It was thought that the hill was more accessible from that side.
The Leicesters and one field battery--the 67th--were left behind to protect the camp and to watch the Newcastle Road upon the west.

At seven in the morning all was ready for the assault.
Two military facts of importance had already been disclosed.

One was that the Boer percussion-shells were useless in soft ground, as hardly any of them exploded; the other that the Boer guns could outrange our ordinary fifteen-pounder field gun, which had been the one thing perhaps in the whole British equipment upon which we were prepared to pin our faith.

The two batteries, the 13th and the 69th, were moved nearer, first to 3000, and then at last to 2300 yards, at which range they quickly dominated the guns upon the hill.

Other guns had opened from another crest to the east of Talana, but these also were mastered by the fire of the 13th Battery.