British Campaign & Long Service Medals

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zabara further in the centre in which Mahmud had withdrawn.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.