Great Anglo-Boer War Battles 1

Set-piece battles (Talana, Elandslaagte, Enslin, Belmont, Colenso, Magersfontein, Spion Kop, Paardeberg), were early in the war. By June, 1900 the Boers refused to be drawn into them anymore and spent the last two years of the war launching unpredictable attacks on tunnels, bridges, towns, forts, and smaller British columns, both terrorizing the British and leaving their armies reeling and permanently off-balance. Boer guerilla tactics were so successful that at the end of the war some 450,000 British soldiers failed to capture the 12,000 Bitter Ender Boers who still remained fighting.

You are listening to an original recording from the early 1900s featuring one of Canada's very first recording artists, Henry Burr, singing "Just Break the News to Mother," a song sung poignantly at home, and with bravado, in camps near the battlefront. Henry Burr from New Brunswick, started recording in 1902 while in his teens, and, with some 12,000 recordings to his credit, was the most prolific recording artist of his generation. "Just Break" was written by Chas. K. Harris, the first man to write a million selling song (After the Ball in 1892). This song, first written in 1891 for a dying fireman, was a flop but took off as a colossal hit during the Spanish American War in 1898, after he rewrote it featuring a soldier. (Lest you think the lyrics far-fetched, Lord Roberts of Kandahar, won his Victoria Cross exactly in this way while a young officer during the Indian Mutiny. But he survived.)

After one of the biggest artillery barrages in history, upon the hills, General Wauchope (below), led his Highland Brigade on a surprise night march to round up the supposedly destroyed and demoralized Boers.

Instead, the Boers were in trenches a distance in front of the hills, and cut down the surprised Highlanders, still marching packed together like sardines. Scores were buried around this memorial (right).

"Good old Larry" as his men called him, adamantly refused, saying that the men were too green. (Only 10 men out of 1,000 had ever been under fire, and all had only been in South Africa for barely a week.)

All afternoon the loud argument of the officers bellowed out through this window (below right) as the men stood waiting behind the station house. 

Otter finally gave in, but called Buchan's behavior "mutinous". One can only guess at how many dozen young Canadian lives were saved as a result.

Colenso, Natal: Dec. 15, 1899

Prelude: The British South African commander-in-chief, Sir Redvers Buller VC (right), making his first attempt to relieve Ladysmith - which was surrounded by the Boers - decided to force a crossing over Tugela River at Colenso, then push through the line of hills held by the Boers on the north bank, to open the way to the town beyond.

British Tactics: Buller opted for an infantry assault over the road bridge in the town - which, inexplicably, the Boers had neglected to blow up - to get his army quickly to the north bank of the Tugela.

Boer Tactics: Opposing Buller was Louis Botha, a 37 year old farmer turned general, in his first command. It was he who had left the road bridge standing, to entice the British to cross there. He forbade his men from firing until enough of the British had crossed so that he could crush them between his trenches and the Tugela River at their backs. It would be a massacre of cataclysmic proportions. Holding back the Boer fire at all costs - so not to scare off the British - was the keystone of Louis Botha's battle plan.

Disaster #1 - Hart's Loop: Buller ordered General Fitzroy Hart (below left), to cross the Tugela River west of the village of Colenso, in parallel with the assault over the bridge. But Hart made a classic military blunder by ordering his men to march into a loop of the Tugela River on their way towards a ford/drift. Hart's Loop (below), is outlined by a row of trees in the middle distance.

He survived to receive the replacement silver bugle (left) from Queen Victoria herself.

Disaster #2 - The Guns of Colonel Long: Buller had ordered Col. C.J. Long (left), and his 12 gun artillery unit, to advance with the infantry and give them covering fire. But Buller warned Long, not to get too far ahead of his infantry protection, or too close to the Boers.

But Long disobeyed. He believed that guns should be pushed right into the face of the enemy and destroy them at close range. This had been the traditional way artillery had been used for hundreds of years. The impetuous Long galloped his guns far ahead of the infantry, and to within only 300 yards of the river.

(below) Historian John Goldi, standing beside one of the stone blocks used to mark where each of Long's guns were parked on the day of the battle, points to where Boer sharpshooters watched incredulously as Long's gunners unlimbered their guns to take aim at them.

Within minutes a fire storm of Boer Mauser bullets, made the area around the stone blocks (right), a killing field as most of the 72 artillery horses were shot down and most of the gunners were killed or wounded. Long's guns fell silent and were abandoned by the survivors who cowered in the bush covered gully behind the blocks.

General Buller ordered that the guns be rescued.

Among the men who volunteered to return into the withering field of fire to rescue the guns was Freddy Roberts (above left). He was among several men who came gallopping up the valley pointed out by historian John Goldi (left) to the two guns that stood where these two stone blocks are today. Amid a hail of Boer Mauser fire they managed to hook up the two guns that stood here (German litho above) and gallop back down the valley to the safety of the British lines.

But Freddy fell, mortally wounded, near the bright speck in front of the bushes in the top picture.

So many men and horses where shot down that Buller called off all further rescue attempts. 10 British guns were abandoned to the Boers.

Seven Victoria Crosses were awarded - including one to Freddy - for the desperate acts of valour that took place on the small piece of ground around the two stone blocks (above).

Lord Roberts, Freddy's 67 year old father, learned on the morning of Dec. 16, that he would get his fondest wish - command of the army in South Africa to replace the hapless Buller. In the afternoon he received word that his only son had been killed at Colenso. They were the first father and son to each be awarded a VC.

A VC family tragedy would be repeated. One of the other VC's at Colenso would have a son who followed him into World War I and be killed in a heroic fight for which he would win a VC like his father had before him.

But Boer General Louis Botha disagreed strongly. He always maintained that Col. Long's daring charge right up to the Boer front lines - where he threatened to destroy their trenches with a devastating artillery barrage - forced Botha's hand to fire prematurely to protect the lives of his men. Botha believed, that, had Long advanced slowly with the infantry, as Buller had ordered him to, the British army would have fallen into Botha's trap, crossed the road bridge in good order - unbothered by Boers who were holding their fire - until thousands of Tommies were massed at the foot of the Tugela Heights. Then, with a mighty crash of thousands of Mausers and dozens of machine guns, the Boers would have massacred thousands of British soldiers in only minutes. The panic-stricken men not shot would have drowned trying to swim the Tugela to get away from the battlefield.

Louis Botha and the Boers always maintained that Col. Long's heroics had saved thousands of British lives that day at Colenso.