The
whole situation had resolved itself now into another Battle of
Modder River. The infantry, under a fire at from six hundred to
eight hundred paces, could not advance and would not retire. The
artillery only kept the battle going, and the huge naval gun from
behind was joining with its deep bark in the deafening uproar. But
the Boers had already learned--and it is one of their most valuable
military qualities that they assimilate their experience so
quickly--that shell fire is less dangerous in a trench than among
rocks. These trenches, very elaborate in character, had been dug
some hundreds of yards from the foot of the hills, so that there
was hardly any guide to our artillery fire. Yet it is to the
artillery fire that all the losses of the Boers that day were due.
The cleverness of Cronje's disposition of his trenches some hundred
yards ahead of the kopjes is accentuated by the fascination which
any rising object has for a gunner. Prince Kraft tells the story of
how at Sadowa he unlimbered his guns two hundred yards in front of
the church of Chlum, and how the Austrian reply fire almost
invariably pitched upon the steeple.
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