There Seems, However, To Be No Doubt That He
Was Already Entirely Surrounded, And That, As Experience Proved, We
Had Only To Sit Round Him To Insure His Surrender.
It is not given
to the greatest man to have every soldierly gift equally developed,
and it may be said without offence that Lord Kitchener's cool
judgment upon the actual field of battle has not yet been proved as
conclusively as his longheaded power of organisation and his iron
determination.
Putting aside the question of responsibility, what happened on the
morning of Sunday, February 18th, was that from every quarter an
assault was urged across the level plains, to the north and to the
south, upon the lines of desperate and invisible men who lay in the
dongas and behind the banks of the river. Everywhere there was a
terrible monotony about the experiences of the various regiments
which learned once again the grim lessons of Colenso and Modder
River. We surely did not need to prove once more what had already
been so amply proved, that bravery can be of no avail against
concealed riflemen well entrenched, and that the more hardy is the
attack the heavier must be the repulse. Over the long circle of our
attack Knox's brigade, Stephenson's brigade, the Highland brigade,
Smith-Dorrien's brigade all fared alike. In each case there was the
advance until they were within the thousand-yard fire zone, then
the resistless sleet of bullets which compelled them to get down
and to keep down.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 378 of 842
Words from 101109 to 101361
of 225456
