Procedure: The man throws himself on the ground at full length, head resting upon the bent left arm, right hand grasping the small of the rifle-stock. The man moves forward by alternately bending and straightening the right leg. When the right leg is straightened the body slides forward without rising in the least from the ground, and the head also remains in position resting on the left arm. The head is raised only when the man fires his piece, the butt of which is placed against the shoulder. Crawling on all fours is very tiring, the man offers a larger target, and, in addition, is not immediately ready for firing. In this manner the Boers succeeded in shooting the enemy out of his position. The firing line, while keeping up an incessant fire, slowly but steadily advanced. The advance of this uncanny crawling line is said to have produced an especially disquieting and paralyzing impression on the immovable defender, who was tied to his position, because of his inability to inflict perceptible losses on these small, prone targets, and because, moreover, he himself was continually under a galling fire. As no assault was made, no opportunity was offered the defender for using his rifles against targets the height of a man. The British infantrymen were, however, insufficiently trained in handling their weapons independently. As to rise and to retreat meant annihilation, the determination to resist weakened gradually during the long fire fight, and, in order to escape from this seemingly unendurable situation, which grew more and more acute with every minute, and which paralyzed every energetic decision, one avenue of escape only seemed open, that of surrender.[90] [90] Engagement at Nicholson’s Neck, October 29th, 1900. _Vierteljahrshefte_, 1905, pp. 145 and 149. One who fought on the Boer side writes as follows: “After we had crept up, in this manner, constantly firing and crawling, to within about 300 m. of the enemy, we saw many white handkerchiefs waving over in his lines, as a signal of surrender. As we placed little credence in these signs of surrender, however, on account of many a bad experience, we continued the advance by crawling. But, as soon as we saw that most of the men in the enemy’s ranks were throwing away their weapons, we rose to make the British prisoners. When we came up with them, I noticed that a great many of the men were weeping like children. Later, when I voiced my astonishment over the morale of their troops to some English officers, they stated that it was due to the uncanny manner of our advance.