their rout being covered magnificently by the guards. For the third time the survivors were rallied, the Gordons in the van, and pressed forward with short rushes. Backed by the Scots Guards the shattered brigade again drew close, ordered to hold on until sunset and then charge.
      General Cronje sent in a contingent to attempt a flanking movement on the open veldt and brought several guns into action at the close of the day, sweeping the utterly exhausted companies with a murderous fire. Flesh and blood could endure no longer. Without food or water, under a terrible fire, their arms, legs, and backs covered with vesicles from the blazing sun, the troops were unable to make further effort, but lay where they had fought, far into the night, and then crawled back out of range. Reluctantly Lord Methuen was forced to withdraw his command to the Modder River.


Lord Methuen’s troops fall back to the Modder River

In spite of these defeats, however, the mobilisation of the Ladysmith relieving column was completed by General Clery on December 11th, when General Buller reviewed the command, numbering 22,000 fighting men. Barton's composite brigade made the first advance on December 12th, escorting six naval guns to a kopje east of the railroad, dominating at 7,000 yards the entrenched ridges that menaced the wagon bridge crossing the Tugela. A heavy bombardment of the Boer position was sustained from 7 am. to 1 pm. on the following day, the Lyddite shells blowing great gaps in the opposite entrenchments. The enemy made no reply, and current rumour had it that they had become demoralised by the fire and had withdrawn.
      On December 14th a general advance was ordered; camp was struck and moved forward to a position beyond Chieveley, preparatory for an attack in force on the morrow. The naval guns advanced nearer the river and again pounded the enemy's position; but again the masked Boer guns were silent, and mounted patrols who ventured close to the river were not fired upon. When general orders were read that evening for the attack at daybreak, no one expected a severe fight, and most decided that the effective fire of the naval guns had taught the farmer foe a salutary lesson. The general supposition was that the enemy had removed his cannon out of range, and would make little opposition
      The railroad crosses the river by a massive bridge at Colenso, where the road runs north; and a wagon bridge and drift also cross at this point. The Boers had taken up a strong position on the north side of the crossing, where the advance of relief for Ladysmith, following the railroad from the coast, must cross the river. Meyer's defeat at Talana had led to the selection of Louis Botha, as direct commander under General Joubert to oppose the British advance.
      The Boers destroyed the massive railroad bridge at Colenso, but left the road bridge intact, occasionally sending patrols over as if they had retained it for their own use, and afterwards occupying the houses on the right bank to lure on the force. On their side of the river, Fort Wylie, evacuated by the British early in November, dominated the bridges. It was greatly strengthened by earthworks. The drifts or fords over the Tugela, marked on the field map, were cunningly altered by throwing dams across at night, rocks abounding for this purpose. Rows and rows of trenches were erected before these drifts, the defences being masked by brush and the natural rocks of the kopjes.


The railway bridge at Colenso tactically destroyed by the Boers
(viewed from Fort Wylie)

From the left or Boer bank of the river successive kopjes rise in tiers, extending along the entire front and ranging backward toward the north in irregular groups to lofty eminences, Grobler's Kloof and Red Hill, which formed the centre of the Boer position, commanding the entire sloping plain on the line of advance. On these heights they mounted their big guns.
      General orders were issued that night and at 3 am. on Friday, December 15th, the British camp was struck and the entire force moved forward. Outposts and scouts advanced toward the river, but not a shot was fired. A few burghers galloped madly across the bridge and away as General Hildyard's brigade moved forward in open order beside the railroad. Skirmishers fired at the houses on the south side of the water, which had been occupied by the enemy on the previous day, but not a rifle replied, and there was not a sign of life on either side of the Tugela, save on the far kopjes at the north centre of the position, where a group of mounted burghers were apparently riding away for dear life.
      "Afraid of our naval guns! They have moved their own heavy pieces out of action!" was the general comment. The troops stepped forward with an eagerness of action after long restraint, and the proud smile of victory assured. No one supposed that the farmer foe would be mad enough to place their advance across the river which would cut off their retreat, to face advancing columns that must hurl them back into the water. Perhaps such tactics were the result of Boer over-confidence, but such over-confidence, if it invites disaster, sometimes achieves victory.


A 4.7 inch naval gun in action at Colenso

Down toward the Tugela moved the brigades, looking only at the positions across the water. On the right centre bombardiers rode right to the river bank crossing empty Boer trenches that led from a clump of woods. With Captain White-Thomson they found the range in the open without molestation, and reported the ground clear of the enemy. Colonel Long, leaving the slower oxen to bring forward the naval 12 pounders, then led the two field batteries of his division at a smart trot far ahead of the infantry to within 800 yards of the river to sweep the kopjes on the far side. Sectional commanders gave the objective, Fort Wylie, the range 1,200 yards, and the guns swept down in line at 6.20 am. with neither sight nor sound of the enemy.
      Suddenly .. "Bang!" .. from a signal gun beyond the river. Then burst a sound like an anchor chain rattling through the hawse hole, a crash of thunder and a ripping, tearing, whistling and detonation as if all the fiends in hell were loosed.
      Maxims and automatic 1-pounders had opened from the kopjes by the river, every gun on the hills behind had spoken. And from every ridge and the fort beyond the Tugela, and worse yet, from the trenches on the south bank of the river, which had been quickly reoccupied by the Ermelo commando under cover of the thicket, a terrific rifle fire burst in the face of the British. The two batteries bore the brunt in the centre. Without direct support, they were assailed with a hail of bullets poured in at point-blank range, the terrible phut-phut gun across the river searched them out with its cruel little shells, and ere the guns were unlimbered half the teams were down, gunners and drivers were writhing on the ground, and it was impossible to retire from the trap. The discipline of the artillery responded to the test. The wagons were somewhat sheltered in a donga, but the detachment numbers, rushing forward, cut loose the tangled teams, dragged the limbers behind the guns, changed teams to replace casualties, and served ammunition as if on a field day, the gunners working the guns steadily until Fort Wylie and the surrounding kopjes erupted with bursting shrapnel.
      The Creusots on Grobler's had the exact range, however, and their 40-pound missives of steel and balls ploughed their way through the devoted batteries. One shell wiped a sub-division practically out of existence, but the survivors, finding their gun useless, ran to augment the detachments on either side of them.
      Colonel Long fell dangerously wounded fifteen minutes after the fight opened, and was carried to a donga in rear, shot through the stomach, arm, and back. Delirious from the sun and loss of blood, he continually muttered, “My brave gunners! my brave gunners!” The two battery captains, Goldie and Schrieber, were shot dead. Colonel Hunt fell next. Then Lieutenants Gethin and Elton were wounded, but they clung to their guns until a second bullet brought down Elton, and Gethin fainted from loss of blood. Lieutenant Gryles was shot trying to aid Schrieber; the sub-division sergeants had suffered as severely, but the surviving subalterns, Holford, with his face gashed by a splinter, and Birch, distributed the depleted detachment through the batteries and slaved at the guns with their men to the last. Splendid fellows were these stalwart British gunners who grimly stood by their guns in the face of certain death. Hellas could not have produced greater heroes; Leonidas would have been proud of such.
      "You must abandon the battery," shouted a sergeant as he sank wounded and the fire increased. "No use being torn up like field dummies," screamed a Dublin officer, as he scrambled down the bank and felt his way into the drift. He fell, but a few men were following. Then a little bugler of the Dublins named Dunn, who had been ordered to the rear but had trudged on with his company, ran in the lead, sounding the advance. Several companies immediately fixed bayonets and dashed down to the water. They were met with a heavy fire, but the shrill notes of the boy rang above the volleys, until a shrapnel burst over him, mangling the brave young body which was swept down stream.
      General Buller, together with General Clery, who was in operational command, had followed the advance closely. They had ridden along the line to try to avert disaster, fearlessly exposing themselves. Both were slightly wounded, Buller by a shrapnel ball, Clery grazed by a bullet, and several officers of their staff were killed around them. The enemy pressed their advantage, closing in force on the right of the British line. Along the whole British line, the checked regiments held their ground. The midsummer sun blazed down furiously on the unprotected men, but continued exposure was futile, and after eight hours' heavy fighting a general retirement was ordered.
      At 1.30 pm. the worn troops were at last out of rifle range, and plodded their way into camp, pursued by heavy but fortunately inferior shelling from the hills. The Boers then crossed the bridge, reoccupying their position along the south bank, which had taught a costly lesson that day. The withdrawal completed, the burghers swarmed over the bridge or swam the river at all points, and commenced to strip the wounded and dead. The veldt was strewn with helpless forms, and near Bridle Drift the dead lay in heaps. Their need of clothes and outfits may excuse the Boers, but brutes alone would strip wounded men and leave them naked under a blistering sun. Ghouls also hacked fingers off to secure rings, and some mocked and maltreated the stricken men. The Roman Catholic chaplain of the Irish, who remained on the field, reported that one Boer deliberately smashed in the face of a wounded private of the Rangers with his heel, shouting that he would "end all damn rooineks".
      The looting was stayed only by the approach of the ambulances, which were greeted by two field guns and several volleys fired at close range. The bearer companies were recruited from the Uitlanders, and several Americans were enrolled therein. They advanced steadily with a large Red Cross flag at their head, until the emblem itself was torn by bullets. In vain the surgeons, galloped to the Boer lines waving their handkerchiefs and pointing to the flag. Eighteen of the ambulance men were killed or wounded ere a Boer officer, more humane than his fellows, rode down the line and checked the firing.
      By sunset over 800 wounded had been collected on the field, passed through the Field Hospital, and been sent by train to the permanent hospitals at Estcourt, Pietermaritzburg, and Durban. During the evening an informal truce was arranged to bury the dead. The naval guns in rear had been trained to cover the abandoned batteries, and volunteers were ready to extricate them at night. Operations were suspended by the truce, under cover of which General Buller could have brought in his guns. He forbade the attempt, however, as a violation of the armistice; but the Boers, having no such scruples, and covered by the truce, hooked up teams and took the pieces over the river.
      In these disastrous days from December 6th to 17th then, we have suffered three crushing defeats with 2,776 men killed, wounded and captured. General Buller has suffered the commander’s ultimate failure; he has lost the respect of his men. And how quickly disaffection spreads; in a clever but cruel twist of word, the men who loved their leader yesterday speak of him, today, not as “Reevers” but as “Reverse”. It is now beyond doubt that he must be replaced and, just three days later, Tommy’s fragile morale is once again restored at the news that Lord Roberts is to leave Southampton imminently to take post as our new Commander-in-Chief.

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Tuesday, December 24

The Developing Politics of Dying

The dust and heat of South Africa do not inspire literary style, and chapters written on horseback, after hours in the saddle, lack the polish bestowed by writers reclining in comfort and clean linen. I had planned to write a personal story, after the prevailing fashion, but finding that peerless artists were preparing word pictures of the campaign, I concluded that a plain account of the war and some of its less publicised nuances, based on personal experience and investigation, would supply the wants of an interested readership within my limitations. Hence, these observations from the field ...

      As the army of deliverance advanced to the front a line of pain moved from up-country hospitals to make room for fresh casualties. It was pitiful to witness the difference between the stalwart men "going up", eager for the fray, and the shattered wrecks who had borne the brunt of early battles. But the examples of war raised desire for reprisal rather than fear in the hearts of the new-comers, many of whom were destined ere long to be stark on the veldt.
      If war has increased in its horrors so have the means of mitigating its sufferings correspondingly progressed. A peep into the base-hospital at Wynberg, a high suburb of Cape Town, showed what might be accomplished in a short time. Some of the buildings sprang up or were improvised in a night, equipment was supplied with a generous hand, and Colonel Anthonisz, RAMC, had the finest military hospital that war history records. Then there were hospitals at Durban, Maritzburg, and Eastcourt, besides the efficient field hospitals with the columns, various hospital ships and several convalescent homes.
      I do not wish to make invidious comparisons between American and British wars under modern conditions. But in care and commissariat the British soldier is a pampered epicure compared with the American, and when one sees the egregious blunders of the British leaders and the faults of their system, the thought will arise, "what would Shafter's army have done under such conditions?" Spain's disabilities saved disaster in Cuba; but if another war should come, which God forbid, this nation should not again be found unprepared.
      Think of the mere handful of surgeons that landed in Cuba, and the frightful absence of equipment or common appliances; and then consider that with Buller's army in its original form were: 282 medical officers, 68 contract surgeons, 56 nursing sisters, 28 RAMC quartermasters and 2,650 hospital orderlies. This staff has been proportionately increased with the rapid growth of the South African field force.
      Surgical science, indeed, is triumphing. With Rontgen rays in the field hospital, painful probing is obviated; shell splinters and certain bullets are extracted by magnetic contact; anaesthetics are administered for all painful operations, and antiseptic treatment reduces the risk of gangrenous complications to a minimum. Ice can now be supplied at the front, even in Natal’s inferno. Hospital trains fitted on the American sleeping-car principle, carry the patients gently down to the base, and hospital ships with electric punkah wallahs and many a delicacy, now take the invalid home.
      At the opposite end of the life-death spectrum that is modern day war, as the fortunate recipient of three Mauser bullets I can testify to the merciful qualities of the modern rifle. The penetration and clean qualities of the nickel-plated bullets are well enough known, perhaps, to need no recapitulation. When Edward Marshall, a valiant war correspondent with whom I was billeted at San Juan Hill, was shot in the spine, such wounds were precedentedly fatal, but he survived. A number of soldiers here have surprised the British surgeons with similar recoveries and even men shot through the brain have recovered.
      Unfortunately, though, the Boers soon discovered that the disablement caused by the wounds that they inflicted was but temporary, and they speedily remedied this defect. Prisoner after prisoner has been found with his ammunition doctored by an incised cross on the nose of the bullet, which makes it spread far more terribly than the Dum-Dum. Some, also, have been found with their bullets plastered with verdigris. Individual British soldiers have retaliated by filing the tips of their bullets, after the Dum-Dum pattern, until detected and the men severely punished.
      But pause in your denunciations, good people. Your horror of Boer barbarism may be mitigated by the knowledge that the evil of poisoned bullets is greatly reduced by the heat generated in discharge and the rapid flight through the air. The incised bullet contravenes civilised warfare, but the Boer individually knows not of the Geneva conventions. As to the British Dum-Dum, while I can state that, to my knowledge, it has not been issued in South Africa, it is certainly less inhumane than the leaden bullets of the Springfield used in Cuba, or those of any other rifle used in war before the recent adoption of coated pellets.


Cross sectional views of the Dum-Dum Bullet

The factory at Dum-Dum, Calcutta, turns out several kinds of ammunition for Indian use, and the cases marked Dum-Dum found by the Boers at Dundee contained regulation cartridges made there, not Dum-Dum bullets. That offensive Boer sympathiser, Mr. Webster Davis, is triumphantly exhibiting split bullets of English make, and claiming that they are 'therefore used by Buller's forces.' In point of fact, though, these bullets are nosed sporting bullets made by Eley of London, many tons of which have been shipped to the Boers for hunting. I have seen several cases of them captured after various battles and I can say with certainty that they cannot be used in the Lee Metford rifle. Moreover, the fact of their imprint by a private London firm negates rather than proves the charge that they are used by the British soldier.
      At this point, in addition, it is perhaps worth a brief analysis of the British Government’s official position following the Hague Peace Conference at which the matter of ammunition was discussed at great length. On July 29th 1899 the wording adopted by the full conference, drawn up largely by Russia, Romania and France despite the objections of Great Britain and the United States, stated that:
'The Contracting Parties agree to abstain from the use of bullets which expand or flatten easily in the human body, such as bullets with a hard envelope which does not entirely cover the core, or is pierced with incisions. The present Declaration is only binding for the Contracting Powers in the case of a war between two or more of them. It shall cease to be binding from the time when, in a war between the Contracting Parties, one of the belligerents is joined by a non-Contracting Power'.
      In October 1898 George Wyndham, under-Secretary of State for War was asked in the House of Commons @whether he will consent to lay upon the Table of the House accounts of the surgical experiments as to the effects of the Mark IV missile, on the basis of which experiments the bullet is now being served out to British soldiers sent on service to South Africa; and if he can state whether the reported condemnation of the Dum-Dum bullet by the Peace Conference at the Hague has been officially brought under the notice of the War Office authorities'.
      Wyndham replied that: 'The Mark IV has been the service bullet for the British Army since February 1898 and, as such, has been issued to our troops in South Africa'. When asked: 'Is it not a fact that this bullet has been constructed with a view to expand on striking like the Dum-Dum bullets?' Wyndham replied with what has since come to be regarded as a classic of its kind: 'The bullet has been constructed to achieve a number of objects, one of which is that its calibre should be greater later on than when it leaves the muzzle of the rifle'.
      With all the uproar over 'Dum-Dum bullets' still hanging in the air, caused not least by Great Britain’s refusal to accept the Declaration, the British government realised that the Boers would be handed a propaganda gift if it left the Mark V in use. After much discussion and soul searching it bowed to the inevitable and reluctantly withdrew it.
     Wyndham was then asked whether: 'either explosive or expanding bullets have been sent to South Africa for the use of the troops there or for any other purpose?' He replied: 'The bullet in use in South Africa for the rifle is the Mark II solid bullet. Mark V bullets were recalled, and have never been used by the troops. Neither have any Dum-Dum bullets been used by the troops'. This last statement was perhaps a little naive because the Mark II was susceptible to improvised modification and each side was by now regularly accusing the other of using Dum-Dum bullets at one time or another during the war
     Despite these advances in the politics and the practice of weaponry and surgery, and notwithstanding the relatively healthy reputation of South Africa, it still - and will always - remain the case that troops cannot sleep and march and fight for days, without shelter and often without food, in alternate pouring rain, blistering sun, and chilling wind. The strongest constitution will be broken under the strain. Enteric fever, dysentery and typhoid ensue, and, despite all precautions, the life and death decisions of our generals will ensure that these killers outnumber bullets in their deadly claim for victim numbers.

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