Relief of Ladysmith Relief of Ladysmith When the Second Boer War broke out on 11 October 1899, the Boers had a numeric superiority within Southern Africa. They quickly invaded the British territory and laid siege to Ladysmith, Kimberley and Mafeking. Britain meanwhile transported thousands of troops both from the United Kingdom itself and from elsewhere in the Empire and by the time the siege of Ladysmith had been lifted, had a huge numeric superiority. The Colony of Natal was bisected from east to west by the Tugela River which rose in the Drakensberg (to the west) and flowed into the Indian Ocean to
Relief of Ladysmith after which the Boer resistance crumbled. On 28 February the Boer commanders ordered their troops to withdraw to the Biggarsberg, some 45 km to the north of Ladysmith. There was little organisation in the withdrawal, but the British forces were instructed not to go in pursuit. The British forces led by Lord Dundonald with Churchill by his side entered Ladysmith on the afternoon of 1 March 1900. The Boers meanwhile established a line of defence along the Biggarsberg, but, apart from the odd patrol, there was little movement by either side for two months – Buller was regrouping his forces