Smith-Dorrien

The long career of a great soldier

This is the autobiography of Smith-Dorrien , one of the most notable British military figures of the mid-Victorian and Edwardian ages. The author's first experiences of military life were nearly his last and in this book we are given a vital and chilling account of what it was to be one of the few surviving officers to flee from the Zulu impis at Isandlwhana. Interesting service in Egypt, the Sudan, and the Boer War follows as Smith-Dorrien's career develops and he becomes a talented and highly regarded staff officer. His works during the opening campaigns of the Great War are now properly regarded as superb generalship which probably saved the army, but it also earned the enmity of French, his superior, who all but ended his career. A brilliant autobiography by a fine soldier who every reader will come to admire as a military man and a person with each turn of the page.

At midnight precisely a tremendous burst of fire was heard at the Monument, which continued for half an hour. The Monument is two miles from the centre of the town, and was held by eighty-three Royal Irish under Captain Fosbery of that regiment. Shortly after, heavy firing was heard three miles in the opposite direction at the Colliery piquet. I heard from both on the telephone that they were heavily attacked. The Colliery was held by Shropshires. Very shortly after the south-west and south-east piquets, held by Gordons, were attacked with great determination, whilst a fire was poured into the Mounted Infantry piquet holding the drift at the north of the town.
Thus the circle of attack was complete. After about twenty minutes I failed to get answers on the telephone from either Colliery or Monument Hill, and I found out afterwards that the wires had been cut, but I heard from the Gordons throughout the attack.
I had only the one company Royal Irish, and the forty-three men, Shropshires, available for reinforcing on the north of the line, and the Gordon Highlanders had already reinforced their piquets with every available man. At about 12.30 a.m. the firing at the Monument ceased, and soon after Colonel Spens, who had been reconnoitring that way with his small party of forty-three men in the dense fog, came back to say a man had run in and reported the Boers had overpowered and captured Monument Hill, and he at once volunteered to go and find out himself. Mauser firing was still going on from the rocks round the Monument, but not at the post itself. He most gallantly worked himself right up to the barbed wire fence, within sixty yards of the tents at the Monument, and could see the Boers busy looting. He had ascertained that there were two small outlying piquets of the Royal Irish still holding out, but he knew that when daylight broke they would be captured by the very large force of Boers, so he most discreetly withdrew them.
About 1 a.m. the firing at the Colliery ceased, and a patrol I sent out from the 5th Lancers returned about 3 a.m. and reported that a small post of the Shropshires had been overpowered, but that the attack on the main work had been driven off. The Gordon Highlanders reported having repulsed their attack, after a desperate fight, at about 3 a.m., but firing continued until 3.30 a.m.
The attack on the Gordon piquets was made by the Ermelo and Carolina Commandos, by at least 500 men. They brought up stones with them and placed them some two or three yards apart in a circle all round, and only forty yards from the south-west piquet commanded by Lieutenant McLaren, Gordon Highlanders, and poured in a deadly fire after breaking down the outer circle of barbed wire. The defence of this post was a thing to be proud of, and five dead Boers were found within thirty yards of it.
One small post of the Gordons, of twelve men, was rushed; after firing 198 rounds and getting four of their number knocked over, they were completely overpowered by 200 to 300 Boers.
In the attack on the Monument the Boers were undoubtedly led by someone who knew the ground. There was one point slightly weaker than the rest of the defences, and there they came. That very evening, at sundown, I had seen Captain Fosbery post his night piquets, and he remarked to me how strong the defences were and how safe he felt inside them; but neither he nor I could have reckoned on such a desperate attack, breaking down what appeared to us impenetrable fences of barbed wire.
The Royal Irish on this post had thirty-nine killed and wounded out of a total of eighty-three, which is sufficient evidence that the defence was a fine one.
I will now turn to the post at the Colliery which was held by twelve men of the Shropshires, and seven men of the Mounted Infantry, under Lieutenant Marshall. This post was attacked by a large force, and amongst them 200 of the Staats Artillery. It was a strong post, but not so strong as some of the others, and had the fatal drawback of being too large for its garrison.
I cannot speak too highly of the determination they showed—they fought for an hour, at the end of which time they had Lieutenant Marshall and nine out of the twelve Shropshires killed and wounded; the Boers then rushed in and seized them, taking away the seven Mounted Infantrymen (four of whom were reported wounded) and three Shropshire Light Infantry, in addition to six Shropshire Light Infantry holding an outpost of the main work.