On the 18th we heard that De Wet, after his successes at Taba N'chu and
Sanna's Post, was at Wepener, where he had surrounded 2,000 men of
Brabant's Horse.
* * * * *
Without orders, and without precise tidings of any kind, we remain five
days longer at Brandfort.
General Delarey seems uncertain what to do. While he is casting about
for a plan of action, we may take a glance at our enemies, and study
them a little.
In this campaign the English army has collected together elements the
most diverse. About one half of it consists of regular troops, the other
half of volunteers, colonial troops, and contingents from every country.
Their behaviour under fire varies greatly, according to their origin.
Tommy Atkins the regular, cold, calm, advances under a hail of
projectiles, marching steadily in time, as if on the parade-ground.
Scornful of danger, his head held high, he seems to say: 'Make way! I
am an Englishman!'
The colonial, on the other hand, the cowboy, the volunteer from the
Cape, from Rhodesia, and from Australia, a hunter by profession, fights
in the same fashion as the Boers. He has their qualities and their
defects: great precision as a marksman, but a lack of cohesion and of
discipline. Crouching behind a rock, taking advantage of every scrap of
cover, like his adversary, he hunts rather than fights.
But a good many militiamen, volunteers from various towns, and yeomen
are even less brilliant, and exchange perils, privations, and fatigue
for a sojourn in a Boer prison with great readiness. Some of the regular
regiments, too, brought up to their fighting strength by hasty
recruiting at the last moment, are not exempt from the shame of
unnecessary capitulations.
But such proceedings are not characteristic of Tommy. The Englishman
knows very little of the art of war, but he is brave, very brave.
The officers, with some few exceptions, are ignorant of everything an
officer should know. The operations (?) of Sir Charles Warren, Lord
Methuen, and Sir Redvers Buller seem to be a sort of competition of
lunatics.
General Buller appears to have some inkling of it himself; on December
28 he writes as follows from the camp of Frere:
'I suppose our officers will in time learn the value of scouting; but in
spite of all one can say, up to this our men seem to blunder into the
midst of the enemy, and suffer accordingly.'
These words from the pen of the General who, on January 24, was to
'authorize' the Spion Kop fiasco are delicious!
The profession of arms in England is an occupation not at all absorbing,
but very fashionable, very 'sporting.'
War itself is a sport, which has its special costume, its accidents
proper to the soldier, but which is not supposed to engross the man. The
fact that a great many officers brought with them, in addition to their
khaki uniforms and braided tunics, tennis, football, and polo costumes,
dress-coats and smoking-jackets, is significant of this state of mind.
The programme they had mentally drawn up was something of this sort:
From 7 to 8 a.m., football, breakfast; from 9 to 10, lawn tennis; from
10 to 11, a battle; then a rest, a tub, massage, lunch!
The English officer is a gentleman, always perfectly well bred, often
very well educated, and extremely affable; but he is a gentleman, and
not an officer.
War entered upon by men of this type demands neither serious preliminary
study nor effective progress in an army; and as regards military art and
science, the English are still at the stage of the pitched battle.
It is but just to add that they have also preserved the cool, tenacious
courage and the indomitable energy of their race, qualities which none
can deny them. I saw some superb charges by English troops in Africa,
but they always reminded me of Marechal Pelissier's remark after the
heroic charge at Balaclava: 'C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la
guerre!'
I am no Anglophile, as my campaign of over eight months on the Boer side
sufficiently proves, but it is the duty of a loyal soldier to recognise
the qualities and the courage of his adversaries.
After this short digression, let us resume our survey of the English
army.
During the first months, up to March, their artillery ammunition seems
to have been very defective, often exploding imperfectly, or not at all.
The fire took a long time to regulate, and was nearly always
independent, rarely in salvoes. Nevertheless, I several times saw guns
served in a remarkably efficient manner.
The horses are superb, and were constantly renewed; throughout the
campaign they had from five to six quarterns of oats a day.
Their artillery equipment consists of a variety of very ordinary
patterns. They have not yet any field-guns with breaks. The mounted
artillery (Royal Horse Artillery) is a picked body of men. Its officers
must have served four years in the Field Artillery, and must also be
possessed of a certain private income.
Their guns, Armstrongs of 76.2 millimetres, are called 12-pounders (from
the weight of the projectile). The Field Artillery uses 89 millimetre
guns with 22-pound shells. The breech-blocks are screwed in. The
mountain-guns (1882 pattern) are loaded at the muzzle.
The batteries consist of six pieces, with the exception of the volunteer
batteries, which have only four.
Their shell-guns, of which even during their operations on the open
plain they had a certain number of batteries (notably No. 61 Battery at
Spion Kop, and No. 65 Battery at Paardeburg), are howitzers of the
latest pattern; they are loaded at the breech, and are specially
constructed for fire at a high angle of elevation.
Their naval guns and siege guns, dragged about by teams of from twenty
to thirty oxen, were able to follow the troops in a satisfactory manner.
The lyddite shells did not prove very effective. They explode with a
loud and violent report. The green smoke has a stupefying effect;
objects such as stones or fragments of shell that come in contact with
the explosive take on a sulphur-green tint.
The English used over 300 guns; and if we add to these thirty-five large
naval guns, mounted upon siege-gun carriages, and those of the volunteer
batteries, we get a total of about 400.
The cavalry has played but a secondary part; but the charges of General
French's division at Poplar Grove were vigorously executed, and cost the
lives of two officers and some fifty men. The relief of Kimberley by
this same division was rather a raid of great rapidity than a cavalry
action properly so-called.
The Boer method of warfare explains the powerlessness of the cavalry to
take any prominent part in the operations; reconnaissances were carried
out by Kaffir spies and Afrikander irregulars. Cavalry pursuit would, I
think, have been perfectly useless, for the Boers would have immediately
taken up defensive positions in kopjes inaccessible to horses, and the
precision of their fire would soon have proved extremely harassing to
the horsemen.
The infantry, to give it greater mobility, was relieved of every kind of
impedimenta. The uniform is extremely practical as a whole.
The foot-soldier wears a khaki tunic with pockets, made in the summer of
canvas, in the winter of cloth; trousers to match, the lower part bound
up in strips of khaki flannel, on the same pattern as those of our
Chasseurs Alpins. His helmet is absolutely unsuitable; heavy and ugly,
it does not even protect him from the sun.
A big dark-gray cloak, a blanket, and a waterproof tent canvas, which
theoretically are supposed to be carried on the back in two little
rolls, are as a fact transported on trolleys drawn by mules marching on
the left of each company.
The man carries only his canteen and his bandolier. The latter seemed
to me too large and heavy to be practical, but the canteen, the lid of
which makes a saucepan, seems convenient. It is the same for officers
and privates. Each battalion is followed by a little Maxim gun, firing
Lee-Metford cartridges.
The Mounted Infantry is, theoretically, an arm of the first importance.
In practice it has its partisans and its detractors. I leave the task
of authoritative pronouncement to critics more expert than myself, and
shall only say that Colonel Martyr's and General Hutton's Mounted Rifles
rendered very considerable service to Lord Roberts. The Mounted Rifle
has an ordinary cavalry saddle, with a black cloak rolled up on the
holsters before him. His uniform is the same as that of the infantry: a
tunic, trousers, and flannel bandages. He wears the felt hat of the
country. He carries two bandoliers and is armed with the Lee-Metford
rifle and with a short bayonet like that of our artillery-men. The
butt-end of his gun rests in a bucket hanging on the right of his
saddle, and the stock is supported by a leather thong round the right
arm like a lance.
The Mounted Rifle fights on foot, sheltering his horse behind a piece of
rising ground. His horse to him is merely a rapid means of transport.
Belts and straps, swords, sheaths and hilts, guns and waggons, are all
painted khaki colour.
After enumerating all the weapons used by the belligerents, it would be
an unpardonable omission to say nothing of the famous dum-dum bullets.
Have they been much used? Yes, certainly, and on both sides.
The story that the Boers only used those they had captured from the
English is quite inadmissible, for the Mauser rifles, which were used
exclusively in the Transvaal, were largely provided with them.