Surgical Experiences in South Africa, 1899-1900 | Page 8

included, those of the first Kimberley Relief Force, were
fought under fair average conditions as to the nature of the ground. In
the first two the defending enemy occupied heights, in the two
following the ground advanced over by our men was comparatively
even; thus at Modder River there was only a gradual slope upwards,
and at Magersfontein the advanced trenches of the Boers were only
slightly above the level of the ground over which the advance was
made. At the same time, at the latter battle a great number of the Boers
engaged were on the sides of the hill well above the advanced trenches.
In no case were the Boers in such a position as to have to fire upwards,
to them a considerable advantage. It must also be noted that throughout
the Boers were able to rest their rifles; hence the fire should have been
at any rate of an average degree of accuracy. In the advances of our
own men, anthills and stones were practically the only cover to be
obtained, and little or no help was given by variations in the general
surface. All these points seem to favour a large proportional number of

hits on the part of the riflemen. I very much regret that I am unable to
say what was the proportional number of shell wounds among the men
hit, but I can say with some confidence that among the wounded it was
not as great as ten per cent. I should be inclined to place it as low as
five per cent. Again, I cannot fix the proportionate occurrence of
wounds from bullets of large calibre such as the Martini-Henry, but this
was certainly not large. I think if ten per cent. is deducted to represent
the number of hits from either of these forms of projectile, that we may
fairly assume the remaining 90 per cent. of the wounds to have been
produced by bullets of small calibre. The numbers of the opposing
forces were probably fairly even.
Taking all these circumstances together, and bearing in mind that our
army was always in the position of having to make frontal attacks on
men well protected in strong positions, I think it must be allowed that a
fair idea should be possible of the effectiveness of the modern weapons.
Only one circumstance, one inseparable from any fighting with the
Boers, seems to affect the numbers in an important manner. This
consists in the fact that the Boer rarely fights to the bitter end, hence
the greater proportion of his hits are obtained at long distances.
TABLE I
+---------------------+--------+------+-------+-------+-----+-------------+ | |
Number | | | | |Percentage of| | | of | | | | | killed and | | | troops
|Killed|Wounded|Missing|Total| wounded to | | | engaged| | | | |number of
men| | | | | | | | engaged |
+---------------------+--------+------+-------+-------+-----+-------------+
|Belmont: | | | | | | | | Officers | 297 | 3 | 23 | 0 | 26 | 8.75 | | Non.-com.
officers | | | | | | | | and men | 8,396 | 55 | 206 | 4 | 265 | 3.15 | |
+--------+------+-------+-------+-----+-------------+ | Total | 8,693 | 58 |
229 | 4 | 291 | 3.34 | | | | | | | | | |Graspan: | | | | | | | | Officers | 326 | 3 | 7 | 0
| 10 | 3.06 | | Non.-com. officers | | | | | | | | and men | 8,213 | 18 | 163 | 7 |
188 | 2.29 | | +--------+------+-------+-------+-----+-------------+ | Total |
8,539 | 21 | 170 | 7 | 198 | 2.31 | | | | | | | | | |Modder River: | | | | | | | |
Officers | 335 | 3 | 19 | 0 | 22 | 6.56 | | Non.-com. officers | | | | | | | | and
men | 9,856 | 67 | 377 | 18 | 462 | 4.68 | |

+--------+------+-------+-------+-----+-------------+ | Total | 10,191 | 70 |
396 | 18 | 484 | 4.74 | | | | | | | | | |Magersfontein: | | | | | | | | Officers | 379 |
18 | 48 | 2 | 68 | 17.94 | | Non.-com. officers | | | | | | | | and men | 11,068 |
148 | 669 | 101 | 918 | 8.29 | |
+--------+------+-------+-------+-----+-------------+ | Total[1] | 11,447 |
166 | 717 | 103 | 986 | 8.43 |
+---------------------+--------+------+-------+-------+-----+-------------+
Table I. gives the number of men engaged, and also that of the killed
and wounded at each of four battles. Table III. shows for comparison
the relative number