Queen's Sudan Medal, 1896-98 to The Lincolnshire Regiment
Queen's Sudan Medal, 1896-98 to Madge, 1st Bn Lincolnshire Regiment
Named in engraved capitals to : "4351. PTE J. MADGE. 1/LIN: R."
On roll as J. Mudge, same service number, took part in the Expedition to Khartoum,
Near E.F.
The British army
assembled in Egypt for the long-delayed reconquest of the Sudan
on 4 February
1897.The re-conquest of the Sudan had begun the year earlier with the
capture of
Dongola and the army had spent much of 1917 extending the Sudan Military
Railroad and
consolidating in preparation for a knock-out blow the next year. The British
Brigade,
Major-General Gatacre joined the Egyptian Army in late February 1898, rushed
down to the front
at Berber by means of the new railroad.Skirmishes with Baggra horsemen
proved indecisive
and the enemy army, commanded by the Khedive's nephew Mahmud, was
now encamped at
Nukhayla. A raid by Egyptian Infantry of the town of Shendi - where
Mahmud had left
his food and non-combatants - left the Mahdist forces in a poor position.
Despite this
Kitchener's own supplies were dwindling at an alarming rate and he decided to
attack.Mahmud's
Army was camped in a zabara - a thorn fenced enclosure - set within an
acacia forest
which prevented any attack except from the front. The British Army advanced
in a square
formation through the night, arriving before the zabara in the early hours of
morning and
forming into assault columns. The Sudanese Brigades formed the right and
centre of the
line with the British Brigade on the left.The Battle started with an intense
artillery
bombardment intended to hammer the Mahdist Army into submission before the
infantry attack.
When Kitchener sounded the advance the British line was headed by the
Camerons with the
Lincolns behind. As they closed with the zabara the dervishes opened
fire and tore
into the British advance with a heavy fire, despite this they continued to
advance stolidly.
They stormed over the zabara into the scene of devastation beyond, for the
Anglo-Egyptian
guns had done their work well. Despite this the enemy was much in evidence
and fought tooth
and nail against the wall of bayonets to drive the Sirdar's army back
beyond the camp.
Worse the entire area was honeycombed with trenches and a second
zabara further in
the centre in which Mahmud had withdrawn. Khartoum by Micheal Asher
refers: 'Once
again, it was bayonet against sword and spear. But the quality of the British
bayonets had
improved in the thirteen years since et-Teb and Tamaai. For long minutes
there was a
bloody hand-to-hand tussle inside the zariba. The attackers were streaming into
it, thousands
upon thousands of men, crammed shoulder to shoulder, stabbing, thrusting,
firing and
gouging.'In the end the enemy army was totally defeated and hounded from the
camp. Mahmud was
wounded by a bayonet and taken prisoner although the more dangerous
enemy - Osman
Dinga - had escaped. This was the only flaw in an otherwise textbook victory,
the enemy army
ceased to exist as a coherent fighting force and the British advance on
Khartoum was open.
Medal will be shipped with Tracking.
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