Battle of Spion Kop - Planning and Crossing The Tugela

Planning and Crossing The Tugela

General Sir Redvers Buller, VC, commander of the British forces in Natal, was attempting to relieve a British force besieged in Ladysmith. The Boers under General Louis Botha held the Tugela River against him. Although Botha's men were outnumbered, they were mostly equipped with modern Mauser rifles and up-to-date field guns, and had carefully entrenched their positions. In late December, 1899, Buller made a frontal assault on the Boer positions at the Battle of Colenso. The result was a heavy British defeat.

Over the next few weeks, Buller received further reinforcements, and also acquired sufficient carts and transport to operate away from the railway line which was his main supply line. Buller devised a new plan of attack to relieve Ladysmith. His army was to launch a two-pronged offensive designed to cross the Tugela River at two points and create a bridgehead. They would then attack the defensive line that blocked Buller's advance to Ladysmith. The area was only 20 miles (32 km) from Ladysmith. Buller delegated control of his main force to General Sir Charles Warren, (who as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police had previously investigated the "Jack the Ripper" murders), to cross at Trikhardt's drift. Buller would then send a second smaller force, under Major General Neville Lyttelton to attack east of Warren's force as a diversion at Potgieter's drift. Once across the Tugela the British would attack the Boer defensive positions and then cross the open plains to relieve Ladysmith.

Warren's force numbered 11,000 infantry, 2,200 cavalry, and 36 field guns. On the 23rd they marched westward to cross the Tugela. However their march was easily visible to the Boers, and so slow (due in part to the massive baggage trains necessary to British officers at the time - Warren's included a cast iron bathroom and well-equipped kitchen) that by the time they arrived at the Tugela, the Boers had entrenched a new position covering it. British mounted troops under the Earl of Dundonald enterprisingly reached the extreme Boer right flank, from where there was little to stop them riding to Ladysmith, but Warren recalled them to guard the force's baggage. Once all his force had crossed the river, Warren sent part of an infantry division under Lieutenant General Francis Clery against the Boer right flank positions on a plateau named Tabanyama. The Boers had once again entrenched a new position on the reverse slopes of the plateau, and Clery's attack made no progress. Meanwhile the secondary British attack by Lyttelton at Potgieter's drift had yet to commence in full.