A Mountain Battery,
Two Field Guns, And Six Naval 12-Pounders Were Slung Up By Steel
Hawsers, The Sailors Yeo-Hoing On The Halliards.
The ammunition was
taken up by hand.
At six o'clock on the morning of the 5th the
other guns opened a furious and probably harmless fire upon
Brakfontein, Spion Kop, and all the Boer positions opposite to
them. Shortly afterwards the feigned attack upon Brakfontein was
commenced and was sustained with much fuss and appearance of energy
until all was ready for the development of the true one. Wynne's
Brigade, which had been Woodgate's, recovered already from its
Spion Kop experience, carried out this part of the plan, supported
by six batteries of field artillery, one howitzer battery, and two
4.7 naval guns. Three hours later a telegram was on its way to
Pretoria to tell how triumphantly the burghers had driven back an
attack which was never meant to go forward. The infantry retired
first, then the artillery in alternate batteries, preserving a
beautiful order and decorum. The last battery, the 78th, remained
to receive the concentrated fire of the Boer guns, and was so
enveloped in the dust of the exploding shells that spectators could
only see a gun here or a limber there. Out of this whirl of death
it quietly walked, without a bucket out of its place, the gunners
drawing one wagon, the horses of which had perished, and so
effected a leisurely and contemptuous withdrawal. The gallantry of
the gunners has been one of the most striking features of the war,
but it has never been more conspicuous than in this feint at
Brakfontein.
While the attention of the Boers was being concentrated upon the
Lancashire men, a pontoon bridge was suddenly thrown across the
river at a place called Munger's Drift, some miles to the eastward.
Three infantry brigades, those of Hart, Lyttelton, and Hildyard,
had been massed all ready to be let slip when the false attack was
sufficiently absorbing. The artillery fire (the Swartz Kop guns,
and also the batteries which had been withdrawn from the
Brakfontein demonstration) was then turned suddenly, with the
crashing effect of seventy pieces, upon the real object of attack,
the isolated Vaalkranz. It is doubtful whether any position has
ever been subjected to so terrific a bombardment, for the weight of
metal thrown by single guns was greater than that of a whole German
battery in the days of their last great war. The 4-pounders and
6-pounders of which Prince Kraft discourses would have seemed toys
beside these mighty howitzers and 4.7's. Yet though the hillside
was sharded off in great flakes, it is doubtful if this terrific
fire inflicted much injury upon the cunning and invisible riflemen
with whom we had to contend.
About midday the infantry began to stream across the bridge, which
had been most gallantly and efficiently constructed under a warm
fire, by a party of sappers, under the command of Major Irvine.
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