Today in Kimberley's History
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55 days since beginning of the Siege of Kimberley, 1899
Extract from "The Diary of a Doctor's Wife – During the Siege of Kimberley October 1899 to February 1900" by Winifred Heberden.
About noon Jack sent me a note by one of his Ambulance men saying that they were waiting in the Barkly Road, and that nothing much had been done, and that a few tinned things and some whiskey would be welcome.
In the afternoon reports reached us that heavy firing was going on, and our guns seemed to be busy enough. It was not till nearly 8 p.m. that the information came in that Sergeant-Major Moss, an excellent N.C.O. of the D.F.A. had been killed by a piece of shell, and that several men had been wounded; Captain White of the C.P. amongst them.
Later, when Jack arrived back I heard what a hot shelling from the Boers at Kamfersdam our men had been under. They used their cordite gun on us, and Jack described this as having a much worse moral effect on one than rifle fire, or even ordinary shell fire, for there is no sound and no smoke from the gun, and you do not hear the whirr of the shell until half a second before it explodes. The Boers got the range of our guns very accurately in the course of the afternoon, and the D.F.A., not following the example of the R.A. quickly enough, and altering the position of their guns, lost their fine Sergeant-Major in consequence. Our men, however, are learning to take cover now till the shell has burst, and to fight the Boer as he fights us.
A mule in the Ambulance wagon was killed by the top of a shell - the specimen being immediately pounced on by one of the men, who, on the spur of the moment, said he was going to present it to the Doctor. However, next morning he had repented his impulse, but offered Jack another piece of shell which had, unfortunately, not the distinction of having done to death a mule!
Extract from "The Diary of a Doctor's Wife – During the Siege of Kimberley October 1899 to February 1900" by Winifred Heberden.
About noon Jack sent me a note by one of his Ambulance men saying that they were waiting in the Barkly Road, and that nothing much had been done, and that a few tinned things and some whiskey would be welcome.
In the afternoon reports reached us that heavy firing was going on, and our guns seemed to be busy enough. It was not till nearly 8 p.m. that the information came in that Sergeant-Major Moss, an excellent N.C.O. of the D.F.A. had been killed by a piece of shell, and that several men had been wounded; Captain White of the C.P. amongst them.
Later, when Jack arrived back I heard what a hot shelling from the Boers at Kamfersdam our men had been under. They used their cordite gun on us, and Jack described this as having a much worse moral effect on one than rifle fire, or even ordinary shell fire, for there is no sound and no smoke from the gun, and you do not hear the whirr of the shell until half a second before it explodes. The Boers got the range of our guns very accurately in the course of the afternoon, and the D.F.A., not following the example of the R.A. quickly enough, and altering the position of their guns, lost their fine Sergeant-Major in consequence. Our men, however, are learning to take cover now till the shell has burst, and to fight the Boer as he fights us.
A mule in the Ambulance wagon was killed by the top of a shell - the specimen being immediately pounced on by one of the men, who, on the spur of the moment, said he was going to present it to the Doctor. However, next morning he had repented his impulse, but offered Jack another piece of shell which had, unfortunately, not the distinction of having done to death a mule!