“Halt! Action Front!” With practised efficiency, the gunners carried out the necessary drills and one by one the 15 pounder Armstrong field guns, swung into position. Target identified; range taken; shrapnel projectile and powder bag thrust into the breech; friction tube inserted. “Number 1 Gun, Ready!” The litany was repeated down the line as the guns of the 14th and 66th Batteries, Royal Field Artillery, prepared for action. When all guns were ready:
“Commence Section Fire!” “1 200 yards”, “Target (that)”; “Percussion Shrapnel” “No. 1 gun, Fire!”
The Battle of Colenso had, in fact, started a few minutes earlier when Boer artillery and entrenched riflemen had opened fire on the four regiments of the Irish Brigade as they charged forward into a loop in the Thukela River. It was at about 07h00 that the 15 pounders began landing shells on their target - the Boer occupied Colenso Koppies.
Thirteen days before, the Boers had cut the lines south of Ladysmith. The town and its 12 000 troops had been besieged ever since, a situation that was intolerable to the British high command.
Starting at 03h00 on Friday morning the 15th December, General Sir Redvers Buller, commander of the South African Field Force, launched the men of the 2nd Division against prepared Boer positions on the north bank of the Thukela River near the small town of Colenso.
As early as 06h30, things began to go wrong when the Irish Brigade, heading for a ford, lost their way and blundered into the loop in the river where they soon came under a fusillade of rifle fire from Boers concealed in trenches on the far bank. Boer artillery too, soon found the range and casualties began to mount.
The gunners to the east were also in trouble as the guns, which should have come into action well outside the range of Boer rifles, had been positioned about 1 000 yards from Boer trenches on the Colenso koppies (hillocks). It was not long before both the gunners and the ammunition supply column began to take casualties. The supply of ammunition to the guns became sporadic and by about 07h30 the surviving gunners were ordered to withdraw temporarily from the guns and take cover.
Even further to the east, the third prong of General Buller’s attacking force, made up of the mounted men, was making little headway in their attempt to drive off the Boers and occupy the hill called Hlangwane.
Faced with all these difficulties, Buller decided shortly after 08h30, to call off the attack for that day.
The Battle of Colenso was over but not before an attempt was made to recover the 12 guns, standing apparently abandoned in open ground 800 yards from the river. Whilst only two of the twelve guns were drawn to safety, the heroism shown during the several attempts that were made to recover the remaining ten, resulted in the awarding of seven Victoria Crosses.
For a battle which lasted only a few hours, Colenso was ensured a place in military folklore as possibly the first ever battle where one side – the British – attempted to engage an enemy which proved to be largely invisible. The effect of - on the side of the Boers - artful positioning of well concealed trenches and the use of smokeless powder in both the rifles as well as the artillery, and – on the British side - with inadequate maps and poor reconnaissance, led to most British soldiers later admitting that “they had not seen a Boer all day!”
Never again in warfare would concealment fail to be a factor.
The first attempt to relieve Ladysmith had failed and, many miles to the west, the brooding mass of Spioenkop waited.
Audio : Ron - "snapshots" on the Battle Of Colenso
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