78 Pages - The Black Vault

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in the book, besides, in all the manoeuvres I had attendedand tactical schemes I had seen, the “defence”always held a position on top of a hill or ridge.My duty was plain: Waschout Hill seemed the onlyplace which did not contravene any of the 19 lessonsI had learnt, and up it I walked. As I stood near oneof the huts, I got an excellent view of the drift andits southern approach just over the bulge of the hill,and a clear view of the river further east and west. Ithought at first I would demolish the few grass andmatting huts which, with some empty kerosene tinsand heaps of bones and debris, formed the Kaffirkraal; but on consideration I decided to play cunning,and that this same innocent-looking Kaffir kraalwould materially assist me to hide my de,fences, Imade out my plan of operations in detail, and we hadsoon conveyed all our stores up to the top of thehill, and started work.Upon the return of the patrols with their prisoners,the Dutchmen and “boys” were told off to dig forthemselves and their females. <strong>The</strong> Kaffirs of the kraalwe had impressed to assist at once,(see Map 6.)My arrangements were as follows: All round thehuts on the hilltop and close to them, we dug someten short lengths of deep-firing trenches, curved inplan, and each long enough to hold five men. <strong>The</strong>setrenches had extremely low parapets, really onlyserving. as rifle rests, some of the excavated earthbeing heaped up behind the trenches to the heightof a foot or so, the remainder being dealt with as describedlater. In most cases the parapets were pro-49—
Map 6vialed with grooves to fire through at ground-level,the parapet on each side being high enough to justprotect the head. As with the background the men’sheads were not really visible, it was unnecessary toprovide proper loopholes, which would have necessitatedalso the use of new sandbags, which would50-.
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FMFRP 12-33The DefenseofDuffer’sD
Page 6 and 7: ABOUTTHE AUTHORMajor General Sir Er
Page 8 and 9: BACKGROUNDINFORMATION(THE BOER WAR)
Page 10: “/t was our own fault, and our ve
Page 13 and 14: — ,-
Page 15 and 16: UDUOFFHR’SUDUNIFT.GENERAL PLAN.Ma
Page 17 and 18: I had so often longed for. This was
Page 19 and 20: stores and tools, which had been du
Page 21 and 22: a most loyal Briton, and had been m
Page 23 and 24: silhouetted in the cheerful blaze o
Page 25 and 26: out the following lessons, the resu
Page 27 and 28: men each, one to the top of Waschou
Page 29 and 30: preached the guard of the north fro
Page 31 and 32: amazing alacrity, and looked as if
Page 33 and 34: teeth outside their kraals whilst t
Page 35 and 36: horseshoe bend of the river, as thi
Page 37 and 38: It was astonishing what difficulty
Page 39 and 40: on top of that kop-je on the fur si
Page 41 and 42: at first halted and begun to be sus
Page 43 and 44: Eh’eam‘(0 was some power the gi
Page 45 and 46: Map 5The Dutchmen and Kaffirs were
Page 47 and 48: presence, with a close-range volley
Page 49 and 50: By the time I had gathered what was
Page 51 and 52: “We lay bare as the paunchof the
Page 53 and 54: is frontall round.12. Beware of bei
Page 55: ifth &eam“A frif/ing sum of miser
Page 59 and 60: distributed in case of a long and p
Page 61 and 62: and the road south to see how matte
Page 63 and 64: we opened fire on the main body som
Page 65 and 66: True, we were not captured, and had
Page 67 and 68: sixth!!)ream“Sweet are the uses o
Page 69 and 70: advantages of the proposal.I resist
Page 71 and 72: any degree hampered by a fear of hi
Page 73 and 74: scooped out a little, or a shelf cu
Page 75 and 76: dream; all we could do meanwhile wa
Page 77 and 78: and a coat there peeping over the t
Page 79: musketry in the distance, and saw a
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78 Pages - The Black Vault

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