Battle of Majuba
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 พ.ย. 2015
- The Battle of Majuba Hill (near Volksrust, South Africa) on 27 February 1881 was the main and decisive battle of the First Boer War. It was a resounding victory for the Boers. Major-General Sir George Pomeroy Colley occupied the summit of the hill on the night of 26-27 February 1881. His motive for occupying the hill remains unclear. The Boers believed that he may have been attempting to outflank their positions at Laing's Nek. The hill was not considered scale-able by the Boers for military purposes and thus it may have been Colley's attempt to emphasize British power and strike fear into the Boer camp.
The first part of the battle
The bulk of the 405 British soldiers occupying the hill were 171 men of the 58th Regiment with 141 men of the 92nd (Gordon) Highlanders, and a small naval brigade from HMS Dido. Besides the Gordons, most of his troops were inexperienced and their regiments had not seen action since the Crimean War. General Colley had brought no artillery up to the summit, nor did he order his men to dig in against the advice of several of his subordinates, expecting that the Boers would retreat when they saw their position on the Nek was untenable. However, the Boers quickly formed a group of storming parties, led by Nicolas Smit, from an assortment of volunteers from various commandos, totaling at least 450 men, maybe more, to attack the hill.
By daybreak at 4:30, the 92nd Highlanders covered a wide perimeter of the summit, while a handful occupied Gordon's Knoll on the right side of the summit. Oblivious to the presence of the British troops until the 92nd (Gordon) Highlanders began to yell and shake their fists, the Boers began to panic fearing an artillery attack. Three Boer storming groups of 100-200 men each began a slow advance up the hill. The groups were led by Field Cornet Stephanus Roos, Commandant D.J.K. Malan and Commandant Joachim Ferreira. The Boers, being the better marksmen, kept their enemy on the slopes at bay while groups crossed the open ground to attack Gordon's Knoll, where at 12:45 Ferreira's men opened up a tremendous fire on the exposed knoll and captured it. Colley was in his tent when he was informed of the advancing Boers but took no immediate action until after he had been warned by several subordinates of the seriousness of the attack.
Over the next hour, the Boers poured over the top of the British line and engaged the enemy at long range, refusing hand-to-hand combat action and picking off the British one by one. The Boers were able to take advantage of the scrub and long grass which covered the hill, something that the British were not trained to do. It was at this stage that British discipline began to wane and panicky troops began to desert their posts, unable to see their opponents and being given very little in the way of direction from officers. When more Boers were seen encircling the mountain, the British line collapsed and many fled pell-mell from the hill. The Gordons held their ground the longest, but once they began to rout the battle was over. The Boers were able to launch an attack which shattered the already crumbling British line.
British retreat
Amidst great confusion and with casualties amongst his men rising, Colley attempted to order a fighting retreat, but was shot and killed by Boer marksmen. The rest of the British force fled down the rear slopes of Majuba, where more were hit by the Boer marksmen, who had lined the summit in order to shoot at the retreating foe. An abortive rearguard action was staged by the 15th The King's Hussars and 60th rifles, who had marched from a support base at Mount Prospect, although this made little impact on the Boer forces. Two hundred and eighty-five Britons were killed, captured or wounded, including Captain Cornwallis Maude, son of Government Minister Cornwallis Maude, 1st Earl de Montalt.
As the British were fleeing the hill, many were picked off by the superior rifles and marksmen of the Boers. Several wounded soldiers soon found themselves surrounded by Boer soldiers and gave their accounts of what they saw. Many of them were simply farm boys armed with rifles, and it was a major blow to Britain's negotiating position to have been defeated by a group of Dutch farm boys with a hand full of older soldiers leading them. - เพลง
1 of the captured soldiers was a highlander named Hector MacDonald. He fought to the very last, even throwing rocks and fist fighting with the Boers. The boers eventually forced his surrender but out of respect, did not shoot him. He was even commended for his bravery by the Boer commander Pieter Kronje. MacDonald would go on to become a Major General and ADC to Queen Victoria herself, and to this day, his likeness is still portrayed on bottles of “Camp Coffee”! I’m happy to say that he was an ancestor of mine!
Your last name is different from the hero's. How you are related, please clarify?
@@yxhankun if both of your sets of grandparents have the same surname, I would be worried about the gene pool of that family...
Freddie Ellis haha nice
Later won the vc, and became a major general before being shamelessly slandered and taking his own life. The song hector the hero is about him
jb863 he didn’t win the VC but yes, absolutely slandered without a shred of proof.
My grand uncle was a medic at this battle (Joseph John Farmer) and won a VC. He’s buried in Brompton cemetery with his citation etched on a rock from Majuba Hill
My grandfather a boer shared these stories with me. A time when grand parents told their grand children history of South Africa. There was no Internet, tvs, mobile phones. Only radio. People communicated with each other. Respected one another. I am happy I was part of that era. Nice to hear the Boers speaking Afrikaans. I had to attend an Afrikaans school because of the Boer war.
Percy Briscoe not to be rude everyone knows there weren’t internet TVs phones
@@idontknowhatmynameshouldbe wrong, only those who are 30 and older
Like the Scots used to be, a people of the Book (ie the Bible)
The Battle of Majuba could aptly be renamed Colley`s Folly. Some inaccuracies:- Colley was asleep when the British were about to be over run. He refused to listen to Hamilton on two occasions as depicted, but both were from his bed. The reserve were laying asleep during the action but Colley refused to call them up.
mabey he was still drunk from last night.you know he needed a day off work to fresh up.
A key factor in such an almost perfect Boer victory is that they are fighting on their native soil.
Another factor is that for a typical Englishman and a soldier in a red coat, fighting in a hot climate was very unusual and fraught with some difficulties.
Another factor is the very low population density per square mile.
Boers are used to living in such hot, dry and vast territories.
And, of course, the arrogance and self-confidence of the British soldiers and the underestimation of the enemy, who has sufficient skills and capabilities to effectively repel the attacks of small detachments of redcoats.
I'm Dutch and I endorse this film,
Me also as an Irish man!
"Sir my position is about to be overrun by thousands of enemy troops!" - "Jolly Good. Keep up the good work commander. Now go join your men and hold position."
Until further notice!
Of course, we all immediately knew that "our position is impregnable" were famous last words.
BenjaminFranklin99 True ! 130,000 STRONG British force surrendered to 30,000 Japanese troops at their "Impregnable Fortress of Singapore " WW2 . British forces were poorly armed ,trained and led ,throughout the war . .Despite all the pomp etc seems they are are not much better now ! Both Iraq & Afghanistan were humiliating failures ,Having to be baled out by US forces ,,At Basra they were actually marched to the airport by Shia militias ..US were not too pleased ,they had to retake the OIL RICH province ,but too late to save the western dressed women from death /mutilation by Islamic fanatics that took over the area . Brits love to tell you how they defeated Napoleon at Waterloo British Wellington and 70% German Rhineland troops ,not counting the 50,000 Prussians under the command of Blucher who helped smash Bonaparte army at THE BATTLE OF NATIONS a couple of years earlier . Brits believe they won WW2 ,instead of playing a peripheral role with various other minor allies . USA power won in the Far East and Soviets in Europe . Operation SEA LION was put on hold after Nazi generals urged Hitler to get OPERATION BARBAROSSA under way before northern Russian winter arrived . You could say the Russian winter saved Britain from invasion . Regular army were locked away in Japanese and Nazi concentration .For three years Empire troops were run ragged around a N African colony by a small force of Italian/German Africa Corps .(100,000). Soviets were stopping then chasing millions of Hitler's finest across Europe back to Berlin . Brits along with strong American forces invaded Normandy .in a effort to grab some real estate ,as the Soviets were racing for Berlin . ,Most Brits had not seen a German soldier up to DDay 6th of June 1944 ,
moon beam oh shut up you moron. Grab some real estate? Stalin had wanted (demanded) a second front since 1942, as Russia was facing the brunt of German forces and did so until the end of the war in Europe.
It looks like the Boers are using the tactic known as "Leap frogging" where two or more squads make a slow advance forward, with each taking taking turns advancing and securing a defensive position, before the other advances. Very effective.
Fire and movement....it's taught in advanced infantry training AIT for any of the combat arms. -Veteran '66-68
@@rogeranderson8763 Thats the one dude, theres a good video on here of that if you type in SAS scene bravo two zero where british special forces conduct fire and manuver against an iraqi column
@@Bullet-Tooth-Tony- Yes this was the first time that this tactic was used in battle. Cronje ordered the older and most accurate men to take cover at the wagons while shooting at the British position. While the younger men were to advance on the British position. One were to advance while the other to take cover and fire on British position.
Yep and kicking ass with Britains own Martini-Henry .577/.450 , ironic isn't it ? .. Quite !
Fire and movement. We had it drilled into us South African Infantrymen during the Bush War in the 1980's. Very effective
Thanks for the battle description at the outset. Made it all make much more sense.
Damn... Bounding by platoon-sized elements, good individual techniques (prone position), good suppressive fire. Good command and control. The Boers kicked some serious ass.
It was the Boers that taught the British how to fight modern war. The Boer Wars meant that in 1914 the British Army was tactically much better prepared for modern war than the French and Germans were, who had no equivalent experience since 1871. While the French were attacking in red trousers and blue coats, the British were firing from prone positions and rifle scrapes wearing full khaki. We learned all of that from the Boer Wars.
Lol. Thanks. You got that right. In this fight, they even sent the Highlanders running. It would have been hard for anyone back then, when you're facing an army full of individual snipers.
I read something along those lines, it changed the thinking of ground operations by the British Army taking the lessons learned from the two Boer wars coming into 1914.
+John S Better prepared then the French? The same way they got slaughtered at the Somme because they would walk right in front of German Machine Guns? One on One against the French or Germans the British would've been slaughtered.
+Battalion Are you a Brit-hater?
there was so much more quality war movies back in 60s,70s,80s thn today!
This wasn’t awful, but Saving Private Ryan, it isn’t.
Yeah now we cant see what happening the movies now had to much shaking and other edits
I think there were more war movies overall. They werent better. For every quality war movie from the 60s-80s came like 10 absolutely rubbish war films
Well that was jolly good of him to ignore one of his commanders that his flank was about to be overrun.
That's officers for you.
The fire and maneuver tactic was used very well the Boers here, that combined with good marksmanship and knowledge of terrain is probably what allowed them to win in this battle. Even though the British had the better position, it wasn’t any match for constant and accurate rifle fire while other advance.
Ben Burt Brits were so impressed they used the Boer word (k)Commando for their own special forces .
The massive dead spot under the koppie(hill) also helped a lot. It's not difficult moving close if the enemy can't shoot or see you.
whatever happened to the bayonet charge??
Plus better rifles
Echoes of Spion Kop in the 2nd Boer War, where the troops sat back and let a handful of engineers dig a trench that was 1) too shallow, and 2) in the wrong place. The shovel is your friend.
Those scarlet red uniforms that the British wore during that battle in 1881 sure made an easy target for the Afrikaans Boers who wore a mix of khaki, light-brown earth-tone or neutral dark-brown farming clothing which made good camouflage in the South African landscape. One of the worst defeats for the British army during the 19th century. However, the lessons that the British learned during that war and that battle which included Boer marksmanship, tactical flexibility and good use of ground, was largely forgotten when the second war broke out 18 years later in 1899.
l'homme se plaint des guerres....des morts....des enfants des vieillards....mais il oublie que c'est lui qui les renouvelle à chaque fois....l'homme n'est pas sorti depuis les cavernes..de son côté Mammifère- ANIMAL......il s'est construit une vie matérialiste avec tout le confort....bien OK.....mais n'arrive pas à éviter les guerres et conflits....car on ne lui a pas appris autre chose....désolé pour l'école Catholique....
Damn... charging uphill into fixed defenses... balls of steel
“Fixed fortifications are a monument to the stupidity of man.”. General Patton
All honesty the high ground gave them a distinct disadvantage. Peeking over the wall to fire made a fantastic silhouette to target against the blue african sky which the Boers exploited with sniper like precision.
It seems from this, a telling factor was that fighting an uphill battle was beneficial. Above, the redcoats presented silhouettes to aim at whilst the burghers hugged the slopes, presenting very lean targets by comparison.
RIP to our British Lads, You fought bravely. As We've seen numerous times before, 'Lions led by Donkeys'
It's war. I don't like that much casualties even to the enemy, and this is coming from a South African
Ah yes nothing is more brave than illegally occupying a sovereign nation.
@@za.monolit when you think about it, attacking another nation is brave. You might die. This is scary but they did it anyway - the very definition of bravery.
I think you are confusing bravery with morality you silly tit.
@@danw918 nah
'Bravely'? Most of them deserted and ran away. And against a bunch of 'untrained' farmers.
The Boers, were expert shots and trained hard. Better leadership under Nicolaas Smit, perfect combination for a successful military action. My thanks to Wikipedia!
Very interesting video. 'Mr. Hamilton' was then-lieutenant Ian Hamilton. He was shot in the wrist which left is left arm mostly useless for the rest of his life. After the battle he was released by the boers because he was not expected to survive. During the second boer war he would return and now a colonel notably led the main attack at the Battle of Elandslaagte. Here he rallied the British soldiers after a boer counterattack and drove them back. For this action he was recommended for the VC by Sir John French but authorities in London declined the award thinking Hamilton too senior. During WW1 he commanded the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. Very bad planning by Churchill and Kitchener, Hamilton maybe being more of a tactician instead of a strategist and a lot of others reasons made sure the Dardanelles campaign ended in disaster.
Churchill was the first lord of the admiralty and had nothing to do with sending troops to the dardanelles. It was Kitchener.
Churchill's darkest moment.
Lost a hospital ship, thousands of troops at Gallipoli, other ships sunk by Turkish artillery on the heights.
A total mess.
Let us give him a trophy! LOL
Interesting fact. There were more British soldiers that died in the battle of Isandlwana compared to the whole first Anglo Boer war.
Very true, it was relatively small war
Another interesting fact, there were more British that died in the "black week" of the Second Boer War than in Isandlowana and the Afghan War combined.
@@muppet50yago36 a week vs a day. Lol
@@StormyWeather21 Lol a war is a war, lol. Whether, lol, you have casualties in a week or a day, lol, it, lol, doesn't, lol, matter. Lol. But if you really want to be pedantic, the British suffered more casualties in two hours during the Battle of Colenso than they had during the day of Isandlwana. Happy? Lol?
@@muppet50yago36 didnt 25,000 of your women and kids perish in camps?
I wouldnt be boasting about numbers if i were you
It's clear that the British government had completely underestimated the Boer's ability to fight.
That the British government for you …. Nothing has changed.
Respect to the Boers. A David taking down Goliath story.
@Bradley Berthold the boers are also colonialists.
And remember how it ended for the boers?😳
@@malikulabdullah4063 So was most of the world. North Africa colonized Spain. Rome colonized Europe including England. The Aztecs colonized large amounts of America's The vikings, the Ottomans, the Mauri. The Zulus, The Russians. The Moguls. It was and is just what stupid humans do. They still fight for power.
The end of colourful uniforms for Brits and use
Sorry mate. In that story David won. In this story the Boer capitulated.
I have read most of the comments, the thing is that few people who have gone up against the Boer really appreciate the tenacity of the Boer. I would just need to open the annuls of history in our own era to see evidence of this. Look at their campaigns into Angola and then the final battle of the Angola war in the Lomba-Cuito River salient. Here 3500 Boers held of an army of 52000 Cuban, Angola and Soviet troops from September 1987 until July 1988. You really don't want to underestimate these people. About the 2nd Anglo-Boer war, well in my opinion to loose a war is when there is a surrender of an armed force, the were starving the men were just skin and bones, more Boer soldiers were dying from starvation than by enemy action. During the last years of the war the British had killed all livestock in the sphere of operation, crops were burned and the support and logistic structure that was in place for the Boer combatant before 1901 had been destroyed. These people did not surrender, they were pounded into submission by the British. I really admire them, they are a small nation fighting for existence an they have not given up yet....
+Mark Edward Holden That's an appropriate summary of the Boer soldiers 👍. I was active in Angola at the time you refer to. Though to be precise regarding what led to the end of the 2nd Anglo Boer War, after being decisively beaten militarily, it was the genocide perpetrated by the British, who pioneered the use of concentration camps by using it to murder the women and children by starvation and disease, being the families of the Boer soldiers, that forced them to end the war to save what remained of their families.
Actually they did surrender. just like their decendants have surrendered their country, they would be very proud im sure.
Another perspective :
During 1970 as a youngster I spoke to a Mr van Jaarsveld who had been interred as a youngster, in the Balmoral camp ( Between Witbank & Bronkhorstspruit ). He told me how some of the camp guards felt saddened by the starving children and used to slip some of their rations to the kids.
Until they were brought up on orders to desist from feeding the enemy.
That was the SADF, not a pure Boer Army, there were other white South Africans conscripted into the SADF at that time, English and Portuguese speakers alike. But they had to speak in Afrikaans and all commands were given in Afrikaans.
@@MarkEdwardHolden1966 whilst what was done in the camps was wrong, where is there any proposal by anyone from South Africa to sue the British govt?
Excellent movie , excellent video copy, and your explanation of the event is much appreciated
The loss of the battle had nothing to do with the incompetence of the troops but the incompetence of the arrogant British officers. And of course the tactics of the Boers.
The Boer Commandos tactics were probably about 40 years ahead of their time and the British didn't know how to combat it!😒🤠🔫🌄🇿🇦
Actually, they were a hundred years after the Americans did the exact same thing at Kings Mountain during the American Revolution. That doesn't mean any disparagement to the Boer or lessen their victory.
@@MichaelJones-rn2pq Damn good soldiers, bloody poor commanding officers!
They were around 100 years prior as Roger Ranger led similar type attacks against the French during the French and Indians War (Seven Years War), 1755-1763. That is where the unit Rangers get their name. The Boer term for these types of troops were called Commandos so that is where this term came from. During the Peninsula War 1808-1813 in Spain/Portugal similar tactics were used by the Spanish against the French, their term Guerilla.
Wrong flag.
@@janefelix3821 and Benjamin Church 1665
Good scene, although it still seems a little too easy, you would still expect that whoever has the high ground has an advantage, but you can't ignore history.
The Brits had their sights set too high. No one ordered them to adjust.
They didn't adjust
Thing is, with firearms the high ground makes any movement very easy to track against your silhouette in contrast to the blue african sky.
Not when you don't know the terrain, and prance around the veld wearing red
Sometimes truth is crazier than fiction
Is it just me, or does this battle seem similar to the battle of King's mountain in the American Revolution? If I'm correct, at King's mountain, there was just one British commander who was Scottish named Patrick Ferguson with 1,105 loyalists(only about 125 loyalists wore red coat uniforms) while the American attacking force had 900 mountain frontiersmen. Patrick Ferguson chose to make his stand at the top of King's mountain instead of retreating to Lord Cornwallis's location not wanting to be accused of dishonor and cowardice by Cornwallis. Patrick Ferguson also made the mistake of not fortifying his position with strong earthworks, breastworks, and any abatis. He believed the high ground with the trees and rocks surrounding his position as obstacles for the American patriots would be enough. When the Americans caught up and attacked, they used very similar tactics to the boers at Majuba. The American patriots took cover behind the rocks and trees, fired well aimed shots with their longer range rifles, move to the next rock or tree for cover, fire another well aimed shot. Then repeat over and over. The british allied loyalists would use linear formation and fire volleys while sustaining heavy casualties. Their volleys either shot too high over the patriot or missed them as the Patriot advanced up the mountain from cover to cover while firing their rifles. However, the difference is the British commander would order 3 bayonet charges against the patriots and the patriots would fall back melting into the forest. When the loyalists fell back to the top of the mountain, the American rebels would come back, take cover, fire, repeat the process all over again. At the end, British commander Patrick Ferguson and 290 loyalists were killed. 163 wounded, and 668 captured. The American patriots suffered smaller losses as 28 killed and 62 wounded. The American patriots won. The battle of Majuba and the battle of King's mountain are so similar. A british commander choosing a high elevated mountain/hill deciding not to build any fortifications assuming the high elevated position would be more than enough to win, and then guerrillas either from the Boer commandos or American frontiersmen advance up the position using cover and concealment while sniping at the british until overrunning the british. That's so similar. Does history really repeat itself? Please forgive me if I got anything wrong out of my comparison. What does anyone else think. Does the battle of Majuba Hill of the Boer war seem very similar to the battle of King's mountain of the American Revolution?
Yes, I am one year late in pointing that out as well. You are correct.
@@MichaelJones-rn2pq Omg, so you thought so too, right. Sorry for the late reply. I was kind of busy. lol. So I wasn't the only one to see the similarity between the battle of Majuba hill and battle of king's mountain.
Ferguson was Anglo Irish.
The Boers were flexible mounted skirmishers who new the countryside and were led by talented amateurs, but the main issue for the British was leadership. The British had fought in difficult terrain in Afghanistan against irregulars before, and should have been able to win in South Africa - Colley himself had served in China and Afghanistan as a staff officer but he had never actually commanded in battle, and it showed. The decision not to entrench was folly, and a man of Colley's rank (Major General) had no business leading an expedition that should have been left to a Lieutenant Colonel or even a Major. No artillery was taken up, which made the whole exercise quite pointless in any case as the Boer camp was out of rifle range.
First heard of the Battle Of Majuba Hill about 25 years ago when I bought the book The First Boer War by Joseph Lehmann and the Osprey Campaign series Battle Of Majuba Hill 1881!🤨💂🤠🔫🔫🌄🇬🇧🇿🇦
Remember the game "red light, green light" where each time you turned and looked they were a little bit closer?
This was the war that changed the British army, they came across an irregular army that was better equipped and fought a guerilla-style war, the British were still fighting the old massed ranks and fast volley fire so they were at a massive disadvantage against a fast-moving enemy fighting on their own ground ... Though many historians believe these wars helped the British army adapt just in time for WW1
3:50...lmao at that death. so realistic!!!
4:01- I thought he was going to say, "I need more power Captain"
Apparently, the British learned nothing from the Battle of King's Mountain 100 years before.
thats because king's mountain didn't have any british forces, it was loyalist colonial militia vs rebel colonial militia. ie yanks vs yanks.
Вся Англия, за свои грехи, уйдёт под воду.... Скоро.
do you have the other battles on here or the full movie of the first boer war?
After this South African dustup, marksmanship became a top priority in British musketry training....
Somehow, the sun never set on the empire. The skinny was better off with John Bull running things, just ask Hong Kong.
I still can't believe my ancestors (Boers) were that Badass!
Tomato Warriors.
Joe he said British not Italian
Joe I was joking sir.
@@Joseph-pk7wu Fuck you
My family fought in that battle. I think they were as surprized at winning it as the British were at losing it.
Was you family surprised when they lost the war?
@Herman Wenhold ''you''? Herman has nothing to with with this
@Herman Wenhold everyone here is wrong, there were two Boer wars the battle of majuba was the final battle of the first Boer war which was from 1880-1881 and the Boers ended up winning the first war, the second war from 1899-1902 was the more well known Boer war and the one in which British concentration camps were in use
Good heavens... I seem to have sprouted a spruce mustache upon having seen this motion picture 🇬🇧🎩🇬🇧
hehe
UK is long gone man . There is going to be a one earth nation
I ones lived and worked not far from Majuba and also went up to the top.All i can say is,the graves are still there.
This just goes to show you what some country boys are capable of utilizing marksmanship coupled with fire and movement tactics and good use of the terrain. Knowledge of the battlefields lay out is a priceless tool to have in combat. You can see why the British empires disarmed citezens throughout their reign learning from how bad some farmers whooped on them. I have seen some Mauser rifles at auction that were used by the boars, an interesting fact to know is that all peoples were required to own a firearm, a mount, and maintain provisions. The boars were exceptional marksman who’s skills were required for hunting to survive and more so the fact that they were able to estimate range and fire on targets without the guidance of an officer allowing each man to pick out his own targets and engage freely. There is so much to be learned from the boer wars.
Someone in this discussion mentioned the lack of humour .. well here goes.:-
A 19 yr old boer youngster from Genl de Wets commando and his father were instructed to protect an area against approaching British soldiers.
The youngster asked his father " Dad , how many British soldiers are coming towards us ?
The dad answers '' There's about 100 Tommy's , coming towards us my boy."
The son answers "Ag no Dad ..... we are going to finish late again tonight !!! "
Tony van der Helm Boering mate! Try again
@@daveglynn748 Oh dear most of my British friends have a great sense of humor .... sorry you lost yours old boy !
@@tonyvanderhelm2934
Its you that cant see true brit humour you dipstick🙈
I hate having to spell it out but it's in the word "boering" Let me know if the coin ever drops🤣
@@tonyvanderhelm2934 what loss? Didnt your republics get dismantled?
You dont even have a country, enjoy sharing whats left with the bantus
This battle was one of the most humiliating defeats in British history and also marked the end of the First Boer War.
The British should have been immured to humiliating defeats. They were always on the wrong end of the stick. Read any non biased book and everyone will see what I mean.
@@jimclark6256 they british have won more battles than any other nations, so thats horseshit.
no it wasnt, it was a complete insignificance compared to stuff like the Zulu war and Crimea. Hardly remembered by anybody.
@@jimclark6256 sounds like your bias to the British. There is no such thing as an unbiased book
@@Ukraineaissance2014 he said they were on the wrong side, not that they lost more battles than anyone else. Case in point this whole war (and the second), fighting a bunch of farmers cause imperialism
I like these old war movies way better than these modern ones. No PC bull crap, no endless streams of f-bombs, no over the top gore. Just good old fashioned gun play.
Darned battle disturbed tea time!
I was glad to see the movie used black powder.
The reason they lost this battle, was they underestimated their enemy.
Taking position on the Majuba plateau, under so-called "cover of darkness", never giving the thought that their movements are being watched by the Boers!
The Brits didn’t underestimate the Boers, they overestimated themselves.
URA for the Booers!
Mooi so Boere!
Слава Южной Африке!!! Слава африканерам-бурам законным хозяевам этой земли!!!
5:40 i think that officer was in the mood to give his general a Scottish style jaw jack.
The lessons of the Boer war were never learned. Today, in Afghanistan, Vietnam, the use of Guerrilla warfare against traditional forces proves extremely difficult. And also, atrocities were committed on both sides.
Expect that’s not true. In 1914 Britain had the best soldiers in the world. With marksman ship so good that the Germans beloved they were coming against machine guns, not British soldiers
the lessons of the 1st boer war were well learned as were the 2nd. the issue is no one wants to be accused of atrocities that comes with effectively dealing with insurgents (that is round up all the civilains into concentration camps to deny the insurgents recruits and supplies)
Very interesting!! Thanks. Does this come from a movie ?
Our men are running from the battlefield!
I was on Amajuba...one theory is that the rifles of the Brits we're still set for level ground and most shots fired went over the heads of the boers attacking up hill.
Many of the dead are buried at the location.
Stan vas, Suid Afrika!
I say, jolly good show, old chap!
One side effect of the Boer war was that it boosted Chinese nationalist sentiments, and encouraged the the divided and opium-addicted nation to challenge the unequal treaties Britain imposed on her. Since a small nation like Transvaal could challenge the mighty empire, China could do it as well.
It also encouraged the Irish Nationalists who longed to throw off their British oppressors to rebel
Yes, and the chinese were decisively defeated like the two times beforehand.
The casualties for the British 92 dead in relation to the Boers would tend to sum up how incompetent the general and staff were.
Not only the incompetence and arrogance of Colley that brought Britain to defeat, but also the sights. The guns of the British Army are sighted 500-600 yards, whereas the Boer guns were distanced at 100-200 yards. The result is more British soldiers get killed by the Boer guns.
The DNA of this incompetence among 'English leaders' filtered through to WWI and the western front (frontal attacks against machine guns etc.) At least they got rid of the red coats by that stage!
@@HachikoThePoochInugami The ideal range for a british volley is 100-300 yards, after that the spread starts to become ineffective. Why would they site them 500-600 yards?
@@muppet50yago36 Overconfidence, I guess.
@@petercampbell1478 and what else were they supposed to do? they tried to outflank the germans, that lead to the race to the sea (in 1914), they tried to go underneath but the germans counter mined them, artillery was too inaccurate to keep the germans pinned down the entire time...
the only option left was attack directly and hope the training you gave the men and the cover provided by shell craitors would be enough to get them across no mans land. and infact it did get them across no mans land a number of times (the germasn just tneded to retake lost ground rather quickly as the same shell craitored ground that allowed the soldiers to make it acrosss also limited ammunition and machine guns from easily making it across no mansland. german-austrian shock troops essentially perfected this method.
this is why tanks and LMGS were such important inventions, they allowed machine guns to be more easily brought across no mans land.
Does anyone know if this was filmed on the actual Majuba Hill?
I am Polish by my origin .... but I am very proud while those Dutch settlers kicked asses of the Red Coats, because Boers were fighting for their land, their families and their style of life !!!!
Brits after all has settled down and they finally won the conflict .... they closed the Boers POW's in the first in the World concentration camps for dying there !!!!
Remember folks, marksmanship counts for a lot! You can have all kinds of fancy do-dads but a good eye and a fine rifle can make up for quite a bit of that. And it takes time to grow good shots. No eight week basic course can ever match learning to shoot at a young age.
thats right them boar guys shoot small things running around the place and birds from the sky.
1st Boer War was no big deal in terms of numbers - it just gave British a wake-up call. 2nd Boer War took over 500,000 British soldiers and auxiliaries to beat 60,000 Boers and Auxiliary.
The British had over 100,000 dead, wounded, sick and missing and the country almost went bankrupt - a huge embarrassment to the world's biggest army and the empire of the day. The Boers lost about 6,000. Over 25,000 Boer women & children died in concentration camps and hundreds of farms were burnt. Britain couldn't win the war and so forced Boer families into disease-ridden concentration camps to make the Boer fighters surrender. Let's not forget the black population who also suffered heavily but barely get a mention!
so what, won didn't we? you want to make an omelette you need to break a few eggs, and it wasn't the fighting spirit of the British that cost us dearly it was our incompetent and over confident generals.
Wasn’t the largest army. Most of the deaths were disease. And the concentration camps were not designed to kill.
@@lesdodoclips3915 Exactly one of the reasons the concentration camps were so bad is because the boers kept blowing the rail tracks up which were bringing supplies into the camps.
@We are Vikangs !!! n shiet no he fucking didn’t.
@We are Vikangs !!! n shiet actually no, America was the father. Internment camps for natives anyone? America did it 70 years earlier...
Invading Professional soldiers vs. farmers. Good show Boers.
imperator parva Well no, because the Boer republics signed over to the British empire for protection, once the problem was dealt with in the Zulus, the Boers rose up because "hey I'm alright Jack" was exactly the attitude they had.
That's a bit of a boering name... :3
@@thehorselesshussar9813 .... you English so dumb, stupid and arrogant!! but look what your Royal-satanist-queen do to children...... Hey i'm right Jack... hows that for a attitude?
@@rdelport1372 Queen Victoria had no decision making on the direction of the Boer war she was advised and kept up to date with information but as in most professional armies it's the senior officers who make the decisions.
Who asked either one to occupy an already occupied country?
Not bad, my dear woodpecker! Was a big mistake from the Kaiser, to let the Boers alone against those Brits!
You can Churchill writings about his out time there on Audible. They can be corny at times, but still very good. :-)
BOER - The original sharpshooter
Funny how these Boer outfits looks way too modern in this film. Most probably because the extras in this battle probably brought their own guns and their 1940s "Kerk pakke" (Church suits).
The Boers were good people and good to prisoners. As an ex Brit I am ashamed of the greed and power hungry Empire!
Thank you Jim.
Fun fact: By this time the British tended to issue their soldiers khaki uniforms for wars against "civilised" enemies and red coats against "savages". The reason most of the British were wearing red for the 1st Boer war was because most of them were coming straight from the Zulu war.
Course wearing khaki isn't going to help much if you're poorly deployed like the Scots in the film above.
I seriously never knew that, would you happen to have a source?
@@Cotac_Rastic No single source, no.
But, for example, the 94th was stationed in the Transvaal and deployed against the Zulu before marching back to quell the "unrest" and had the dubious honour of being the first British force defeated by the Boers at Bronkhorstspruit.
You can also compare how the British army was equipped for other conflicts at this time, like the 2nd Afghan war or the first intervention in the Sudan where the British wore Khaki.
@@LitD Sorry, but that’s complete nonsense. Khaki was first adopted by the Indian Army in the 1850s. So, any British units that served in India were issued Khaki uniforms. That’s why the British forces that fought in the Second Afghan War (1878-1880) wore khaki, while the British forces that fought in the Zulu War (1879) wore red. It had nothing to do with whether they were fighting whites or non-whites. The year after the First Boer War, the British fought the Egyptians in 1882 equipped in red tunics, but during the Gordon Relief expedition in 1885 they were largely kitted out in khaki and grey, apart from a section of 20 men in the Royal Sussex Regiment who were issued with red tunics to impress the besieged in Khartoum. The last time the British wore red tunics in battle was at the Battle of Ginnis in 1885, which was fought against the Sudanese.
@@malpreece5008
lol, you're such a racist you immediatly assume "savage" means coloured.
I mean you said exactly what I said, when the British considered their enemies to be "civilized" they tended to issue khaki.
It's kind of funny, Gen Patrick Furguson said the same thing as this commander did in Oct of 1780 and he lost the mountain top to the American Patriots at the battle of Kings Mountain.
When the grass, hills, and cliffs start speaking Afrikaans...
What planet are the landing on?
Fire and maneuver with successive violence on action and accurate fire.Quite an astounding feat with Mauser rifles with men who are very skilled marksmen...
reddevilparatrooper What Mausers? Those rifles didn't exist until the Second Boer War. In the First War the Boers used the same Martini rifles the British Army had, and probably some Remington Rolling Blocks, all single shot weapons.
Peter Gray Yes i stand to be corrected by you.You are indeed correct.The British Infantry were not trained to or by initiative to counter attack in those circumstances.The Boers are indeed excellent tacticians to the small arms that they are armed with similar to what we Americans have with in our Frontier Era and way before the South Afrikaans had excellent Mauser rifles.I have been fascinated by them because of the speed and aggressiveness the way the Boers have conducted against the British Army using Mauser rifles in the 1895 pattern.I love shooting mines and indeed it is a Chilean model but appreciates its range,accuracy,and firepower at long ranges.Thank you indeed!Keen people like you is always helpful information.Thank you very much!!
Red coats and white pith helmets engaging at range whilst skylined on the top of a ridge, what could possibly go wrong?
It was around this time that brightly colored uniforms were beginning to be phased out in favor of those which offered better concealment. As with everything else, the change took time to implement.
it was one of the lasst battles fought in red
the French still had red pants and light blue coats in 1914
I meant by the british army. the 'red pants are french' is a whole other issue.
That had all changed by the end of the Boer war.
This documentary, here on TH-cam, is very interesting.... "The Boer War 1899 - 1902: Part 1 of 4".
what amazes me in watching 2 of these videos about the boer war, is that the english took so many casualites compared to the enemy ? wow...
scott walker Historically accurate too.
Find some Boer War monuments listing the dead and you'll find disease took more than did bullets.
@Terry Blanton Would you like some salt with those chips?
@@charlieross-BRM correct.
@@charlieross-BRM This was the First Anglo Boer war !!!!
Would love to see the whole movie .
In the turn of the century Boer War, a similar situation occurred only this time it was Australian Bushmen on the top of the hill. The Boers rushed the lower slopes screaming for the Australians to surrender. In their turn, they fixed bayonets and yelled defiance. They held the high ground for about an hour, then their horses were being fired on, so they mounted and galloped away over a plain with lead whistling all about. The only casualty was a horse. It would have been a rude shock for the Boers to run into valiant men using their same tactics against them during the whole campaign.
British soldiers were trained at the Imperial Storm Troopers shooting range
This war is what made Britain's military more competent than France's during WWI.
Really? Hmmm...the Somme may dispute that presumption
The boers would make the ultimate mounted light infantry had they been more disciplined and army-like. However, what they did was impressive in its own manner.
European battles were more of a social event with the sponsors of different regiments vying for attention through the colourful drill and decorative uniforms. The fighting was an afterthought, "Hold your position" being the most relied upon tactic.
Hold your position.....and kiss your ass goodbye.
gross misunderstanding of the entire situation. where the hell do you idiots come up with this nonsense.
@@matthiuskoenig3378 Thank you for your input.
The uselessness of all infantry tactics fundamentally unchanged since Waterloo against intelligent use of cover and camouflage
and a Forward Air Controller to bring in Close Air Support !
I'm not sure that you understand napoleonic tactics
actually the fundamentals had change quite alot.
Presumably, he occupied the hill because he was a fool. Note how the British Army of the time gave their enemies a sporting chance by maintaining the use, in most regiments, of scarlet jackets with brilliant white webbing and pith helmets. Must have looked a real treat both on the parade ground and down the sights of a rifle. As if that wasn't enough, they dressed the officers in different uniforms to the ranks, all the better for the task of opposition snipers.
The British commitment to the First Boer War can best be described as half-hearted, and they were punished accordingly.For the next round two decades later, they went too the opposite extreme(in Khaki this time) and turned the affair into a full scale blood bath. Both wars could have been avoided altogether by applying some intelligent diplomacy.
Both wars could have been avoided altogether by applying some intelligent diplomacy. Yes. But, often this is discounted by those who are in a hurry to get things done. As well, it is the consequence of those who insist on doing things as they've always done them ... w/o considering other possibly better ways.
Those huge Martini-Henry .557/450 slugs did some serious damage , can we say devistating wounds ! Very similiar to the 45-70 Gov't round used by the US but fired a 480 gr. bullet ... ouch !!
lovely
I’m sorry but I almost expect this to be a Monty Python skit.
The Boers are wonderful people !
Reminds me of redcoats in French and Indian War. Great targets! Or maybe Custers Last Stand!
the idea that redcoats were a disadvantage in the french and indian war is somewhat over stated. at the ranges weapons were used then you would see you oponent camo or not. the issue with the red coats then was more to do with eeasy to spot at long distance and thus giveing away positions to be outflanked/etc.
and the uniforms at custers last stand didn't really play a role.
if you don't like what you see , fine sod off and look at your own history and see how perfect you are, ok god bless and peace to all cos we will need it.
BTW why such a boyish, skinny actor to portray Colley? Even with the beard he's like Doogie Howser OBE.
how is that even possible.. 2 boers killed 4 wounded fighting up hill
Brits sighted their rifles at 600 yards. Fighting occured at less than 100. The pride of Britain was shooting OVER the heads of Boers the entire time, no joke.
If we Boers were not so ... what's the English word ... let's say capable ... If we Boers were not so capable we would have been wiped off the face of this planet long ago. We survived the Zulus in 1838 (Battle of Blood River - 400 Boers against thousands of Zulus), two wars against the British, to live and fight Communism in Angola. In the Battle of the Lomba River we killed 600 Communist FAPLAs for four lost on our side. We're still going strong in 2020.
@@OkurkaBinLadin that's like blaming it on the lag. You lost
If anyone deserved to lose that war it WAS the Brits, that rightly lost.
The military tactical school of blind optimism and over-confidence: 'Sir, the Highlanders are coming under heavy enemy attack' ...'Thank you, sergeant. You will hold the position until further orders!'
Hail to the Boer Folk
I will never know if it's the wind or the zulus screaming zulu
It was the wind
The zulus were not at the battle
Hurrah for Boers. I hate unjudge.