Their Answer To This Movement Was
To Throw Their Flank Back So As To Face The New Position.
Even now, however, the Boer leaders had apparently not realised
that this was the main attack, or it is possible that the
intervention of the river made it difficult for them to send
reinforcements.
However that may be, it is certain that the task
which the British found awaiting them on the 18th proved to be far
easier than they had dared to hope. The honours of the day rested
with Hildyard's English Brigade (East Surrey, West Surrey, West
Yorkshires, and 2nd Devons). In open order and with a rapid
advance, taking every advantage of the cover - which was better than
is usual in South African warfare - they gained the edge of the
Monte Christo ridge, and then swiftly cleared the crest. One at
least of the regiments engaged, the Devons, was nerved by the
thought that their own first battalion was waiting for them at
Ladysmith. The capture of the hill made the line of trenches which
faced Buller untenable, and he was at once able to advance with
Barton's Fusilier Brigade and to take possession of the whole Boer
position of Hlangwane and Green Hill. It was not a great tactical
victory, for they had no trophies to show save the worthless debris
of the Boer camps. But it was a very great strategical victory, for
it not only gave them the whole south side of the Tugela, but also
the means of commanding with their guns a great deal of the north
side, including those Colenso trenches which had blocked the way so
long.
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