The infantry could not advance and would not retire.

The Guards on the right were prevented from opening out on the flank and getting round the enemy's line, by the presence of the Riet River, which joins the Modder almost at a right angle.

All day they lay under a blistering sun, the sleet of bullets whizzing over their heads.

'It came in solid streaks like telegraph wires,' said a graphic correspondent.

The men gossiped, smoked, and many of them slept.