From Morning To Midday, The Shell, Maxim, And Rifle Fire Swept
Across The Kop In A Continual Driving Shower.
The British guns in
the plain below failed to localise the position of the enemy's, and
they were able to vent their concentrated spite upon the exposed
infantry.
No blame attaches to the gunners for this, as a hill
intervened to screen the Boer artillery, which consisted of five
big guns and two pom-poms.
Upon the fall of Woodgate, Thorneycroft, who bore the reputation of
a determined fighter, was placed at the suggestion of Buller in
charge of the defence of the hill, and he was reinforced after noon
by Coke's brigade, the Middlesex, the Dorsets, and the Somersets,
together with the Imperial Light Infantry. The addition of this
force to the defenders of the plateau tended to increase the
casualty returns rather than the strength of the defence. Three
thousand more rifles could do nothing to check the fire of the
invisible cannon, and it was this which was the main source of the
losses, while on the other hand the plateau had become so cumbered
with troops that a shell could hardly fail to do damage. There was
no cover to shelter them and no room for them to extend. The
pressure was most severe upon the shallow trenches in the front,
which had been abandoned by the Boers and were held by the
Lancashire Fusiliers. They were enfiladed by rifle and cannon, and
the dead and wounded outnumbered the hale.
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