This Army, Under The Leadership Of De Wet, Had Taken
Up A Strong Position A Few Miles To The East, Covering A
Considerable Range Of Kopjes.
On March 3rd a reconnaissance was
made of it, in which some of our guns were engaged; but it was not
until three days later that the army advanced with the intention of
turning or forcing it.
In the meantime reinforcements had been
arriving in the British camp, derived partly from the regiments
which had been employed at other points during these operations,
and partly from newcomers from the outer Empire. The Guards came up
from Klip Drift, the City Imperial Volunteers, the Australian
Mounted Infantry, the Burmese Mounted Infantry and a detachment of
light horse from Ceylon helped to form this strange invading army
which was drawn from five continents and yet had no alien in its
ranks.
The position which the enemy had taken up at Poplars Grove (so
called from a group of poplars round a farmhouse in the centre of
their position) extended across the Modder River and was buttressed
on either side by well-marked hills, with intermittent kopjes
between. With guns, trenches, rifle pits, and barbed wire a
bull-headed general might have found it another Magersfontein. But
it is only just to Lord Roberts's predecessors in command to say
that it is easy to do things with three cavalry brigades which it
is difficult to do with two regiments. The ultimate blame does not
rest with the man who failed with the two regiments, but with those
who gave him inadequate means for the work which he had to do.
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