As part of the second British attempt to cross the Tugela River and relieve the siege of Ladysmith, Lieutenant-General Warren’s 5th Division was tasked with capturing the steep strongpoint known as Spion Kop (‘Look-out Hill’).
Although the summit was quickly seized by a brigade column on the night of 23rd January, heavy mist obscured the nearby high ground at Aloe Knoll and Conical Hill. When dawn broke the next day, the Boers had occupied these slopes and began to pour heavy rifle and artillery fire onto the exposed column.
Hoping to relieve pressure on the summit, General Neville Lyttleton of the 4th Brigade sent the 3rd Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps to take two hills east of Aloe Knoll, known as the Twin Peaks. Although soon told to abandon the attack as it was considered too dangerous, the Rifles’ colonel ignored the order and in the afternoon he went up the boulder-strewn slopes with his men.
The small defending Boer force, which included a 75 mm Krupp gun and Maxim autocannon, was soon driven off the Peaks. The Rifles were poised to open up the entire Boer line, but with no support and their colonel fatally wounded, they left the Peaks after receiving another order to withdraw. The troops on the Spion Kop summit held on until after dark when they also withdrew, their last chance of victory having been wasted.
By Ibrahim Zamir
Empire of History 