But Never Also Have
They Done Anything So Clever And So Audacious As De Wet's
Dispositions In This Action.
One cannot go over the ground without
being amazed at the ingenuity of their attack, and also at the luck
which favoured them, for the trap which they had laid for others
might easily have proved an absolutely fatal one for themselves.
The position beside the Modder at which the British camped had
numerous broken hills to the north and east of it. A force of
Boers, supposed to number about two thousand men, came down in the
night, bringing with them several heavy guns, and with the early
morning opened a brisk fire upon the camp. The surprise was
complete. But the refinement of the Boer tactics lay in the fact
that they had a surprise within a surprise - and it was the second
which was the more deadly.
The force which Broadwood had with him consisted of the 10th
Hussars and the composite regiment, Rimington's Scouts, Roberts's
Horse, the New Zealand and Burmah Mounted Infantry, with Q and U
batteries of Horse Artillery. With such a force, consisting
entirely of mounted men, he could not storm the hills upon which
the Boer guns were placed, and his twelve-pounders were unable to
reach the heavier cannon of the enemy. His best game was obviously
to continue his march to Bloemfontein. He sent on the considerable
convoy of wagons and the guns, while he with the cavalry covered
the rear, upon which the long-range pieces of the enemy kept up the
usual well-directed but harmless fire.
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