Note 18 — Chapter XVI · BELGIAN CAMPAIGNS AGAINST THE ARABS (Concluded)

The following description of a boma is from the pen of Dr. Hinde:

“An Arab force on the march employs a large number of its slaves in cutting down and carrying with them trees and saplings, from about twelve to fifteen feet in length and up to six feet in diameter. As soon as a halting place has been fixed on, the slaves plant this timber in a circle of about fifty yards in diameter, inside which the chiefs and officers establish themselves. A trench is then dug, and the earth thrown up against the palisades, in which banana stalks, pointing in different directions, are laid. Round the centre, and following the inequalities of the ground, a second line of stakes is planted, this second circle being perhaps three or four hundred yards in diameter. Another trench is then dug in the same way, with bananas planted as before in the earthwork. The interval between the two lines of fortifications is occupied by the troops. If the boma is only to be occupied for two or three days, this is all that is usually done to it; but if it is intended for a longer stay, a trench is dug outside the palisades. The object of using banana stalks in this way is ingenious. Within four or five hours they shrink, and on being withdrawn from the earth leave loopholes, through which the defenders can fire without exposing themselves. Little huts are built all over the interior of the fort, and these huts are also very ingeniously devised, and are, furthermore, bombproof. They consist of a hole dug a yard and a half deep and covered with wood. This wood forms a ceiling, over which the earth from the interior is placed to the depth of a couple of feet, and a thatched roof placed over all to keep off the rain. In many of the bomas we found that the defenders had dug holes from the main trenches outwards, in which they lived, having lined them with straw. The whole fort is often divided into four or more sections by a palisade and trenches, so that, if one part of it is stormed, the storming party finds itself in a cross fire—a worse position than when actually trying to effect an entrance. We found that the shells from the 7·5 Krupps did little or no damage to these forts.”