A HOT CORNER.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1846, 4 September 1913, Page 7

A HOT CORNER.

THE DISASTER TO THE CAMEL CORPS. Br Telegr&vh-Presg Asjocfatkm-CoDrrieht London, September 2. Lieutenant Dunn, of the Camel Corps, recently attacked by dervishes between Berbera and Odwein, Somaliland, with heavy loss, gives a graphic account of tho incident in a privato letter to a friend. Lieutenant Dunn'commanded tho crops- after Colonel Corficld, the commanding officer, had been killed. He writes: "'Corfield's 112 men had been fighting for live hours in a perfect hell on earth. Colonel Corfield was killed and Captain G. H. Summers was wounded soon after tho commencement, of the fight. Tho Maxim gun was disabled after half-an-hotfr, and then about thirty Somalis' desdrted. At tho end forty-six camels hadi been shot, and 32 men killed and 22 wounded. Twentysix fighting men wero left facing 1500 dervishes, and tliey wero only saved because the dervishes' ammunition gave out. If tho dervishes 'had brought up their spearmen they must have successfully rushed the zareba. They usually begin firing at two hundred yards distance and then charge right up to tho zareba. "It is estimated that at/ least 200 dervishes wero killed, and some were wounded. Captain Summers was vory plucky. Ho never gave way,, though wounded threo times —on the left arm and in both legs. During a hill in the proceedings ho cried out: 'Well, this will go down in history as Dunn's last stand.' But lie proved a bad prophet."