THE DEFEAT OF OSMAN DIGNA AT SUAKIM.
. __«. A DECISIVE VICTORY. GALLANTRY OF THE BRITISH FORCES. Tiik following interesting particulars or tho lato battle bctweou Osmau Digna's forces and tho British, aro taken from our English files received by the last mail : — Operations commenced shortly after four o'clock on Thursday morning by the two British warships Racer and Starling and three Egyptian steamers, tho first named shelling the rebel trenches from Suakim Harbour, and the Starliug and Egyptian transports moving up the coast to a position opposite the harbour, where they luimceuvi'cd to draw the enemy's attention away from tho fortifications, behind which General Grenfell's entire force was drawn up ready to sally out at a convenient moment. Heavy firing was soon afterwards commenced from the ring of forts round Suakim, and shot and shell were poured with marked effect into the enemy's works, tho Racer and Starling co-operating together with the Bluejackets, who wero working a sixty-four pounder on shore. When the Dervishes had been partially demoralised by this terrible fire, the whole force of Infautry and Cavalry, under General Grenfell, made an irrosistiblo onslaught on the forces of Osman Naib. The total force numbered about four thousand officers and men. The black battalions advanced in two lines in double companies and assailed the enemy's left flank, the British Infantry being held in reserve, together with the Egyptian troops, while the general and his staff took up a position facing the enemy's position. The black troops charged at the trenches in the most gallant fashion, supported by heavy fire from the forts and ships. The Dervishes withstood them for a moment, fighting desperately, and with fierce fanatical courage, but the terrible hail of bullets, shot, and shell from the machine guns of tho Naval Brigade, the forts, and the British Infantry so terribly thinned them that after an hour's sharp fighting, in which they were shot down or bayonetted by hundreds, the survivors turned and fled to tho bush. The enemy's oavalry, stated at a hundred, wero eugaged by the Hussars, who attacked them with the sabre. A smart hand-to-hand conflict took place, and in this the most serious loss to the British troops occurred, the Hussars losing four of their number killed and one wounded. The encouuter was soon over, however, and the enemy, horse and foot, fled to tho hills followed by tho mounted infantry, under Colonel Barrow, and the Egyptian Cavalry. These killed many more of the fugitives, who fled towards Handoub and Hasheen, pursued for some miles by Colonel Barrow's men; but after going within four miles of Handoub the Mounted Infantry returned to the main body, which occupied the evacuated position of the enemy, and formed an entrenched zareba. The men of the Transport Corps and Engineers were occupied during the remainder of the day filling up the rebel trenches containing the dead and in constructing a couple of redoubts. The loss of Osman Naib's force is estimated by General Grenfell at about 400, while the allied forces lost four men of the Hussars and two Egyptian soldiers killed, five English officers and men and one officer and fifty men of the Egyptian troops injured.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WT18890216.2.36.11
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Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2590, 16 February 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)
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530THE DEFEAT OF OSMAN DIGNA AT SUAKIM. Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2590, 16 February 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)
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