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Military History – South Africa – Europe – England 19th Century
.Article – Online Historic Information | Military
.Page 239
Siege of Mafeking and took over the command when Cronjé left. He failed to distinguish himself
and left Commandant Sarel Eloff without support when the Boers managed to enter the town. He
served at the Battle of Diamond Hill but was reduced to the ranks afterwards.
See also:
Diamond Hill, Battle of; Mafeking, Siege of.
Reference:
Hall, Darrell, ed. Fransjohan Pretorius and Gilbert Torlage, The Hall Handbook of the Anglo-Boer
War (Pietermaritzburg, University of Natal Press, 1999).
Spioenkop, Battle of,
23–24 January 1900
Look-out Hill, Spioenkop (Spion Kop), is possibly the best-known battle name of the Boer War. Here
the British suffered heavy casualties from Boer artillery while the Boers suffered severely from
British rifle fire when Sir Redvers Buller was attempting a wide flanking movement to the west in his
second attempt to relieve Ladysmith. Both sides thought they had lost the battle and both abandoned
the summit of the hill as darkness fell. On the morning of 25 January two Boers looking for slain
friends found the hill unoccupied and summoned their comrades to fill the vacancy. Another British
thrust was made close by at Vaalkrans on 5 February, but this was also abandoned and the British
withdrew to the railway at Chieveley once more.
Buller’s decision to revert to the plan made and shelved before the Battle of Colenso was
stimulated by the arrival of reinforcements in the shape of Lieutenant-general Sir Charles Warren’s
5th Division. The idea was to cross the Tugela River by Potgieter’s Drift and head for Lady-smith by
the Brakfontein road. Major-general Barton’s brigade was to cover the Colenso front. On 10 January
the great procession began, comprising 25,000 men, 650 wagons and the Navy’s big guns as well as
eight field batteries. Colonel Lord Dundonald’s cavalry reached Springfield (now called Winterton)
the next day and the Tugela at Trichardt’s Drift the following morning. The men of the South African
Light Horse swam the river and took the pont, or ferry. The infantry plodded on through the rain and
took six days to catch up. Warren was to take on the left flank beyond Trichardt’s Drift with 15,000
men and thirty-six guns while Major-general N. Lyttleton with 9,000 men was to hold the Boer’s
attention at Potgieter’s Drift. This would allow Warren to advance without being overlooked by both
Spioenkop and Vaalkrans.
The progress was leisurely. On 16 January both drifts were crossed without opposition and
Dundonald was at Acton Homes, at the north-western end of the hills, Ntabamnyama, the next day,
fretting to be allowed to gallop away to Ladysmith with his 1,500 men. Warren ordered him back,
deeming the move too distant and dangerous. It was not until 20 January that a concerted effort was
made to take the hills. Dundonald took Bastion Hill, the western extreme of Ntabamnyama, but Majorgeneral A. F. Hart and Major-general E. R. P.
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