The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8. A PAGE FROM THE PAST.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 234, 8 February 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8. A PAGE FROM THE PAST.

The visit of Major-General Broadwood to New Zealand will remind a number of New Zealand soldiers of March 31, 1900, when one of the most memorable events of a war full of pictures took place, the general named being one of the chief actors. Bloemfontein was occupied by Lord Roberts on March 18, and the Commander-in-Chief despatched a small force with two batteries of artillery to the cast. The great amount of Thaba N'Chu was and still is sacred to the Boers, and it was this landmark that served as a gathering place for the waggons of the old voortrekkers, who practically founded the town lying in its impressive shadow. To the north-east of this towering Black Mountain is Ladybrand, in the centre of the best gramgrowing district of the then Free State. Between Bloemfontein and Thaba N'Chu, about twenty miles from either, is the Modder river, and on its banks the waterworks where things happened, much to the joy of that genius, Christian de Wet, and to the sorrow of a small fighting force which lost among many others eighteen New Zealanders captured. Colonel Pilcher was a daring person, for with only three squadrons of mounted men he pushed through country occupied by two of the finest fighting commandoes in the field (Olivier's and Grobler's), and with spent horses and "done" men occupied Ladybrand, capturing the town officials. The two fighting commandoes, estimated, possibly incorrectly, at two thousand (there were probably three thousand), chased Pilcher, who withdrew with his prisoners. Pilcher arrived at Thaba N'Chau in safety, his small body ot mounted troops having travelled sixty-five miles in 24 hours. Broadwood held that his position at Thaba N'Chu was too exposed, and so fell back on to Bloemfontein, halting.on the 30th March at the waterworks that could be described so minutely by any New Zealander who had the luck to be with the General (who, by the way, was a colonel then). The tactics of Christian de Wet in the subsequent action show him to have been a master in the art of ambuscade. No general who did not possess superlative warcraft and daring courage would have attempted what de Wet undertook successfully. Do Wet's attack and the trap he laid will be remembered as one of the triumphs of his extraordinary career. To the north and east of the waterworks arc uneven ranges of hills with some kopjes rising stark out of the plain. The Boer force which opened fire on Broadwood's troops at sunrise on March 31 was estimated by New Zealanders who afterwards became prisoners to number about two thousand five hundred. They had remarkably effective artillery, light, longrange field guns, horsed with active animals. The guns, unlike the khakipainted British relatives, shone like shillings in the morning sun—and disturbed the breakfast of the troops. Historians merely mention that Broadwood with his mounted troops (10th Hussars, Rimington Guides, Roberts' Horse, Burmah Mounted Infantry, "Q" and "U" batteries, R.H.A., and the First New Zealand Mounted Rifles), finding it impossible to storm the heights dominated by the Boers, intended to push on to Bloemfontein. But the historians forgot to say that the whole force was off-saddled anil outspanned, and that it was a difficult matter to get Kaffir boys to rush' ten mules into each of the couple of hundred waggons of Broadwood's convoy, while those shining guns were knocking splinters off the said waggons. Curiously enough, the troops were more angry at the loss of breakfast than at the prospect of a particularly arduous day, and the words of the New Zealand cook, when a shell dropped on a huge pot of coffee, must not be printed. Broadwood sent his convoy forward to cross the Modder, and covered it from the rear. He did not, of course, know how very complete the clever farmer's arrangements were. Once over the Modder there was unbroken country right to Bloemfontein, and Colville's troops were already on the plain a few miles distant to meet Broadwood. The field telegraph line was cut and the Bloemfontein water-supply had ceased, showing that the only force of Dutchmen about was not the one with the shining guns. About two miles and a-half from those waterworks is the deep "donga" which Broadwood had to cross, and this is where the things referred to happened. The waggons rose to the crest of the donga and it would take some minutes to get to the other crest. The ditch was manned along the whole front of the approaching convoy and escort by Boers, every man concealed. The surprise was complete. As each waggon disappeared over the crest of the donga, three hundred Mausers covered it, but did not shoot,' The men with the waggons directed to proceed over the crest, so toat the following troops seeing them re-appear on the other side had iio idea of an ambush. One man—it is thought a sergeant of the Army Service Corpssaved the lives of hundreds of men, for as he rode up with his waggons and the order was whispered to him to "Hands up!" he shot the man who ordered it, and was instantly killed. This was the shot that made every rifle in that trench open fire. The leading battery of artillery reached the top of the donga. Every horse was killed instantly, and all the men taken prisoners. Roberts' Horse, abreast of the guns, were a magnificent target. They wheeled and galloped, reforming with precision and good order two or three hundred yards in the rear, decimated woefully. The rest is a record of the splendid heroism of the gunners and the work of the mounted infantry. The guns of "Q" and "U," some with only a single driver, galloped furiously into position and came into action with the donga as target. The action of the mounted men was instantly indicative of the value of horsemen who have been trained to fight on foot. A minute or two after the hell-blast, in which apparently inextricable confusion reigned, and in which men, horses, mules, waggons and stores were piled in bloody heaps, there was absolute calm and discipline. Roberts' Horse, the First N.Z.M.R. and the Burmese M.I. hurled themselves from their horses and formed the skirmish line that saved the troops from utter disaster. The "Q" battery covered the retirement, and dismounted New Zealanders with red-hot carbines can tell even now how those brave men stood to their guns, working coolly and industriously until death came, and until the moving troops were in safety. A book or two could be written about the small incidents of that day. Only ten men of the guns were left alive, and seven of these were wounded. It was Broadwood's great task to withdraw a decimated, hungry and worn force away, and by his calmness and with the help of the rearguard he was able to do this. Tt can be remembered with some satisfaction that the remnant of the New Zealanders were of that rearguard, and that they did tneir work given them to do. In the action thirty officers and three hundred men were killed, wounded or taken prisoners. Of the prisoners eighteen were New Zealanders. "Q" battery was practically wiped out, but it is indicative of the spirit of the British gunner that a sergeant of his battery, left without comrades, endeavored to escape on a wounded horse immediately all hope of working a gun had gone. Hie

horse was killed before it had travelled fifty yards. The same night the sergeant tried to escape once more. He was again captured. Later he broke out of the Waterval compound and was never once more heard of. Probably some stray "watchpost" got him. The Sauna's Post disaster was far-reaching, for with the Boers in possession of the Waterworks, Bloemfontein had to depend on wells. Thousands of llritish soldiers died of enteric fever in Bloemfontein, and there are some New Zealand graves at Waterval.