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Explore The Anglo-Boer War Battlefields
4th to 6th April 2008 with Ken Gillings
On the 9th October 1899, the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek issued an ultimatum to Great Britain demanding the withdrawal of troops from its borders and that all troops en route to South Africa by sea should not land on its soil.
Great Britain viewed this ultimatum with disbelief, dismay, disinterest and delight and chose to ignore it. Consequently, 48 hours later, the Anglo-Boer War broke out on the 11th October 1899.
The first battle of the war was fought at Dundee on the 20th October 1899, followed the next day at Elandslaagte. The former was a pyrrhic victory for the British, whose commander in Dundee, Major General Sir William Penn Symons was mortally wounded while trying to encourage his troops. At Elandslaagte, the Boers suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Colonel Ian Hamiltons troops and their commander, General Jan Kock, was fatally wounded.
Gradually the Federal forces advanced on the town of Ladysmith and on the 30th October 1899, the GOC Natal Field force, Lieutenant General Sir George White tried unsuccessfully to prevent the ZAR and Orange Free State Burghers from completing their encirclement of the town.
By the 2nd November 1899, the Boers had encircled the town and the 118-day Siege of Ladysmith began.
After a couple of weeks, some of the younger Boer officers persuaded the Commandant-General, Gen Piet Joubert, to launch a southward thrust towards Durban. On the 15th November 1899 an armoured train that was sent to reconnoitre the railway line from Estcourt towards Colenso was ambushed and a young newspaper correspondent from the Morning Post, Mr Winston Churchill, was captured and taken to Pretoria. He escaped a few weeks later, returned to Durban, joined a unit called the South African Light Horse and returned to the front. Churchill was present during the later attempts by the Commander-in-Chief of the British Forces in South Africa, General Sir Redvers Buller, to relieve White.
During this advance, the Boers fought a pitched battle against the British at Willow Grange on the 23rd / 24th November 1899 and Joubert was seriously injured when he was thrown from his horse. Command passed to a brilliant 37 year old strategist named Louis Botha, who withdrew his burghers to the north bank of the Tugela River to await the arrival of the British army. His intention was to draw them across the River, destroy the remaining bridge at Colenso and trap them. It didn’t quite work out that way, but Botha nonetheless inflicted am amazing defeat on Buller’s army on the 15th December 1899. One of the most tragic consequences of this Battle was the death of the only son of Field Marshal Lord Roberts, Lt Freddie Roberts, at No 4 Stationary Hospital, Chieveley. Unbeknown to Buller, Roberts was at the War Office receiving his orders to relieve Buller when he received news of his son’s death.
The scene was now set for Buller to attempt to make a second attempt to break through the Boer line. This took place along the iNthabamnyama – a low ridge on the north bank of the Tugela River near present day Bergville, between the 20th and 22nd January 1900. This led to a haphazard decision being taken by the British commanders to take Spioenkop, resulting in one of the most tragic battles in South African military history being fought on the 24th January 1900 – Spioenkop. This unique battlefield, with its 360° vista of northern KwaZulu-Natal, over 1200 British soldiers were killed or wounded to about 200 Boers. After he had visited the battlefield, Commandant Ludwig Krause of the Soutpansberg Commando wrote: “We passed over the battlefield and frequently had to turn aside from numerous corpses of the enemy’s troops, which were unburied still, in various stages of decomposition and which poisoned the air with pestilential odours.
In some places where the soldiers had taken shelter behind long, low stone walls, from behind which they had fired, the ground was covered for hundreds of yards with empty cartridge cases, several inches deep, and two or three yards broad, which crunched like gravel when one walked over it. All around the long rich grassy slopes were dotted with bright red, crimson, purple and brown patches where the lyddite shells had ploughed up the earth, and had scorched the grass with their yellow fumes.”
The view of the Drakensberg and surrounding area from the summit of Spioenkop is amazing and never ceases to impress visitors.
Join The Cavern in exploring these historical Battlefields over the weekend of the 4th to the 6th April 2008 and relive the drama and tragedy of KwaZulu-Natal’s rich tapestry of history. Friday evening at 18H30 Meet Ken for an introductory talk on the battlefields.
Saturday:
We depart The Cavern after breakfast and head for the site of the Armoured Train ambush where you will be given a briefing about an incident that helped to launch Winston Churchill into his illustrious political career.
We then proceed to Chieveley, where your guide will deal with the make-up of the three armies that opposed one another between 1899 and 1902, and we will pay homage to the brave young Lieutenant who helped to save one of the two Royal Field Artillery guns that were saved out of twelve during the Battle of Colenso on the 15th December 1899, for which he was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross.
We then move to Clouston Koppie of Remembrance for tea, followed by a graphic description of the Battle of Colenso, which will include a visit to the gun positions of 14th and 66th Batteries RFA.
Highlight of the day will, however, be our visit to Spioenkop, a battlefield that has hardly changed in 108 years. After a picnic lunch, we will embark on a 6 stage walk across the summit for a talk that could undoubtedly be entitled: “Spioenkop – a lesson in communication, or lack thereof.”
We will return to The Cavern for dinner and no doubt to discuss the lessons that were learnt on the South African veld in 1899 and 1900…
Sunday Morning:
In 1906, the Natal Colonial Government attempted to introduce a poll tax which, as British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher would discover many decades later, proved to be an extremely unpopular move.
It led to many impoverished Black tribal groups going into open rebellion against the State. Martial Law was declared and the Colony went to war against its own people in this, the so-called Bhambatha Rebellion. It resulted in the Colonial Regiments being called up and becoming embroiled in a classic guerrilla war, the back of which was broken in the Battle of Mome Gorge, on the fringes of the Nkandla Forest, on the 10th June 1906.
The centenary of that Rebellion was commemorated last year and those regiments that were involved in 1906 were invited to take part in the commemorations in a spirit of reconciliation and nation-building that escaped the attention of many South Africans. Ironically, the ranks of many of the regiments are now filled by descendants of the rebels who opposed them in the 1906 Poll Tax Rebellion.
On Sunday morning, 6th April 2008, Ken Gillings (who represented the SANDF’s Reserve Forces on the centenary committee) will speak on the topic: “Bhambatha – Dead or alive?”. A talk not to be missed!
About the Author
Hilton Bedingham writes for The Cavern. If you want to know more about The Anglo-Boer War Battlefields then visit Drakensberg Accommodation
Nick singing “Bui Doi” RFA Cabaret 2010
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