So severe was the fire at this point that both in the wood and in the nullah the troops lay down to avoid it.

An officer of Irish Fusiliers has narrated how in trying to cut the straps from a fallen private a razor lent him for that purpose by a wounded sergeant was instantly shot out of his hand.

The gallant Symons, who had refused to dismount, was shot through the stomach and fell from his horse mortally wounded.

With an excessive gallantry, he had not only attracted the enemy's fire by retaining his horse, but he had been accompanied throughout the action by an orderly bearing a red pennon.

'Have they got the hill?
Have they got the hill ?' was his one eternal question as they carried him dripping to the rear.