‘For example, we may refer to the two Boer positions in front of Potgieter’s and Venter’s Spruit. The former was strongly situated in the low swelling ground north of the Tugela, but it could be seen into and bombarded by long-range guns at 7,000 yards, at a height of some 600 feet above it, and from as many field guns as could be brought together at 3,500 yards in the lowland north of the Tugela. The Venter’s Spruit position, on the other hand, extending from the Rangeworthy farm round by Acton Homes, and thence into the Drakensberg, was quite as strongly situated on the swelling ground of the comparatively flat hill-top; but it also possessed the enormous advantage that the hills on which it was situated were over 1,000 feet above the Tugela, and thus it could not be seen into or dominated by our long-range guns, and with difficulty could field guns be brought against it: moreover, from it could be seen the movements of our troops. The main camps of the enemy were behind Spion Kop and Acton Homes, and were thus nearer the western position than the eastern. It is not too much to say that, had there been a high hill or a balloon in the vicinity overlooking the Venter’s Spruit position as Zwart Kop does that of Potgieter’s, the great strength of that position would have been more fully appreciated. ‘Let us now consider the advantage of occupying hills in the line of the advance of an attack. They are obvious, both on account of the command of view they afford of the enemy’s position, and because they screen from view and from fire a portion of the attack; but it is to be noted that the reverse slopes only of those hills can be securely held, not the flat summits. The only case in which it may be generally disadvantageous to hold a hill is when it is in such proximity to the enemy’s lines that it can be taken in reverse or all round by the enemy’s fire. ‘A most conspicuous instance of the secure holding of a hill within the enemy’s lines occurred on 24th February, after the failure of the attack on the isolated position of Hart’s Hill. During the retirement the 1st Battalion Durham Light Infantry kept possession of a nook or kloof on the side of that hill which could not be reached by the enemy’s fire, and from which neither rifle fire nor shell could dislodge them. To the eye from afar they seemed to be in a perilous position, but they were secure.