The British 18th and 75th Field Batteries at once unlimbered on the right and opened fire at an extreme range of about 4,500 yards. The Boer artillery on the eastern half of the enemy's position replied, but very languidly. Here, as before at Belmont and Graspan, it was most difficult to locate the hostile guns. They were not massed, but scattered singly, in strongly entrenched and well-masked gun-pits, so that the only sign of their presence was a flash and faint film of blue-white smoke, which instantly dissolved into the air. For some time this long-range skirmish continued; then, gradually, the Boer guns seemed to be silenced by the British shrapnel, and it was thought that a small rearguard in the British front was falling back under cover of the desultory cannonade.
[From a sketch by a British Officer.
Accordingly, the Guards received orders to develop their advance. Neglected by the enemy's artillery they pushed rapidly forward and reached a point only about 800 yards from the enemy's trenches, descending the smooth, grassy slope, which led gently down to the river. Far away to the left a thin, long line of khaki-clad men pressed forward, the Ninth Brigade following the example of the Guards. The enemy's plan, it was afterwards learnt from prisoners, was to permit the British troops to approach within 400 yards, and then to open on them from ambush an annihilating fire. But this design was foiled by the clumsy nervousness of the Free Staters in the trenches to the south of the river. When they saw the British troops only 800 yards off them, they held that the enemy was quite near enough, and in defiance of their orders opened a terrific fire.
[Nov. 28, 1899.
Along the whole extent of the Boer front ran an appalling crackling uproar, above which could plainly be heard the terrible pom-pom-pom of the Maxim. The effects of this fire were amazing; the leading ranks fell to the earth in an instant, killed or wounded. The Scots Guards' Maxim detachment was annihilated in half-a-dozen shots by the Maxim 1-pounder; the sergeant in charge was killed, and every man with the gun was placed hors de combat. Staggered by the sudden fury and intensity of the fire, which seemed to deliver a continuous sheet of missiles, the soldiers of the Guards and the Ninth Brigade found that they could no longer advance. They scorned the cowardly alternative of retreating, and as the only other course left to them, threw themselves prone on the ground.
Plan of the Battle of MODDER RIVER
The same course was followed by the men in every part of the field, simultaneously, as if by instinct. From the wide extent and vehemence of the fire, it was clear that the British were confronted by a great force, and that a desperate action must be fought before the eagerly longed for water could be reached. It was simply impossible to extricate the British army, the battle having once been joined in this manner. No flank attack could be delivered where almost every man was engaged with the enemy directly before him. Lord Methuen found himself for the second time committed to a struggle which he had not planned, and could do little or nothing but trust to his superb soldiers wearing the enemy down. He telegraphed at once to Belmont for the 62nd Field Battery to march with all possible speed to his assistance, and directed two companies of Munster Fusiliers to entrain and advance to the battlefield. This done, he turned to the control of the battle.
