Battle of Paardeberg

The battles of Paardeberg (" Mountain with the horses ") of the second war of Boers was a major battle. The combat took place close to Paardeberg on banks of the Modder river in the free State of Orange.

This confrontation was the culminating point of a campaign carried out by the British forces in order to deliver the besieged city of Kimberley. The Boer army under the orders of Piet Cronje was intercepted in Paardeberg during its retirement, pushed back an attack of the general Kitchener but went after having undergone a seat of several days.

Situation in February

The marshal Roberts was put at the head of the British forces present in South Africa in December 1899, succeeding the general Buller, little time after having learned the death from his son Freddy at the time of the Bataille of Colenso.

Like Buller, it initially tried to conduct a direct attack on the capitals Boers Bloemfontein and Pretoria, using the way of active railroad of the Cape towards these two cities like transportation route. Always like Buller, it noted on its arrival in the country that the public opinion as much in Great Britain that in South Africa exhorted so that a help is brought to the besieged British forces with Ladysmith, Kimberley and Mafeking and it consequently had to change its plans.

A preceding British attempt to deliver the town of Kimberley, ordered by Paul Methuen, had been countered by the forces of Piet Cronje. Although this last did not manage to prevent the British from crossing the river Modder the November 28th, it succeeds in stopping them at the time of the Bataille of Magersfontein ten days later, inflicting heavy losses to them.

The face was stabilized in the south of Kimberley in the month which followed. The forces of Cronje were weakened by the lack of fodder for their horses. Moreover, many families of combatants joined his camping with Jacobsdal, slowing down the rate of travel of Cronje because of the carriages, which was fatal for him.

British plans

Roberts joins together many reinforcements along the railway line between the river Orange and the Modder river. It tried to overflow Boers by the left by sending its cavalry towards Kimberley in order to deliver the city, while the infantry made safe the fords behind her. Manpower of Roberts were composed of 6th and the 7th divisions of infantry, each one made up of two brigades, and a division of cavalry made up of three brigades under the orders of John French. Another division of infantry was formed during the program.

Rescue of Kimberley

Whereas the Highland Brigade , under the orders of the major-general Hector MacDonald, faced Boers with Magersfontein and fixed the attention of the latter on their right side, the forces of Roberts started to secretly go towards the east the February 11th. At the evening of the February 12th, the riders of head had made safe the fords being located on the first obstacle, the river Riet. The next day, the British cavalry made a Forced march of 50 kilometers under a sun crushing in order to take possession of the fords on the Modder river. The effect of heat worsened when the grass dries of the Veld took fire, due to an awkwardly thrown match. The division of French due to wait the fords the next day so that the infantry joins it, itself under forced march. By chance, the operation had taken Boers by surprised and the latter could not move in force in order to defend the points of crossing on the rivers.

In the morning of the February 15th, the division of French began its final walk towards Kimberley. It for opposition only isolated and had not disorganized some Boers, breaking their line thin and benefitting from the cloud of dust which it created on its passage. It reached Kimberley in the evening, where it was accommodated by the acclamations of crowd.

The walk of the last day was right of the majority of the forces of French. The majority of the British riders transported too equipment in addition to their weapons and their horses (as those of artillery) were exténués by it, moreover not being acclimatized. Valid manpower were then reduced to two regiments light cavalry and two brigades of heavy cavalry. This did not prevent French from using its forces the February 16th in futile attempts at catch of the one of the Boers guns of 40 books which had been folded up in north.

Fold of Cronje on Paardeberg

The February 15th, the five thousand men of Cronje evacuated their position of Jacobsdal, fearing to find itself encircled. In the night, the broad convoy that they formed passed close to the rear-guard of French and the outposts of the lieutenant-general Kelly-Kenny on the Modder river. During the next day, the rear-guard of Boer cavalry, consisted of only one small unit, prevented the British from encircling them. The February 17th, the broad convoy of Boer carriages reached the Modder river in Paardeberg. Whereas they started to cross, a troop of British cavalry, consisted of all the still valid men of French (who had covered a distance of 65 kilometers since Kimberley during an other forced march), opened fire on them since north, creating confusion.

Cronje then decided to be fixed on banks and reinforced its position. The reason which pushed it to act of the kind remains dubious. The British now had a strong numerical advantage as well as a largely higher artillery. The latter did not have any more but to make the seat of Boers and to bombard them without slackening. However, the British had a deficit of cavalry and it had been easy for Cronje to sweep them in order to join the other forces Boers (Christiaan de Wet was then with 50 kilometers in south-east and other forces under the command of J.C. Ferreira were located at a distance equivalent to north).

Bloody Sunday

The lieutenant-general Thomas Kelly-Kenny of the 6th British division had as a plan to make the seat of the position of Cronje and to bombard it until his rendering. This tactic would certainly have was crowned success and would have caused only few losses to the British forces. However, Roberts was sick and, its Head of State major, the lieutenant-general Herbert Kitchener, was now with the orders. Kitchener had another strategy at the head and thus rejected the plan of Kelly-Kenny.

It is probable that Kitchener was alarmed by the news that Boers forces under the command of Wet were moving towards Paardeberg to carry help in Cronje. Consecutively, it decided that the position of Cronje was to be conquered immediately, and this before De Wet cannot intervene. Kitchener then launched its infantry like her cavalry in a series of disordered frontal attacks against the Boers positions.

Kitchener acts of the kind, and this in spite of the fact that in the previous months it had already been shown that this type of attack could be made only at the price heavy losses. It was unfortunately not different this time. The British soldiers were killed in mass. It is known as that no soldier could advance with less than 180 meters of the Boers positions. In fallen from the night, 24 officers and 279 men had died whereas 59 officers and 847 men were wounded. With the measurement of the losses, it was about the British reverse bloodiest of all the war and he was known thereafter under the name of " Sunday sanglant".

Kitchener did not only waste the life of these men, but it also put at evil the advantage of its strategic position. Kelly-Kenny had alerted it not to start from its position without leaving an adequate defense there. Indeed, this position was essential in the defense of the south-eastern side of the British and also in the prevention of any attempt at retirement of Cronje. But Kitchener, in its zeal of a total attack, left there only one handle of riders of the " Kitchener' S Horse " (colonial British volunteers). De Wet was then able to conquer this position which had nothing any more but one tiny defense.

Consequently, the strategic advantage changed radically. De Wet could make the position British on the intolerable south-eastern side and the Boer face extended now from the North-East in south-east. Whereas the night fell, Kitchener ordered with its troops to strengthen the position where they were and to remain there. Little accepted this order and even less followed it. Transits of thirst and exhausted, the survivors were folded up towards the camp It appeared then logical that Cronje receives the reinforcements so much hoped.

But the situation of Boers was not either very brilliant. Cronje and its men had just carried out a retirement of several days with the British with their cases. Whereas the losses following the bombardment were reduced to 100 died and 250 wounded, the horses and carriages did not profit from any shelter during the harassing of the British guns. Many carriages were destroyed besides, the ammunition exploded and the stocks reduced to nothing. Many transfers the totality of their goods to disappear, like their horses, this last loss being most critical knowing that the effort of Boer war rested primarily on the cavalry. The moral one of the forces of Cronje was affected in a dramatic way.

The seat

The Roberts general arrived on the theater of the operations at dawn. It then ordered an immediate resumption of the attacks but, of the same moment, Cronje required a cease-fire in order to be able to bury its deaths. The British refused, which brought the following answer of Cronje " If you shown also little charity to refuse me a truce, then made as you want but I will not make alive. Bombard when you want ". The negotiations for this truce had however taken most of the day and consequently it any more the time necessary ago for an additional attack.

The next day, Roberts and Kitchener planned throw again several attacks but they accepted a firm opposition of the other senior officers. Wednesday, Roberts lost its coolness and planned to be withdrawn. If it had done it, that would have made it possible Cronje to flee and would thus have been one of the largest errors in a war which counted of it already much. Fortunately for Roberts, it was De Wet which lost its nerves the first. Confronted with a whole British division, which could constantly receive reinforcements, and anxious in connection with the safety of its men, it withdrew his commando of south-east. The forces of Ferreira, which could possibly have supported De Wet, were disorganized following the death of their commander, killed accidentally by one of its own men. In an unexplainable way, Cronje refused to leave its position.

The rendering of Boers

The position of Cronje was now prone to a bombardment even more intensive, the British having received artillery reinforcements. Almost all the horses and all the mules had been killed, the odor and the stench releasing itself from the carcasses curling the insupportable one. The final day of the battle, the Canadian royal regiment of infantry, which had lost 70 men in a preceding load, had again to take the head with the title of rotation between the various units. Instead of carrying out a load the following morning as that had already occurred, Canadian, with the assistance of the Royal Engineers , advanced during the night in direction of the Boer camp and trenched with approximately 60 meters of the Boers positions. The February 27th 1900, Boers woke up surprised by the fire of Canadian rifles and went, releasing the way towards the first capital Boer, Bloemfontein. Cronje went with 4019 men and 50 women. It was the first (and according to some only) great victory of the war, 10% of the total staff complements of the Boer army being now prisoners.

Even if the British could take again their walk ahead after the battle, their tiredness and the lack of vivres (worsened by the capture of a convoy by Wet) should cause heavy losses within their troops, in particular due to the enteric Fièvre.

This conflict was the witness of the first deployment overseas of the Canadian army.

Sources

Random links:

Gehyra barea | Prosimien | Couscous (animal) | Prince Albert (piercing) | T.S. Narasimhan | Gris_de_Hemingford

© 2007-2008 speedlook.com; article text available under the terms of GFDL, from fr.wikipedia.org