This photograph was taken under fire during the battle of Vaal Krantz, and shows the Brakfontein position in the distance. The men in the foreground are awaiting the order to advance.
Infantry storm the height.
Feb. 5, 1900.] Capture of the Ridge.
From Zwart Kop the Vaal Krantz ridge was seen to be veiled in the dust and smoke thrown up by the bursting shells, and it was thought—and with good reason, as afterwards appeared, notwithstanding the Boer correspondent's tale of unflinching burghers—that the greater part of the enemy's force had retired from the hill. The artillery preparations had been completed as never before; the time had come for the infantry to storm the position. The 1st Durham Light Infantry on the left, and the 3rd King's Royal Rifles on the right accordingly extended and pushed forward under a sharp, enfilading rifle fire from the dongas below Doorn Kloof, and under a hail of bullets from the Boer guns' shrapnel. Unshaken, they pressed steadily on, availing themselves of every inch of cover—now vanishing from view as they sank down behind the ant heaps, now rising and rushing forward in a wavy line. They reached the foot of the smoking ridge, breasted it, and with a cheer gained the Boer trenches, from which the enemy fled precipitately, leaving only half-a-dozen armed Kaffirs to fight to the last. The Kaffirs were shot down, though not until one of them, who was wounded and who had been spared, had put a bullet through a British officer's wrist. Their presence showed that the Boers were ready without scruple to arm and employ black men against whites.
As the storming of Vaal Krantz began there was an exciting episode, a Boer "Pom-Pom" galloping from Vaal Krantz towards the Doorn Kloof dongas across open ground. The British artillery aimed at it shell after shell, but, so hard is a fast-moving object to hit at uncertain ranges, that the gun and its team escaped injury and went to earth in a donga, amidst a cloud of smoke from bursting shells.
[Photo by Lieut. Salmond.
This photograph shows the Durhams in the act of passing one of the field guns. It was taken under fire, and is a quite typical view of a modern battlefield—the infantry advancing in open order, the gunners taking what shelter their gun affords. Even the insignificant size of the figures, especially of those near the trees in the middle distance, lost as they are in the expanse of landscape, is quite characteristic. Except for the noise, and the occasional dropping of a wounded man, a spectator would hardly know that anything serious was going on.
Difficulty of holding the position.
About 4 p.m. the eastern end of Vaal Krantz was in British possession. But the Boers still held trenches along the western end, while from their positions on and under Doorn Kloof they could direct an enfilading fire upon General Lyttelton's Brigade. It had been intended to move the British artillery on to the ridge, but this was now found to be impossible. In the first place, the ridge itself was razor-edged, steep, and rocky, so that guns could not be handled upon it; in the second place, beyond it, but within easy rifle range, was a second ridge of even greater strength, still in the hands of the Boers. Thus the gunners would be too close to the enemy for the safe working of their guns, and the episode of Colonel Long's artillery at Colenso had shown that it was not good to be too close to the Boer marksmen. The long grass, too, on the sides of the ridge had been set on fire, and the dense volumes of smoke which this caused would have been a further obstacle to the gunners. The A Horse Artillery Battery was, however, sent forward, and it shelled the ridges held by the enemy. Towards evening the Boers delivered a vigorous counter attack, endeavouring to dislodge the British force from Vaal Krantz, but General Lyttelton's battalions, reinforced by the 2nd Devons from General Hildyard's Brigade, beat off the attempt with little difficulty, though it was found impossible to hold the eastern end of the ridge.