Today – the 11th December 2014 – is the 115h anniversary of the Battle of Magersfontein, a short distance south of Kimberley. After his costly victories at Belmont (25th November 1899), Graspan / Enslin (25th November 1899) and Modder River (28th November 1899 – which could only really be considered a victory because the Boers abandoned their positions during the night), Lord Methuen consolidated, awaiting the arrival of reinforcements which increased his strength to approximately 15000 men. The Boers were in a bit of a quandary about how to prevent Methuen from relieving Kimberley; General Piet Cronjè favoured waiting on the flank at Jacobsdal while Gen Koos de la Rey opted for a defensive line at Magersfontein. President MT Steyn of the OFS then visited the Boers and he supported de la Rey’s plan, which involved entrenching along the foot of the Magersfontein ridge instead of on the summit – as had been the case at Belmont and Granspan / Enslin. Methuen ordered the artillery to shell to Magersfontein koppies, in effect confirming that he intended advancing. At 03h30 on the 11th December 1899, the 1st Division advanced in appalling weather and in the pitch dark night. The advance was lead by the Highland Brigade, heading for the right of Magersfontein kop, led by their commanding officer Maj Gen Andy Wauchope. They were supposed to lie down on reaching their objective, and to rush it at the point of the bayonet and under covering fire from the artillery. The advance was slowed down by the heavy rain and thick scrup and as the Brigade approached to within 400 metres of the Boer positions, the burghers opened fire. Wauchope ordered the Brigade to deploy but before this could even be executed wherever the men moved, a line of fire erupted from the concealed Boers. The Seaforth Highlanders and Black Watch pushed forward to the left of the Boer trenches at the foot of Magersfontein kop but then came up against another obstacle – the barbed wire fence marking the boundary between the OFS and the Cape Colony. The Boer guns then opened fire inflicting heavy casualties. Wauchope was killed. The British soldiers lay in the open for the entire day; the hot sun caused much suffering, especially to the kilted Highlanders, the back of whose knees were severely burnt and blistered. Whenever they moved, they were fired at from virtually point blank range. This intensive fire continued for 10 hours and eventually Lord Methuen called off the attack on the 12th December 1899. The British casualties were 68 officers and 879 other ranks killed, wounded or missing. The Highland Brigade losses were the heaviest; 47 officers and 700 ORs. The Boers losses were about 300 of which about 87 were killed. Methuen’s attack was an absolute disaster and his defeat at Magersfontein came as a shock to the people of Great Britain. In Scotland, the death of the popular General Andy Wauchope was greeted with disbelief. Incredibly, General Koos de la Rey was not present to witness the success of his idea; he was attending to the burial of his son Adriaan, who had been killed at Modder River on the 28th November 1899. Wauchope returned to Modder River to consolidate and to reformulate his plans for the relief of Kimberley. The Boers improved their entrenchments and defences at Magersfontein and awaited Methuen’s next move. This became a week of defeats; General Sir William Gatacre was defeated at Stormberg in the Eastern Cape on the 10th December 1899; Lord Methuen at Magersfontein on the 11th December 1899 and another was to follow on the 15th December 1899 at Colenso. These setbacks resulted in General Sir Redvers Buller being replaced as Commander-in-Chief by Field Marshal Lord Roberts, who set sail for South Africa on the 23rd December 1899. The photograph shows a section of the Boer trench as it appears today, 115 years after the Battle, the memorial on the original site of the Black Watch graves, that of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, the original site of General Wauchope’s grave at Modder River and his grave at Matjiesfontein (many km further south – there’s a story about that as well!), the Burgher monument near their dressing station at Bissett’s Farm, Horse Artillery Hill (where G Battery RHA was deployed), the Scandinavian memorial near their original grave site between Scrub Ridge and Horse Artillery Hill, and a general view of the Battlefield from the summit of Magersfontein Kop. In line with War Graves Board policy in the 1960s, all graves were relocated to Gardens of Remembrance; the British to West End cemetery in Kimberley and the Boers to the Burgher Memorial at Bissetts Farm.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Dec 2014 05:04:11 +0000
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