The
Guards On The Right Were Prevented From Opening Out On The Flank
And Getting Round The Enemy's Line, By The Presence Of The Riet
River, Which Joins The Modder Almost At A Right Angle.
All day they
lay under a blistering sun, the sleet of bullets whizzing over
their heads.
'It came in solid streaks like telegraph wires,' said
a graphic correspondent. The men gossiped, smoked, and many of them
slept. They lay on the barrels of their rifles to keep them cool
enough for use. Now and again there came the dull thud of a bullet
which had found its mark, and a man gasped, or drummed with his
feet; but the casualties at this point were not numerous, for there
was some little cover, and the piping bullets passed for the most
part overhead.
But in the meantime there had been a development upon the left
which was to turn the action into a British victory. At this side
there was ample room to extend, and the 9th Brigade spread out,
feeling its way down the enemy's line, until it came to a point
where the fire was less murderous and the approach to the river
more in favour of the attack. Here the Yorkshires, a party of whom
under Lieutenant Fox had stormed a farmhouse, obtained the command
of a drift, over which a mixed force of Highlanders and Fusiliers
forced their way, led by their Brigadier in person. This body of
infantry, which does not appear to have exceeded five hundred in
number, were assailed both by the Boer riflemen and by the guns of
both parties, our own gunners being unaware that the Modder had
been successfully crossed.
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