C. R. N. Burne

“ These frontal attacks on towns without flanking movements seem to be absurd, as the enemy and his guns invariably get away under our noses. To-day General Buller occupied Ermelo, but as ill-luck will have it the commandos which split up before him have come south-east and are giving trouble on the Natal border.
Friday, 24th August.—The winter is slipping away, and to-day I am writing in one of those horrible north-west gales of wind which knock our tents into shreds and whirl round us dust as thick as pea-soup. Our kop life is becoming a little monotonous but we manage to get on. ”

“ I was busy all day shifting one of my 12-pounder gun wheels for a new and stronger pair of skeleton iron ones, just sent from Durban, in view of a feint to the front with the object of drawing the Boers away from Ladysmith.
Saturday, 6th January.—This feint was made and we had no casualties. Poor Ladysmith! Our men there are hard pressed and must have a bad time; very heavy firing all day, and we heard by heliograph that the Boers had made a heavy attack in three places, although, happily, repulsed with heavy loss (including Lord Ava) to ourselves. ”

“ Our Naval camp has been strengthened by building stone sangars round our tents to prevent any risk of the enemy creeping up and sniping us in our sleep; still, with barbed wires round the hill, hung with old tins, and trenches and sangars to protect the position, we feel pretty safe, although the gallant Cowper of the Queen's has gone down with one company to reinforce Sandspruit and we miss him greatly. ”

“ The war seems played out so far as one can judge. It appears to be becoming now a guerilla warfare of small actions and runaway fights at long ranges; these furnish of course no new experiences or discoveries to Naval gunners; in fact, the sameness of them is depressing, and what with marching, fighting, poor living, dysentery, and jaundice, I humbly confess that my martial zeal is at a much lower ebb than it was a year ago. Yet time may produce many changes and surprises, and I may yet find myself again at the front ”

“ Their rapidity of fire was wonderful when it is remembered that their carriages are fitted with none of the automatic appliances for returning the gun to the firing position, but have to be dragged back every time by hand, and then carefully adjusted with the wheels at exactly the same level. As regards mobility, they have on at least one occasion—namely Zwartz Kop—taken their guns up a place condemned by the Royal Artillery as impossible. All this experience is now to be made no further use of, and the guns pass into the hands of men who will have to learn it afresh. ”

“ Thus in the midst of our work we had many a jolly hour in those occasional expeditions close to our lines; one day we made a large bag of geese and started a farmyard just in front of our guns on a small nek, giving our friends the geese a chance of emulating the deeds of their ancestors at the Roman Capitol; for who can tell whether they may not yet save Grass Kop if our friends the Boers are game enough to attack. ”

“ In the many long sweltering days when the Natal Field Force before Colenso, and later at Elandslaagte, were forced to lie doing nothing, the heat of the sun coming through the tent was very bad; one was always obliged to wear a helmet inside one's tent; and I think in the men's tents (ours with, say, ten in them, and the military who had, I am told, up to fifteen in one tent) the state of things was abominably unhealthy under the blazing South African sun, and I am persuaded that half the sickness among the forces was due to this insufficient protection from the sun. ”

“ One feels a certain amount of pity for these Boers; they are, owing to their reckless and cunning leaders, in the position of a conquered race, and this position to such a people who are naturally proud, cunning and overbearing must be awful. One notices this much even among the few old men, boys and women who are left on the farms; they display a certain air of dejection and are even cringing till they see that they are not going to be robbed or hurt when their self-confidence soon reasserts itself. There is a typical old Boer farmer and his family living at the foot of Grass Kop ”

“ Tuesday, 27th February.—A wire was handed to me in the night to join the 10th Brigade with the Yorks and Lancasters, and off we went at 6 a.m. in good spirits but in a thick drizzle of rain, passing along the eastern slope of Hlangwane and winding up a fearful road to the front. The Yorks and Lancasters at this point suddenly turned off, and feeling that something was going wrong I halted my guns and rode on to the Headquarters Staff, about half a mile on, finding the Infantry attack just about to commence, the men all looking very weary, and no wonder. ”

“ Wednesday, 13th June.—All our men in high spirits; the 11th Brigade, with the Naval guns, moved on Volksrust, while the 10th Brigade and Royal Artillery guns (p. 072) marched to Charlestown, and we thus occupied the two towns simultaneously. Volksrust is a cold-looking, tin-roofed town; all houses and farms are showing the white flag, the men are gone, and the women are left behind weeping for their dead. We captured here a store of rifles and ammunition besides wagons and forage, not to mention Boer coffins left in their hurried flight. ”

“ The carrying of any of these things only exhausts the men for no object, and when one remembers what heavy work they may have to do on the march at any moment—bringing guns into action, rapid firing and running out the guns, digging pits and trenches, off-loading and loading the Q.-F. ammunition, and keeping up a supply which in South Africa at any rate may be at the bottom of a steep kopje with the gun at the top—one recognises the great advantage gained in giving the men as much latitude as possible, and bringing them into action after a march comparatively fresh. ”

“ Wednesday, 6th June.—All on the move, as the armistice which General Buller was trying to arrange with Chris Botha is up, the latter replying: "Our heavy guns and Mausers are our own and will be moved at our convenience; the armistice is over." We hear that Lord Roberts is in Pretoria and that Kruger has fled; but how unsatisfactory that this does not end the war. In fact, marching to Pretoria was the feature and romance of the war, and now must commence anxious and weary guerilla tactics which may last a long time. ”

“ The view from here of Laing's Nek was glorious at sunset, Majuba frowning on one side with Mount Prospect and Pougwana on the other, and the bed of the Ingogo River below in a green and fertile valley. The Boer position is very strong although our heavy Artillery ought to be able to force it. ”

“ I returned from Colenso to my guns about 3 p.m., in an ambulance train, with Major Brazier Creagh. We are losing about 450 men a day and are advancing very slowly, while the Boers appear to be bringing up more guns on our left. No news from Ladysmith, but we were all glad to hear the brilliant news of the capture of Cronje and all his force by Lord Roberts, and the cheering in the fighting line on the news being communicated was wild. A very heavy musketry fire raged all night, and the Inniskillings in a night attack on Railway Hill lost a lot of men, in fact were cut up. ”

“ I am rather keen on this question of the best means of checking the recoil of a field carriage. A very strongly made drag-shoe fitted with chains to the centre of gun trail will do very well; and these were, later on in the campaign, fitted by the Ordnance authorities at Maritzburg to new "Percy Scott" carriages, which they sent up to us to replace the original "Percy Scott" carriages, which, as I remarked before, were not strongly enough built, particularly as regards the wheels, to stand any very bad country or a lengthened campaign, in both of which we found ourselves involved. ”

“ Creusot gun, it seems to me that the kind of axle used with it is first class and should be used in our field carriages for quick-firing guns; it must certainly take the strain of recoil off the centre of the axle, which recoil we found cracked our axles as we used them (once in my own guns) so badly that the whole thing had to be shifted and replaced. Another advantage it has is to lower the whole gun and mounting, and the centre of gravity of the weight of it and carriage, and therefore the gun is much harder to upset on rocky ground or going up steep precipices, as we had to do in Natal. ”

“ Ladysmith has been emptied of Sir George White's troops; Sir Charles Warren and General Coke are gone to Maritzburg; the Naval Brigade is broken up, and our Naval guns are turned over, alas, to Artillery Mountain Batteries. Captains Scott and Lambton are made C.B.'s; the Powerful has left for England, and the Terrible leaves for China; our flag is hoisted at Bloemfontein, and the tone of the Foreign Press has altered; still more troops are pouring out from England, and we hear that 40,000 more men are to be landed before April, which is a very good precaution. ”

“ Our evenings with the South Lancashires in this mess-house have been as merry as we could make them, and our president, Major Adams, whom we all like, occasionally fires off a tune on the organ which he plays beautifully such as it is. ”

“ We shall be stoutly opposed by a clever unscrupulous enemy; let no man allow himself to be deceived by them. If a white flag is displayed it means nothing, unless the force who display it halt, throw down their arms, and throw up their hands. ”

“ Kruger sailing to Europe in a Dutch man-of-war; Botha said to be on the point of surrendering; some 15,000 Boer prisoners in our hands and so on; while at Volksrust the burghers are surrendering at the rate of fifty a day, and here at Sandspruit they are dribbling in by half-dozens for what it is worth. But from now up to 1st October at Grass Kop we have to record "Nothing, nothing, always nothing," although in the outer world we hear of great doings, and of C.I.V.'s, Canadians, Guards, Natal Volunteers, and others all preparing to go home for a well-deserved rest. ”

“ This raiding has had the effect of bringing all the Dutch farmers and their sons flying back to their farms to look after their stock; they are highly indignant with the looters, have all surrendered and taken the oath at Volksrust, and ride up here to the foot of the hill every day with many reports and much advice about their former comrades' movements, and how to attack and kill them! Many old Dutch women have come also to the hill in tears over their losses from Boer marauders and say they are starving. ”

“ Many military officers with whom I have talked on the subject agree with me in thinking that a certain proportion of small telescopes should be supplied, say two for every company in a regiment, for the use of those on outpost and look-out duties. It is astonishing to see the added interest which any man placed on these duties shows when he can really make out for himself advancing objects and enemy's positions without being entirely dependent on their officers to tell them. A good glass will render reports from these men reliable and valuable, instead of, as they often are, mere guesswork. ”

“ It simply means that when others run down and go sick with dysentery, fever and other ills, you are still going strong and fit for work. Naturally advice on this point is entirely dependent on means of transport; but when this exists, as it did with the Naval Brigade who had ammunition wagons, a hundred pounds weight or so makes little difference to them if not already overloaded. Take the best advantage, therefore, of it that you can within reason, and up to a certain extent, there being of course always a limit to all good things.
Tents are a great and important feature in any long campaign. ”

“ On the contrary, feed yourself and those under you on the best, sparing no expense, and when you can get wine instead of muddy water, drink it to keep you going and your blood in good order. Do yourself as well as you can, is my advice and experience, after perhaps rather thinking and going the other way at first. ”

“ The burghers must now by this time be cognisant of the fact that no intervention on their behalf will come from any of the Great Powers, and, further, that the British Empire is determined to complete the work which has already cost so many valuable lives, and to carry to its conclusion the war declared against her by the late Governments of the Transvaal and Orange Free State—a war to which there can be but one ending. ”