Battle of Kraaipan

Kraaipan
Battle of Kraaipan
	Part of Second Boer War
	; Derailed armoured CGR 3rd Class 4-4-0 1889 at Kraaipan
Date	12–13 October 1899
Location	Kraaipan, South Africa26°17′49″S 25°18′23″E / 26.29694°S 25.30639°E
Result	Boer Victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom	South African Republic; Orange Free State
Commanders and leaders
Lt. RH Nesbitt	Piet Cronjé; Koos de la Rey
Strength
unknown	800
Casualties and losses
9 wounded	none

The Battle of Kraaipan was the first engagement of the

Second Anglo-Boer War, fought at Kraaipan, South Africa

on 12 October 1899.

On the 11 October 1899 President

Mafeking

, some 60 kilometres (37 mi) south west of Mafeking. Thus began the Second Anglo-Boer War. Under the orders of Cronjé the Mafeking railway and telegraph lines were cut on the same day.

The

dumdum) on the train.^[2]

This incident made De la Rey famous, but exacerbated his conflicts with the cautious and unimaginative Cronjé, who sent him to block the advance of the British forces moving to relieve the

Cape Colony

.

References

^ ^a ^b "The First Shots of the War – 12 October 1899" Archived December 14, 2010, at the Wayback Machine by Elria Wessels in KEUR, 2 October 1998.
^ "Boer War" from History-net.com.

[Wessels-1] "The First Shots of the War – 12 October 1899" Archived December 14, 2010, at the Wayback Machine by Elria Wessels in KEUR, 2 October 1998.

[2] "Boer War" from History-net.com.

[2]