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The River War

W >> Winston S. Churchill >> The River War




Colonel Broadwood, with nine squadrons of cavalry, the Camel Corps,
and the Horse Artillery, had been ordered to check the Dervish left,
and prevent it enveloping the downstream flank of the zeriba, as this was
held by the Egyptian brigade, which it was not thought desirable to expose
to the full weight of an attack. With this object, as the Dervishes
approached, he had occupied the Kerreri ridge with the Horse battery and
the Camel Corps, holding his cavalry in reserve in rear of the centre.

The Kerreri ridge, to which reference has so frequently been made,
consists of two main features, which rise to the height of about 300 feet
above the plain, are each above a mile long, and run nearly east and west,
with a dip or trough about 1,000 yards wide between them. The eastern ends
of these main ridges are perhaps 1,000 yards from the river, and in this
intervening space there are several rocky under-features and knolls.
The Kerreri Hills, the spaces between them, and the smaller features
are covered with rough boulders and angular stones of volcanic origin,
which render the movements of horses and camels difficult and painful.

The cavalry horses and camels were in the dip between the two ridges;
and the dismounted men of the Camel Corps were deployed along the crest of
the most southerly of the ridges, with their right at the desert end.
Next in order to the Camel Corps, the centre of the ridge was occupied by
the dismounted cavalry. The Horse Artillery were on the left.
The remainder of the cavalry waited in the hollow behind the guns.

The tempestuous advance of Osman soon brought him into contact with
the mounted force. His real intentions are still a matter of conjecture.
Whether he had been ordered to attack the Egyptian brigade, or to drive
back the cavalry, or to disappear behind the Kerreri Hills in conformity
with Ali-Wad-Helu, is impossible to pronounce. His action was, however,
clear. He could not safely assail the Egyptians with a powerful cavalry
force threatening his left rear. He therefore continued his move across the
front of the zeriba. Keeping out of the range of infantry fire, bringing up
his right, and marching along due north, he fell upon Broadwood.
This officer, who had expected to have to deal with small bodies on the
Dervish flank, found himself suddenly exposed to the attack of nearly
15,000 men, many of whom were riflemen. The Sirdar, seeing the situation
from the zeriba, sent him an order to withdraw within the lines of
infantry. Colonel Broadwood, however, preferred to retire through
the Kerreri Hills to the northward, drawing Osman after him.
He replied to that effect.

The first position had soon to be abandoned. The Dervishes,
advancing in a north-easterly direction, attacked the Kerreri Hills
obliquely. They immediately enveloped the right flank of the mounted troops
holding them. It will be seen from the map that as soon as the Dervish
riflemen gained a point west and in prolongation of the trough between the
two ridges, they not only turned the right flank, but also threatened the
retreat of the defenders of the southerly ridge; for they were able to
sweep the trough from end to end with their fire. As soon as it became
certain that the southerly ridge could not be held any longer, Colonel
Broadwood retired the battery to the east end of the second or northern
ridge. This was scarcely accomplished when the dip was enfiladed, and the
cavalry and Camel Corps who followed lost about fifty men and many horses
and camels killed and wounded. The Camel Corps were the most unfortunate.
They were soon encumbered with wounded, and it was now painfully evident
that in rocky ground the Dervishes could go faster on their feet than the
soldiers on their camels. Pressing on impetuously at a pace of nearly seven
miles an hour, and unchecked by a heavy artillery fire from the zeriba
and a less effective fire from the Horse battery, which was only armed with
7-pounder Krupps of an obsolete pattern, the Arabs rapidly diminished the
distance between themselves and their enemies. In these circumstances
Colonel Broadwood decided to send the Camel Corps back to the zeriba under
cover of a gunboat, which, watchfully observing the progress of the fight,
was coming down stream to assist. The distance which divided the combatants
was scarcely 400 yards and decreasing every minute. The cavalry were
drawn up across the eastern or river end of the trough. The guns of the
Horse battery fired steadily from their new position on the northern ridge.
But the Camel Corps were still struggling in the broken ground, and it was
clear that their position was one of great peril. The Dervishes already
carpeted the rocks of the southern ridge with dull yellow swarms, and,
heedless of the shells which still assailed them in reverse from the zeriba,
continued to push their attack home. On the very instant that they saw the
Camel Corps make for the river they realised that those they had deemed
their prey were trying, like a hunted animal, to run to ground within the
lines of infantry. With that instinctive knowledge of war which is the
heritage of savage peoples, the whole attack swung to the right, changed
direction from north to east, and rushed down the trough and along the
southern ridge towards the Nile, with the plain intention of cutting off
the Camel Corps and driving them into the river.

The moment was critical. It appeared to the cavalry commander that
the Dervishes would actually succeed, and their success must involve the
total destruction of the Camel Corps. That could not, of course,
be tolerated. The whole nine squadrons of cavalry assumed a preparatory
formation. The British officers believed that a terrible charge impended.
They would meet in direct collision the swarms of men who were hurrying
down the trough. The diversion might enable the Camel Corps to escape.
But the ground was bad; the enemy's force was overwhelming; the Egyptian
troopers were prepared to obey--but that was all. There was no exalted
enthusiasm such as at these moments carries sterner breeds to victory.
Few would return. Nevertheless, the operation appeared inevitable.
The Camel Corps were already close to the river. But thousands of
Dervishes were running swiftly towards them at right angles to their line
of retreat, and it was certain that if the camelry attempted to cross
this new front of the enemy they would be annihilated. Their only hope
lay in maintaining themselves by their fire near the river-bank until help
could reach them, and, in order to delay and weaken the Dervish attack
the cavalry would have to make a desperate charge.

But at the critical moment the gunboat arrived on the scene and began
suddenly to blaze and flame from Maxim guns, quick-firing guns, and rifles.
The range was short; the effect tremendous. The terrible machine, floating
gracefully on the waters--a beautiful white devil--wreathed itself in smoke.
The river slopes of the Kerreri Hills, crowded with the advancing thousands,
sprang up into clouds of dust and splinters of rock. The charging Dervishes
sank down in tangled heaps. The masses in rear paused, irresolute. It was
too hot even for them. The approach of another gunboat completed their
discomfiture. The Camel Corps, hurrying along the shore, slipped past the
fatal point of interception, and saw safety and the zeriba before them.

Exasperated by their disappointment, the soldiers of Osman Sheikh-ed-Din
turned again upon the cavalry, and, forgetting in their anger the mobile
nature of their foe, pursued the elusive squadrons three long miles to the
north. The cavalry, intensely relieved by the escape of the Camel Corps,
played with their powerful antagonist, as the banderillo teases the bull.
Colonel Broadwood thus succeeded in luring this division of the Dervish
army far away from the field of battle, where they were sorely needed.
The rough ground, however, delayed the Horse battery. They lagged, as the
Camel Corps had done, and caused constant anxiety. At length two of their
guns stuck fast in a marshy spot, and as several men and horses were shot
in the attempt to extricate them Broadwood wisely ordered them to be
abandoned, and they were soon engulfed in the Dervish masses. Encouraged
by this capture, the horsemen of Osman's command daringly attacked the
retreating cavalry. But they were effectually checked by the charge
of a squadron under Major Mahon.

Both gunboats, having watched the Camel Corps safely into the zeriba,
now returned with the current and renewed their attack upon the Arabs.
Opening a heavy and accurate fire upon the river flank, they drove them
westward and away from the Nile. Through the gap thus opened Broadwood and
his squadrons trotted to rejoin the main body, picking up on the way
the two guns which had been abandoned.

While these things were passing on the northern flank, the frontal attack
was in progress. The debris of the 'White Flags' joined the centre, and the
whole 14,000 pressed forward against the zeriba, spreading out by degrees
and abandoning their dense formations, and gradually slowing down. At about
800 yards from the British division the advance ceased, and they could make
no headway. Opposite the Soudanese, who were armed only with the
Martini-Henry rifle, the assailants came within 300 yards; and one brave
old man, carrying a flag, fell at 150 paces from the shelter trench.
But the result was conclusive all along the line. The attack was shattered.
The leader, clad in his new jibba of many colours, rode on steadfastly
towards the inexorable firing line, until, pierced by several bullets,
he fell lifeless. Such was the end of that stubborn warrior of many
fights--wicked Osman Azrak, faithful unto death. The surviving Dervishes
lay down on the ground. Unable to advance, they were unwilling to retire;
and their riflemen, taking advantage of the folds of the plain, opened and
maintained an unequal combat. By eight o'clock it was evident that the
whole attack had failed. The loss of the enemy was more than 2,000 killed,
and perhaps as many wounded. To the infantry, who were busy with their
rifles, it had scarcely seemed a fight. Yet all along the front bullets had
whizzed over and into the ranks, and in every battalion there were
casualties. Captain Caldecott, of the Warwicks, was killed; the Camerons
had two officers, Captain Clarke and Lieutenant Nicholson, severely wounded;
the Grenadiers one, Captain Bagot. Colonel F. Rhodes, as he sat on his
horse near the Maxim battery of the 1st British Brigade, was shot through
the shoulder and carried from the field just as the attack reached
its climax. There were, besides these officers, about 150 casualties
among the soldiers.

The attack languished. The enemy's rifle fire continued, and as soon as
the heavy firing ceased it began to be annoying. The ground, although it
appeared flat and level to the eye, nevertheless contained depressions and
swellings which afforded good cover to the sharpshooters, and the solid
line behind the zeriba was an easy target. The artillery now began to
clear out these depressions by their shells, and in this work they
displayed a searching power very remarkable when their flat trajectory
is remembered. As the shells burst accurately above the Dervish skirmishers
and spearmen who were taking refuge in the folds of the plain, they rose by
hundreds and by fifties to fly. Instantly the hungry and attentive Maxims
and the watchful infantry opened on them, sweeping them all to the ground--
some in death, others in terror. Again the shells followed them to their
new concealment. Again they rose, fewer than before, and ran. Again the
Maxims and the rifles spluttered. Again they fell. And so on until the
front of the zeriba was clear of unwounded men for at least half a mile.
A few escaped. Some, notwithstanding the vices of which they have been
accused and the perils with which they were encompassed, gloriously
carried off their injured comrades.

After the attack had been broken, and while the front of the zeriba
was being cleared of the Dervish riflemen, the 21st Lancers were again
called upon to act. The Sirdar and his generals were all agreed on
one point. They must occupy Omdurman before the Dervish army could get
back there. They could fight as many Dervishes as cared to come in the
plain; among the houses it was different. As the Khalifa had anticipated,
the infidels, exulting in their victory, were eager, though for a different
reason, to seize the city. And this they were now in a position to do.
The Arabs were out in the desert. A great part of their army was even
as far away as Kerreri. The troops could move on interior lines. They were
bound to reach Omdurman first. The order was therefore given to march on
the city at once. But first the Surgham ridge must be reconnoitred, and the
ground between the zeriba and Omdurman cleared of the Dervishes--
with infantry if necessary, but with cavalry if possible,
because that would be quicker.

As the fusillade slackened, the Lancers stood to their horses.
Then General Gatacre, with Captain Brooke and the rest of his Staff,
came galloping along the rear of the line of infantry and guns, and shouted
for Colonel Martin. There was a brief conversation--an outstretched arm
pointing at the ridge--an order, and we were all scrambling into our
saddles and straightening the ranks in high expectation. We started at
a trot, two or three patrols galloping out in front, towards the high
ground, while the regiment followed in mass--a great square block of
ungainly brown figures and little horses, hung all over with water-bottles,
saddle-bags, picketing-gear, tins of bully-beef, all jolting and jangling
together; the polish of peace gone; soldiers without glitter; horsemen
without grace; but still a regiment of light cavalry in active operation
against the enemy.

The crest of the ridge was only half a mile away. It was found unoccupied.
The rocky mass of Surgham obstructed the view and concealed the great
reserve collected around the Black Flag. But southward, between us and
Omdurman, the whole plain was exposed. It was infested with small parties
of Dervishes, moving about, mounted and on foot, in tens and twenties.
Three miles away a broad stream of fugitives, of wounded, and of deserters
flowed from the Khalifa's army to the city. The mirages blurred and
distorted the picture, so that some of the routed Arabs walked in air
and some through water, and all were misty and unreal. But the sight was
sufficient to excite the fiercest instincts of cavalry. Only the scattered
parties in the plain appeared to prevent a glorious pursuit. The signalling
officer was set to heliograph back to the Sirdar that the ridge was
unoccupied and that several thousand Dervishes could be seen flying into
Omdurman. Pending the answer, we waited; and looking back northwards,
across the front of the zeriba, where the first attack had been stopped,
perceived a greyish-white smudge, perhaps a mile long. The glass disclosed
details--hundreds of tiny white figures heaped or scattered; dozens hopping,
crawling, staggering away; a few horses standing stolidly among the corpses;
a few unwounded men dragging off their comrades. The skirmishers among the
rocks of Surgham soon began to fire at the regiment, and we sheltered among
the mounds of sand, while a couple of troops replied with their carbines.
Then the heliograph in the zeriba began to talk in flashes of light that
opened and shut capriciously. The actual order is important. 'Advance,'
said the helio, 'and clear the left flank, and use every effort to prevent
the enemy re-entering Omdurman.' That was all, but it was sufficient.
In the distance the enemy could be seen re-entering Omdurman in hundreds.
There was no room for doubt. They must be stopped, and incidentally these
small parties in the plain might be brushed away. We remounted; the ground
looked smooth and unbroken; yet it was desirable to reconnoitre.
Two patrols were sent out. The small parties of Dervishes who were
scattered all over the plain and the slopes of the hill prevented anything
less than a squadron moving, except at their peril. The first patrol
struck out towards Omdurman, and began to push in between the scattered
Dervishes, who fired their rifles and showed great excitement. The other
patrol, under Lieutenant Grenfell, were sent to see what the ground looked
like from further along the ridge and on the lower slopes of Surgham.
The riflemen among the rocks turned their fire from the regiment to these
nearer objects. The five brown figures cantered over the rough ground,
presenting difficult targets, but under continual fire, and disappeared
round the spur. However, in two or three minutes they re-appeared,
the riflemen on the hill making a regular rattle of musketry, amid which
the Lancers galloped safely back, followed last of all by their officer.
He said that the plain looked as safe from the other side of the hill as
from where we were. At this moment the other patrol returned. They, too,
had had good fortune in their adventurous ride. Their information was exact.
They reported that in a shallow and apparently practicable khor about
three-quarters of a mile to the south-west, and between the regiment and
the fugitives, there was drawn up a formed body of Dervishes about 1,000
strong. Colonel Martin decided on this information to advance and attack
this force, which alone interposed between him and the Arab line of retreat.
Then we started.

But all this time the enemy had been busy. At the beginning of the battle
the Khalifa had posted a small force of 700 men on his extreme right,
to prevent his line of retreat to Omdurman being harassed. This detachment
was composed entirely of the Hadendoa tribesmen of Osman Digna's flag,
and was commanded by one of his subordinate Emirs, who selected a suitable
position in the shallow khor. As soon as the 21st Lancers left the zeriba
the Dervish scouts on the top of Surgham carried the news to the Khalifa.
It was said that the English cavalry were coming to cut him off from
Omdurman. Abdullah thereupon determined to strengthen his extreme right;
and he immediately ordered four regiments, each 500 strong, drawn from
the force around the Black Flag and under the Emir Ibrahim Khalil,
to reinforce the Hadendoa in the khor. While we were waiting for orders on
the ridge these men were hurrying southwards along the depression,
and concealed by a spur of Surgham Hill. The Lancer patrol reconnoitred the
khor, at the imminent risk of their lives, while it was only occupied by
the original 700 Hadendoa. Galloping back, they reported that it was held
by about 1,000 men. Before they reached the regiment this number was
increased to 2,700. This, however, we had no means of knowing. The Khalifa,
having despatched his reinforcement, rode on his donkey with a scanty
escort nearly half a mile from the Black Flag towards the khor, in order to
watch the event, and in consequence he was within 500 yards of the scene.

As the 21st Lancers left the ridge, the fire of the Arab riflemen
on the hill ceased. We advanced at a walk in mass for about 300 yards.
The scattered parties of Dervishes fell back and melted away, and only one
straggling line of men in dark blue waited motionless a quarter of a mile
to the left front. They were scarcely a hundred strong. The regiment formed
into line of squadron columns, and continued at a walk until within 300
yards of this small body of Dervishes. The firing behind the ridges had
stopped. There was complete silence, intensified by the recent tumult.
Far beyond the thin blue row of Dervishes the fugitives were visible
streaming into Omdurman. And should these few devoted men impede a regiment?
Yet it were wiser to examine their position from the other flank before
slipping a squadron at them. The heads of the squadrons wheeled slowly
to the left, and the Lancers, breaking into a trot, began to cross the
Dervish front in column of troops. Thereupon and with one accord the
blue-clad men dropped on their knees, and there burst out a loud, crackling
fire of musketry. It was hardly possible to miss such a target at such
a range. Horses and men fell at once. The only course was plain and welcome
to all. The Colonel, nearer than his regiment, already saw what lay behind
the skirmishers. He ordered, 'Right wheel into line' to be sounded.
The trumpet jerked out a shrill note, heard faintly above the trampling of
the horses and the noise of the rifles. On the instant all the sixteen
troops swung round and locked up into a long galloping line, and the
21st Lancers were committed to their first charge in war.

Two hundred and fifty yards away the dark-blue men were firing madly
in a thin film of light-blue smoke. Their bullets struck the hard gravel
into the air, and the troopers, to shield their faces from the stinging
dust, bowed their helmets forward, like the Cuirassiers at Waterloo.
The pace was fast and the distance short. Yet, before it was half covered,
the whole aspect of the affair changed. A deep crease in the ground--a dry
watercourse, a khor--appeared where all had seemed smooth, level plain;
and from it there sprang, with the suddenness of a pantomime effect
and a high-pitched yell, a dense white mass of men nearly as long as our
front and about twelve deep. A score of horsemen and a dozen bright flags
rose as if by magic from the earth. Eager warriors sprang forward
to anticipate the shock. The rest stood firm to meet it. The Lancers
acknowledged the apparition only by an increase of pace. Each man wanted
sufficient momentum to drive through such a solid line. The flank troops,
seeing that they overlapped, curved inwards like the horns of a moon.
But the whole event was a matter of seconds. The riflemen, firing bravely
to the last, were swept head over heels into the khor, and jumping down
with them, at full gallop and in the closest order, the British squadrons
struck the fierce brigade with one loud furious shout. The collision was
prodigious. Nearly thirty Lancers, men and horses, and at least two hundred
Arabs were overthrown. The shock was stunning to both sides, and for
perhaps ten wonderful seconds no man heeded his enemy. Terrified horses
wedged in the crowd, bruised and shaken men, sprawling in heaps, struggled,
dazed and stupid, to their feet, panted, and looked about them. Several
fallen Lancers had even time to re-mount. Meanwhile the impetus of the
cavalry carried them on. As a rider tears through a bullfinch, the officers
forced their way through the press; and as an iron rake might be drawn
through a heap of shingle, so the regiment followed. They shattered the
Dervish array, and, their pace reduced to a walk, scrambled out of the khor
on the further side, leaving a score of troopers behind them, and dragging
on with the charge more than a thousand Arabs. Then, and not till then, the
killing began; and thereafter each man saw the world along his lance,
under his guard, or through the back-sight of his pistol; and each had
his own strange tale to tell.

Stubborn and unshaken infantry hardly ever meet stubborn and unshaken
cavalry. Either the infantry run away and are cut down in flight, or they
keep their heads and destroy nearly all the horsemen by their musketry.
On this occasion two living walls had actually crashed together.
The Dervishes fought manfully. They tried to hamstring the horses,
They fired their rifles, pressing the muzzles into the very bodies of
their opponents. They cut reins and stirrup-leathers. They flung their
throwing-spears with great dexterity. They tried every device of cool,
determined men practised in war and familiar with cavalry; and, besides,
they swung sharp, heavy swords which bit deep. The hand-to-hand fighting
on the further side of the khor lasted for perhaps one minute. Then the
horses got into their stride again, the pace increased, and the Lancers
drew out from among their antagonists. Within two minutes of the collision
every living man was clear of the Dervish mass. All who had fallen were
cut at with swords till they stopped quivering, but no artistic mutilations
were attempted.

Two hundred yards away the regiment halted, rallied, faced about,
and in less than five minutes were re-formed and ready for a second charge.
The men were anxious to cut their way back through their enemies. We were
alone together--the cavalry regiment and the Dervish brigade. The ridge
hung like a curtain between us and the army. The general battle was
forgotten, as it was unseen. This was a private quarrel. The other might
have been a massacre; but here the fight was fair, for we too fought with
sword and spear. Indeed the advantage of ground and numbers lay with them.
All prepared to settle the debate at once and for ever. But some
realisation of the cost of our wild ride began to come to those who were
responsible. Riderless horses galloped across the plain. Men, clinging to
their saddles, lurched helplessly about, covered with blood from perhaps
a dozen wounds. Horses, streaming from tremendous gashes, limped and
staggered with their riders. In 120 seconds five officers, 65 men, and 119
horses out of fewer than 400 had been killed or wounded.

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