"JOE CHAMBERLAIN": THE 4·7-INCH NAVAL GUN SENT TO LORD METHUEN AT MODDER RIVER.
[Dec. 6, 7, 1899.
Boer defences.
Guided by the lessons of the previous battles the Boers had thrown up their main lines of trenches at the foot of the hills, not on the slopes or summits. Near Magersfontein they had utilised a long, dry watercourse, which gave the most admirable protection, and which was further strengthened by trenches and earthworks. In front these works, as at the Modder, were hidden from view by the cacti and brushwood, which thickly covered the level ground. The trenches were deep enough to give ample shelter to men standing upright; bomb-proofs had been excavated, in which the men lining the defences could obtain perfect security during the artillery bombardment—the only thing feared by the Boers; finally, a high wire fence, by some lucky chance for the Boers, already existed, running along the front of the works, about 300 or 400 yards away, so as to hold assailants under fire and hamper the action of the British cavalry. This was supplemented by several lines of barbed-wire entanglement. The Boer guns were skilfully posted on the heights, as previous experience had shown that, if placed in the trenches, they drew the British fire where it was most destructive. Amongst them were one or two long-range 6-inch Creusots, several field guns, and a number of "Pom-Poms."
SECTION OF A 5-INCH HOWITZER,
Showing its inner tube C, on which is shrunk first an outer tube B, then the jacket A. The breech-ring—the projecting portion at the back—serves both to give additional strength to the breech and for the attachment of the hydraulic buffers which take up the "recoil."
Boer methods.
An American who visited their position thus describes their plan of defence at this point:—"The Boers know how to select their ground and use it with the greatest judgment. They are confident now that Methuen cannot pass them without losing half his army. Their new mode of fighting is to put great numbers of their best shots, armed with Mausers and using smokeless powder, out on the flats in rifle shelters. On the sky-line of the hills they post their Martini-Henry men with the old black powder cartridges. The latter are to draw the artillery fire, while the Mauser men in front are to shoot down the English infantry and cavalry at closer quarters. All the men have the greatest confidence in Cronje. He did not believe that the English would attack him for some time after the Modder fight, but declared that, when they did, the more men they brought the greater their loss would be."