Boer War - October 1899 to September 1900 (1)

Question 1

Who arrived and where on 7th October 1899?

Answer 1

• Sir George White with 10,000 men from the Indian Army
• Arrived in Natal

Question 2

Did the Boers outnumber the British in Natal?

Answer 2

• They did in early October, they had 35,000 agains the British 10,000

Question 3

When did the Boers declare war on Britain and when did troops from Britains First Army Corps depart?

Answer 3

• Boers declared war on the 11th October 1899
• British troops departed set sail from Southampton on the 12th October

Question 4

Where did Sir George White establish a base?

Answer 4

Ladysmith

Question 5

When was the Battle of Dundee?

Answer 5

20th October 1899
- General Penn-Symons sent a brigade forward to Dundee
- First battle of the Boer War

Question 6

What happened at the Battle of Dundee?

Answer 6

• Boer guns shelled the British Camp and Penn-Symonns deployed a counter attack
• His men drove back the Boers at Talana Hill
• White retreated to Ladysmith due to 446 British casualties, the town of Ladysmith was surrounded by siege guns

Question 7

The second battle of the Boer war was a follow on from the Battle of Dundee, what happened at the Battle of Modderspruit?

Answer 7

• White had ordered a sortie against enemy artillery positions
• British disaster, 140 killed and 1000 captured
• Left White trapped in Ladysmith

Question 8

Who was defending Mafeking? Did he do this successfully?

Answer 8

• Clonel Robert-Baden Powell raised 1,200 local men at Mafeking
• 7,000 Boers under Piet Cronje attacked and besieged the place, hoping to starve it

Question 9

When did Boers decide to move on Kimberley and what was the result of this?

Answer 9

• Early November 1899 7,500 laid siege on Kimberley, a diamond mining town
• The town had 40,000 inhabitants with lots of provisions
• Boers did not follow through trying to capture besieged towns, making their attacks ineffective

Question 10

When did Boers cross into Cape Colony, what was the Cape Colonies stance?

Answer 10

• November they crossed into Cape Colony, and the gov of Cape Colony remained neutral
• Milner still managed to get martial law instated into the highly affected areas
• 10,000 invading Cape Dutch fought the 7,000 British

Question 11

Who arrived as Wolesley’s protege and when did he arrive?

Answer 11

• General Sir Redvers Buller arrived in Cape Town 31st October 1899

Question 12

Who came to support General Buller?

Answer 12

• The First Army Corps 18th November

Question 13

Why did General Buller not go straight for Pretoria, the Transvaal capital?

Answer 13

He did not want to deal with the political upheavals of abandoning White in Ladysmith

Question 14

How did Buller split his army up (3 ways)?

Answer 14

1) General Lord Methuen, with 20,000 men, set out to relieve Kimberly and Mafeking
2) General Gatacre, with 3,000 men, went towards Stormberg to secure northern Cape from Boer raids and Boer inhabitants
3) Buller led the man force to relieve Ladysmith

Question 15

After General Methuen won two small victories at Belmont and Graspan, where did he fall into a trap?

Answer 15

• Boer commander de la Rey in Modder River caused Methuen to lose 500 men

Question 16

When was ‘black week’ for the British?

Answer 16

10-15 December 1899

Question 17

What happened on 10th December 1899 of black week?

Answer 17

General Gatacre failed an attempt to take Stomberg, and sustained 700 casualties

Question 18

What happened on the 11th December 1899 of black week?

Answer 18

• General Methuen launched a rubbish attack on Magersfontein
• The Highland Brigade retreated from Boer’s accurate fire and Methuen lost 900 men
• Failed to relieve Kimberley

Question 19

What happened on the 15th December 1899 of black week?

Answer 19

• General Buller failed to cross the Tugela River with 21,000 men to relieve Ladysmith
• Buller suffered 1,400 casualties against Boer leader Louis Botha

Question 20

What weaponry advantage did the Boers have that made their life easier against the British?

Answer 20

• They had magazine rifles, that could shoot up to 2,000 yards and were smokeless with no need to reload

Question 21

What caused the British Government to want to replace General White?

Answer 21

• After defeat Buller had signalled by heliograph to White in Ladysmith to surrender

Question 22

Who was Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener?

Answer 22

• Bullers replacement
• Lord Roberts was a hero of the 1880 Afghan War
• Lord Kitchener was a hero of the 1898 Sudan campaign and acted as Lord Roberts chief of staff

Question 23

How did Britons react to the desperate situation in January 1900?

Answer 23

• They rushed to join the army
• 180,000 British troops were sent overseas, the largest overseas army yet

Question 24

How did Britains Empire help with the desperate situation in January 1900?

Answer 24

• 30,000 men from British controlled Southern Africa volunteered to help
• By 1902 over 16,000 Australians joined, over 6,000 Canadian and 6416 New Zealanders

Question 25

When and where did Lord Roberts arrive?

Answer 25

Arrived at the Cape in January 1900

Question 26

What tactical guidelines did Lord Roberts issue?

Answer 26

• Careful reconnaissance before attacks
• Avoidance of frontal attacks in mass formations
• More use of cover by infantry and artillery

Question 27

How did Lord Roberts position his army?

Answer 27

• Roberts massed his main force near Orange River behind Methuen
• He was at the Modder River and wanted to make an outflanking manoeuvre to relieve Kimberley and take Bloemfontein

Question 28

What did Kitchener do to help transport?

Answer 28

• He improvised a transport system using wagons
• This freed the British men from dependance on railway lines

Question 29

Who crossed Tugela River and met another Boer offensive and where was this?

Answer 29

• General Warren crossed Tugela
• Met Boers at the hill of Spion Kop

Question 30

When was the battle at the hill of Spion Kop? What was the result of the battle?

Answer 30

• Early 24th January 1900 the British captured the summit
• As fog disappeared they were overlooked by Boer gun emplacements
• BA retreated back across Tugela, contradictory orders were given by Buller and his commanders, some retreated and some tried to fight
• Result was 1350 casualties

Question 31

What was the result back in Britain of the failure at Spion Kop?

Answer 31

• Widely published photographs of dead soldiers at Spion Kop
• This brought back home the reality of the struggling war with the Boer’s