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Schematic plan · Boer War

Battle of Spion Kop

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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.
Rolling, Bare groundCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveGunsGuns02 km4 kmN

Great Britain (Br Army, 24,000 men under Buller) attacked South African Republic (Boer Army, 5,000 men under Joubert) in South Africa. The CAA Database of Battles records 11 hours of fighting on a front of 3.5 km, a frontal attack against prepared defense, and that South African Republic held. Losses: Great Britain 1,734 (7%), South African Republic 335 (7%).

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

Great Britain

Buller

UnitArmMen
Great Britain left wingInfantry5,616
Great Britain centreInfantry7,488
Great Britain right wingInfantry5,616
Great Britain reserveInfantry4,680
Great Britain artillery (40 guns)Artillery600
BullerCommander—
In this plan24,000

South African Republic

Joubert

UnitArmMen
South African Republic left wingInfantry1,164
South African Republic centreInfantry1,552
South African Republic right wingInfantry1,164
South African Republic reserveInfantry970
South African Republic artillery (10 guns)Artillery150
JoubertCommander—
In this plan5,000

What the sources report

Great BritainSouth African Republic
Strength, this plan24,0005,000
Losses, this plan1,734335

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 239, “Spion Kop”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
11 hours
Winner
the defender
Terrain
Rolling, Bare
Weather
Dry, Sunny, Hot, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Prepared defense
Front width
3.5 km (attacker), 8.2 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
Great Britainattacker24,0001,734—40Frontal attack; Penetration; Withdrew
South African Republicdefender5,000335—10Defensive plan

Attacker’s advantages training +1 · surprise +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.