If, In Spite Of The Advance Over The
Open And In Spite Of The Passage Of The River, A Ridge
Could still
be carried, it was only to be commanded by the next; and so, one
behind the other, like
The billows of the ocean, a series of hills
and hollows rolled northwards to Ladysmith. All attacks must be in
the open. All defence was from under cover. Add to this, that the
young and energetic Louis Botha was in command of the Boers. It was
a desperate task, and yet honour forbade that the garrison should
be left to its fate. The venture must be made.
The most obvious criticism upon the operation is that if the attack
must be made it should not be made under the enemy's conditions. We
seem almost to have gone out of our way to make every obstacle - the
glacislike approach, the river, the trenches - as difficult as
possible. Future operations were to prove that it was not so
difficult to deceive Boer vigilance and by rapid movements to cross
the Tugela. A military authority has stated, I know not with what
truth, that there is no instance in history of a determined army
being stopped by the line of a river, and from Wellington at the
Douro to the Russians on the Danube many examples of the ease with
which they may be passed will occur to the reader. But Buller had
some exceptional difficulties with which to contend. He was weak in
mounted troops, and was opposed to an enemy of exceptional mobility
who might attack his flank and rear if he exposed them.
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