The 4th Brigade Was To Advance Between These, So As To
Help Either Which Should Be In Difficulties.
Meanwhile on the
extreme right the mounted troops under Dundonald were to cover the
flank and to attack Hlangwane Hill, a formidable position held
strongly by the enemy upon the south bank of the Tugela.
The
remaining Fusilier brigade of infantry was to support this movement
on the right. The guns were to cover the various attacks, and if
possible gain a position from which the trenches might be
enfiladed. This, simply stated, was the work which lay before the
British army. In the bright clear morning sunshine, under a
cloudless blue sky, they advanced with high hopes to the assault.
Before them lay the long level plain, then the curve of the river,
and beyond, silent and serene, like some peaceful dream landscape,
stretched the lines and lines of gently curving hills. It was just
five o'clock in the morning when the naval guns began to bay, and
huge red dustclouds from the distant foothills showed where the
lyddite was bursting. No answer came back, nor was there any
movement upon the sunlit hills. It was almost brutal, this furious
violence to so gentle and unresponsive a countryside. In no place
could the keenest eye detect a sign of guns or men, and yet death
lurked in every hollow and crouched by every rock.
It is so difficult to make a modern battle intelligible when
fought, as this was, over a front of seven or eight miles, that it
is best perhaps to take the doings of each column in turn,
beginning with the left flank, where Hart's Irish Brigade had
advanced to the assault of Bridle Drift.
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