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.