| Battle of Blood River Poort | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Second Boer War | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 United Kingdom |  South African Republic | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Hubert Gough | Louis Botha | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| c. 750 | 1,000 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 23 killed, 21 wounded, 241 men and 2 field guns captured | Light | ||||||
In the Battle of Blood River Poort or Scheeper's Nek [1] on 17 September 1901 a Boer commando led by Louis Botha crushed a British force commanded by Major Hubert Gough during the Second Boer War.
In August 1901, the Boer leaders determined to send forces south into Natal and the Cape Colony hoping to cause an uprising in the Dutch-majority Cape Colony or at least to gain recruits for their armies. Accordingly, a commando under Botha moved southeast toward Natal while another commando under Jan Smuts raided south into the Cape Colony.
British Intelligence detected the plan, but Botha evaded the British intercepting columns. The cold spring rains made the march especially difficult for the Boers' horses. On 14 September, Botha let his 1,000-man commando camp near Utrecht to permit the horses to recover. Meanwhile, Gough's 24th Mounted Infantry (MI) made a 500-mile (800 km) move by train from Kroonstad in the Orange Free State to Dundee in Natal. Gough received intelligence that Botha and 700 Boers were nearby. [2]
Gough led his MI from Dundee to De Jaeger's Drift, a ford on the Buffalo River. Dismissing the intelligence report as exaggerated, he led three companies on a reconnaissance across the river. Through his field glasses, he spotted 300 Boers who dismounted at a farm near Blood River Poort. Leaving his colleague Lieutenant-Colonel H. K. Stewart with 450 MI in the rear, Gough moved forward into a plain in the early afternoon, planning to surprise the Boers at the farm. Unknown to Gough, Botha was moving around his right flank with 700 men. [3]
Botha's mounted attack completely swamped Gough's outnumbered force. Lieutenant Llewellyn Price-Davies of the King's Royal Rifle Corps won the Victoria Cross for valiantly defending the field guns. Gough was captured, escaped, captured again and finally escaped on foot in the darkness. On the British side, four officers and 19 other ranks were killed or mortally wounded, 2 officers and 19 men wounded, and 6 officers and 235 men captured. According to Boer policy, the captured were stripped of their weapons and any useful gear, and most of their clothing, and were allowed to walk to the nearest British post. The Boers seized two field guns, 180 rifles and a large quantity of small arms ammunition. The 200 captured horses turned out to be in poor condition and of little use to the raiders. Boer losses were light. [3]
Botha was unable to exploit his victory because he found all the crossings of the Buffalo River blocked by the British. The Boers moved to the southeast, hoping to find a place to cross into Natal. On the Zululand border, Botha attacked a British camp named Fort Itala, believing it to be weakly defended. Instead, the Boers received a bloody nose when 56 of their men were killed or wounded. When Botha realized that British forces were approaching in overwhelming strength, he turned back into the Transvaal, his raid a failure. [4]
The Second Boer War, also known as the Boer War, Transvaal War, Anglo–Boer War, or South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer republics over the Empire's influence in Southern Africa.
The First Boer War, was fought from 16 December 1880 until 23 March 1881 between the British Empire and Boers of the Transvaal. The war resulted in a Boer victory and eventual independence of the South African Republic. The war is also known as the First Anglo–Boer War, the Transvaal War or the Transvaal Rebellion.
The Battle of Spion Kop was a military engagement between British forces and two Boer Republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State, during the campaign by the British to relieve the besieged city Ladysmith during the initial months of the Second Boer War. The battle was fought 23–24 January 1900 on the hilltop of Spioen Kop(a), about 38 km (24 mi) west-southwest of Ladysmith and resulted in a Boer victory.
The siege of Ladysmith was a protracted engagement in the Second Boer War, taking place between 2 November 1899 and 28 February 1900 at Ladysmith, Natal.
Jan Christiaan Smuts, OM was a prominent South African and Commonwealth statesman and military leader. He served as a Boer general during the Boer War, a British general during the First World War and was appointed field marshal during the Second World War. In addition to various cabinet appointments, he served as prime minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919 to 1924 and from 1939 to 1948. He played a leading part in the post war settlements at the end of both world wars, making significant contributions towards the creation of both the League of Nations and the United Nations.
The SecondBattle of Colenso, also known as the Battle of Colenso, was the third and final battle fought during the Black Week of the Second Boer War. It was fought between British and Boer forces from the independent South African Republic and Orange Free State in and around Colenso, Natal, South Africa on 15 December 1899.
The Battle of Elandslaagte took place during the Second Boer War, and was one of the few clear-cut tactical victories won by the British during the conflict. However, the British force retreated afterwards, throwing away their advantage.
The Battle of Berg-en-dal took place in South Africa during the Second Anglo-Boer War.
The Battle of Bothaville (Doornkraal) on 6 November 1900 was a rare defeat of Christiaan de Wet's Boer commando at the hands of a force of British Mounted Infantry (MI).
The Relief of Ladysmith consisted of multiple efforts to relieve the city of Ladysmith by General Sir Redvers Buller during the Second Boer War. Buller and the Natal Field Force attempted to relieve the city through multiple offensive actions. The city had been under siege since 2 November, 1899, and Britain had sent General Buller to relieve the city. After consolidating his Forces at Estcourt through most of November and early December, he began his relief of the city. The attempts to relieve the city started on 15 December at the Second Battle of Colenso, in which the British forces were repelled by the Boers on the Tugela River. The next two attempts were repulsed kompozisyon by the Boers, however at the Battle of Pieters Hill in February 1900, the Boers were eventually beaten from the city and forced to withdraw to Botha's Pass near Newcastle. Buller and his Forces entered the city on February 28, 1900, officially ending the Siege of Ladysmith.
The Battle of Elands River took place near the Elands River Poort mountain pass on 17 September 1901 during the Second Boer War. During the battle a Boer raiding force under Jan Smuts destroyed a British cavalry squadron led by Captain Sandeman, a cousin of Winston Churchill, on the Modderfontein farm. This battle is therefore also known as the Battle of Modderfontein.
The Battle of Ladysmith was one of the early engagements of the Second Boer War. A large British force which had concentrated at the garrison town of Ladysmith launched a sortie on 30 October 1899, against Boer armies which were slowly surrounding the town. The result was a disaster for the British. The main body was driven back into the town, and an isolated detachment of 800 men was forced to surrender to Commandant De Wet. The Boers did not follow up their advantage by proceeding towards the strategically important port of Durban, and instead began a siege of Ladysmith, which was relieved after 118 days. John Norwood was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions during the battle.
In the Battle of Groenkloof on 5 September 1901, a British column under Colonel Harry Scobell defeated and captured a small Boer commando led by Commandant Lötter in the Cape Colony during the Second Boer War.
The Battle of Tugela Heights, also known as the Battle of Pieters Hill, Battle of the Pieters, or the Battle of the Tugela River, consisted of a series of military actions lasting from 14 February through to 27 February 1900 in which General Sir Redvers Buller's British army forced Louis Botha's Boer army to lift the Siege of Ladysmith during the Second Boer War.
The military history of Australia during the Boer War is complex, and includes a period of history in which the six formerly autonomous British Australian colonies federated to become the Commonwealth of Australia. At the outbreak of the Second Boer War, each of these separate colonies maintained their own, independent military forces, but by the cessation of hostilities, these six armies had come under a centralised command to form the Australian Army.
Christiaan Frederik Beyers was a Boer attorney, politician and general during the Second Boer War and one of the leaders of the pro-German Maritz rebellion against the government of the Union of South Africa.
Lieutenant-General Sir William Penn Symons KCB was a British Army officer who was mortally wounded as he commanded his forces at the Battle of Talana Hill during the Second Boer War. While his forces won the battle, they had to abandon their position and fall back to Ladysmith. Symons and the more severely wounded were left to the Boers; he died three days later. A monument to his valour was raised in Victoria Park, Saltash, Cornwall, UK.
Christiaan Botha was a younger brother of Louis Botha (1862–1919) and Philip Botha (1851-1901), but an older brother of Theunis Jacobus Botha (1867-1930), and likewise a Boer general in the Second Boer War (1899–1902) who then both fought the British to the end.
Petrus Johannes Liebenberg was a South African Boer politician for Potchefstroom and a general in the Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902). He successfully invaded the Cape Colony, failed to prevent the British relief of Mafeking, and fought to the end up to the Battle of Rooiwal. During the First World War Liebenberg criticised the policy of the Botha government to attack German South West Africa but did not condone the Maritz rebellion.
The Northern Natal Offensive was a military invasion of the Northern region of Natal by the Boers of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State during the Second Boer War. It was part of a larger offensive by the Boers into the British colonies, with other invasions occurring in Bechuanaland and the Cape Colony. The Boers invaded on 12 October, after Paul Kruger had declared war a day earlier. The Boers initially had success with this offensive, besieging Ladysmith, and reaching as far south as Estcourt in November 1899. The goal of the offensive for the Boers was to reach the port city of Durban and the capital of Pietermartizburg in order hopefully force the British into peace negotiations. However, with Redvers Buller's reinforcements arriving that same month, the Boers retreated to the Tugela River. Multiple attempts were made by Buller to relieve Ladysmith, but to no avail. However, the fourth attempt in February 1900 expelled the Boers from their position at the Battle of the Pieters. Scattered fighting from March-May 1900 continued, with the Boers being expelled from Natal completely at the Battle of Laing's Nek. With the Boers out of Natal, the offensive ended.