Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1900-06-02
AUSTRALIANS IN BATTLE
How the Antipodean Contingent
Fights In South Africa.
THRILLING STORY TOLD By A BoBR


Tells of Their Heroism Near Coles
berg How Twenty Australians
Beat Four Hundred Boers-HeId a
Kopje For Hours While Convoy Es-
capped.
A. G. Hales, the Australian corre-
spondent for the London Daily News
in South Africa, under date of Beth
any, April IS, writes of the action of
20 members Of the Australian contin-
gent as related to him in the hospital
by a wounded Boer. He says:
Il viii take the story from the Beers
mouth and tell 1t to you as hope to
tell it round a hundred campfires when
the war is over and | go back to the
Australian bush once more.
1T happened round Colesberg way
he said We thought we had the Brit
sh beaten, and our commandant gave
the word to press on and cut them to
pieces. Our big guns had been grand
ly handled, and our rifle fire had told
its tale. We saw, the British falling
back from the kopjes they had held,
between us and victory, but there was,
and we found it out before we were
many minutes older. There was one
big kopje that was the very key to the
position. Our spies told us that this
was held by an Australian force, We
looked at it very anXiously for it was
a hard position to take, but even as we
watched we saw that nearly all the
Australians were leaving it. They, too,
were falling back with the British
troops. If we once got that kopje,
there was nothing on earth could stop
us. We could pass on and sweep
around the retiring foe and wipe them
off the earth as a child wipes dirt from
its hands, and we laughed when we
saw that only about 20 Australians had
been left to guard the kopje.
"There were about 400 of us, all
picked men, and when the comman-
dant called to us to go and take the
kopje, we sprang up eagerly and dash
ed down over some hills, meaning to
cross the gully and charge up the
kopje where 20 men were waiting for
us. But we did not know the Aus
tralians then. We know them now.
Scarcely had we risen to our feet when
they had loosed their rifles on us, and
not a shot was wasted. They did not
fire as regular soldiers nearly always
do, volley after volley, straight in front
of them, but every one picked his man
and shot to kill. They fired like light
ming, too never dwelling on the trig
ger, yet never wildly wasting lead, and
all around us our best and boldest
dropped until we dared not face them.
We dropped to cover and tried to pick
them off, but they were cool and
watchful, throwing no chance away.
We tried to crawl from rock to rock to
hem them in, but they, holding their
fire until our burghers moved plugged
us with lead until we dared not stir
a step forward, and all the time the
British troops, with all their convoy,
were slowly but safely falling back
through the kopjes, where we had hop
ed to hem them in.
"'We gnawed our boards and cursed
these fellows who played our game as
we had thought no living man could
have played it. Then once again
we tried to rush the hill, and once
again they drove us back, though our
guns were playing on the heights they
held. We could not face their fire. To
move upright to cross a dozen yards
meant death, and many a Boer wife
was widowed and many child left
fatherless by those silent men who
held the heights above us. They did
not cheer as we came onward. They
did not play wild music; they only
chung close as climbing weeds to the
rock and shot as we never saw men
shoot before, and never hope to see
men shoot again.
""Then we got ready to sweep the
hill with guns, but our commandant,
admiring those brave few who would
not bulge before us in spite of our
numbers. sent an officer to them to ask
them to surrender promising them all
the honors of war. But they sent us
word to come and take them if we
could. And then an officer asked them
three times if they would hold up their
hands, and at the third time a grim
sergeant rose and answered him: AYE,
we will hold up our hands, but when
we do you'll find bayonet in 'em. Go
back and tell your commandant that
Australia's here to stay" And there
| they staid and fought us hour by hour,
holding us back, when but for them
victory would have been with us. We
shelled them all along their scattered
| line and tried to rush them under cover
of the artillery fire, but they only held
| their posts with stouter hearts and shot
the straighter when the fire was hot
test, and we could do nothing but lie
there and swear at them, though we
| admired them for their stubborn pluck.
They held the hill until all their men
were safe, and then, dashing down the
other side, they jumped into their sad
dies and made off, carrying their
wounded with them. They were but
20 men and we 400
"a Tommy sitting at the speakers
foot IooIya6 mn and said. 'What are yer