02 Redcoat's Rifle by Griff Hosker

Author:Griff Hosker [Hosker, Griff]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B0BT558GC4
Publisher: Sword Books Ltd
Published: 2022-12-31T23:00:00+00:00

Sudan 1884

Chapter 11

We left Cairo and boarded a mixture of vessels, mainly whale boats, to take us down the Nile. The cataracts meant that we would still have some marching to do but the bulk of the journey would be by water. The boats and ships took, generally, one company. The colonel and his staff, along with me, travelled with the smallest company, Company G. They had fewer men to start with and it was their company who had suffered the desertions. Sergeant Ahmed Sayyid was not the best sergeant. Mahmoud had tried his best with him but he had been over-promoted and was not a natural leader.

The colonel had allowed me to wear the holster and as we headed down the Nile I said, “Colonel, the one thing we have not had the chance to practise is firing at enemies.”

He nodded, “I know but that is almost impossible to actually practise anyway Sarn’t Major.”

I patted my holster, “What I mean, sir, is will the officers be able to use their weapons judiciously? When it is close quarters, then a pistol can do serious damage.”

He nodded, “An omission on my part, Roberts, I will speak to them when we land. Keep coming up with these ideas, Roberts. You are an asset that I will try to use.” He also confided, “We shall not be going the whole way by boat. We and a column of British soldiers will land close to Korti and we will cut the large loop out of the river. It will be one hundred miles and will test the battalion.”

As I digested that information I took in the full implications. We would be isolated and the mounted Dervish could pick us off at will. We would have to march through the inhospitable desert. It would not be an easy task.

The one advantage of the river was the breeze afforded by the river but the insects were in even greater numbers. It was the British officers who suffered more than the Egyptians. It was not that they were immune but they seemed to be able to endure it better. I learned that we were in a race to get to Khartoum before it fell. The politicians had prevaricated, as usual, and left it almost too late. The one advantage of their dallying was that we were moving in December when it was the coolest that it would be. When we landed on the west bank of the Nile, at Korti, it was hard to see how any sense could be made of the confusion. There were heavy guns to be moved as well as Gatling and Gardner guns. The camel regiment we had travelled with was now an operative unit and had to disembark camels with whom they were unfamiliar. The 19th Hussars were our cavalry but they were riding horses and we also had naval detachments with their guns. The Egyptian element consisted of our eight battalions. Whilst we were the largest single unit, I knew

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