THE FIGHT AT ZAND RIVER.
Description of the Action--The Final Charge--Necessity of
continuing to Advance--Prisoners--Their Impressions--Fire Tactics.
On the 10th of May we made an early start from Bloomplaats, leaving the
camp at 4.30 a.m. This means being up at three o'clock, and it was pitch
dark at that hour; but the General's object was to reach the drift, a
few miles away, before daybreak. This we did just before early dawn, and
found a company of the Derbyshire Regiment holding it on the far side.
There was water, about a couple of feet, in the drift proper, but
boldly--and like fools--we waded across and clambered up the other side,
and extended among the mimosa bushes. Fools we were, indeed, as a few
yards further up the sluit we could have crossed dry shod, and saved
ourselves the tender feet from which most of us suffered, brought about
by a long day's marching with wet socks--which resulted in our poor feet
being simply boiled in our boots.
It was just after dawn and fairly cold, so that we were glad to see the
sun rise and to get on the move ourselves again. Bye-and-bye an order
came for us to pass on through mimosa bushes which were scattered about
on the north bank of the Zand stream, towards the hilly ground on the
east. Towards the north the ground was open and level and treeless for a
couple of miles; then it rose a little, and ended on the skyline with a
biggish kopje to the north west. To the east the ground also rose a
little, and about 2 miles away culminated in a ridge running across our
front from north-east down to east, gradually getting higher, and ending
in a confused jumble of black hills running down to the river;
somewhere among these black hills being the gun, which I have previously
mentioned as having dropped a shell or two into the Mounted Infantry
picket, near our camp at Bloomplaats. The whole of this ground was
treeless and grassy, but a few mimosa bushes were scattered about on the
hills to the east, and there was a good fringe of these prickly bushes
down on the river banks.
Through these bushes, and past a couple of isolated houses, we were
working our way in column of companies, extended, towards a low hill, an
underfeature which jutted out towards us from the higher hills beyond.
Having gained the shelter of this, we closed in a bit, ascended the
slope, and lay down in quarter column, the leading company just below
the top of the hill, and the rear company at its foot.
So far all had been peaceful and quiet, and some of the hungry ones had
already started on their biscuits, when phit, ping-boom, phit, phit,
came the Mausers, and we woke up to try and grasp the situation. The
General had sent forward a few men over the hill-top to the other side,
Captain Robinson and some of C company had gone, and the enemy, who, up
to now had lain low, had greeted them with every demonstration of
affection, and continued to do so for some little time. Our men could do
nothing but take cover and return the fire of the invisible Boers: they
had played their part, had drawn the fire of the enemy, and had induced
him to show his hand.
Apparently expecting that a column of troops would soon advance against
them over the top of the hill, following on the track of our few men of
C company, the enemy now maintained a heavy rifle, shell and pom-pom
fire on the edge of the crest line, a few feet above us. We, sitting on
the ground close under the lee of the hill, were perfectly safe, and
could not be touched by any Boer shell so we had nothing to do but to
listen to the bursting of the shells and to watch for the fragments
striking the ground beyond. The noise was terrific, and at one time
there was a perfectly awful outburst of roars and screams and pounding,
as the pieces of shell went shrieking and whizzing over our heads,
while, throughout the fearful din, we could hear that infernal
pom-pom-pom-pom-pom, five times, which denoted that the Vicker's-Maxim,
belonging to the Boers, was hurling its disgusting little shells at us.
The whirring and the shriek of these spiteful little beasts, as they
strike the ground and burst into hundreds of vicious, stinging
fragments, is, at first experience, the most disconcerting sound that I
know. Throughout the whole of this pandemonium--which lasted perhaps ten
minutes, and then settled down into the occasional dull roar of a
bursting shrapnel, and the whiz and flop of the fragments--the Mausers
were going ping-boom, ping-boom, and the enemy's Maxim was in full blast
at frequent intervals.
Sitting under the side of the hill, we could see to our rear, most of
the other troops of the Division, all advancing to take their part in
the attack, and hastening lest they should be too late. Following in our
path through the mimosas, and in similar formation, came one of the
regiments of our Brigade; they had just reached an open space half a
mile in rear, when, being apparently spotted by the Boer gunners, plump
came a shell, close in front of the column. A little to the left it was,
so the bursting fragments flew harmlessly onward, while the onlookers
drew a deep breath of relief, and the regiment quickened its pace, well
knowing what was to be expected next. Soon it came, plunk-plunk, and we
held our breath; two shells, two clouds of dust, in rear of the
hastening battalion Luckily the Boer gunners had not allowed
sufficiently for the distance advanced by the regiment, while they were
laying the guns.
Following in rear of this battalion came the Camerons, but they wisely
led off to their right, and got under shelter of the high banks of the
river--not, however, without being spotted and plugged at by the enemy,
harmlessly as it turned out; and so they passed on beyond us.
Far away out in the open veldt dashed a battery of our Artillery: round
it swung and unlimbered: in a second or two off trotted the horses to
shelter, and the gunners began to drop their shells, at 3,000 yards, on
to the ridge held by the Boers--not, however, without reply, as the
enemy shelled that battery with vigour for some little time. Over and
over again did we, from our shelter, see a cloud of dust rise amongst
the guns, now in front, now between them, now in rear; and yet the
little black specks ran unconcernedly from the guns to the limbers and
back again, and every now and then, with a sheet of flame and a muffled
roar, did the gunners send back their defying answer to their hidden
enemies.
A similar game was being played on the other side of the river, where,
miles away, came a battery in column of route, heading unostentatiously
for the drift: suddenly the enterprising Boers flopped a shell, followed
by another, first on this side of the battery, then over their heads.
"Action-right" was the yell, round wheeled the guns, and boom-boom, came
the answer to the Boers. A few shells exchanged places, and then the
battery limbered up and trekked on quietly to the drift.
In the far distance, towards the south-west, came acres of troops,
clouds of cavalry, columns of infantry and the dense dust of great
baggage lines, while over the sky-line sailed peacefully a huge balloon,
looking unconcernedly down at us pigmies below, striving to oust each
other from tiny little kopjes. This was Tucker's Division, coming up
from the railway on our left rear, and by this movement causing the
Boers, in due course of time, automatically to fall back from their
right flank.
About this time, we also began to move--half of B, the rear company,
being sent out to our left front, where a battery was coming into action
behind the hill by indirect laying, and the other half moving along
about a mile to our left, and slightly to the rear, to a point where the
ground rose gradually in a long gentle swell until it joined the ridge
above. This half company was sent by way of keeping an eye on the other
side of the grassy slope, and it soon reached the ground and lay down in
extended order. Letter A Company was then dribbled out, man by man, each
about ten yards apart, in the same direction, with orders to move
towards the end of the ridge: they came under some long range fire as
soon as they quitted the shelter of our hill, and, bearing off rather
too much to their left, eventually got round where B company was, lay
down and opened fire. The Volunteer company was then sent on in the same
way, and worked along to the spur, where A and B companies were
gradually creeping along, upwards towards the ridge. Meanwhile D and E
companies had moved out about a quarter of a mile to their left, and
then turned and advanced towards the ridge. C company remained where it
had halted earlier in the day, and was joined by F, both companies being
held in reserve. The Maxim gun had been sent to a low spur on our left,
where it came into action at 2,200 yards against a sangar on the top of
the ridge, so as to cover the advance of the other companies; and the
remaining two companies, G and H, were brought along behind the Maxim,
and then sent forward in front of it.
This was the situation at about the middle of the morning. The
battalion was extended over about a mile and a half of front, facing a
ridge occupied by the enemy and distant some 1,500 yards, the companies
being, in order from right to left, thus: D, E, 1/2 B, G, H, Vols., A,
with C and F and half B in reserve. Our right was on a spur rising up
towards the ridge, the centre was lined across a large open valley, and
the left was on another spur which also ran up the ridge.
There was a round kraal on the summit of the ridge, at about the centre,
in which the enemy had a gun, and where one or two men could be seen
moving. The battery, over our heads, shelled this spot briskly, but
without much effect, and we, from a closer range of 2,200 yards, turned
our Maxim on to it, and searched the whole hillside in the
neighbourhood. After a while a man, shown up distinctly against the
sky-line, walked calmly out of this kraal, passed along and disappeared
over the hill. One or two more followed, and then a little clump with,
presumably, the gun in their midst, moved slowly out and away beyond
view. All this time a heavy fire was being kept up by all the companies
in the firing line, the Maxim was stuttering out bullets like mad, and
the guns were dropping shells along the ridge, whilst these plucky Boers
calmly and deliberately moved their gun clean away.
The instant it was gone, our slow and cumbrous Maxim hitched in its
mules and advanced to a closer position, where, behind a wall at about
1,600 yards, its fire again searched out the slopes of the hill,
especially to the left of the circular kraal--the spot where the enemy's
gun had been--where a number of stone walls, rising in tiers, seemed to
point out a likely hiding-place for Boer sharpshooters. Meanwhile the
firing line had been gradually closing up nearer to the foot of the
hill, and we had spotted, at 600 yards, a Boer using black powder
behind one of these stone walls, and were making it warm for him.
Another advance or two, and we were nearer still to the ridge, when
suddenly, like a flock of pigeons, up rose a crowd of men from behind
the tiers of stone walls, and bolted up the hill. With a roar, our men
were on their feet and after the Boers, racing madly up the hill,
shouting, cheering, cursing the heavy blankets bumping at their backs,
yelling with delight, regardless of the shells from our battery in rear
screaming and whistling over their heads and plumping on the ridge.
Panting and blowing, the heavy equipment dragging them back, our fellows
struggled on, and when close to the top of the ridge, with a final rush
(headed in the centre by Markwick, Treagus, and H. B. Mills), gained the
summit and paused to take breath. A few Boers had waited too long and
now remained for ever, one with Mobsby's bayonet in him, whilst the
others were trekking as fast as their ponies could carry them away from
the cursed rooineks.
Numbers of loose ponies were about, and a few Boers opened fire on us
from a knoll about 600 yards to our right front; while many others could
be seen riding rapidly away. To hasten their departure, we fired a few
volleys at 1,100 yards at these gentry, the squad who fired at them
being rather a mixed one, consisting as it did of the Second in Command,
the Adjutant, a Second Lieutenant, and four or five men hastily
scratched together--the whole under command of Lieut. Ashworth, who had
only enough breath remaining to yell "Fire!" It is said that the oldest
soldier of this squad "pulled off" and spoiled a volley; but perhaps he
did not know very much about musketry!
The advance was continued very shortly afterwards, as soon as the men
had got their breath; and soon all firing ceased, the Boers
disappeared, and we devoted ourselves to looking about us and wondering
where the Cavalry had got to.
After a few minutes, by which time most of the battalion had come up, we
continued our advance as we were, without reforming, down the slope of
the hill, across the valley, and up the gentle slope of the opposite
hill, where we posted look-out men and reformed the companies.
Those that were on the right originally had been pushed off slightly to
the right front, after occupying the hill we attacked, in order to
search a kopje some little way off. Coming down the hill, after the rout
of the Boers, everyone was on the look out for loot, as there were all
sorts of articles strewn about, such as rifles, saddles, bandoliers,
blankets, and great-coats; while there were numbers of loose ponies,
ready saddled and bridled, quietly cropping the herbage. Quite a dozen
of these were promptly annexed and mounted by the captors, who rode
along in great pride. Each had a great coat and a blanket rolled on the
pommel, with a horse blanket under the saddle, and a couple of
saddle-bags, usually containing a quantity of Mauser cartridges in
addition to some food. One man was lucky enough to find a bag of coffee
and a bag of sugar on one saddle, and others found Boer tobacco, dried
fruit and other small articles. Several dead Boers lay about on the
ridge, and a number of dead and wounded horses were on the reverse slope
of the hill, whilst our Volunteers, when they came in with A company
from the left flank, brought about a dozen prisoners, who had
surrendered.
It was a fortunate thing for us that we did not remain on the top of the
ridge, but continued our rapid advance without delay, as this prevented
the Boers from collecting and opening fire on us. That they attempted to
do this is certain, as one man of ours was shot dead on the top of the
hill, and Second-Lieut. Paget was severely wounded, about the same time.
The sharpshooters, however, who caused us these casualties, fled and
left us in peace, when the companies on the right advanced towards them.
The usual practice at a field day is for the operations to conclude when
the final charge has been delivered. Everyone then stands about,
preferably on the skyline, in full view of the supposed retreating
enemy, who may perhaps be merely removing to a better position in rear.
To do this on active service is, I think, criminal. The advance should
certainly be continued by some, if not all, of the first line; or at any
rate the first arrivals should push on so as to cover the advance of
those behind them. There should be no stopping; the enemy should be kept
on the run, unless, of course, he has taken up another position in rear,
in which case a bold front should be shown and he should be attacked at
once while he is disorganised. There is always, however, the possibility
of a trap having been prepared, and it has been a favourite trick of the
Afridis to draw on our men to a position where they can be shot down at
known ranges; so that considerable caution is necessary.
After forming up the whole battalion and calling the rolls, we joined
the rest of the Brigade, and moved on a few miles to Erasmus Spruit, a
nice little camp with good water and shade, and plenty of grass and
wood. Now that the excitement was over we all felt pretty tired, and
were glad to rest and get a meal.
The next morning we had some conversation with the prisoners, one or two
of whom spoke English. They were the usual farm hand sort of type, some
of them being young lads, of about the stamp of the recruits whom we
get. They did not seem to mind having been captured, and were very
grateful for what tobacco, coffee and other little luxuries we could
give them.
One of them told me that the Maxim fire was terrible--_they dared not
put their heads up to fire_.
I have never forgotten that remark, since the man made it to me, and
there is a great deal in it to which the attention of company officers
and section leaders might with advantage be drawn. The main point is
that we Infantry do not fire nearly enough ammunition when delivering an
attack. Of course we see no enemy: we only hear the crack of his rifle
and the whiz of his bullets: but we sometimes see the splash of the
bullet on the ground, and can from that obtain some slight idea of his
position at the time. Having found that, a constant hail of bullets
should be directed at all parts of the position, high and low, at rocks,
at bushes and at all places likely to afford a hiding spot, with the
object always in view of making the enemy keep his head down behind his
cover.
For this purpose volley firing is useless, and what should be adopted is
controlled individual firing, using the magazine _always_, and refilling
it behind cover when, and as often as, an opportunity occurs of so
doing. There should be no breaks or intervals, either in the firing or
in the advance: the latter should be continuous, as in the old
skirmishing days, until the last possible moment, when, if the men
cannot advance any further, they should take cover and employ themselves
in firing as rapidly as possible.
The wretched system of false economy in the use of blank ammunition at
instructional field days, when a man carries perhaps five rounds in his
pouch and five in reserve, is responsible for the fact that men cannot
be got to fire fast enough in the field, and that they lie under cover
and husband their ammunition, firing only occasional shots, as they
have been taught in peace time. They forget that they are now more
widely extended than formerly and that one man now occupies as much
space as was formerly allotted to five, and that he should, therefore,
fire five times as fast as before. The present system of widely extended
lines is merely what was learned by the troops employed in the Chitral
and Tirah expeditions, two or three years ago; and the system of
fighting adopted by the Afridis is practically the same as that used by
the Boers in the Free State and the Transvaal.
Owing to the widely extended lines adopted by us in our advance at Zand
River, and to the steady shelling by the batteries which the enemy
received during the attack, our casualties were not very heavy.[3]
The following order was published by the General on the day after the
battle:--
Twistniet, Zand River,
The Major General Commanding desires to express his pleasure at the
behaviour of the brigade yesterday. The good leading of the
officers and the conduct of the men enabled a strong and numerously
held position to be captured with a slight loss.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] Our losses on this day were as follows:--
KILLED.
Private W. Webb D Company.
" G. Merritt H "
" W. Goodes E "
WOUNDED.
Second Lieut. R. E. Paget
Corpl. W. Backshall B "
Private E. Cam B "
" W. Osborne G "
" P. O Connell H "
" G. Shepherd C "
" H. Overy E "