Battle of Elandslaagte

Battle of Elandslaagte
Part of Second Boer War
Positions at noon, before the battle
Date 21 October 1899 Location Elandslaagte, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa 28°24′00″S 29°57′00″E / 28.4000°S 29.95°E / -28.4000; 29.95 (Battle of Elandslaagte)Coordinates: 28°24′00″S 29°57′00″E / 28.4000°S 29.95°E / -28.4000; 29.95 (Battle of Elandslaagte) Result British victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom	South African Republic
Commanders and leaders
John French Ian Hamilton	General Johannes Kock † Adolf Schiel
Strength
3,500 18 guns	1,000 3 guns
Casualties and losses
55 dead 205 wounded	46 dead 105 wounded 181 MIA or captured

The Battle of Elandslaagte was a battle of the Second Boer War, and one of the few clear-cut tactical victories won by the British during the conflict. However, the British force retreated afterwards, throwing away their advantage.

When the Boers invaded Natal, a force under General Kock (consisting mainly of men of the Johannesburg Commando, with detachments of German, French, Dutch, American, and Irish volunteers) occupied the railway station at Elandslaagte on 19 October 1899, thus cutting the communications between the main British force at Ladysmith and a detachment at Dundee. Learning that the telegraph had been cut, Lieutenant General Sir George White sent his cavalry commander, Major General John French to recapture the station.

Arriving shortly after dawn on 21 October, French found the Boers present in strength, with two field guns. He telegraphed to Ladysmith for reinforcements, which shortly afterwards arrived by train.

While three batteries of British field guns bombarded the Boer position, and the 1st Battalion, the Devonshire Regiment advanced frontally in open order, the main attack commanded by Colonel Ian Hamilton (1st Battalion, the Manchester Regiment, 2nd Battalion, the Gordon Highlanders and the dismounted Imperial Light Horse) moved around the Boers' left flank. The sky had steadily been growing dark with thunderclouds, and as the British made their assault, the storm burst. In the poor visibility and pouring rain, the British infantry had to face a barbed wire farm fence, in which several men were entangled and shot. Nevertheless, they cut the wire or broke it down, and occupied the main part of the Boer position.

Some small parties of Boers were already showing white flags when General Kock led a counterattack, dressed in his top hat and Sunday best. He drove back the British infantry in confusion, but they rallied, inspired by Hamilton (and reportedly, a bugler of the Manchesters and a Pipe Major of the Gordons) and charged again. Kock and his companions were killed.

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