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Schematic plan · Transvaal Revolt

Battle of Majuba Hill

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A schematic plan, generated from the statistics of the CAA Database of Battles: the armies' size and width, the hours of fighting, the plan of attack and the outcome are as recorded; the ground and the positions are not.
Rugged, Bare groundCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveCentreLeft wingRight wingReserve0250 m500 mN

South African Republic (Boer Army, 1,200 men under Smidt) attacked Great Britain (Br Army, 350 men under Colley) in Transvaal. The CAA Database of Battles records 1 hours of fighting on a front of 1 km, a frontal attack against hasty defense and prepared defense, and that South African Republic won. Losses: South African Republic 6 (1%), Great Britain 284 (81%).

This plan is generated from those figures. It shows the shape of the battle the database describes: the size and width of the armies, the plan of attack and the outcome. It does not show where the units actually stood.

The armies

South African Republic

Smidt

UnitArmMen
South African Republic left wingInfantry288
South African Republic centreInfantry384
South African Republic right wingInfantry288
South African Republic reserveInfantry240
SmidtCommander—
In this plan1,200

Great Britain

Colley

UnitArmMen
Great Britain left wingInfantry84
Great Britain centreInfantry112
Great Britain right wingInfantry84
Great Britain reserveInfantry70
ColleyCommander—
In this plan350

What the sources report

South African RepublicGreat Britain
Strength, this plan1,200350
Losses, this plan6284

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 232, “Majuba Hill”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
1 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rugged, Bare
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Hot, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense, Prepared defense
Front width
1 km (attacker), 1.4 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
South African Republicattacker1,20060—Frontal attack; Breakthrough
Great Britaindefender35028400Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Annihilated

Attacker’s advantages leadership +1 · initiative +1

CDB90 (US Army Concepts Analysis Agency, 1990), tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold; data under ODC-BY 1.0.

Notes

On this reconstruction

Generated automatically from the statistics in CDB90. Frontages, depths, distances, the order of events and the terrain are schematic: they follow the recorded strengths, front widths, hours of fighting, tactical plan and outcome, not maps or accounts of the battle. The sources give no hours; the timing is conjectural.

Sources

Facts gathered from Wikidata (CC0), Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) and Wikimedia Commons (licence per file); the plan and its text are timeastra’s own.