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The Gordon
Highlanders Personal Insights |
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The Gordon Highlanders |
On the forenoon of the 2d March, we cast anchor in Aboukir Bay, the place where the battle of the Nile was fought. Here we lay until the 8th, before weather would permit us to land; a period of great anxiety, for every hour was giving the enemy time to collect his forces, and prepare the means of defence. This made the prospect increasingly awful. Our regimnet was intended to have been one of those which should land first; but the fever having increased so much, that about one half our number were at this time sick, we were unfit to perform a regiment's part, and another of equal strength was put in our place. The bay was shallow, and the ships which contained the troops being in general of a large size, had to anchor at a considerable distance from the shore. On the 7th, a number of smaller vessels which had been loaded with provisions, but whose cargoes were now nearly expended, were moved to about three miles from the shore; and several regiments were put on board of them, that support might be quickly given to those who landed first. All of our regiment fit for duty were ordered into one of these vessels in the evening. The weather was now favourable, and everything indicated that the landing would be attempted next morning. I slept little or none during the night; but frequently employed myself in short prayers to God to be merciful to me, and to spare me and protect me from danger.—I was surprised this night with want of my ordinary sight, and heard numbers of my comrades say that they did not see so well as usual, and yet they had no pain in their eyes. About two o'clock in the morning the signal was made for the first division of the troops to get into the boats, and at three o'clock they were ordered to row for their rendezvous in the rear of one of the light war-vessels that was anchored about a gun-shot from shore. This was a very fatiguing service to the seamen; because the fleet was so widely anchored, and many of the large ships so far from shore, that it was nine o'clock before they were all collected and arranged. The enemy could see our movements; and the unaviodable delays that took place gave them a fair opportunity to provide for their defence, for they now knew the only point at which we could land. I contemplated the scene with an anxious aching heart. The number of troops in the boats was about 5500, and the whole army about 15,000, of which there were about 1000 sick at the time of landing, and of these about 400 belonged to our own regiment.... At nine o'clock the signal was made for the boats to advance; and the whole line advanced at the same instant, giving three loud cheers....As soon as the boats set off for the beach, the two bomb ketches, and the three sloops of war, began to throw their shot and shells upon the shore; and the light vessels, stationed to protect the flanks of the boats, moved along with them and began to fire. The bulk of the enemy's field artillery was in the flat ground...As soon as the boats were within reach of their shot, they opened fire on them; and it appeared to be their design, to make their shot cross the boats in the centre. The heavy guns on the top of the tower in Aboukir castle, and the mortars, commenced at the same time, their fire on the right flank of the boats. The scene now became dreadful; the war vessels pouring whole broadsides; the bomb ketches throwing shells, which, exploding in the air formed numerous little clouds; and the gun-boats and cutters on the flanks of the boats exerting themselves to the utmost. As none of these, however, could approach the shore, so near as to be within the reach of grape-shot, or even to have a certain aim, their exertions were of little benefit to the boats; which pursued their progress toward the shore, whilst the enemy's artillery continued to play upon them with unremitting activity. All eyes were directed towards the boats; every flash of the enemy's artillery was noticed; and every eye on the stretch, to decern where the shot might strike the water, to observe if it lighted among the boats, and if any of them were damaged or sunk; and we too often had occasion to picture in our minds, when we saw the shot strike in the middle of them, and produce disorder, how many it might have killed or wounded, or drowned....
Have you heard from Mrs Youngson yet? Ladysmith Dearest Mama Dear Ma I don't know if you will have received
my last letter yet but I hope you have. I wrote to J Goll the same day,
and I am writing to Willie tonight. Dear Ma I hope that you are always bearing up and that the children and yourself are keeping well. How is poor Mrs Raffan keeping. I am sure she must be in a terrible state. How is Mrs Morrison keeping, she must have an anxious time of it. Morrison is in the field hospital which was shifted outside the town to what they call the Race Course, and of course the Boers do not interfere with it as it was agreed upon to remove the wounded there before the Boers commenced the bombardment. I think that Morrison is getting on all right, but of course I cannot say for certain. We are having it very hard here doing picquets and outpost duty, for 4 night during this week I had not more than about 3 hours sleep, but last night I was all night in bed and I hope to be the same tonight, but all Monday morning I go on picquet 2.30 and stay on till 7 am on Tuesday. Dear Ma I hope you are getting your money all right. Did you get my letter with the will in it? I mentioned it to you in my last letter. And now Dearest Ma I hope this will find you and the children in good health as it leaves me in good health thank God. I do not know when I may be able to write again but I will send you a letter as often as possible. Tell my little girlies that their Dada is always thinking about them and longing to be back again to them and yourself. Goodnight to you all and may God spare us all to meet again. With kindest love and kisses to yourself and children from your loving and affectionate husband. Mackie has been acting Sergt Major since the Battle of Elandslaagte (This next letter was enclosed as a continuation of the letter dated 11 November, 1899) My Dearest Mama As you will see this is a continuation of my former letter, as we are still besieged here, and are living in hopes of being relieved every day in fact we have been expecting to be so for a fortnight now but each day comes and brings no relieving column. However this morning the guns of the relieving column can be heard about 12 miles away, we can hear them rolling from the hill on which I am on Picquet now. I am sure you must be in a terribly anxious condition to hear how I am, and I would give a lot if a letter could be got through the Boer lines to be posted to you, but that is impossible. You will know more of what is going on then I do for we get very little news of the outside world. I will tell you a few things of how we are situated. Our camp is in a field on the bank of the Klip River and we have had to make entrenchment's in the River Bank, to which we have to go every morning at 4 o'clock before it is daylight, as the Boers begin to shell the camp about 4.30, and we stay there until about 7 pm, that is when we are in Camp. The Boers fire a lot of shells into the Town and the Camps, and it is marvelous how few people they injure, they occasionally hit some horses and mules. We have only had 2 men hit by splinters, and both in the head, but not seriously. We also had an Officer & Sergt Marr wounded one afternoon by splinters when on Picquet. There is a lot of diarhia and dysentry among our men, but we have had no case of Enteric up to the present, although some of the Regts have a lot of it. The 19th Hussars have over 50 cases in Hospl and 12 have died with Enteric. It is supposed to be due to the water, as there is nothing but the River water. We get ours filtered and keep our Camp pretty clean, which accounts for our men being so well. We have had no actual fighting since that I spoke of before, although we are getting shelled pretty heavily. As I write with my back to a wall I hear and see big guns from the enemy being fired all round, and some of ours replying, also some of the Picquets are doing some rifle fire. Our food supply is getting low, but they still continue to give us some fresh meat daily, and if we don't get relieved soon I dot know what will happen. We cannot get any milk either fresh or tinned, jams, butter, bacon nor anything else except a bit of cheese once or twice a week, and it is about run out. Ales or spirits are not obtainable. The Officers of course are different although even they are on their allowance. You will have seen in the paper that the 1st Battn are out here, and that they have been engaged. We heard a few days ago that they were with the Column which is working its way up country. I heard of 3 of their Officers who were wounded but of no others. All the Highland Battn that have been in action have lost heavily, and we have now got an order to get a Khaki apron for our kilts and our sporrans have been collected and stored, so that we will not be so conspicuous a mark for the Boers in future. They always poured in the most of their fire on the Highs. Life here is dangerous and monotonous, and I hope it will soon alter. I had a note from Morrison about a fortnight ago, from Jutambi Camp where the sick and wounded are, and he said he was about all right, only he has lost the power of his left hand and will require to undergo an operation, but where or when it will take place he does not know. I hear the Sergt Major is all right again but he has not joined the Battn yet. Captn Mucklejohn has lost his arm in Hospl, but is doing well. Captn Haldane was sent to Petermaritzburg before the line was cut, and it appears he got better. He came up the line with the armoured train one day when the Boers attacked it and captured 2 trucks with about 50 prisoners him among them, so I dont expect to see him again until the war is over, if God is pleased to spare me. My Darlings every night I pray to God to spare you all and myself to join one another again, and many a time am thinking of you in the course of the day. I read your last two letters only yesterday again and I nearly cried. I am afraid Ma that this affair will last a long time yet, but if we are spared in health and strength we need not grumble. I will add bit by bit to this until the communication is restored again when I will have it posted at the very earliest opportunity. You will probably not know that up to now the only letters I have got from you were the two I received on the Sunday after our return from Elanslaagte. They are dated 26th Sept & 3rd Oct. Darling I send my love and kisses to you daily. Look after yourself and the children Ma, as I know you will without my telling you, and now for the present I will stop, and pray to God that tomorrow I will be able to add some better news. (Another continuation enclosed with the 11 November letter, though this is dated Christmas Day) Dear Ma, A merry Christmas to you and our girlies and many happy returns of the day, happier I hope than the present one for you all and myself. You will remember one year ago we were fairly happy in Edinburgh. Today (Monday) the Sergts had their Christmas dinner together in a large hole that has been dug out for the Quartermaster to issue rations from. The dinner was fairly good under the conditions, but not anything like what it would have been if we had been at home in Barracks. We had to sit on large biscuit boxes (wooden) and corned beef boxes & biscuit boxes made the table. It is the first time we have dined together since we landed in Natal, there is no Sergts Mess on active service. I was on Picquet yesterday and we had to go out across the hill we were on to build a stone wall Sangar for a Camp they were going to make for the Brigadier. We got shelled by the Boer in the morning soon after we started, and when we went back after dinnertime they shelled us again from a hill called Telegraph Hill. They put three 100lb shells within a radius of 50 yards round us, but thank God no one was hit, although several men had narrow shaves. it was a very mad thing to do in broad daylight to send men out on top of a hill to work. The Boers kept up the shelling pretty briskly yesterday, they fired over 180 shells, but I dont think they did much injury. I have not heard of any body being hit. We had news on Christmas night that Kimberly was relieved and that the Boers had had heavy losses, also that General Buller hoped to have us relieved by New Years day, all of which I pray God may be true. The Sergt Major has now rejoined us from Hospital but is not doing duty yet, as he cannot use his left hand. He said that most of our people in Intombi Hospl were doing well when he left, except that Morrison had a touch of fever and Sergt Marr a touch of dysentry. This disease is not abating any so far as I hear. We had a terrible thunderstorm last night (26 Dec). The lightning & thunder was terrifying. I think it was worse than anything I ever saw in India, and the rain simply tumbled down. Luckily my tent kept fairly dry, but many of the mens tents it came through and this morning the (27th) the trenches on the River bank were full of water. The Boers have started shelling heavily this morning again, some of them falling near & some into our camp. We had a message from the Queen on Christmas day wishing us all well. These messages are all signalled from down country by the heliograph during the day and by lamp during the night. If the Boers would only attack us and come off the hills they are on around here, we would soon end the business for them here, but we are not strong enough to attack them in their positions, but as soon as the Relieving Column comes near enough to attack them we will likely help them. It will be a hard bloody fight but the Boers will have to go. I hear that 7000 militiamen have landed in Natal and that the Volunteers are doing Garrison duty at home. I wonder if the 3rd Battn are among them? I would like to meet some of the Permanent Staff out here.
I was posted to the 1st Gordons in Jan 1947 at Meanee barracks Essen in The Rhur. The battalion [Bn] was part of the Highland Brigade which was part of 2nd Infantry Division. The other two Bns which were part of the Highland Brigade were 1st Black Watch based at Duisberg and the Royal Welsh Fusiliers at Dusseldorf. The CO of 1 Gordons at the time was Lt Col Gerrard who was replaced by Lt Col V.D.G. Campbell, who I believe was formerly was a Cameron. I was with the Sniper Section along with Jackie Woods, formerly a trawlerman from Aberdeen, Johnny Milne, Sandy Thomson,Geordie Wood and Pte Honeywell. The platoon officer was,I believe Lt Ian Mckenzie Robertson. The Sgt (wpn trg) was Bill Christie. Some of other personalities as I remember were: Sgt Geordie Erskin who was from the Black Watch. WOs George and Charlie Michie,Sgt Jimmy Scales (MT Sgt) and WO Les Dunn from S Coy. I have vague recolection of a visit from The Duke of Gloucester who was I think was Col of the Regt. Later in the year we moved to Munsterlager to carry out guard duties on displaced persons (DPs) and one lager which housed minor war criminals. Being in that area provided opportunities to visit Belson concentration camp which even then was spooky. From there the Bn moved to Berlin, Montgomery [Barracks] Bks which was in the district Kladow quite close to RAF Gatow. The Bn formed part of British Troops Berlin. Duties included mounting guard at Spandau Prison which still held a couple of senior war crininals including HESS. Other duties included designated trips into the Russian Zone to show the flag. The RSM as I recall was named Foster. The was a rather amusing incident involving the RSM. One Saturday morning diring a parade on the barrack square. A female riding a horse had the temerity to ride across the square during the parade. The retort from the RSM was to shout "Vera get off my bloody square." Vera was his wife. Other personalities who come to mind at this stage are: Regimental bandmaster Taffy Williams, Pipe Major Couples, Scrappy Hayes orderly room (who later was a Lt Col) and Paddy Coggle who was the Provost Sergeant from Black Watch.
This page was last updated on Monday, 19 March 2007
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