Battle of Paardeberg
| date | 23 - 27. February 1900 |
|---|---|
| place | Paardeberg Drift, Orange Free State , South Africa |
| output | British victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 15,000 men | 5,000 men |
| losses | |
|
258 dead |
100 dead |
Talana Hill - ElandslaAGEN - Modder River - Stormberg - Magersfontein - Colenso - Spion Kop - Paardeberg - Ladysmith - Sanna's Post - Mafeking
The Battle of Paardeberg was a battle in the Second Boer War . It took place from February 18 to 27, 1900 at the Paardeberg Drift on the banks of the Modder River , west of Petrusburg , in the Orange Free State in what is now South Africa.
prehistory
The battle began on February 18, 1900, when British forces under the command of General Kitchener surrounded Boer troops under General Cronjé at Paardeberg. It was not until December 1899 that Lord Roberts and his Chief of Staff Kitchener took command of the British in the Boer War and replaced the unsuccessful Redvers Buller .
Cronjé had been the most successful Boer general up until then. He hadn't succeeded in preventing the British from crossing the Modder River, but ten days later he stopped them at Magersfontein . He brought great losses to the British and foiled the British attempt to relieve the besieged Kimberley . His positions could not be held, however, when mounted British forces bypassed Magersfontein and liberated Kimberley.
On February 15, Cronjé finally withdrew with 5,000 men. His position had become redundant and he was in danger of being surrounded by the British. He successfully broke away from the British 6th Division, but was overtaken by British cavalry on the Paardebergs Drift on the 17th.
The battle
Cronjé then decided to build a wagon castle and dig in on the river bank. This decision placed the Boers in a very unfortunate position. The British were three times their troops and had an overwhelming preponderance of artillery . The British now only had to besiege the Boer wagon castle and fire at it with artillery. The British had only a weak cavalry and it would have been easy for the Boers to overrun them and unite with de Wet's command, which was only 30 miles north.
Thomas Kelly-Kenny , General of the British 6th Division, came up with the plan to besiege the Boers and bombard them until they surrender. This would have been very promising and would have cost the British very little losses. However, Kitchener had other plans and overruled Kelly-Kenny.
Kitchener had news that De Wet was approaching from the north to rescue Cronjé from his predicament. He therefore decided to take Cronjés positions by storm before de Wet could intervene. Kitchener threw his infantry and precious cavalry in a series of uncoordinated frontal assaults on the Boer wagon castle. In doing so, he ignored the devastating losses that frontal attacks on buried Boer positions had resulted in the previous months. So here too: No British soldier came closer than 70 meters to the Boer positions and in the evening 83 officers and 1,128 soldiers were dead or wounded. This was the highest British casualty in a single day of the war. In the UK public this day was therefore called Bloody Sunday ("Bloody Sunday").
Kitchener also failed to adequately secure the British positions. De Wet was able to take a hill that dominated the entire eastern flank of the British. The thirsty and exhausted British began to retreat to their camp. Cronjé's rescue seemed at hand.
But things were not going well on the Boer side either. The artillery fire was mitigated by the soft banks of the Modder River and resulted in only slight Boer losses. But horses, draft oxen and wagons were defenseless against British fire. Many wagons, in which the Boers often transported all their belongings, were destroyed and ammunition destroyed. The loss of horses, which were almost as important to strategic warfare as rifles, was even more serious. The morale in Cronjé's wagon fell noticeably.
Cronjé asked for a ceasefire in order to recover the dead. This was rejected by the British, although the Boers had already agreed to British requests in the course of the war so far. Two days passed through these negotiations. Meanwhile, the Commander-in-Chief, General Roberts, had arrived on the Modder River. Roberts and Kitchener pushed for a resumption of the frontal attacks, but encountered resistance from the other officers. Roberts was already thinking of retreat when de Wet lost his nerve: faced with an entire British division that could possibly be reinforced at any time, he withdrew his command.
Lord Roberts from Celebrities of the Army , London 1900
Piet Cronjé, 1899/1900
Christiaan de Wet, 1900
Piet Cronjé after his capture
After the battle
Cronjé had no choice now but to capitulate. 4,019 men, around 10 percent of all Boer soldiers, went into British captivity. Paardeberg was the first great British victory in the Second Boer War.
Remarks
The Canadian army was also deployed for the first time at the Battle of Paardeberg . The Royal Canadian Regiment lost nearly 100 men.