Battle of Bakenlaagte
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The Battle of Bakenlaagte occurred on 30 October 1901 during the guerrilla phase of Anglo-Boer war of 1899–1902. The battle saw the Eastern Transvaal
Boer Boers ( ; af, Boere ()) are the descendants of the Dutch-speaking Free Burghers of the eastern Cape Colony, Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. From 1652 to 1795, the Dutch East India Company controll ...
commandos of Generals Grobler, Brits, Viljoen and
Louis Botha Louis Botha (; 27 September 1862 – 27 August 1919) was a South African politician who was the first prime minister of the Union of South Africa – the forerunner of the modern South African state. A Boer war hero during the Second Boer War, ...
attack the rear guard of Colonel Benson's much feared No. 3 Flying Column while it was in marching formation to its base camp.


Battle

Lieutenant Colonel George Elliott Benson's British No. 3 flying column, comprising 2000 men, specialised in night raids that were terrorising Boer Commandos on the highveld, it had become so successful that General Botha ordered all available Boer forces to accumulate at Bakenlaagte so as to attack Benson. The No. 3 Flying Column was marching back to a refit station after performing farm clearing operations. Rainy and misty weather had reduced visibility and made the going difficult which caused the marching British column to become spread out into clusters of troops. The column force became further extended when Benson began to deploy small detachments of mounted men and infantry to suppress small Boer sniping teams that were roaming around the marching column. General Botha arrived with about 800 reinforcements after riding about without stopping, on arrival, Botha observed that the strung out column provided an ideal opportunity for an overwhelming force to roll up the isolated and spread out groups of commonwealth troops piecemeal and immediately ordered a large Boer force of mounted men to attack the small isolated rear guard of the column. Outnumbered four to one, the Columns rear guard of 210 Commonwealth troops set up a defensive position on Gun Hill and fought about 900 Boers in a close quarter twenty minute gun fight that ended only when the column rear guard was annihilated. Great bravery was demonstrated by the men on both sides with combined casualties numbering approximately 87 killed with 182 wounded. Colonel Benson (a veteran of the
Battle of Magersfontein The Battle of MagersfonteinSpelt incorrectly in various English texts as "Majersfontein", "Maaghersfontein" and "Maagersfontein". ( ) was fought on 11 December 1899, at Magersfontein, near Kimberley, South Africa, on the borders of the Cape C ...
, 11 December 1899) was to die the next morning from wounds received on the field of battle. This rear-guard action allowed the main column time to deploy and set up a defensive perimeter under Lt Colonel Wools-Sampson. This deployment prevented the attacking Boer forces from riding on and capturing the main column as originally planned. The Boers left the field with what ever spoils they could carry and the British carried in the wounded to the entrenched camp during the night. The Bakenlaagte battlefield is located on the Kriel-Kinross road at the intersection of the R547 and R580 roads in
Mpumalanga Mpumalanga () is a province of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Swazi, Xhosa, Ndebele and Zulu languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It ...
Province, just south of Matla Power Station. The 73 dead Commonwealth troops were buried on Gun Hill but later reinterred in Primrose Cemetery, Corner of Cemetery road and Beaconsfield road,
Germiston Germiston, also known as kwaDukathole, is a small city in the East Rand region of Gauteng, South Africa, administratively forming part of the City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality since the latter's establishment in 2000. It functions as ...
in the 1960s. Lt Colonel Benson's grave is located at . Sadly, some of the white granite graves have been vandalised and the brass letters on Colonel Benson's granite grave have been stolen.


References

Bakenlaagte - The Story by Clive Willsworth, www.up.ac.za/dspace/bitstream/2263/12638/6/003 p50-99.pdf bakenlaagte {{DEFAULTSORT:Bakenlaagte Conflicts in 1901 Battles of the Second Boer War 1901 in South Africa October 1901 events