The Battle of Colenso 1899 - Boer War

the battle of kalenso was the third and final battle of the black week fought during the boer war of 1899 to 1902 between britain and the boer or afrikaner republics of the transfile and the orange free state i've done a short video that gives an overview of the boer war so i don't want to repeat that but there's a link in the description and also one appearing on the screen well about now the war had started badly for britain uh in october 1899 with the boers advancing into british territory and besieging the garrisons at lady smith kimberly and mafiking a british army of 50 000 landed in the cape town commanded by general bulla bulla divided his forces into three general methuen would lead twenty thousand men to relieve kimberly general general gateker would command a smaller force for guarding the cape midlands from invasion and bulla himself would take charge of the relief of ladysmith where 12 000 british troops under general white were being holed up by early december bulla had marshalled his troops in natal and was preparing to rescue lady smith and then on successive days he received the news that his armies in the west have been defeated by the boers on the 10th of december general gateker had bungled an attack on stormberg and had lost over 700 men mainly captured just one day later general mathewin had walked into a trap at magafontaine which had cost him over 700 men killed wounded and captured and now the 15th of december it will be bulla's turn to be bested by the boers the most direct route to lady smith was to follow the railway line across the taguila river at kolenzo however it was also the most obvious route and it would entail not just crossing a 200 foot wide river but also sending the hills immediately to the north of the town and advancing through 12 miles of rugged terrain to reach lady smith and the boers had entrenched themselves on those hills overlooking the tagula principally at the limited number of crossing points across the river they'd also ventured south of the river and occupied a hill just the east of the town of kolenzo which would also need to be cleared before any advance could successfully proceed bulla was fully aware that despite his overwhelming numbers 20 000 against just 5000 a full frontal assault through forwards and across bridges against entrenched positions on the high ground would be costly to say the least bullet therefore devised a different plan he intended a wide flanking movement to avoid those boer positions and actually cross the river about 50 miles upstream from kolenzo but now he feared that his movement that movement could actually leave his lines of communication highly exposed so with some foreboding he decided to go for that most obvious direct route after all storming the ball positions at kolenzo bulla's plans were hampered not just by his choosing the most obvious route but through a lack of maps scarcity of intelligence and actually his own high opinion of boer fighting abilities having fought alongside the boers back in the zulu war when he had received the victoria cross not that the boers were having everything their own way their veteran commander pete juber had been injured in a riding accident and had been replaced by the 37 year old louis botha from the 13th of december bulla's artillery started pounding the boar positions across the river and under the cover of darkness on the night of the 14th 15th of december bulla's army moved into position 16 battalions of infantry plus cavalry and artillery it was the biggest british army to go into a single battle since the battle of alma during the crimean war at 5 30 am on the 15th of december 1899 bulla's naval guns opened up on the board positions these 12-pounder naval guns originally destined for use on ships had been mounted onto gun carriages with a range of 10 000 yards they could hit targets at least twice the distance of the royal artillery field guns despite this devastating bombardment the boers kept their heads down and therefore kept the british guessing exactly where their positions were louis botha had positioned his uh forces covering three different drifts or forwards upstream from kolenzo and then had a large force on the highest hills above kalenzo itself he'd also reinforce that that hill uh of that position on the south side of the river and that would threaten bulla's flank but at the same time it was the most exposed bore position at 7 00 am on the 15th of december 1899 bula ordered the advance on the tuguela river the battle of kolenso had begun his plan for attack was simple or is at least as simple as it could be on the left the irish brigade under major general heart would forward the tegala at brindle drift on the right a mounted division of light infantry would advance on the exposed hill uh the boars were occupying and then dismounting they would scale it and clear the borders from the summit the key to the battle would be in the centre where major general hildyard's second brigade consisting of the second devonshire regiment the second queen's royal regiment the west surreys the second west yorkshires and the second east surreys would storm the kolenzo town itself and cross the river using the road bridge the boers had actually destroyed the nearby railway bridge obviously the most difficult assault they would be supported by two batteries of field artillery along with a detachment of naval guns under the command of colonel long of the royal artillery colonel charles james long was 50 years old and had been in the royal artillery for nearly 30 years he'd served with distinction at the battle of omdarman the previous year and now he was in charge of two batteries of artillery consisting of 12 guns and also six of those mounted naval 12 pounders as the british move forward long without any authorization from bula raced his artillery ahead of the advancing infantry under hildyard now normal artillery tactics were to form up behind an infantry advance and provide covering fire the year before in sudan artillery had sometimes actually gone ahead and fired at point-blank range into the khalifa's masses carrying their spears and swords with devastating effect but the burs were not the sudanese in fact there was still nowhere to be seen on the other side of the river nonetheless long raced half a mile ahead of the rest of the british advance and whilst waiting for the lumbering naval cannons to catch up he quickly unli unlimbered his field artery just one thousand yards from the tuguela river these 15 pounder guns are the royal field artillery with the main british artillery weapon throughout the boer war they were able to fire their 15 pound shells at a range of about 4 000 yards at a rate of seven rounds a minute long was confident that this close range and that rapid fire the boys wouldn't know what the hell it hit them which would have been true if he were not within range of the boar rifleman lying on scene across the river and it was now that the boys from the krugersdorf commando finally broke cover on the far side of the river at a range of just one thousand yards armed with the modern mauser rifles they opened a rapid and sustained fire on the artillery the volume of bullets speeding towards colonel long had a devastating effect on his command nearly all the men were killed or injured including long himself who was hit in the lung abandoning those the guns those members of the gun crew able to escape fled the cover of odonga or dried gully about 500 yards to the rear the guns have been abandoned in no man's land most of the crews were dead and so were most of their horses to move the pieces with only the six guns from the naval brigade giving artillery support hildyard nevertheless ordered his men to assault kolenzo if buller was having a cold sweat watching colonel long's disaster over to his left another debacle was unfolding the irish brigade under major general hart were advancing as if on parade all in big columns to the ford at afford the river at brindle drift some three miles upstream from calenzo poor map reading and reconnaissance as well as inaccurate information from a local guide who couldn't speak english actually resulted in hart missing this forward completely instead the guide who very quickly disappeared had led hart's whole brigade into a salient in the river four thousand men from the dublin fusiliers the inner skillins the conaut rangers and the irish border regiment were now crammed into a tiny bottleneck with the boers of firing at them from three sides and no way to cross the river to get to grips with their foes abandoning their parade ground formations the irish brigade died for any cover that was available as the boers turned the salient into a killing zone with deadly crossfire it was in this maelstrom that a 14 year old bugler from the dublin fusiliers on his own initiative sounded the advance some of the irishmen around him fixed bayonets and joined him charging into the tsugala river in places the river was ten foot deep and the irishmen were floundering around and easy targets for the buzz soon most of them were floating dead in the water the young bugler made it back to the salient having taken a bullet bullet in his arm and uh some shrapnel in his chest over on the right of bulla's battle the mounted troops entrusted with taking the exposed hill also found themselves pinned down by accurate and determined rifle fire only in the center was there any sort of progress hildyard's second brigade were fighting their way into calenzo the queen's royal regiment and the devonshires led the attack with the west yorks and the east surreys in support but under a barrage of fire from the hills on the other side of the river they could get nowhere near the road bridge let alone cross it which was actually probably just as well because both had placed charges on the bridge with the intention of detonating them once the brigade had crossed over onto the north bank cut off from the rest of bulla's army louis both has planned to pulverise them until they surrendered bulla was fast coming to the conclusion that this battle was going nowhere and despite having not used his reserves he was pessimistic as to what those extra numbers could achieve maybe overly pessimistic but buller had always respected the boers and unlike other generals in the first world war coming up bulla didn't see the point of throwing men at trench positions but before the battle could be called off there was the matter of those abandoned guns possibly one of the greatest humiliations for any 19th century army or commander was to lose the lose your guns to the enemy so the veteran general asked for volunteers from amongst his own staff to go down forward under heavy bore fire to rescue the guns three officers stepped forward the oldest was 37 year old captain walter congress from the rifle brigade next up was captain harry norton schofield a royal artillery officer for this 34 year old from manchester his honor as an artillery officer dictated to him that he had to save the guns and finally lieutenant frederick roberts known as freddie to his friends the 27 year old was the only son of field marshal lord roberts of kandahar the field marshal had won a victoria cross back in 1879 fighting in afghanistan and was a darling to the british public known to his troops and the public alike as bobs reaching the donga 500 yards behind those abandoned guns they found a medical officer 40 year old william bapti who despite being wounded himself was tending the wounded gun crews including colonel long announcing their intention to rescue the guns they were joined by one of the few unharmed members of the battery left corporal george nurse the four men broke from the cover of the donga and galloped towards the guns scofield the royal artillery officer used his knowledge and together with congreve and freddie roberts managed to limber up one of the guns all the time under fire from the boers corporal nurse single-handedly successfully limbered up another gun with boar bullets flying through the air they galloped with the two guns back to safety they turned to assess their next rescue and saw freddie roberts lying wounded back in no man's land captain congreve turned his horse and immediately headed back under fire to rescue his comrade as he passed the donga he suddenly he was suddenly aware of another person alongside him it was the surgeon william bapti together they reached roberts and they dragged him back to safety still under a hail of bullets in his efforts to save the guns and rescuing freddie roberts captain congreve was shot in both the leg and the toe and his horse was hit three times in that one hour of the battle so far that morning sergeant bapti was hit three times whilst all this was going on another royal artillery officer captain hamilton lister reed had arrived with three teams of gunners 13 men in all to drag more guns to safety the irishman from dublin led his team forward but their efforts were in vain the ball marksmen were waiting for them and in a few chaotic minutes one of his members killed six were wounded including himself and crucially 13 of their 21 horses that were going to pull the guns away were killed the final hero of saving the guns at the battle of calenso was a humble infantry private george ravenhill from aston in birmingham joined the gunners in their brave attempts to rescue the 15 pounders he was shot through the forearm and had to crawl back to the safety of the donga it was now 8 am just an hour since the battle had commenced unable to advance over the river unable to capture the exposed hill and even unable to rescue his guns bulla who had himself been bruised in the rib swipes and shrapnel he was that close to the action ordered his troops to disengage he had lost over one thousand one hundred men killed wounded or captured in an hour louis bothas buzz had lost just forty men the burs crossed the river and captured the ten remaining guns that have been abandoned after colonel long's mad advance ahead of the infantry bulla blamed colonel long's reckless tactics for his defeat at colenso despite being severely wounded long himself lived on to a ripe old age of 84 which is a bit longer than young lieutenant freddie roberts he died from his wounds just two days after the battle for his efforts in trying to save the guns he was awarded a posthumous victoria cross the day after the battle a deflated buller ordered general white in lady smith to fire off as much ammunition as he could and then to surrender the government in london and queen victoria herself were appalled bulla was informed that surrendering 12 000 british soldiers in ladysmith would be a national disaster of the greatest magnitude and he was told in no uncertain terms to devise another attempt to relieve the town the defeat at the battle of kolenso on the 15th of december was the third defeat of the british the british army had suffered at the hands of the boers in just five days nearly 3 000 of her soldiers killed wounded or captured the british press dubbed it black weak just 24 hours after his ill-judged message to general white bulla was released relieved as commander-in-chief in south africa his focus was now purely on relieving lady smith he was replaced as commander-in-chief somewhat ironically by field martial lord roberts who arrived in south africa just three weeks later wearing a black armband mourning the death of his son freddie roberts whilst roberts left bulla in charge of operations in natal he never forgave him for the death of his only son six more men who tried bravely to save the guns that day at kolenso were awarded victoria crosses captain walter congreve who got rescued one of the guns and then gone back to for to rescue freddie roberts he was to go on to actually become a brigadier general in the first world war and commanded the attack on devil woods during the battle of the somme during that war his son was actually awarded the victoria cross making him one of only three father-son recipients of britain's highest highest award for valor interestingly lord roberts and freddie roberts are one of the other two captain harry schofield who along with congreve and roberts had managed to ride the first gun to safety was awarded victoria cross he too was to serve in the first world war and he died in 1931 he's buried in putney vale cemetery in london corporal george nurse the 26 year old from enniskillin in ireland who single-handedly saved the other gun was promoted to the rank of sergeant for his efforts as well as receiving the vc captain hamilton lister reed who led the three teams in that vain attempt to rescue the remaining guns was awarded a victoria cross and he went on to rise to the rank of major general during the first world war medical officer william bapti who didn't actually try and rescue any guns but who did tender the wounded in the donga and was injured rescuing freddie roberts was awarded victoria cross he went on actually to become surgeon general in the british army and an honorary surgeon to king george v and finally private george ravenhill the lowest ranking recipient of the vc for this gallant action sadly after leaving the army he found himself in court in 1908 he was fined but he was unable to pay the fine imposed and therefore he had to forfeit his victoria cross and the pension that went with it he died in poverty in 1921 and was buried in an unmarked grave in birmingham oh and one more story what happened to that 14 year old bugler john francis dunn well he returned to britain injured he was nettly hospital in southampton he was a hero he was cheered when he got off the train and was taken to the hospital he became a celebrity he was actually invited to osborne house to meet queen victoria he died in 1950 in australia having worked as a steward on ships the battle of kalenso 1899 once more poor planning poor reconnaissance uninspiring leadership and uh using tactics that worked against native enemies with spears and swords who are charging at you but not against well-entrenched enemies who had the latest or latest armaments all led to the third successive defeat for the british during what became known as black week well thanks for watching i hope you enjoyed it i've got loads more videos coming your way so do subscribe so you don't miss any of them keep well and i'll see you very soon [Music] i

Channel: The History Chap

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Keywords: british history, the history chap, history of england, military history, the battle of colenso 1899, the battle of colenso, battle of colenso, battle of colenso 1899, the battle of colenso south africa, the battle of colenso 1899 south africa, the battle of colenso south africa 1899, the battle of colenso 1899 boer war, the battle of colenso boer war, saving the guns at the battle of colenso, redvers buller, boer war, south africa, history of south africa, the second boer war

Id: OL9EVULR5bg

Length: 19min 52sec (1192 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 03 2022