The Defeat of the British Army at Spion Kop

The Struggle for The Summit of Spion Kop

Sep 12, 2008 Grant Sebastian Nell

Following the British occupation of Spion Kop, the Boer picket that had been routed from the hill informed General Louis Botha, who immediately launched into action.

The Battle of Spion Kop

The Boers commenced a sustained artillery barrage on the British position whilst their riflemen began to exact a stinging toll. By 8:30 am, Woodgate was out of action, mortally wounded. Leaderless, all the soldiers could do was huddle in the pathetic shelter of their inadequate trenches and endure the hellish storm of artillery and rifle fire.

Buller, watching from across the Tugela, suggested to Warren that Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Thorneycroft of the Mounted Rifles be placed in command. Other officers on the hill were not informed of this decision and this created more confusion.

The Boer rifle fire was intense. Taking advantage of the rolling ground on the hill, Boer snipers were able to get within 20 yards of the British positions. The Carolina Commando, under the command of Commandant Hendrik Prinsloo, occupied Aloe Knoll, one of the crests of Spion Kop, and from this lofty vantage point they subjected the outflanked Lancashire Fusiliers to a terrible hammering. Seventy Fusiliers were found dead after the battle, most shot through the right temple. Hendrik attempted a direct assault on the British trench and succeeding in capturing part of it, but fresh British reinforcements in the form of the 2nd Scottish Rifles arrived and drove the Boers from the crest after a fierce bayonet fight. It was at roughly this point that the Boers demanded the British surrender and Thorneycroft stoutly refused.

Sometime in the day, a youthful Winston Churchill, then a war correspondent, climbed the hill to see for himself what was going on. Recognising in the plight of the British soldiers echoes of the defeat of the British forces at the Battle of Majuba Hill almost 2 decades previously, he voiced this opinion to General Warren upon his return and almost got arrested.

With neither side able to make any gains and all suffering from the broiling January heat and lack of water, the Boers continued shelling the hill. It is believed that, for much of the day, Boer shells landed on the British position at the rate of seven a minute.

In the mayhem of battle, both sides were under the impression that they were losing. A diversionary attack was mounted by the 1st Rifle Brigade on Twin Peaks, just to the east of Spion Kop. It is worth noting that whilst a few hundred men battled for their lives on Spion Kop, the remainder of the British army was sitting idly by barely three miles away. British artillery was hampered by their lack of knowledge concerning the immediate environs and situation of the battle - for example, they did not shell Aloe Knoll because they believed it to be part of the British position.

Similiarly, Louis Botha found it difficult to muster men for a direct assault on Spion Kop - all the Boers attacking the hill were volunteers. As a consequence, many of the embattled Boers grew increasingly resentful of the large numbers of their kin who refused to join the fight and many began to slip away.

The Defeat of the British Army

Once darkness descended, reinforcements began to arrive but Thorneycroft refused to hold out any longer and led his exhausted men down the hill. Many Boers believed the battle to be lost. A party of Boers, searching for dead comrades, made the astonishing discovery that the British had departed.

In total, since the 16th of January till the 24th, the British had lost a total of 322 killed, including 32 officers, 363 wounded and 300 men taken prisoner. The Boers suffered between 105 to 335 casualties. Amongst the stretcher bearers tending the British wounded was Mahondas Gandhi, who would later become Mahatma Gandhi and help lead India to independence.

Buller retreated back toward Frere to lick his wounds. The British position, which did not exceed more than an acre in size, was nicknamed ‘The murderous acre.’ Most of the British dead were buried in their shallow trenches.

A Tourist Guide to the Anglo Boer War 1899-1902'Spionkop' by Pat Rundgren

Compiled by Tony Westby-Nunn

Westby Nunn Publishers cc 2000

The Battle of Spion Kop - The Boer War

britishbattles.com

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Probert encyclopaedia

Readers Digest Illustrated History of South Africa: The Real Story

Readers Digest 1989

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