After the Gun Hill attack, surprisingly, the Boers did not step up their watchfulness nor increase the number of men guarding their gun positions. Only on 10th December did Lieutenant Colonel S.P.E. Trichardt address a letter to General Daniel Erasmus remonstrating about the weak force guarding the howitzer on Vaalkop (Surprise Hill). He said that while there were 30 men in the guard detail, only 2 of them remained on guard while the rest went to sleep to the rear of the emplacement. Trichardt required Erasmus to urgently increase the guard to 50 so that at least 10 of these should remain awake and watchful. An extra picquet had been placed at the foot of Vaalkop under the command of Corporal Tossel, formerly a detective in the Z.A.R.P., but this was the only extra measure put in place by General Erasmus. It was too late – Metcalfe and his men were shortly to be on their way to attack the hill.
