Battle of Diamond Hill

Battle of Diamond Hill
Part of Second Boer War

The Charge of the CIV's and Coldstreams at the Battle of Diamond Hill, after a drawing by William Barnes Wollen
Date 11-12 June 1900
Location Diamond Hill, near Pretoria, Transvaal
Result British victory
Belligerents
 United Kingdom
 Canada		  South African Republic
 Orange Free State
Commanders and leaders
Field Marshal Lord Frederick Roberts
General Ian Hamilton		 Louis Botha
 ?
Strength
14,000 men and 70 guns 4,000 men and 22 guns
Casualties and losses
162 killed and wounded 50 killed and wounded

The Battle of Diamond Hill (Donkerhoek) took place on 11 and 12 June 1900 during the Second Boer War. Fourteen thousand British soldiers squared up against four thousand Boers and forced them from their positions on the hill.

Forty-four years after the battle, British General Ian Hamilton opined in his memoirs that "the battle, which ensured that the Boers could not recapture Pretoria, was the turning point of the war". Hamilton credited Winston Churchill with recognizing that the key to victory would be in storming the summit, and risking his life to signal Hamilton.[1]

References

  1. ^ Brian Kelly, Best Little Stories from the Life and Times of Winston Churchill (Cumberland House Publishing, 2008), pp. 57–58.