Winston Churchill, Excerpts from The River
War: An Account of the Conquest of the Sudan (1902)
CHAPTER
XV: THE BATTLE OF OMDURMAN
SEPTEMBER 2, 1898
The bugles all over the camp by the river began to sound at
half-past four. The cavalry trumpets and the drums and fifes of
the British division joined the chorus, and everyone awoke amid a
confusion of merry or defiant notes. Then it grew gradually
lighter, and the cavalry mounted their horses, the infantry stood
to their arms, and the gunners went to their batteries; while the
sun, rising over the Nile, revealed the wide plain, the dark rocky
hills, and the waiting army. It was as if all the preliminaries
were settled, the ground cleared, and nothing remained but the
final act and 'the rigour of the game.'
Even before it became light several squadrons of British and
Egyptian cavalry were pushed swiftly forward to gain contact with
the enemy and learn his intentions. The first of these, under
Captain Baring, occupied Surgham Hill, and waited in the gloom
until the whereabouts of the Dervishes should be disclosed by the
dawn. It was a perilous undertaking, for he might have found them
unexpectedly near. As the sun rose, the 21st Lancers trotted out
of the zeriba and threw out a spray of officers' patrols. As there
had been no night attack, it was expected that the Dervish army
would have retired to their original position or entered the town.
It was hardly conceivable that they would advance across the open
ground to attack the zeriba by daylight. Indeed, it appeared more
probable that their hearts had failed them in the night, and that
they had melted away into the desert. But these anticipations were
immediately dispelled by the scene which was visible from the
crest of the ridge.
It was a quarter to six. The light was dim, but growing stronger
every minute. There in the plain lay the enemy, their numbers
unaltered, their confidence and intentions apparently unshaken.
Their front was now nearly five miles long, and composed of great
masses of men joined together by thinner lines. Behind and near to
the flanks were large reserves. From the ridge they looked dark
blurs and streaks, relieved and diversified with an odd-looking
shimmer of light from the spear-points. At about ten minutes to
six it was evident that the masses were in motion and advancing
swiftly. Their Emirs galloped about and before their ranks. Scouts
and patrols scattered themselves all over the front. Then they
began to cheer. They were still a mile away from the hill, and
were concealed from the Sirdar's army by the folds of the ground.
The noise of the shouting was heard, albeit faintly, by the troops
down by the river. But to those watching on the hill a tremendous
roar came up in waves of intense sound, like the tumult of the
rising wind and sea before a storm.
The British and Egyptian forces were arranged in line, with their
back to the river. The flanks were secured by the gunboats lying
moored in the stream. Before them was the rolling sandy plain,
looking from the slight elevation of the ridge smooth and flat as
a table. To the right rose the rocky hills of the Kerreri
position, near which the Egyptian cavalry were drawn up—a dark
solid mass of men and horses. On the left the 21st Lancers, with a
single squadron thrown out in advance, were halted watching their
patrols, who climbed about Surgham Hill, stretched forward beyond
it, or perched, as we did, on the ridge.
The ground sloped gently up from the river; so that it seemed as
if the landward ends of the Surgham and Kerreri ridges curved in
towards each other, enclosing what lay between. Beyond the long
swell of sand which formed the western wall of this spacious
amphitheatre the black shapes of the distant hills rose in misty
confusion. The challengers were already in the arena; their
antagonists swiftly approached.
Although the Dervishes were steadily advancing, a belief that
their musketry was inferior encouraged a nearer view, and we
trotted round the south-west slopes of Surgham Hill until we
reached the sandhills on the enemy's side, among which the
regiment had waited the day before. Thence the whole array was
visible in minute detail. It seemed that every single man of all
the thousands could be examined separately. The pace of their
march was fast and steady, and it was evident that it would not be
safe to wait long among the sandhills. Yet the wonder of the scene
exercised a dangerous fascination, and for a while we tarried.
The emblems of the more famous Emirs were easily distinguishable.
On the extreme left the chiefs and soldiers of the bright green
flag gathered under Ali-Wad-Helu; between this and the centre the
large dark green flag of Osman Sheikh-ed-Din rose above a dense
mass of spearmen, preceded by long lines of warriors armed
presumably with rifles; over the centre, commanded by Yakub, the
sacred Black banner of the Khalifa floated high and remarkable;
while on the right a great square of Dervishes was arrayed under
an extraordinary number of white flags, amid which the red ensign
of Sherif was almost hidden. All the pride and might of the
Dervish Empire were massed on this last great day of its
existence. Riflemen who had helped to destroy Hicks, spearmen who
had charged at Abu Klea, Emirs who saw the sack of Gondar, Baggara
fresh from raiding the Shillooks, warriors who had besieged
Khartoum—all marched, inspired by the memories of former triumphs
and embittered by the knowledge of late defeats, to chastise the
impudent and accursed invaders.
The advance continued. The Dervish left began to stretch out
across the plain towards Kerreri—as I thought, to turn our right
flank. Their centre, under the Black Flag, moved directly towards
Surgham. The right pursued a line of advance south of that hill.
This mass of men were the most striking of all. They could not
have mustered fewer than 6,000. Their array was perfect. They
displayed a great number of flags—perhaps 500—which looked at the
distance white, though they were really covered with texts from
the Koran, and which by their admirable alignment made this
division of the Khalifa's army look like the old representations
of the Crusaders in the Bayeux tapestry.
The attack developed. The left, nearly 20,000 strong, toiled
across the plain and approached the Egyptian squadrons. The
leading masses of the centre deployed facing the zeriba and
marched forthwith to the direct assault. As the whole Dervish army
continued to advance, the division with the white flags, which had
until now been echeloned in rear of their right, moved up into the
general line and began to climb the southern slopes of Surgham
Hill. Meanwhile yet another body of the enemy, comparatively
insignificant in numbers, who had been drawn up behind the 'White
Flags,' were moving slowly towards the Nile, echeloned still
further behind their right, and not far from the suburbs of
Omdurman. These men had evidently been posted to prevent the
Dervish army being cut off from the city and to secure their line
of retreat; and with them the 21st Lancers were destined to have a
much closer acquaintance about two hours later.
The Dervish centre had come within range. But it was not the
British and Egyptian army that began the battle. If there was one
arm in which the Arabs were beyond all comparison inferior to
their adversaries, it was in guns. Yet it was with this arm that
they opened their attack. In the middle of the Dervish line now
marching in frontal assault were two puffs of smoke. About fifty
yards short of the thorn fence two red clouds of sand and dust
sprang up, where the projectiles had struck. It looked like a
challenge. It was immediately answered. Great clouds of smoke
appeared all along the front of the British and Soudanese
brigades. One after another four batteries opened on the enemy at
a range of about 3,000 yards. The sound of the cannonade rolled up
to us on the ridge, and was re-echoed by the hills. Above the
heads of the moving masses shells began to burst, dotting the air
with smoke-balls and the ground with bodies. But a nearer tragedy
impended. The 'White Flags' were nearly over the crest. In another
minute they would become visible to the batteries. Did they
realise what would come to meet them? They were in a dense mass,
2,800 yards from the 32nd Field Battery and the gunboats. The
ranges were known. It was a matter of machinery. The more distant
slaughter passed unnoticed, as the mind was fascinated by the
approaching horror. In a few seconds swift destruction would rush
on these brave men. They topped the crest and drew out into full
view of the whole army. Their white banners made them conspicuous
above all. As they saw the camp of their enemies, they discharged
their rifles with a great roar of musketry and quickened their
pace. For a moment the white flags advanced in regular order, and
the whole division crossed the crest and were exposed. Forthwith
the gunboats, the 32nd British Field Battery, and other guns from
the zeriba opened on them. About twenty shells struck them in the
first minute. Some burst high in the air, others exactly in their
faces. Others, again, plunged into the sand and, exploding, dashed
clouds of red dust, splinters, and bullets amid their ranks. The
white banners toppled over in all directions. Yet they rose again
immediately, as other men pressed forward to die for the Mahdi's
sacred cause and in the defence of the successor of the True
Prophet. It was a terrible sight, for as yet they had not hurt us
at all, and it seemed an unfair advantage to strike thus cruelly
when they could not reply. Under the influence of the shells the
mass of the 'White Flags' dissolved into thin lines of spearmen
and skirmishers, and came on in altered formation and diminished
numbers, but with unabated enthusiasm. And now, the whole attack
being thoroughly exposed, it became the duty of the cavalry to
clear the front as quickly as possible, and leave the further
conduct of the debate to the infantry and the Maxim guns. All the
patrols trotted or cantered back to their squadrons, and the
regiment retired swiftly into the zeriba, while the shells from
the gunboats screamed overhead and the whole length of the
position began to burst into flame and smoke. Nor was it long
before the tremendous banging of the artillery was swollen by the
roar of musketry.
Source:
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