The Spion
Kop Mountain Was Really The Salient Or Sharp Angle Of The Boer
Position, So That The British Were Exposed To A Cross Fire Both
From The Left And Right.
Beyond were other eminences which
sheltered strings of riflemen and several guns.
The plateau which
the British held was very much narrower than was usually
represented in the press. In many places the possible front was not
much more than a hundred yards wide, and the troops were compelled
to bunch together, as there was not room for a single company to
take an extended formation. The cover upon this plateau was scanty,
far too scanty for the force upon it, and the shell
fire - especially the fire of the pom-poms - soon became very
murderous. To mass the troops under the cover of the edge of the
plateau might naturally suggest itself, but with great tactical
skill the Boer advanced line from Commandant Prinsloo's Heidelberg
and Carolina commandos kept so aggressive an attitude that the
British could not weaken the lines opposed to them. Their
skirmishers were creeping round too in such a way that the fire was
really coming from three separate points, left, centre, and. right,
and every corner of the position was searched by their bullets.
Early in the action the gallant Woodgate and many of his Lancashire
men were shot down. The others spread out and held on, firing
occasionally at the whisk of a rifle-barrel or the glimpse of a
broad-brimmed hat.
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