On Commando | Page 7

and relatives have been killed in this war, and many more
will have yet to give their lives for their country!

III
THE EIGHT-DAY BATTLE OF THE TUGELA--TALK OF
INTERVENTION--RELIEF OF LADYSMITH
Before my knee was quite cured I returned to Ladysmith. The first

thing that caught my eye on my return to the camp was the balloon
above Ladysmith. It looked just like a large crocodile-eye as it followed
all my movements. When I went to look for my horse or to fetch water
or wood, there it stood, high up in the sky, and I felt as if it kept its eye
specially fixed on me, and as if I might expect a bomb at any moment.
We had never in all our lives seen so many flies as at Ladysmith. We
had to hurry over our meals as they made eating almost an
impossibility to us. Fortunately, I was only a short time there, as
towards the end of January, 1900, part of our commando, including my
brother and myself, was sent to the Tugela as reinforcement. We had a
distance of four and a half hours to ride, and we had to ride hard, as the
enemy were determined to force their way through. We arrived the
same day, just two days after the enemy had tried to force their way
through to the right of Spion Kop and had been defeated. On nearing
the high Tugela mountains we heard more and more distinctly the
constant rattling of bullets, interrupted by the roar of the cannon and
the bom-bom-bom of our saucy bomb-Maxim, that made our hearts
expand and those of the enemy shrink. As we raced on to the foot of the
mountains, the bullets that the enemy were sending over the mountains
to find the Boers raised the dust around us.
The following morning we went to lie in a trench that had been dug by
our men on a rise to the right of Spion Kop. The previous day eight
burghers had been wounded there. Red Danie Opperman was
Field-Cornet. Not far from us, to our left, stood a few of our cannon,
and facing us, to our left, on the long mountain slope, we could see
fourteen guns of the enemy's. In front of us was a large wood, and close
to that the English camp. We could see the enemy moving in great
close square masses. It was a terribly hot day; we had to lie in the
trenches, as all day long the enemy fired at us from the smaller
positions facing us, at a distance of 15,000 paces; and constantly the
bombs burst over our heads. At regular intervals a lyddite bomb--that
gave us a shock through our whole body--came from the wood towards
the cannon on our left. Once only part of our entrenchment, where,
fortunately, no one happened to be, was blown to bits.
Whenever there was a moment's pause, we lifted our heads above the
trenches to have a look at the lovely landscape and at the positions of
our enemy. That day not one of us was wounded. Only the artillery

suffered. If our few cannon ventured to make themselves heard, eight
or more bombs followed in quick succession to silence them. Next to
me lay a man whose servant, a restless, impatient Bushman, most
amicably addressed him as Johnny. The Bushman went to and fro
continually to a 'chum' of his who lay hidden behind a rock close to us.
Once, on one of his visits to his 'chum,' a bullet struck the ground close
to his heels; he stood still, looked slowly and defiantly from his heels to
the enemy, and said in a most emphatic tone, 'You confounded
Englishman!' and calmly proceeded on his way to his chum.
To the right of this position was an open space, almost level with the
immediate surroundings, but ending in a steep decline some 900 paces
further on. There we went towards evening with a reinforcement of the
Pretoria town commando that had followed us. The Field-Cornet made
us stand in rows, and told off forty men to dig a trench that night. The
rest of the men would relieve us the following night. My brother and I
were in the first shift. Towards morning, while we were still digging at
the trenches, fire was opened across the whole line of battle. We
imagined that we were being attacked, and jammed ourselves in the
narrow trench. But as the attack did not come off, and the bullets flew
high over our heads, we went on digging until daybreak. Then we
noticed that the enemy were lying in a trench about 800 paces ahead of
us. We fired a few shots at them, but saved our ammunition