rried and defended against counter attack a hill called Vaal Krantz,
at the eastern end of the Brakfontein ridge. To the east of Vaal Krantz
runs a good road to Ladysmith, along which the distance from the Tugela
to Sir George's White's outposts is about ten miles. To the east again
of the road is a hill called Dorn Kop. Here the Boers have an artillery
position which seems to command Vaal Krantz, and they probably have the
usual infantry trenches. The Boer position then faces the Tugela and
runs from Spion Kop on the west, the Boer left, to Dorn Kop on the east,
the Boer right. Sir Redvers Buller's attack is an attempt to pierce the
centre of this position.

To break the centre of an enemy's line, to pour your forces into and
through the gap, and then roll up the more important of his divided
wings, is an operation which if it can be successfully executed makes a
decisive victory; if followed up it ruins the enemy's army. But it is in
modern conditions the most difficult form of attack. The long range of
modern weapons, of guns that kill at two miles and of rifles that kill
at a mile--to take a moderate estimate of their power--enables the
defender to concentrate upon any attack against his centre the fire of
all the rifles in his front line for a couple of miles, and of all the
guns standing on a length of four miles. A similar concentration of fire
is only occasionally and temporary possible for the assailant, though if
it should happen that the ground exposes a point of the defender's line
to such concentric fire, while it protects some points held by the
assailant, the attack would have a prospect of success. But the moment
the point of attack is recognised by the defender he will collect every
available battery and rifleman from all parts of his line and place them
on that portion of his front which commands the path of the assailant.
To prevent this the assailant must engage the defender along his whole
line so that all the defending forces are fully occupied and there are
none to spare for the critical point or region.

Sir Redvers Buller's task is rendered harder by the fact that his own
troops before they can attack must cross the Tugela. He has two bridges
at the point here supposed to have been selected for the main attack,
but troops can hardly cross a bridge at a quicker rate than a brigade an
hour, and as the Boers ride faster than the British infantry can walk,
and as the British troops south of the rive