dilemma. If they fell back
for cover the Boer riflemen would rush the position. If they held their
ground this horrible shell fire must continue, which they had no means
of answering. Down at Gun Hill in front of the Boer position we had no
fewer than five batteries, the 78th, 7th, 73rd, 63rd, and 61st howitzer,
but a ridge intervened between them and the Boer guns which were
shelling Spion Kop, and this ridge was strongly entrenched. The naval
guns from distant Mount Alice did what they could, but the range was
very long, and the position of the Boer guns uncertain. The artillery,
situated as it was, could not save the infantry from the horrible
scourging which they were enduring.

There remains the debated question whether the British guns could have
been taken to the top. Mr. Winston Churchill, the soundness of whose
judgment has been frequently demonstrated during the war, asserts that
it might have been done. Without venturing to contradict one who was
personally present, I venture to think that there is strong evidence
to show that it could not have been done without blasting and other
measures, for which there was no possible time. Captain Hanwell of the
78th R.F.A., upon the day of the battle had the very utmost difficulty
with the help of four horses in getting a light Maxim on to the top, and
his opinion, with that of other artillery officers, is that the feat
was an impossible one until the path had been prepared. When night fell
Colonel Sim was despatched with a party of Sappers to clear the track
and to prepare two emplacements upon the top, but in his advance he met
the retiring infantry.

Throughout the day reinforcements had pushed up the hill, until two full
brigades had been drawn into the fight. From the other side of the ridge
Lyttelton sent up the Scottish Rifles, who reached the summit, and added
their share to the shambles upon the top. As the shades of night closed
in, and the glare of the bursting shells became more lurid, the men
lay extended upon the rocky ground, parched and exhausted. They were
hopelessly jumbled together, with the exception of the Dorsets, whose
cohesion may have been due to superior discipline, less exposure, or to
the fact that their khaki differed somewhat in colour from that of the
others. Twelve hours of so terrible an experience had had a strange
effect upon many of the men. Some were dazed and battle-struck,
incapable of clear understanding. Some were as incoherent