The article was published in Polish. Below is an English translation of its opening. Wersja polska
At the beginning of January 1900, the commander of British forces in Natal, General Sir Redvers Buller, made a second attempt to relieve the besieged garrison of Ladysmith. A series of command errors and missed opportunities to outflank the enemy’s positions led the British to the summit of Spion Kop, where they suffered one of their most painful defeats of the Second Boer War.
Christmas on the Tugela
After the defeat at Colenso, General Buller withdrew all his troops to Chieveley, but for lack of water he had to send some of his forces to Frere, where he also moved his headquarters. In the second half of December 1899 an operational pause set in in Natal, as on all fronts of the Second Boer War, and fighting continued only around Colesberg. There were rumours of preparations for an armed rising by the Afrikaners of Cape Colony, of a concentration of Boer forces on the Zululand border, and of the possibility of encircling General Methuen’s troops on the Modder River, who would then share the fate of White’s forces besieged in Ladysmith. The Boers, however, also remained passive, confining themselves to strengthening their positions on the northern bank of the Tugela.
