CHAPTER XXVIII

THE SOUDAN WAR (_Continued_)

VI. THE FIGHT AT ABU KLEA

"England well may speak with wonder

Of the small heroic band,

Fearlessly, though parched and weary,

Toiling 'cross the desert sand;

How they met the foeman's onslaught,

Firm, undaunted, with a cheer,

Drove ten times or more their number,

Down the vale of Abu Klea."

_Songs of the Camel Corps_ (Serg. H. EAGLE, R.M.C.C.)

Before the square was completely formed on the top of the knoll at the

foot of which it had been halted when the thousands of Arabs sprang

into view on the left front, the Arabs reappeared on the left rear,

about 500 yards distant. They were formed into three phalanxes joined

together, the points of the three wedges being headed by emirs or

sheikhs, riding with banners. The horsemen came on at a hand-gallop,

the masses of footmen keeping up with them. Our skirmishers were

racing in for their lives. The last man was overtaken and speared.

At this moment the left rear angle of the square was still unformed.

The camels were still struggling into it. Several camels, laden with

wounded, had lain down at the foot of the slope and their drivers had

fled into the square; and these animals were being dragged in by

soldiers. The appalling danger of this open corner was instantly

evident. I told the bugler to sound the halt, and having forced my way

through the press to the front of the square, and reported the case to

Sir Herbert Stewart, who said, "Quite right," I struggled back to the

rear.

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Then I ordered the crew of the Gardner gun to run it outside the square

to the left flank. At the same time, Colonel Burnaby wheeled Number 3

Company (4th and 5th Dragoon Guards) from the rear face to the left

flank. Number 4 Company (Scots Greys and Royals) had already wheeled

from the rear to the left flank, so that they were just behind me.

Five or six paces outside the square we dropped the trail of the gun.

So swiftly did these things happen that the leading ranks of the enemy

were still 400 yards away.

They were tearing down upon us with a roar like the roar of the sea, an

immense surging wave of white-slashed black forms brandishing bright

spears and long flashing swords; and all were chanting, as they leaped

and ran, the war-song of their faith, "_La ilaha ill' Allah Mohammedu

rasul Allah_"; and the terrible rain of bullets poured into them by the

Mounted Infantry and the Guards stayed them not. They wore the loose

white robe of the Mahdi's uniform, looped over the left shoulder, and

the straw skullcap. These things we heard and saw in a flash, as the

formidable wave swept steadily nearer.

I laid the Gardner gun myself to make sure. As I fired, I saw the

enemy mown down in rows, dropping like ninepins; but as the men killed

were in rear of the front rank, after firing about forty rounds (eight

turns of the lever), I lowered the elevation. I was putting in most

effective work on the leading ranks and had fired about thirty rounds

when the gun jammed. The extraction had pulled the head from a

discharged cartridge, leaving the empty cylinder in the barrel.

William Rhodes, chief boatswain's mate, and myself immediately set to

work to unscrew the feed-plate in order to clear the barrel or to take

out its lock. The next moment the enemy were on top of us. The

feed-plate dropped on my head, knocking me under the gun and across its

trail. Simultaneously a spear was thrust right through poor Rhodes,

who was instantly killed at my side. Walter Miller the armourer was

speared beside the gun at the same time. I was knocked off the trail

of the gun {264} by a blow with the handle of an axe, the blade of

which missed me. An Arab thrust at me with his spear, and I caught the

blade, cutting my hand, and before he could recover his weapon a bullet

dropped him. Struggling to my feet, I was carried bodily backwards by

the tremendous impact of the rush, right back upon the front rank of

the men of Number 4 Company, who stood like rocks.

I can compare the press to nothing but the crush of a theatre crowd

alarmed by a cry of fire. Immediately facing me was an Arab holding a

spear over his head, the staff of the weapon being jammed against his

back by the pressure behind him. I could draw neither sword nor

pistol. The front ranks of our men could not use rifle or bayonet for

a few moments. But the pressure, forcing our men backwards up the

hill, presently enabled the rear rank, now occupying a position of a

few inches higher than the enemy, to fire over the heads of the front

rank right into the mass of the Arabs. The bullets whizzed close by my

head; and one passed through my helmet. The Arabs fell in heaps,

whereupon our front rank, the pressure upon them relaxing, fired, and

fought hand to hand with the bayonet, cursing as the rifles jammed and

the shoddy bayonets twisted like tin.

The enemy wavered and broke away, some retreating, but the greater

number turning to the rear face of the square, carrying some of the

Naval Brigade with them. The rest of my men manned the gun and opened

fire on the retreating enemy. But by the time the gun was in action

the retreating dervishes had hidden themselves in a nullah, and the

main body of the enemy had burst into the gap left by the camels in the

rear face. My men joined in the furious hand-to-hand fighting all

among the jam of men and camels. The ranks of the front face of the

square had turned about face and were firing inwards. Poor Burnaby

(who was "not in luck to-day") was thrown from his horse, and was

killed by a sword cut in the neck as he lay on the ground.

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Fighting next to me in the square was "Bloody-minded Piggot"--Captain

C. P. Piggot of the 21st Hussars--using a shot-gun charged with

buck-shot. The Arabs were crawling and twisting under the camels and

in and out the legs of the men, whom they tried to stab in the back,

and Piggot was loading and firing, and the bluejackets kept calling to

him, "Here's another joker, sir!" I saw the bald head of an Arab

emerging from a pile of bodies, and as Piggot fired I saw the bald

crown riddled like the rose of a watering-pot.

One mounted sheikh, at least, won right into the square, where the

bodies of himself and his horse were found afterwards.

Numbers 4 and 5 Company, who had withstood the first rush until they

were pressed back upon the mass of camels, were still fighting in front

when they were attacked in rear. There, the left wing of the Heavy

Camel Regiment--Scots Greys, Royals, and 5th Dragoon Guards--did

desperate hand-to-hand fighting in the square, while the right wing and

the Royal Sussex by their steady fire kept off the rest of the enemy.

The stress endured only a few minutes. Every Arab inside the square

was slain. The camels, which had made the weak corner of the square,

afterwards saved it by presenting a solid, irremovable obstacle to the

enemy.

As the enemy retired, Sir Herbert Stewart gave the word, and our men

cheered again and again, and the retreating Arabs turned and shook

their fists at us.

Their desperate courage was marvellous. I saw a boy of some twelve

years of age, who had been shot through the stomach, walk slowly up

through a storm of bullets and thrust his spear at one of our men. I

saw several Arabs writhe from out a pile of dead and wounded, and

charge some eighty yards under fire towards us, and one of them ran

right up to the bayonets and flung himself upon them and was killed. I

saw an Arab, who was wounded in the legs, sit up, and hurl his spear at

a passing soldier. As the soldier stopped to load his rifle, the Arab

tried to {266} reach another spear, and failing, caught up stones and

cast them at his foe; and then, when the soldier presented his rifle

and took a deliberate aim, the Arab sat perfectly still looking down

the barrel, till the bullet killed him.

Surgeon-General Sir Arthur W. May tells me of an instance of the spirit

of the men. A huge able seaman, nicknamed Jumbo, who was one of the

gun's crew when it was run outside the square, was thrown upon his face

by the charge; and apparently every Arab who went past or over him, had

a dig at the prostrate seaman.

After the action, with the help of able seaman Laker, I carried him to

the doctor. He was a mass of blood, which soaked my tunic. I tried to

wash it afterwards with sand. He must have weighed about sixteen

stone. Quite recently, at Stornoway, where he is chief petty officer

of the Coast-guard, I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Laker, and we

recalled the salving of poor Jumbo.

He had seventeen wounds, spear-thrusts, and sword-cuts. Upon visiting

him in the Field Hospital a few days later, Surgeon May, intending to

console the patient, said:

"You will be able to be sent back with the next convoy of wounded,

after all."

"Sent back?" returned Jumbo indignantly. "I haven't done with the

beggars yet!"

He recovered, but not in time to gratify his ardour.

The square was moved some 50 yards from the field of battle and was

formed anew. I went to try to find any wounded men of my Brigade.

Having brought in two, I was starting for a third time, when someone

shouted, "Look out, Charlie!" and I turned about to see an Arab

charging at me with a spear. I ran to meet him, sword in hand, parried

his spear, then held my sword rigid at arm's length. He ran right up

the blade to the hilt, against which his body struck with so great

force that he fell backward.

I picked up a man who was shot through the back, and put him upon a

camel upon which was a wounded Arab. Presently I heard my man singing

out; and I {267} found his thumb was being chewed off by the Arab, whom

I hauled off the camel and of whom I disposed in another way.

The bodies of most of my men who were killed were found some 25 yards

from the place at which we had worked the gun. Here were the bodies of

my poor comrades, Lieutenants Alfred Pigott and R. E. de Lisle. Pigott

had been promoted to commander, but he never knew it. De Lisle had his

whole face cut clean off. Captain C. P. Piggot (not to be confused

with the naval officer, Commander Alfred Pigott), who fought like a

Paladin in the square, and who knew not fear, died some years

afterwards in England. (I took him on my coach to Lord's; he was so

weak that he could not get upon it without the help of a footman, and

he looked dreadfully ill. He told me that the doctor had given him

three weeks to live; but he was dead in three days.)

Eight of the Naval Brigade were killed and seven were wounded, out of

40 who went into action. Every man of the Brigade handling the gun

outside the square was killed, excepting myself.

I observed that the rows of bullets from the Gardner gun, which was

rifle calibre .45-inch, with five barrels, had cut off heads and tops

of heads as though sliced horizontally with a knife.

The official account gives the loss of the enemy at 1100 in the

vicinity of the square.

Nearly half the British rifles jammed, owing to the use of leaf

cartridges. The Remington rifles used by the Mahdi's soldiers had

solid drawn cartridges which did not jam. During the action of Abu

Klea the officers were almost entirely employed in clearing jammed

rifles passed back to them by the men. The British bayonets and

cutlasses bent and twisted, the result of a combination of knavery and

laziness on the part of those who were trusted to supply the soldier

with weapons upon which his life depends. The bayonets were blunt,

because no one had thought of sharpening them. The spears of the Arabs

were sharp like {268} razors. The cutlasses of the Naval Brigade were

specially sharpened.

I noticed that when a soldier was killed, a bluejacket always

endeavoured to secure his bayonet; and that when a sailor was killed, a

soldier always tried to take his hat, preferring it to the Army helmet.

The official report of Sir Charles Wilson states the total number of

the enemy to have been from 9000 to 11,000, consisting of men from

Berber, Metemmeh, Kordofan, and 1000 men of the Mahdi's army. Of the

total number, it was estimated that 5000 or 6000 attacked. The British

numbered something over 1200 men; but, these being in square, the

weight of the attack fell upon no more than about 300 men. There were

342 men of the Royal Artillery on the front face of the square; 235 men

on the left flank, reinforced when the charge came by some of the Naval

Brigade and a company from the rear face; 300 men and the Naval

Brigade, between 40 and 50 strong, on the rear face; and 307 men on the

right flank. The centre was a solid mass of camels. This thin

framework of men, forced back upon the camels, resisted the tremendous

impact of thousands of frenzied fanatics who knew not fear, and whom

nothing stopped but death.

I cannot better describe the result than by quoting the words of

Colonel the Hon. Reginald Talbot, 1st Life Guards, who commanded the

Heavy Camel Regiment at Abu Klea (_Nineteenth Century_, Jan. 1886):

"It was an Inkerman on a small scale--a soldiers' battle; strength,

determination, steadiness, and unflinching courage alone could have

stemmed the onslaught."

It was a soldiers' battle, because the attack was sudden; it came

before the square was formed; and in the stress and tumult orders were

useless.

[Illustration: THE AUTHOR, 1912]

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