PAYMENT OPTIONS

Forthcoming titles

(Book titles are subject to change)

A Royal Engineer in the Low Countries

A Cavalry Surgeon at Waterloo

With the Third Guards during the Peninsular War

The First and Last Campaigns of the Great War

Supernatural and Weird Fiction of Vincent O'Sullivan

Supernatural and Weird Fiction of Algernon Blackwood

Narratives of the Anglo-Zulu War

and many others

Two Years on Trek

enlarge Click on image to enlarge
enlarge Mouse over the image to zoom in
Two Years on Trek
Qty:     - OR -   Add to Wish List

Author(s): Louis Eugène du Moulin
Date Published: 2011/03
Page Count: 272
Softcover ISBN-13: 978-0-85706-533-9
Hardcover ISBN-13: 978-0-85706-534-6

At war on the veldt

This book, written by a colonel of the regiment, recounts the experiences of the Royal Sussex Regiment throughout its service during the Second Anglo-Boer War in South Africa. The story of the Royal Sussex is typified as 'a trek,' a phrase used by the Boers themselves to describe the long and usually gruelling marches they undertook across the African veldt and a phrase which perfectly describes the doings of one of Queen Victoria's foot-slogging county regiments of infantry upon whom much of the hard campaigning and fighting fell in this last imperial war at the end of the nineteenth century. The reader joins the Sussex men in many hard fought engagements, including the fight on the Zand River, the fiercely contested action at Diamond Hill and many others. The campaign landscape of the Boer War meant that mounted men could move across huge distances quickly and the enemy demonstrated the effectiveness of these tactics in the use of the incomparable Boer 'commandos.’ In response the British raised mounted columns employing mounted infantry and the Royal Sussex were actively involved in both the 13th and 21st M. I. whose activities are also detailed here. The book also contains an honour role which will be of interest to genealogists. Available in softcover and hardcover with dustjacket for collectors.

In the battery, several men were run over and seriously injured by bolting wagons, one of the latter travelling several miles before it was brought back; the team of oxen had swung round with the heavy five inch gun and had smashed the pole, two bullocks had been killed and several injured; the escort to the battery were apparently men of the Argyll and Sutherland Militia, and they lay down and opened fire.<br>
By this time (and all the foregoing happened in a few seconds), our companies were all extended across the veldt, stretching away from the road, and were parallel to and about a thousand yards from the hill occupied by the enemy, at the skyline of which we were firing.
It was still dark, but momentarily growing lighter and lighter, and our men were blazing away steadily, when Captain Ross, the Divisional Signalling officer, came down with an order from General Hunter for the Royal Sussex to charge the hill.<br>
That was all the Royal Sussex were waiting for: the whistle blew, and the whole line rose to their feet, and rushed wildly across the open ground, a few bullets dropping in front of us; yelling, cheering and cursing, and fixing bayonets as they ran, this wild mob kept on until want of breath necessitated a halt. A moment or two to fill their lungs, and on they dashed again, until checked by a wire fence, A company well in front with the start they had got, and young Wadwicz leading the way; but Cox, of F company, showing us that the reserve man was the best of all. The enemy’s fire had ceased as suddenly as it had begun; some of us had our hearts in our mouths as, checked for a moment, we clambered over the barbed wires, dreading momentarily that the Boers were only holding their fire until we were mixed up in the fencing.<br>
Not so, however; the fixing of the bayonets and the sudden onslaught of the long line was too much for their nerves, and they were off; panting and blowing after our long run of a thousand yards, we saw them when we reached the summit, going like smoke in the distance, in two directions; our men did not stop on the summit, but pushed on to gain the next hill. There was a valley between, about a thousand yards wide, and, beyond, the ridge rose in a smooth slope, extending a long way both to the right and the left; on the left it continued, forking out into two spurs, which ran outwards, that on the left culminating in a lofty, round-topped hill, while that on the right continued round in a half circle. Our party now divided, Major Panton going towards the round hill on the left with two companies, while the remainder pushed on to the smooth ridge straight to our front.<br>
We had opened fire at 800 and 1,000 yards from the top of the hill which we had charged, on the small parties of the Boers, evidently lagging behind the others; one of these men was dismounted, and our bullets hastened his movements considerably, until he disappeared out of sight over the ridge; and we had then pushed on in the hopes of catching him and his friends on the other side. One party of the enemy had gone off towards the round-topped hill on the left, and the horse of one of them, hit at 900 yards, had collapsed in a cloud of dust, so Major Panton and his two companies tore after his rider.
While ascending the ridge in front, orders were received not to go any further, so we crept up to the top of the hill and lined the crest; the order was passed along to the companies, now a long way on our left, to do likewise. <br>
Then we had leisure to look about us and fill up our ammunition pouches; it was now about half-past four, and the sun was just thinking of showing himself above the horizon; behind us, coming over the hill, were some companies of the Buffs Militia; in front of us
You may also like