The Battle of Spionkop, spelled Spioenkop in Afrikaans, was one of the bloodiest battles and greatest British blunders of the Anglo Boer War (Great South African War). Not only did some four hundred British soldiers lose their lives in the so-called 'acre of massacre' fought on 24 January 1900, the British made several tactical errors and retreated when the battle was as good as won making the hilltop skirmish the most futile of the four battles waged to liberate Ladysmith.