NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Battle of Spion Kop

Second Boer War
Talana Hill – Elandslaagte – Belmont – Modder River – Stormberg – Magersfontein – Colenso – Spion Kop – Bloody Sunday – Paardeberg – Ladysmith – Sanna's Post – Mafeking

The Battle of Spion Kop (Afrikaans: Slag van Spioenkop) was fought about 38 km (21 miles) west-south-west of Ladysmith on the hilltop of Spioenkop⁽¹⁾ along the Tugela River, Natal in South Africa. The battle was fought between Boer and British forces from 23-24 January 1900 as part of the Second Boer War, and resulted in a famous British defeat during the Boer War. |conflict=Second Boer War |partof=the Boer Wars |image= |caption=Boer guerillas during the Second Boer War |date=1899 â€“ 1902 |place=South Africa |result=British Pyrrhic victory |casus=Jameson Raid |territory=Treaty of Vereeniging |combatant1= United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand |combatant2= Orange Free State, South African Republic |commander1=Frederick... Image File history File links Boers_at_Spion_Kop,_1900_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_16462. ... (Redirected from 23 January) January 23 is the 23rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... January 24 is the 24th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1900 (MCM) was an exceptional common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, but a leap year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. ... A kilometer (Commonwealth spelling: kilometre), symbol: km is a unit of length in the metric system equal to 1,000 metres (from the Greek words Ï‡Î¯Î»Î¹Î± (khilia) = thousand and Î¼ÎÏ„ÏÎ¿ (metro) = count/measure). ... Ladysmith (1991: pop. ... Boer is the Afrikaans (and Dutch) word for farmer which came to denote the descendants of the Afrikaans-speaking migrating farmers of the expanding eastern Cape frontier. ... General Sir Charles Warren, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., F.R.S. (1840–1927) was a British soldier and police commissioner. ... Louis Botha Louis Botha (September 17, 1862-August 27, 1919) was an Afrikaner and first Prime Minister of the modern South African state, then called the Union of South Africa. ... |conflict=Second Boer War |partof=the Boer Wars |image= |caption=Boer guerillas during the Second Boer War |date=1899 â€“ 1902 |place=South Africa |result=British Pyrrhic victory |casus=Jameson Raid |territory=Treaty of Vereeniging |combatant1= United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand |combatant2= Orange Free State, South African Republic |commander1=Frederick... Combatants Great Britain Boers Commanders Major General Penn Symons â€ General Erasmus Lukas Mayer Strength 4000 8000 (c. ... Combatants Great Britain Boers Commanders John French Ian Hamilton General Kock â€ Strength 4000 2000 Casualties 261 c. ... Combatants Great Britain Boers Commanders Lord Methuen J. Prinsloo Strength 8,000 2,000 Casualties 200 casualties Unknown The Battle of Belmont is the name of an engagement of the Boer War in the town of Belmont, 23 November 1899, where the British under Lord Methuen assaulted a Boer position... Modder River - 28 November 1899 British Victory ~ Was a tiring day again with the heat and especially after forming at 430am and being the 3rd battle in a week. ... Combatants Great Britain Boers Commanders William Forbes Gatacre Field Kommandant Olivier Strength 1200 infantry 250 mounted infantry 12 guns 2300 total Casualties 90 killed and wounded 600 missing unknown {{{notes}}} The Battle of Stormberg was the first British defeat of Black Week, in which three successive British forces were defeated... Combatants Great Britain Boers Commanders Lord Methuen Piet Cronje Strength 13,000 8,500 Casualties Nearly 1,000 70 dead 250 wounded Unknown captured and deserted, but believed to be significant {{{notes}}} The Battle of Magersfontein was fought on December 11, 1899 at Magersfontein, on the borders of Cape Colony... Categories: ‪Battle stubs‬ | ‪Boer War battles‬ ... Bloody Sunday of February 18, 1900, was a day of high Imperial casualties in the Second Boer War. ... The Battle of Paardeberg was a major battle during the Second Anglo-Boer War. ... The Siege of Ladysmith was a famous battle in the Boer War, taking place between 2 November 1899 and 28 February 1900. ... Combatants Great Britain Boers Commanders Brigadier General Broadwood Christiaan de Wet Strength 2000 12 guns 400 (1600 distantly engaged) Casualties 600 7 guns 8 (eight) {{{notes}}} Sannaâ€™s Post (aka Korn Spruit) was an engagement fought during the Second Boer War (1899-1902) between the British Empire and the Boers... Combatants United Kingdom Boers Commanders Robert Baden-Powell Colonel B T Mahon General Piet Cronje Strength 2,000 8,000 Casualties 212 dead 600 wounded Unknown but significantly higher than British The Siege of Mafeking was the most famous British action in the Second Boer War. ... Afrikaans is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in South Africa and Namibia. ... A kilometer (Commonwealth spelling: kilometre), symbol: km is a unit of length in the metric system equal to 1,000 metres (from the Greek words Ï‡Î¯Î»Î¹Î± (khilia) = thousand and Î¼ÎÏ„ÏÎ¿ (metro) = count/measure). ... A mile is a unit of length, usually used to measure distance, in a number of different systems, including English units, Imperial units, United States customary units and Norwegian/Swedish mil. ... Ladysmith (1991: pop. ... The Tugela River (also known as Thukela) is the largest river in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. ... KwaZulu-Natal, often referred to as KZN, is a province of South Africa. ... Boer is the Afrikaans (and Dutch) word for farmer which came to denote the descendants of the Afrikaans-speaking migrating farmers of the expanding eastern Cape frontier. ... (Redirected from 23 January) January 23 is the 23rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... January 24 is the 24th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1900 (MCM) was an exceptional common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, but a leap year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. ... |conflict=Second Boer War |partof=the Boer Wars |image= |caption=Boer guerillas during the Second Boer War |date=1899 â€“ 1902 |place=South Africa |result=British Pyrrhic victory |casus=Jameson Raid |territory=Treaty of Vereeniging |combatant1= United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand |combatant2= Orange Free State, South African Republic |commander1=Frederick...

1 The battle
2 Note about the name
3 Miscellaneous
4 See also
5 References
6 Further reading

The battle

Spion Kop

General Sir Redvers Buller, VC, commander of the British forces in Natal, was at the time still overshadowed by Lieutenant-General Louis Botha and the fate of Ladysmith undecided. Buller gave control of his main force to General Sir Charles Warren, who decided to attack the Boers along two fronts. General Warren had command of 11,000 infantry, 2,200 cavalry, and 36 field guns. After ten days' travel and preparation to reach Trichardt's Drift on the Tugela river the battle for Spion Kop began. Spion Kop, as the largest hill in the region at over 1,400 feet, was occupied by the Boers, who were armed with modern German Mauser rifles. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1280x960, 328 KB) I, the creator of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1280x960, 328 KB) I, the creator of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. ... Sir Redvers Henry Buller (VC, GCB, GCMG) (7 December 1839-2 June 1908) was a British general and Victoria Cross holder. ... Victoria Cross medal, ribbon, and bar. ... Louis Botha Louis Botha (September 17, 1862-August 27, 1919) was an Afrikaner and first Prime Minister of the modern South African state, then called the Union of South Africa. ... General Sir Charles Warren, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., F.R.S. (1840–1927) was a British soldier and police commissioner. ...

The kop

Spion Kop formed a major bastion of the Boers' defensive line that blocked Buller's advance to Ladysmith, where some 13,000 British troops were besieged. The Kop was only 10 miles from Ladysmith and possession of the hill would allow the British artillery to dominate the surrounding area. Spion Kop was therefore seen as the "Key to Ladysmith". The Boers sited their defensive positions not on the crests of hills but instead on the rear slope, out of sight of enemy forces, a tactic unfamiliar to British military orthodoxy. This tactic allowed the Boers to observe the British forces while keeping hidden their own forces' numbers and dispositions.

The British assault

On the night of 23 January, Warren sent a force under Major General Edward Woodgate to secure Spion Kop. Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Thorneycroft was selected to spearhead the initial assault. January 23 is the 23rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...

The British climbed up the hill at night and in dense mist. They effectively suprised the smaller Boer piquet around 100 men and drove them off the Kop at bayonet point. A small number of British Sappers began to entrench the position (whilst almost 1,000 soldiers stood around idle) and Major General Woodgate communicated with General Warren of the success of taking the hilltop, but the good cheer only lasted until the fog lifted.

Killed British soldiers lying in trenches

With the dawn of the new day the British discovered that they had the smaller and lower part of the hilltop of Spion Kop, while the Boers occupied higher ground on three sides of the British position. To make matters worse, the British trenches were totally inadequate. The British had no direct knowledge of the topography of the summit and the darkness and fog had compounded the problem. At most the trenches were 40cm deep and provided an exceptionally poor defensive position - the British infantry in the trenches could not see over the crest of the plateau and the Boers were able to fire down the length of the crescent-shaped trench from the adjacent peaks. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1578x1179, 321 KB) Killed British soldiers lying in trenches after the Battle of Spioenkop, near Ladysmith, Natal, South Africa. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1578x1179, 321 KB) Killed British soldiers lying in trenches after the Battle of Spioenkop, near Ladysmith, Natal, South Africa. ...

The Boer Generals were not unduly concerned by the news that the British had taken the Kop. They knew that their artillery on Tabanyama could be brought to bear on the British position and that rifle fire could be brought to bear from parts of the Kop not yet occuped by the British. However, the Boer Generals also knew that sniping and artillery alone would not be sufficient to dislodge the British - and the Boer position was desperately vulnerable. If the British immediately established positions on Conical Hill and Aloe Knoll (the two unoccupied kojes on the kop itself) they could bring their artillery to bear on Tabanyama, threatening the key Boer positions there. More importantly, there was a risk that the British would storm Twin Peaks (Drielingkoppe) to the eatern end of Spion Kop. And if Twin Peaks fell, the British would be able to turn the Boers' left flank and annihilate the main Boer encampment. The Boer Generals realised that Spion Kop would have to be stormed, and stormed soon, if disaster were to be averted. Historically, artillery (from French artillerie) refers to any engine used for the discharge of projectiles during war. ...

The Boers began to bombard the British position, dropping shells from the adjacent plateau of Tabanyama at a rate of ten rounds per minute. Meanwhile, Commandant Henrik Prinsloo of the Carolina Commando rose to the challenge of taking Aloe Knoll and Conical Hill with some 88 men while around 300 Burghers, mainly of the Pretoria Commando, climbed the Kop to launch a frontal assault on the British position. The British Lee-Metford and Lee-Enfield Rifles were no less deadly that the Boer Mausers however, and the frontal assault ended in a bloody repulse. The Lee-Metford rifle was a breech-loading British army service rifle, combining James Paris Lees rear-locking bolt system and ten-round magazine with a seven groove rifled barrel designed by William Ellis Metford. ... Lee-Enfield No4 Mk1 with bayonet, scabbard attached The Lee-Enfield was the British armys standard bolt action, magazine-fed, repeating rifle from 1895 until 1956. ... A rifle is any long gun which has a rifled barrel. ... Mauser is the common name of a German arms manufacturer, maker of a line of bolt-action rifles from the 1870s to present. ...

A kind of stalemate now settled over the Kop. The Boers had failed to drive the British off the Kop but the surviving men of the Pretoria and Carolina Commando now held a firing line on Aloe Knoll from where they could enfilade the British position and the British were now under sustained bombardment from the Boer artillery. The British had failed to exploit their initial success and the initiative now passed to the Boers.

Morale began to sag on both sides as the extreme heat, exhaustion and thirst took hold. On one hand the Boers on the Kop could see large numbers of Burghers on the plains below who refused to join the fight. The sense of betrayal, the bloody failure of the frontal assault, the indiscipline inherent in a civilian army and the apparent security of the British position proved too much for some. They began to abandon their hard-won positions. On the other hand the bombardment began to take its toll on the British. Major General Woodgate fell mortally wounded. Three more senior British Officers fell in quick succesion. Officers and men from different units were intermingled, and the British were now leaderless, confused and pinned down.

By mid-morning, for both sides the question was: Could the Officers rally the troops and prevent a whole-sale surrender?

Colonel Malby Crofton took charge and asked for reinforcements. Warren had already dispatched two further regular battalions and the Imperial Light Infantry were on their way up to the firing line. Warren refused to launch an attack on Tabanyama and barred his guns from firing on Aloe Knoll, believing this to be part of the British position. Thornycroft now replaced Croft as commander on the Kop.

A killed Boer sniper

British Memorial at the battle-site

Winston Churchill was a journalist stationed in South Africa and he was commissioned an officer at the rank of Lieutenant in the South African Light Horse by General Buller during the Boer War after his prisoner-of-war prison escape. Churchill acted as a courier to and from Spion Kop and General Buller's HQ and made a statement about the scene: "Corpses lay here and there. Many of the wounds were of a horrible nature. The splinters and fragments of the shells had torn and mutilated them. The shallow trenches were choked with dead and wounded." Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1430x988, 290 KB) A killed Boer sniper after the Battle of Spioenkop, near Ladysmith, Natal, South Africa. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1430x988, 290 KB) A killed Boer sniper after the Battle of Spioenkop, near Ladysmith, Natal, South Africa. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (960x1280, 324 KB) I, the creator of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (960x1280, 324 KB) I, the creator of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. ... This article is becoming very long. ...

At this point the situation proved too much for the Lancashire Fusiliers who attempted to surrender to the Boers. Thornycroft personally intervened and ordered his men back. A viscious point-blank firefight ensued but the British line had been saved. At this crucial point, the re-inforcements arrived, attacked and took Twin Peaks. The Lancashire Fusiliers was a British infantry regiment that was amalgamated with other Fusilier regiments in 1968 to form the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. ...

The aftermath

The Boers were shattered by the loss of Twin Peaks and abandoned the Kop as darkness fell. Unbeknownst to Thornycroft, the battle was as good as won. But Thornycroft's nerve was also shattered. After sixteen hours on the Kop doing the job of a Brigadier General, he ordered a retreat after reporting that the soldiers had no water, and ammunition was running short. It is hard to fault Thornycroft for this error. Warren did nothing to intervene and it is he who must shoulder the blame from snatching disasterous defeat from the jaws of an assured victory.

When morning came, the Boer Generals were astonished to see two Burghers on the top of Spion Kop, waving their slouch-hats in triumph. The only British on the Kop were the dead and the dying.

The British suffered 243 British fatalities during the battle, many were buried in the trenches were they fell. Approximately 1,250 British were either wounded or captured. The Boers suffered 335 casualties of which 68 were dead. Commandant Prinsloo Commando suffered a loss of 55 out of his 88 men.

The British retreated back over the Tugela but the Boers were too weak to follow up their success.

Somehow, Buller managed to rally his troops. The morale of the British was miraculously restored.

Ladysmith would be taken by the British on another day.

Note about the name

Although the common English name for the battle is Spion Kop throughout the Commonwealth and its historic literature, the official South African English and Afrikaans name for the battle is Spioenkop, which is in common use in South Africa and is the correct English spelling of the borrowed Afrikaans name; spioen means "spy" or "look-out", and kop means "hill" or "outcropping". Another variant that is sometimes found is the combination into Spionkop. The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... The Commonwealth of Nations (CN), usually known as the Commonwealth, is a voluntary association of 53 independent sovereign states, the majority of which are former colonies of the United Kingdom. ...

The name Spionkop originates from Dutch instead of Afrikaans. Spion (and not Spioen) is the Dutch word for "spy". Until the 1920's Dutch was still the official language of the Boers, especially in its written form.

Miscellaneous

The Kop Stand at Anfield Stadium — home of the English football team Liverpool — is named in honour of the battle. The east side of Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough, built on a hill, is also called "Spion Kop". Similarly, Plymouth Argyle named a corner of Home Park 'the Spion Kop' in honour of the battle, but the disabled facility was torn down during Phase I regeneration of the football ground.
A Terrace at Wigan Rugby League Football Club's former ground, Central Park, was also named the 'Spion Kop'.
The village of Spion Kop near Mansfield, Nottinghamshire was named in honour of the battle.
Similarly, in places like Australia there are numerous hills bearing the name "Spion Kop", presumably because of their perceived resemblance to the location of the battle in the eyes of returned servicemen.
"The Battle of Spion Kop" was an episode of the Goon Show radio program, originally broadcast on December 29, 1958.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was a British stretcher-bearer at the battle.

Anfield is a football stadium in the district of Anfield, in Liverpool, England. ... Football (soccer) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Liverpool Football Club are a football club based in Liverpool, in the north west of England. ... Sheffield Wednesday Football Club (often abbreviated as SWFC), nicknamed The Owls, is one of the oldest football clubs in the English Football League. ... Hillsborough Stadium is the home of Sheffield Wednesday Football Club in Sheffield, England. ... Spion Kop is a small village in Nottinghamshire, England. ... Statistics Population: 69,987 Ordnance Survey OS grid reference: SK537610 Administration District: Mansfield (district) Shire county: Nottinghamshire Region: East Midlands Constituent country: England Sovereign state: United Kingdom Other Ceremonial county: Nottinghamshire Historic county: Nottinghamshire Services Police force: Nottinghamshire Police Ambulance service: East Midlands Post office and telephone Post town: MANSFIELD... Nottinghamshire (abbreviated Notts) is an English county in the East Midlands, which borders South Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and Derbyshire. ... The Goon Show was a hugely popular and extremely influential British radio comedy programme, which was originally produced and broadcast by the BBC from 1951 to 1960 on the BBC Home Service. ... December 29 is the 363rd day of the year (364th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 2 days remaining. ... 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Gujarati: , Hindi: , IAST: mohandÄs karamcand gÄndhÄ«, IPA: ) (October 2, 1869 â€“ January 30, 1948) was a major political and spiritual leader of the Indian independence movement. ...

References

Oliver Ransford, Battle Of Spion Kop, (John Murray, London, 1971)
H. G. Castle, Spion Kop: The Second Boer War (Almark, London, 1976)
CHAPTER XV Spion Kop, "The Great Boer War", By Arthur Conan Doyle (pub 1902) ISBN 1-4043-0473-8
Chapter IX The Battle for Spion Kop, "Commando: A Boer Journal Of The Boer War" by Deneys Reitz (first pub in GB 1929) ISBN 0-571-08778-7
- "Boer Commando: An Afrikaner Journal of the Boer War" (same book different edition), ISBN 0-9627613-3-8

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, DL (22 May 1859 â€“ 7 July 1930) was a Scottish author most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, which are generally considered a major innovation in the field of crime fiction, and the adventures of Professor Challenger. ... Deneys Reitz (1882â€”1944) was a Boer Commando, South African soldier and politician. ...

Contents

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