Episode 20 - The Acre of Death part 3

Loading player...
It’s 24th January 1900 and the battle of Spion Kop has been under way for ten hours. More than 1000 British soldiers are casualties and the entire senior officer corps on the summit of the mountain are dead.

General Redvers Buller who’d put two thirds of his Natal Army in the hands of the newly arrived General Warren now realised that things had gone from bad to worse on the top of Spion Kop. This was supposed to be a two pronged attack with Warren on controlling 2/3rds of the force and strangely, the commander Buller with 1/3rd followed by a push straight to Ladysmith.

But it didn’t quite work out that way.
4 Feb 2018 English South Africa Education

Other recent episodes

Episode 14 - The end of Black Week

It’s December 1899 and the British have already registered 3 000 casualties in various battles across South Africa. The latest we heard about was the Battle of Colenso on 15th December in Natal where the British casualty rate topped 1 130 with over 700 wounded and the result cost Commander…
24 Dec 2017 17 min

Episode 38 - Roberts marches into Pretoria but de Wet assaults Roodewal

For those who’ve followed this story from our start in October you know that we’re tracking the weeks of the war itself, and it’s now the first week of June 1900. This moment is what Lord Roberts has been waiting for - the triumphant march into the Transvaal Capital Pretoriathus…
10 Jun 2018 20 min

Episode 43 - General Hunter hunts de Wet and Canada loses a famous son

The conventional war has ended and the guerilla war has begun. The next few episodes will explore the actions of various leaders as they criss-crossed the South African countryside. But its not a romantic gallop, there are moments of unbelievable pain and suffering on all sides. The British soldiers were…
15 Jul 2018 20 min