Donkerhoek

While it seems strange that the battle site of what proved to be the second last conventional battle of the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1901) before it entered the guerrilla phase has two names, there is a sound reason for it. The steep plateau where the battle took place on 11^th – 12^th June 1900 is called Diamond Hill – a reference to the discovery of diamonds in that area around 1819. The British thus called this the Battle of Diamond Hill. As part of the battle raged over the farm called Donkerhoek, the Boers called it die Slag van Donkerhoek / the Battle of Donkerhoek.

When the Commander of the British Forces, General Lord Roberts, occupied Pretoria on 5^th June 1900, you can imagine that the Transvaal commandos felt despondent and exhausted after months of defeat. Many had, in fact, already returned to their farms on the assumption that the war was over. However, spurred on by Boer successes in the Free State, the Commandant-General of Transvaal, Louis Botha, rallied an army consisting of about 5-6 000 men and 30 guns. He then established a 40-kilometre north-to-south defensive line 29 kilometres east of Pretoria. Louis Botha commanded the centre and left flank while General Koos de la Rey commanded north of the Pretoria-Delagoa Bay railway line.

Determined to hold onto Pretoria, General Lord Roberts sent 14 000 soldiers to destroy this remnant of Boer resistance. Lieutenant-General Ian Hamilton, who later described this battle as the turning point in the Anglo-Boer War, was positioned along the base of the Bronberg ridge with 3 000 cavalry and 2 200 infantry ready to sweep around the south of the Boers and take Diamond Hill. General French with two cavalry and mounted infantry columns was poised to execute a similar manoeuvre to the north. The Boers were hidden among the hills when the British began firing at the whole Boer line of defence on 11^th June. The battle was fiercest on the left flank, where General French and his cavalry repeatedly charged the positions of the Ermelo and Bethel burghers, each time to be repulsed with heavy losses.

The Boers had taken cover in the rocky outcrops of the Magaliesberg terrain and sheltered behind stone-walled sangars while they fired on the advancing British troops scrambling up the stone hill, but they were unable to stop the fresh ranks of British soldiers repeatedly sent out against them – despite suffering severe casualties – and Diamond Hill was captured late on the afternoon of 12^th June 1900.

The Boers retreated from Diamond Hill / Donkerhoek to Belfast, further east, where they fought their last conventional battle at Bergendal.

Official British casualties have been given as 28 killed in action, 145 wounded, and three missing. Official Boer casualties were three killed in action and 27 wounded. During 1904 the Transvaal Government exhumed the remains of the fallen British soldiers, scattered across a number of farms along the battle line, and re-interred them at Diamond Hill.