Sudan 1885 Read online

    •  would afford a wide front of operation, so as to prevent or limit an outflanking movement; and

    •  if its flanks were turned, should still have an intact solid nucleus incapable of being easily broken up and capable of protecting supply, medical, transport and other assets.

  To achieve these ends, some advocated a square, others a line, or a combination of both, as was often the case in the Sudan.

  Diagram illustrating how the infantry “square” was used in various battles in the Sudan campaign.

  Cavalry

  Cavalry was used largely as a screening force, to provide reconnaissance, to protect or provide escorts for artillery and supply convoys, or was deployed as part of a small force. Mounted units fought alongside or accompanied the New South Wales Contingent on its sorties from Suakin. Mounted infantry was also used in Egypt and the Sudan, and for the first time a camel corps was raised, which had its own logistics challenges, in procurement, forage, and veterinary care. A number of Australian soldiers served as camel mounted infantry.

  Only one cavalry unit was deployed under Wolseley, the 19th Hussars, a regiment of light cavalry. In the east at Suakin, Graham’s force in 1885 included both hussars (a detachment of the 19th and a squadron of the 20th Hussars) and lancers (the 9th Bengal Cavalry and a squadron of the 5th Lancers). Cavalry under both Wolseley and Graham soon learned that the traditional massed charge ‘knee to knee’ did not work, as Mahdist forces were rarely massed, except when attacking a zareba, infantry square, or line.

  The tribesmen preferred to attack in loose formations of both foot and mounted warriors. This also enabled them to use their formidable speed. Where the combat was against another mounted opponent, British cavalry usually came off better. The role of camel units was entirely different, to enable infantry to move quickly to an action, dismount and engage the enemy using standard infantry tactics.

  Throughout the 1880s in Egypt and the Sudan, hussars were generally employed as a screening force or as scouting parties. Armed with sabres and carbines, but not lances, these troops were not such effective skirmishers as mounted infantry. Apart from officers’ horses the New South Wales Contingent was completely dismounted.

  British Soldier with two camels, Camel Corps, Egypt, 1st Sudan War, 1885 (c). National Army Museum, London. NAM 1963-11-194-2.

  MAJOR-GENERAL SIR GERALD GRAHAM, VC, GCB, GCMG

  Major-General Sir Gerald Graham. Source Wikipedia Commons.

  Major-General Sir Gerald Graham, VC, GCB, GCMG, (1831 -1899) had seen service in the Crimea and in China. He was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1850. Four years later, during the Crimean War, he was twice wounded. On 18 June 1855 he showed determined gallantry at the head of a ladder party at the assault on the Redan at Sebastopol. He also went out on numerous occasions to bring in wounded officers and men. For his actions on this day he was awarded the Victoria Cross.

  He was promoted to the rank of major general at only 50 years of age. He first accompanied Sir Garnet Wolseley to Egypt as a brigadier general. He commanded the force against Osman Digna, whose army he defeated at El-Teb and Tamai. Unusually for his time he was an intellectually gifted officer and penned a number of published papers.

  Mounted Infantry (camel corps), field equipment

  On soldier (average weight 68 kilograms)

  Items

  Weight (kilograms)

  Arms and Accoutrements - waist belt, bandolier, 50 rounds ammunition, rifle, bayonet and scabbard, full water bottle, haversack

  10.1

  Clothes - helmet, coat, shirt, breeches, braces, socks, boots, garters, drawers

  4.97

  In sulleetah (a slung canvas or cloth bag)

  shirts, towel, holdall, polishing brush, tin of grease, pair of pants, Glengarry cap, cavalry canteen, pair drawers, 100 rounds ammunition

  11.33

  3 tins soup, 1.36 kg biscuit, 3 days’ tea, 3 days’ coffee, 3 days’ sugar, 3 days’ salt

  2.94

  On saddle

  27.3 litres water in skin and Egyptian water bottle

  25.85

  saddle

  30.84

  tent and tripod for water skin

  10.43

  2 head collars

  1.81

  3 days’ grain for camle

  13.6

  blanket for soldier

  1.81

  Total weight carried by camel

  113.59 kg

  Civilian support, whether through contractors (shipping and railway firms), specialist engineers, nursing staff, tradesmen or labour corps was also becoming more common in the operational environment. In 1885 this development was restricted to the British, rather than the Australian colonial forces.

  THE ROYAL NAVY

  ‘Nineteenth century England, having the good fortune to be safe from attack for several generations, conceived that so long as her Navy was efficient her Army could be safely neglected.’ G.M. Trevelyan, English Historian

  Imperial defence left much to be desired by the 1880s. There were no shore defences at Hong Kong or Singapore, while most ports in the Australian colonies, New Zealand, India, Canada and the West Indies were completely vulnerable to naval attack.

  Much has been made of the prowess of the British navy, but at that time its pre-eminent position as a global force was being challenged by the expansion of European navies (France, Germany and Russia). Their expansion was matched by stagnation in the Royal Navy, which was slow to adapt to new technologies, and decided to keep sails on steam-powered vessels. British warships still had no reliable breech-loading (BL) guns, and British cruiser designs were outmoded.

  By the 1880s all fleets of the Royal Navy consisted of many different types of ships, some powered by sail, others by steam, but most obsolete. The Grand Fleet was in reality a paper tiger, and its ships were vulnerable to another new weapon: the torpedo. The Royal Navy had been the first maritime force to purchase this new weapon in 1870, and less than a decade later its first torpedo boat, HMS Lightning, was in service. However, other powers soon bought new and better models, as they were widely seen as a cheap naval deterrent.

  Britain failed to maintain her early lead. Instead, she relied increasingly on small gunboats at the edges of her empire, as it was believed that actual maritime combat with battleships was becoming a thing of the past. Despite urgent calls for funds to upgrade the navy’s ships, the government continued to cut costs, and little happened. This changed in 1884 as a result of some sensational reports published by a London newspaper. In response to the subsequent public outcry, more money was provided, and new ships, including seven Orlando class cruisers, six Archer class torpedo cruisers, and other ships, were constructed.

  The navy played an important role in British policy in Egypt in the 1880s, and particularly in the Sudan campaign of 1885. Although the army’s responsibilities there were reduced after Gordon’s death, the navy had an ongoing role securing coastal facilities along the Red Sea coast against the Mahdi’s forces.

  An Archer class torpedo cruiser, c.1885 Source: Brassey’s Naval Annual, 1888.

  THE ORLANDO CLASS CRUISER

  First class armoured cruiser

  Displacement: 5600 tons

  Length: 91 metres

  Beam: 17 metres

  Draught: 6.9 metres

  Propulsion: 3-cylinder extension steam engines

  Two shafts

  Four double-ended boilers

  5500 horsepower

  8500 horsepower forced draught

  Speed: 17 knots natural draught

  18 knots forced draught

  Range: 10,000 nautical miles (19,000 kilometres) at 10 knots (19 kilometres per hour)

  Complement: 484

  Armament:

  2 × BL 9.2-inch (233.7 mm) Mk V or VI guns (2 x 1)

  10 x BL 6-inch (152.4 mm) guns (10 x 1)

  6 x QF 6 pounder guns (6 x 1)

  10 x QF 3 pounder Hotchkiss (10 x 1)


  6 x 18-inch (450-mm) torpedo tubes (4 above water broadside, 1 bow and 1 stern submerged)

  Armour: 245 mm belt

  The Orlando Class cruiser c.1884 Source: Brassey’s Naval Annual, 1888.

  VICE ADMIRAL SIR WILLIAM NATHAN WRIGHTE HEWETT, VC, KCB, KCSI

  Vice Admiral Sir William Nathan Wrighte Hewett, VC, KCB, KCSI (12 August 1834 – 13 May 1888). Source: Wikipedia Commons.

  A few months before the arrival of the New South Wales Contingent, the Red Sea Division of the Mediterranean Fleet under Vice Admiral Sir William Hewett, VC, KCB, KCSI, had arrived off Suakin. Hewett was awarded his VC during the Crimean War. He was first involved in the Sudan after the defeat of Hicks at Kasghil on 7 October 1883, when he dispatched HMS Ranger to Suakin, while reinforcements were rushed from the Mediterranean Fleet. After the British defeat at El Teb, Hewett commanded the naval brigade that landed at Suakin two days later, on 6 February 1884. He returned to the Sudan in 1885. By this time Hewett was considered a leading exponent in the Royal Navy of the new concept of combined operations.

  Royal Navy Gatling gun crew Source: http://www.britishbattles.com/egypt-1882/abu-klea.htm.

  Hewett’s force initially comprised the corvette HMS Carysfor and the sloops HMS Dolphin and Sphinx. The gunboats HMS Condor and Coquette were ordered to land men and machine-guns for a naval brigade. Members of this unit saw active service in the same theatre as the Australians. Its main weapons - the Gatling gun and the Gardner Gun - were instrumental in saving the day in several battles.

  In March 1885 a naval brigade raised from warships then anchored off Suakin joined Graham’s field force. It occupied Hashin on 20 March, where the Royal Marines distinguished themselves, and on 22 March fought at Tofrek, losing seven killed in action (KIA) and five wounded in action (WIA). The naval brigade re-embarked on 6 April.

  Gatling Gun, Australian Army Infantry Museum Collection. Image courtesy of Australian Army Infantry Museum.

  Chapter 2

  THE NEW SOUTH WALES CONTINGENT

  New South Wales, as a penal colony, had enjoyed the protection of British regular troops for almost a century, since the British Crown proclaimed itself sovereign of that part of Australia in 1788. Even in the 1790s, however, the army garrison was hopelessly inadequate should there have been serious opposition from Aboriginal tribes, riots among the convict population, or had the French, who were then navigating the seas around the continent, attempted a military landing.

  As it happened the incidents at Castle Hill (1804) and on Victoria’s gold fields (1854) were the only serious threats to the military forces in the nineteenth century. As the eastern colonies grew and became more prosperous, they sought to augment their defences with home-grown forces. After the Crimean War began in October 1853, the first members of the New South Wales volunteer military force enlisted in Sydney in 1854. The tiny force consisted of:

    •  one artillery battery;

    •  one troop of cavalry; and

    •  six rifle companies.

  By the following year the force had a strength of 316 officers and men, commanded by a British officer, Lieutenant Colonel H.K. Bloomfield. Over the next few years its numbers grew. By 1867 there were four more artillery batteries, and six infantry companies formed into two regiments, with a total establishment of 1787 men.

  After the withdrawal of the last British regular regiment in 1870, the Australian colonies continued to enjoy the protection of the Royal Navy, but they had to fend for themselves in terms of land defences. The colonies were sufficiently confident to offer military units to serve in New Zealand’s Waikato War (1863-64), but the growth of colonial forces came in fits and starts. The New South Wales Permanent Artillery was one of the first units established (in 1871), with a strength of 300 men. Sydney also had volunteer infantry, artillery, engineers, and a torpedo corps, supported by doctors and veterinary surgeons.

  The threat of Russian naval raids in 1877-78 provided a stimulus for Australia’s struggling colonial defenders. By 1885 several governments were enacting legislation to put their militias on a sounder footing, including provision for conscription in an emergency, but the formation of a standardised Australia-wide militia was still years away.

  In 1885 the New South Wales military forces numbered about 2100 troops, or roughly two percent of the population. The force consisted of artillery (regular and volunteer), torpedo and signalling corps, four infantry regiments, a medical staff, a cadet corps, and a naval brigade of five companies.

  Retention was low, particularly in the ranks, because the army pay of just over two shillings per day could not match labourer’s wages. Drill was boring, and many mounted soldiers had to pay for their own horses. Efficiency often suffered as a result of men serving only for short periods. As with the militia in the other Australian colonies, these forces were held in low regard by civilians. They were also subject to disruptive command experiments in recruiting and retention that often failed.

  In terms of naval forces the British Colonial Naval Defence Act of 1865 allowed colonial governments to raise their own naval forces for local defence at no cost to the Royal Navy. However, apart from gold rich Victoria, few Australian colonies had sufficient funds to do this. Even then, the British government underwrote the cost of Victoria’s first iron clad warship. No Australian colonial naval personnel took part in the Sudan campaign.

  Personal Weapons

  New South Wales officers carried a John Adams (Model 1867B) 0.450-inch calibre revolver. These breech-loading side arms were on loan from the New South Wales police force. However there were problems with the police issue ammunition, as sometimes the bullet separated from its cartridge. Some artillery officers may have carried an Enfield Mk II revolver (0.576-inch calibre).

  Martini Henry Rifle.

  The military probably complained about this unsatisfactory state of affairs, for on 19 February 1885 the New South Wales government requested from the War Office in London 250 revolvers to be issued at Suakin. The War Office was also asked to recommend a suitable type of weapon. Officers’ swords, both artillery and infantry, were of the standard British army type, Pattern 1822 and Pattern 1821 respectively.

  The infantry went to the Sudan armed with the Henry Short Naval rifle. These weapons were not new, and had been in local service for over a decade. Both the artillery and the Ambulance Corps were issued with shorter Winchester 1873 model carbines for personal and casualty protection. These were usually kept in rifle buckets on gun limbers, and near the driver’s box on ambulance wagons.

  An almost intact RML 9 Pounder 6 cwt Mark II gun on carriage used by the NSW Contingent in the Sudan. Source: Author’s collection.

  Artillery

  Artillery was used relatively sparsely during the Sudan campaign. Big guns were heavy, and required much labour to transport them even over short distances. They had a large logistics footprint, and diverted infantry or cavalry to guard them. Engineers such as Graham appreciated this readily enough, and sacrificed firepower for lighter guns, which could still be effective in desert country, and lower enemy morale, even though shrapnel was not widely used in the Sudan.

  The 2.5-inch Rifled Muzzle Loading (RML) mountain/screw gun used in the Indian army could be mounted on camels and brought into action fairly quickly. They were used in a number of battles in the Sudan, including the battles of El Teb and the first battle of Tamai. Not surprisingly, gunners struggled to maintain both firepower and mobility in such campaigns. Until Kitchener’s bombardment of Khartoum in 1898 they were rarely used in this way. It was more usual for small calibre guns, especially the Gardner gun favoured by the Royal Navy, to be placed at the corners of an infantry square, or used in other defensive ways.

  The New South Wales government offered two batteries with a total of ten 16-pounder muzzle loading guns, but the offer was declined as the pieces were too heavy (1.2 tonne) for desert fighting. The New South Wales command was told that, as a result, the colony should provide
only horses and harnesses, and that a six-gun 9-pounder battery of (0.3 tonne) guns, complete with ammunition and limbers, would meet the Contingent on its arrival in Suakin. The 9-pounders were muzzle-loading guns of 3-inch calibre, set into field carriages. They had a maximum range of 4000 yards (3.65 kilometres) and a muzzle velocity of 1391 feet/424 metres per second. These weapons were about to be phased out in the British army, and replaced by BL guns.

  Dress and Equipment

  At this time the uniforms worn in New South Wales were the same as those of the imperial army. Infantry parade dress reflected the traditional ‘red’ coats of the line regiments of the regular British army, worn on duty with blue trousers and white helmets. Helmets and webbing were pipe-clayed white, and all brass accoutrements polished, as were brown boots. Members of the artillery wore a similar uniform but their jackets were a dark blue-black colour, as were those of the medical personnel (whose members wore a Red Cross brassard on their left sleeve).

  As British troops were switching to khaki for operational deployment, the colonials would soon follow suit. In the field all troops, colonial, British army and Indian army, were wearing khaki by 1885. British and New South Wales troops wore khaki frock coats and trousers with ankle boots and gaiters.

  Once deployed in the desert around Suakin, many men in the contingent took to wearing their trousers tucked into their socks and secured with string, leaving their gaiters in their haversacks. The water bottle was slung over the right hip. On arrival in theatre, each man was also issued with his own charcoal water filter and drinking tube.