Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 4, 2025
Under an unanswered and therefore an unaimed fire from the heavy guns the Irish infantry moved forward upon the points which they had been ordered to attack. The Dublins led, then the Connaughts, the Inniskillings, and the Borderers.
Yet in such times as we were living in, the unbelievable is readily believed, and men saw malice in the suppression of what could not long be secret: Ireland had too many dead that day. What made the suggestion more incredible only gave a poignancy to resentment, for Admiral de Robeck was an Irishman, with his home some few miles from the regimental depot of the Dublins.
"It was the Munsters that charged first, with a sprig of shamrock on their caps; then the Dublins, the Worcesters, the Hampshires. Lying on the beach, on the rocks, on the lighters, they cried on the Mother of God. There, now, was Midshipman Drury swimming to a lighter which had broken loose, with a line in his mouth and a wound in his head. If ever a boy deserved his Victoria Cross, that lad did.
This morning early we got maxims on to each end of the place they had stormed, and then the Dublins retook it with the bayonet. Two hundred of their dead were left in the trench, and we only had 50 casualties not so bad! A little later on in the day a d d submarine appeared and had some shots at our transports and store ships.
The Irish boys were good at making wood fires in these old barns and pigsties, if there were a few bricks about to make a hearth, and, sure, a baked potato was no Protestant with a grudge against the Pope. There were no such luxuries in the trenches when the Dublins and the Munsters were up in the firing-line at the Hohenzollern.
They challenged, and the answer was a shattering volley, instantly returned by the survivors of the picket. So hot was the Boer attack that before help could come every man save one of the picket was on the ground. The sole survivor, Daley of the Dublins, took no backward step, but continued to steadily load and fire until help came from the awakened camp.
The regiment staggered, came on, staggered again, was overtaken by supporting companies of the Dublins and the Connaughts, came on, staggered once more, and finally dissolved into shreds, who ran swiftly back for cover, threading their way among their stricken comrades. Never on this earth was there a retreat of which the survivors had less reason to be ashamed.
They signaled that they were all that remained of the Dublins who had landed at the Camber at Seddul-Bahr. At 3 o'clock we got 150 men alive to shore. We watched our men working to the right and up into the castle ruins at each corner the officer crouching in front with revolver in rest. "When night came a house in Seddul-Bahr was burning brightly and there was a full moon.
From these Captain Haldane, who was in command, with a detachment of the Dublins, kept up a steady fire on the enemy, while Churchill worked to clear the track. To assist him he had a company of Natal volunteers, and those who had not run away of the train hands and break-down crew. "We were not long left in the comparative safety of a railroad accident," Churchill writes to his paper.
To-day they sent off two passenger pigeons for Maritzburg. The rumour also went that the wounded Dublins, taken to Intombi Spruit, from the unfortunate armoured train, had heard an official report of Buller's arrival at Bloemfontein after heavy losses. Another rumour told that many Boer wives and daughters were arriving in the laagers.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking