How the Rush is Stopped.

Manawatu Herald, 16 August 1898, Page 2

How the Rush is Stopped.

. » VOLLEY-FIRING AND ITS EFFECTS. An old soldier, who served in .the Zulu, Afghan, and Nile campaigns, explained to the writer how on several occasions in his personal ex. purience British forces hare been saved from annihilation by well* directed volley.fi ring. 11 At Abu Klea," he says, •• not * man would have escaped bat for the coolness of a musketry instructor. The British wero firing wildly in all directions, when this instructor rallied a company on a face of the square, and coolly as if on parade insisted upon his men firing in volley. This bad a strong moral and physical effect on the Arabs, and since Abu Klea, desultory firing is not permitted, and the fire discipline largely oonsists of volley-firing. " At Rorke'a Drift, the little company of British were saved from ex* termination -by the same means. At every rush of the Zulus, a well directed simultaneous volley drove (hem back time after time, until the savage?, thoroughly disheartened, sulkily withdrew.

"At Maiwand for a couple of hours, a company of the gallant 60th, by means of volley-firing kept at bay thousands of Ayoub Khan's fierce tribesmen, and it was only by sheer weight of numbers that the little band fell. Had our native troops fought with the same determined united efforts, the name of Maiwand would have been the symbol of a glorious victory, instead of a disaster."—" Catteh Saturday Journal."