The Battle of Talana hill: the first battle of the Anglo-Boer war

so today I've come to the battlefield of tollana in the town of Dundee in kwazulu-natal South Africa [Music] so the ball war began in October 1899 and General George white sir George white who is the British commander in this region actually wanted to withdraw all of his forces back to Ladysmith where he thought they could better defend themselves general pen simmons though who was based here in dundee with 4,000 men thought he could hold this place easily he thought 4,000 British soldiers would have no problems dealing with a few thousand untrained farmers as he saw them on the morning of the 20th of October 1899 the British finished breakfast they had their tea on the go they looked up and they saw much to their shock that Hill had been occupied by the Boers that's tool on a hill on the outside of Dundee and the British commander Pen Simmons had put up no pickets and had no defensive positions prepared so as well as till on a hill the Boers also put artillery over there on in Patti Mountain and they also occupied Lennox Hill over there this meant that they completely dominated the town of Dundee as the first shells landed in the British camp one of them very close to Pen Simmons tent luckily the wet ground meant it didn't explode and didn't kill him so despite some pretty poor decision making before the battle Pen Simmons pulled himself together and he threw his infantry into the attack against Alana Hill as one lock then goes on to say impatiently Pen Simmons called for his charger and salad fourth urging his men forward conspicuous though as a mounted general could be in the midst of what amounted to trench warfare it wasn't enough for Pen Simmons and he insisted that he be accompanied by a mounted orderly flying a general officers pennant from a lancehead moments later he was mortally wounded in the stomach very quickly the Royal Field Artillery went into action and were able to quiet the Boer guns with their counterbattery fire so looking up the hill this is the view the British Tommy would have had while trying to storm the ball positions you can see how steep it is so a little way up the hill there's this stone wall that's behind me now in one way this was great because he gave the attacking British infantry cover as they advanced up the slope but what it meant was it slowed them down they got stuck behind it and every time they tried to crawl over they get shot the sign here says that color sergeant Clarke recalled how it was instant death to move from the protection offered by the Stonewall and how he was instructed to put up your helmet slowly and see if it draws fire he says I raised it on the end of my rifle and it was shattered by a hurricane of bullets after a short while I raised what was left in my helmet but this time strangely there was no fire drawn so I shouted to my comrades to advance and a few men followed me so you can see what a clear field of fire the ball marksmen would have had against the attacking British infantry so if there is a marked path up to the top of solana Hill at times it's easy to follow at times it can be quite difficult so after a steep climb you realize but actually this isn't even the crest the crest is up there so if Pen Simmons mortally wounded Brigadier General Ewell took command of the British troops and he decided to focus his attention on pounding the Boers with artillery so this false crest or what appeared to me to be a false crest he's known as the plateau and during the British attack they forced their way onto this plateau only for the artillery in an attempt to clear the boars off the hillside to start bombarding their own men signal a private flynn of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers jumped up and exposed himself to rifle fire in an attempt to call up the guns after repeated unsuccessful attempts he dashed down the hillside to deliver the message personally stopped firing he said you're killing your own men so also here on the plateau is a little memorial a can of stones so the men of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers who at the left flank down the Donga that got narrower and narrower and steeper and steeper right into the path of Boer riflemen so about 50 meters short of the brow of the hill I seem to have lost the path this may be as high as I get today any idea what that means so this is too long a house which is now the museum and it's a good Museum if you get a chance to visit during the battle the veranda here was used as a dressing station by the British soldiers and right on the edge of the museum grounds one must have been pretty much the left flank of the British attack up the hill is this can of stones the marks the spot pen Simmons was mortally wounded a word of warning is actually quite hard to find it's on the far left side of where the British advance must have been the museum is over there and it's about a five-minute walk

Channel: Redcoat History

Views: 7,897

Keywords: british army, south africa, boer war, anglo-boer war, dundee, natal, KZN, military history, battlefield tour, Royal Dublin Fusiliers, military, war, victorian history

Id: MBBu18cKzrQ

Length: 6min 19sec (379 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 14 2017