The Battle of Spion Kop 1900 - Boer War South Africa

the battle of spinkop took place in january 1900 during the anglo-ball war in south africa in a calamitous spawning upon farcical set of events the british managed to seize the steep side hill of spinkop from under the noses of the buzz only to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory this bloody battle saw 335 boys killed or wounded and nearly 1500 british casualties it was a battle that brought three incredible political leaders to within a few miles of each other louis botha the first prime minister of south africa british wartime prime minister winston churchill and mahatma gandhi it was also a battle that had a link to jack the ripper and to one of the most famous football stands in the world the cop at liverpool fc's ground and field the boer war in south africa between 1899 and 1902 pitted the forces of the two afrikaner or boer republics of transvaal and the orange free state against the british empire now i've covered the reasons behind the war and a summary of the overall conflict in a previous video a link to which is appearing about now the war began in october 1899 and had started badly for the british in my last war war video i shared the battle of kalenso it was the third defeat of the brit that the british army suffered in a week at the hands of the boers a five-day period that the british press dubbed black week calenza was a major setback for the british commander general redvers bulla as he pushed to relieve the besieged garrison at ladysmith by mid-january 1900 the situation hadn't really changed lady smith was still under siege but general buller had formulated a new plan he would outflank the boer defenses by crossing the tugula river upstream from kalenso about 27 kilometers southwest of lady smith as at calenso general buller chose to use a two-pronged attack crossing at two different points on the tuguela river to the right general littleton would cross at pogita's drift with the fourth brigade consisting of the rifle brigade the durham light infantry the king's royal rifles and the scottish rifles but first general warren would cross five miles upstream at the furthest extremity of the board defenses on the tabanyama ridge also called the rangeworthy hills so whilst the two-pronged attack was similar to kalenso the distances were far far greater and in an age where there were no telephones or even telegraphs our control of the battle would be released on heliographs signal lamps and old-fashioned runners this would be a challenge for any general brought up on the closely controlled colonial battles of the previous half century it would prove even more challenging if your generals weren't fast and decisive enter general sir charles warren sir charles warren was 60 years old and had been commissioned in the royal engineers back in 1857 a solid military career had resulted in his most famous appointment as commissioner of the metropolitan police in london during the 1880s he was commissioner during the jack the ripper murders in white chapel and the barrage of criticism that he endured for failing to catch the murderer led to his resignation now back in the army buller put him in command of the fifth division consisting of ten thousand six hundred infantry two thousand two hundred mounted troops and thirty six guns seeing as the boers were defending the entire tegala sector with fifteen thousand men and only of whom about 600 were actually stationed on the tabanyama ridge above the drift where warren would cross this was a perfect opportunity for an aggressive general to strike out and make the ballers fall back before being encircled on the 17th dwarin began to cross the river the process took him two whole days and then for the next four days rather than advancing he sent bulla requests for more artillery whilst in the meantime shelling the boar positions with the 36 guns that he did have this very visible and painfully slow build-up gave the boers ample time to reinforce their positions by the time bulla personally rode over to warren on the 23rd of january 4 000 under general louis bertha were now entrenched on the heights above the river bulla told warren to attack the ridge by now of course the tabanyama ridge would be a tougher nut to crack so warren decided on a counter-intuitive strike he would seize the sheer sided hill that commanded the range spienkop spingop translated meaning spy or lookout hill rises to an impressive 1500 feet it was from here that the boar fortrex fleeing british rule nearly half a century beforehand looked down on what is now kwazulu natal like the ancient israelites looking down on the promised land hence its name apart from the sheer sides which makes spin cop hard to ascend warren's plan had some merits because due to those steep sides the boers had left it virtually defenseless save for a picket of german volunteers on the summit if warren could seize the cop he could mount his guns on the summit and would clear the boers from the ridges overlooking the tagula opening the way up for the relief of lady smith and despite the eventual debacle it actually came closer to success than many people remember on the very evening after bulla had visited him warren assembled his strikeforce the 11th brigade under major general woodgate the 11th brigade consisted of regiments chiefly recruited from the north west of england the 2nd battalion king's royal lancashire regiment based out of lancaster the second leg ship fusiliers many of whose members came from the salford manchester berry region of the county the first battalion of the york and lancashire regiment and the south lancashire regiment this last regiment were based at the peninsula barracks in warrington and many of their numbers hailed from both warrington and nearby saint helens in lancashire the brigade also consisted of the 19th 20th and 28th batteries of the royal field artillery they were to be led uphill by 200 members of thorny croft's mounted infantry before the outbreak of the war lieutenant colonel alex thornycroft had been sent by the war office in london to south africa to recruit local white settlers to fight for the british cause the 20 stone red faced thorny croft had recruited members of both the settler community and the eight lander refugees from the transvaal and reformed them into this mounted infantry unit they moved forward as quietly as possible at 9pm sometime between 2 and 3 am near the summit they were challenged in german by a century from the bull picket shots rang out from the ball pickets and then with a cry of majuba thornycroft led a bayonet charge to the summit the tiny boar picket fled leaving some of their boots behind within an hour major massey from the royal engineers was mapping out a trench and his sappers armed with 20 spades and picks started scraping a defensive work in the rough stony ground woodgates lancastrians stumbled onto the summit and grabbed some rest while those sappers were digging away down below spin cop 37 year old general louis bother was awoken by the fleeing bull pickets who told him that the cop was in british hands bother was theoretically in joint command of the force here with general shulk berger ten years older than botha shulkeberger was more of a politician than a real fighter indeed he wants to go on to become the accident acting president of transvaal when president kruger fled into exile so whilst in joint command there was no doubt who was the fighting man and all eyes looked to botha who had two choices really fall back towards ladysmith or climb the steep sides and retake spin cop he chose the second option bother was optimistic despite the british being in possession of the summit his position wasn't entirely hopeless two knolls or hills on the cop plateau were currently vacant conical hill about 800 yards to the north of where the british were and aloe knoll about 400 yards to the east and whilst both of these were about a hundred feet lower than the summit of spin cop themselves they were in good positions to act as launch pads for an assault on the british positions such an assault would also be supported by long-range rifle fire from twin peaks and green hill and furthermore wuerther could also order his own artillery to fire on the summit of the cop which would be at their mercy until the british hauled their own guns up there both arrowed to his commandos and passionately pleaded with them to assault and retake spienkop hendrik prinslow another young boy commando who shared botha's aggressive style of warfare agreed to lead the carolina commando up the steep slopes as they slowly started to climb they were joined by the men of the pretoria commando meanwhile up on the summit the early morning sun burnt through the mist and the british now realize their trenches such as they were were in the wrong position due to a combination of inaccurate maps along with the pitch black of the african knight and the swirling mist major massey and his limited team of sappers had dug a 300-yard curved trench in the wrong place instead of being on the crest of the summit overlooking both her burgers camps far below they were actually 200 yards further back midway across the summit and the british now found themselves hemmed into an area about an acre in size about a rugby pitch in size realizing their mistake massey ordered his men forward to dig a new position but at that very moment men from the carolina and pretoria commandos seized along just 400 yards away accurate ball fire ripped into the engineers killing most of them including major massey with spin cop now bathed in sunlight the boar guns just two miles away opened fire at 8 30 general woodgate was on his way to the edge of the cop to assess the boers ascending the steep sides towards him when he was hit above the right eye by a shell fragment falling mortally wounded everywhere on the summit the british troops were seeking cover from both the borshelling and from the growing rifle fire from both aluno and now conical hill as well colonel blomfield the commanding officer of the lancashire fusiliers was also cut down the commanding officer of the royal lancaster's colonel crofton seemed to take a very low profile in the fight and was left to thornycroft of the mounted infantry to not only rally his own men but the british regular troops as well thorny croft left a charge of 40 men of mixed mounted infantry and lancashire fusiliers to try and dislodge the boers rushing forward the twenty stone giant tripped and he fell flat on his face just as the boar bullets whizzed over his head around him his assault party lay dead and injured three more charges by the royal lanks ended in disaster too it was now 9 50 in the morning and already the men on spin cop were starting to suffer from thirst and the sun as well as anime activity three miles away warren received an alarming note note from colonel crofton of the royal ranks reinforce at once or all is lost with a speed not normally associated with warren he ordered general coke up the hill with the dorset and middlesex regiments along with the imperial light infantry crucially however despite both her pulling troops away from their positions he didn't launch hart's irish brigade against the now lightly defended tabanyama ridge instead he sent a holograph message to littleton over on over to the east asking for assistance and pointing out that whilst his side to the cop was in his words clear the side closest to littleton was strongly held by the buzz and if assistance wasn't given at once or was lost not surprisingly littleton sprung into action sending the second scottish rifles to support the men on the summit whilst launching the first rifle brigade up the sheer slopes towards the twin peaks with the situation on the summit now starting to get desperate no reinforcements no guns no food no water warren sent a message to thornycroft placing him in charge around now 1pm some units of the lancashire fusiliers tried to surrender to the boers as those surrendering lancastrians advanced warily towards the boers with their hands up the boars equally wary broke cover to accept their surrender when suddenly thornycroft leaning on a walking stick marched in between them and told the boys there would be no surrender confusion now reigned on the summit and at that moment the middlesex regiment arrived over the crest of the hill the boers grabbed water about 170 of their prisoners and fled as the middlesex regiment charged with fixed bayonets past the wrongly positioned trenches pushing the bus all the way to the crest of the cop sometimes life is about perspectives and here's one of those moments the british had hung on throughout the hot african day with no water no food no guns or even artillery support that had enough thornycroft had had enough he hadn't heard from his commanding officer warren for hours in fact since the message appointing him to to take command earlier that afternoon the buzz had climbed the slopes of sphere and cop in the daylight they too had fought with no water or food for a full day in the sun and now they were just being charged by fresh troops with bayonets they had received no significant reinforcements from their generals they too had had enough and as darkness fell they slipped off the mountain by the time botha had arrived to assess the situation firsthand the boers had vacated alone and conical hill even worse news for the future south african prime minister was the news that the rifles had incredibly scaled those sheer slopes and taken twin peaks looking around he saw his army drifting away including his fellow general shulke berger who was riding towards the rest of the boar army at lady smith little did botha know that the british who'd occupied twin peaks had now been ordered by littleton to withdraw and were at this very minute retracing their steps leaving 100 of their comrades including their commanding officer dead behind them close to midnight warren had a visitor a journalist from the morning post who somehow was managing that job whilst older also holding down a position of lieutenant in the south african lighthorse twenty-five-year-old winston churchill stuck at buller's hq as a journalist watching the events unfold through the telescope through telescopes churchill had decided to actually ride over to spin cop to see for himself what was going on and as he tried to make his way up the hill he met troops retreating off the summit he was shocked to see men so dehydrated and bewildered that to him they almost looked drunk he rode over to warren to give that first hand account of what the disaster that he was witnessing and the general then sent him back to find thornycroft and inform him that 1400 reinforcements were finally on their way the future british wartime prime minister found thornycroft near the summit but the commander who had been left to his own devices all afternoon had to finally made a decision he was evacuating his men under the cover of darkness before he lost even more in the following morning 243 british troops had died attempting to secure spin cop 1250 had been injured or captured as the retreating army stumbled down the hill they were met by members of the natal indian ambulance bringing them water in sacks carried on donkeys these indians were helping the injured down to safety and carrying those two injured on stretchers the 1100 strong indian ambulance corps had been set up by the indian community in the british colony of natal and despite not being allowed to carry weapons they wanted to show their support for the british empire in some way somewhat ironically one of the most prominent organizers was a young lawyer mahandas gandhi so there on the 23rd 24th of january 1900 in the space of a few square miles we had louis botha the first prime minister of south africa britain's wartime prime minister winston churchill and the champion of indian indian independence from the british empire mahatma gandhi oh and we also had of course the former commissioner of the metropolitan police during the jack the ripper murders too whilst both churchill and gandhi stars were to rise warrens was to fall very rapidly after spin cop bulla referred to warren as an old duffer warren's painfully slow build up his lack of communication during the battle and his failure to launch a diversionary attack on the tabanyama ridge using hearts irish brigade were all huge blunders but buller had realized just how slow warren's progress had been in those days preceding the battle and he hadn't followed his instincts to replace him so red vs buller's star also waned it had been in descent since black week and now as his army retreated across the tagalog river sir red vs bulla earned the nickname reverse bulla and also the ferryman of the teguila on the morning of the 25th january as dawn broke after the british withdrawn the dejected bother and his fellow boars were shocked to see two of their men standing on the summit of spin cop waving their hats in celebration sometimes the margin between victory and defeat is very narrow so it was at spienkop both sides had withdrawn because they thought the other side had won but on the morning of the 25th of january it was the boers much to their own surprise who left in charge of the hill it had cost the british 1500 casualties for no strategic gain lady smith was still no closer to relief but it had been a costly victory for the boers too their 68 men dead and 267 wounded whilst a lot less than the british were meant that their tiny army could ill afford to lose the fact that both sides thought they had lost and abandoned the mountain makes this almost a farcical battle if it wasn't for the huge cost of life as napoleon once said the greatest general is he who makes the fewest mistakes after the war as professional football became more popular in britain and new stadiums were built huge earth embankments or terraces were constructed for fans to watch the matches a journalist for the liverpool eco a city where many of those lancashire soldiers came from reported on this new terrace at liverpool fc's ground at anfield and described its steep incline as looking like spin cop and the name stuck and it continues to this very day the cop well thank you for watching and i hope that you enjoyed that story from the boer war i'm working hard on more stories from british history for you like the indian mutiny the crimean war and coming really soon the story of colour sergeant born hero of walk strift but in the meantime keep well and i'll see you very soon

Channel: The History Chap

Views: 61,348

Keywords: british history, the history chap, military history, the battle of spion kop liverpool, the battle of spion kop, the battle of spion kop 1900, battle of spion kop liverpool, battle of spion kop, battle of spion kop 1900, battle of spion kop south africa, battle of spion kop gandhi, battle of spion kop churchill, louis botha, the battle of spion kop boer war, sir charles warren, liverpool the kop, the boer war, second boer war, anglo boer war, liverpool, the kop end, the kop

Id: CUlHyOHvYgU

Length: 20min 22sec (1222 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 03 2022