1899 - Diary of the siege of Mafeking by Edward Ross
Saturday, 27 January
Enemy as per usual opened the ball at 7 a.m. by sending us a harmless 5pounder and then at 7.15 started all our bells going by elevating, loading and setting Big Ben on to the town.
Orders came round giving instructions for one or two extra sentries and that a very vigilant watch was to be kept, as the Boers seemed very unrestive and could be seen moving about in force. But the morning came with the usual monotonous quietness.
A little before breakfast [the] enemy sent a large shell right over the town, and then after breakfast, having previously found the range, they sent eight more 94-pounders plump into and all round the women’s laager. What a dastardly outrage by an enemy who call themselves a civilized nation and who are supposed to be fighting under the laws of the Geneva Convention. The whole bombardment this morning was executed with diabolical distinction. The Boers had the heliograph fixed on our north-east and advised their base on our west exactly where each shot struck: this we know as two of our men went out on our extreme right and intercepted their messages, reading such little sentences as good, right, shoot, 20 higher, and so on, all being sent in Dutch, conclusively proving the enemy’s premeditated shelling of our women and children. A curious fact was also noticed inasmuch for the first time the Dutch women and children in the laager never moved out of their trenches from the previous night until after the shelling ended, not even to get anything to eat, thereby shewing how well they are informed of what is going to happen.
This spy business has now got B.P.’s back properly up, and he is moving all the Dutch women and children and some men out of the gaol, into a sort of compound on the other side of our women’s laager, so that if the enemy do again attempt to shell our women, they will kill their own friends. It is not likely now they will again attempt this racket. Why on earth B.P. allows these sort of people here at all is past comprehension. They are almost confessed spies, airing their feelings and race hatred very openly and
yet are being supplied by us with food, etc., that is becoming scarcer every day and which we shall possibly very seriously want at a not very distant period. They should be escorted to our outposts and there told to make their way to their friends opposite.
The shell that struck the rectory yesterday afternoon created more damage inside than any house that has yet been struck. Nothing very much can be seen outside, but the inside is one mass of wreckage and debris. Something there for the assessment committee to wade through.
More shells during the afternoon directed at the Volunteers in the Town Hall but all fell wide. One piece of shell went through our auction room, another piece struck our bomb-proof and then a five-pounder plumped right into our yard. We picked this up a moment afterwards and found it had simply blown out its base. So what with Mausers closely skimming us we came to the conclusion we had today received our fair share of flying machines.
Mr. Winter tells us that he has received a letter from Palapye41 in which the writer avers that we shall be relieved from the north within about 20 days. Oh let it be true!
Surrounding signs certainly point to something going on north, as we have for some 7 or 8 days now missed the enemy’s 12-pounder high-velocity gun and also their i-pound Maxim. These, together with four or five loads of ammunition, men, horses, and stores are supposed to have gone Lobatsi way, probably with the intention of intercepting Plumer’s men, or any other relieving force. If the Imperial authorities had only landed a few thousand men at Beira at the commencement, why we should have been relieved and the line of communication kept open north, long ago. If Plumer can work down to within a hundred miles of us, with his contingent, what could not have been done with half a division ?
The Railway Division, en masse, today refused point-blank to accept as rations Weil’s road rations, saying they were only a lot of fat slops without any sustenance. A compromise was arrived at by Weil promising to issue half corned beef, to be mixed with the former.
Shelling continued during afternoon but no good-night gun. About 20 shells in all during day.
New orders again issued re meat rations. Fresh meat is now to be issued every alternate day. Seemingly any matters requiring readjustment have only to be agitated about.
It is stated that the enemy surrounding us are very much lessened in numbers lately, but at the same time it can plainly be seen that they never had so many men on our western front than they have at the present time. That is considered one of our weakest points and the direction from which an attack, if any, might be expected.
B.P. has arranged that a photo of all ex-cavalrymen, past and present, be taken tomorrow, and when that dare-devil FitzCIarence was told this, he smiled and said, in his drawling Irish way, "What’s the good of that, what I want to see a photo of is piles of past Boers laying in front of me?” If he ever comes out of this alive it will be simply marvellous.
