On The Other Hand, When A
General's Force Is Badly Compromised, It Will Be So Punished That A
Quick Surrender Will Be The Only Alternative To Annihilation.
On the subject of the quarter-column formation which proved so
fatal to us, it must be remembered that
Any other form of advance
is hardly possible during a night attack, though at Tel-el-Kebir
the exceptional circumstance of the march being over an open desert
allowed the troops to move for the last mile or two in a more
extended formation. A line of battalion double-company columns is
most difficult to preserve in the darkness, and any confusion may
lead to disaster. The whole mistake lay in a miscalculation of a
few hundred yards in the position of the trenches. Had the
regiments deployed five minutes earlier it is probable (though by
no means certain) that the position would have been carried.
The action was not without those examples of military virtue which
soften a disaster, and hold out a brighter promise for the future.
The Guards withdrew from the field as if on parade, with the Boer
shells bursting over their ranks. Fine, too, was the restraint of G
Battery of Horse Artillery on the morning after the battle. An
armistice was understood to exist, but the naval gun, in ignorance
of it, opened on our extreme left. The Boers at once opened fire
upon the Horse Artillery, who, recognising the mistake, remained
motionless and unlimbered in a line, with every horse, and gunner
and driver in his place, without taking any notice of the fire,
which presently slackened and stopped as the enemy came to
understand the situation.
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