Начнём с того, что мы обсуждаем произведение беллетристики, пусть и основанное на документальном материале, и имеющее своей целью представить автора в максимально выгодном свете.
А давайте почитаем, что Черчилль писал о событии сразу же после него и "без литературы":
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/churchill/wc-trans20.html
"Now about the war: - Perhaps you will read my letters in the "Morning Post". They contain the best of my impressions put down as carefully, from the point of view of style, as I can. The military operations, though short, have been interesting. The Battle was a wonderful spectacle. The I had the good luck to ride through the charge unhurt-indeed untouched-which very few can say. I used a pistol and did not draw my sword. I had no difficulties and felt confident that I should get through if, neither my horse fell nor I was shot-for I must tell you the ground was execrable and there was the wildest shooting in all directions. Neither of these things happened and such of the enemy as approached me or attacked me I shot-three I think I killed. It is difficult to miss at under a foot's range. The whole thing was a matter of seconds-for as you may have gathered-we burst through their line and formed up the other side. The loss was most severe-1 officer and 21 men killed-9 officers and 66 men wounded and 119 horses out of only 320. Such a proportion and such a loss has been sustained by no regiment since the Light Brigade-forty years ago."
А вот что он пишет о посещении поля боя после битвы:
http://www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=675
"And so we came at once on to the ground over which the 21st Lancers had charged. Its peculiar formation was the more apparent at a second view. As we looked from the spot where we had wheeled into line and begun to gallop, it was scarcely possible to believe that an extensive khor ran right across what appeared to be smooth and unobstructed plain. An advance of a hundred yards revealed the trap, and displayed a long ditch with steeply sloping rocky sides, about four feet in depth and perhaps twenty feet wide. In this trench lay a dozen bodies of Dervishes, half-a-dozen dead donkeys, and a litter of goat-skin water-bottles, Dervish saddles, and broken weapons.
The level ground beyond was sparsely spotted with corpses. Some had been buried when they fell by their friends in the city, and their places were indicated by little mounds of lighter-coloured earth. Half-a-dozen horses, stripped of saddles and bridles, made a brown jumble in the background. In the centre a red and white lancepennon, flying from a stick, marked the grave of the fallen Lancers. And that was all."
Ну и ещё: плотная толпа и плотный строй -- вещи разные, существенно разные. Через толпу действительно можно было проскочить в течение секунд -- и достаточно сохранить строй, чтобы вновь построиться, развернуться и ударить в обратном направлении.