Rorke's Drift By Those Who Were There: Volume I

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This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sourcesin this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( October 2010) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) The book includes all the citations for the 11 (yes eleven) Victoria Crosses earned over the 12 hours of fighting. The fighting was hand-to-hand at times, with bayonets being used against spears in the night time. It isn't 'just' their stories, it's Dispatches, newspaper articles, obituaries, casualty lists, honours and awards, court circulars, photos, drawings, letters and don't think the Zulus are left out, oh no they have included statements from some of the Zulu too.

On 22 January 1879, during the final hour of the Battle of Isandlwana – one of the greatest disasters ever to befall British troops during the Victorian era – a very different story was about to unfold a few miles away at the mission station of Rorke’s Drift. A Zulu force of more than 3,000 warriors had turned their attention to the small outpost, defended by around 150 British and Imperial troops. The odds of the British surviving were staggeringly low. The British victory that ensued, therefore, would go down as one of the most heroic actions of all time, and has fascinated military history enthusiasts for decades. Following the destruction of the1/24trh at Isandlwana replacements were hurried out from drafts appointed from no fewer then eleven line battalions of very mixed origins. The 24th's lasting associations with Wales TRULY DATE FROM a new wave of army reorganisation instituted in APRIL 1881 when the old regimental numbers were discontinued and new local titles allocated. (Source Ian Knight)Also, as mentioned, one member of Stevenson's 2nd/3rd NNC, Corporal William Anderson, was killed by British fire while fleeing the station just prior to the arrival of the Zulus. Morris, Roy Jr. (August 2005), Military Heritage, Volume 7, No. 1, p.8). [ full citation needed] Discusses Rorke's Drift and the politics of the Victoria Cross. It was the thought of that implacable church and its obvious disgust for me … I had learnt this day that God was…a cut above the class to which we belonged. That day, I think, the painter was loosed from its mooring and my faith began a slow drift into non-belief (Prebble 1993: 96). The Royal Regiment of Wales". Rrw.org.uk. Archived from the original on 23 March 2012 . Retrieved 9 November 2012.

His main "revision" is to promote the idea that the Hosvalpital was evacuated in two seperate groups one by Hook and Williams and earlier by R.Jones and W.Jones, all of whom earned teh V.C for their efforts All his claims are supported with quotes from survivor accounts and are credible. As I've read more about Rorkes Drift, I've come to admire both Chard and Bromhead, who displayed and provided exceptional confidence, inspiration, guidance and courage throughout the defence: "The success of the defence can be attributed to a number of aspects. A main factor was the exceptional leadership displayed throughout the battle. The key men involved provided a fine mix of experience, fearlessness, foresight, and influence. These key players operated in a smooth and mutually supportive manner, enabling the garrison to adapt to any situation or predicament that was thrown at them."The solitaire tabletop war-game Zulus on the Ramparts!: The Battle of Rorke's Drift, 22–23 January 1879 is based on the event. [63] See also [ edit ] Officially there were NO English regiments and NO Welsh regiments – as Julian has just said – they were BRITISH regiments. As to affiliations, certainly where a regiment was located would affect the perception of belonging. I can see no problem with the public associating a regiment with its depot in Wales as being “Welsh”. Again, as I’ve said before, this is how the Welsh press were reporting it in 1879. This might not be palatable to you – but hey, you can’t please everyone ! What defines a nationality ? Is it where a person is born; is it where the person’s father was born ?; is it where he lives ?; is it where he works ?; is it where he “feels” he is from?; is it where the soldier enlists ?; etc, etc. To get a definitive answer you would have to apply the same criteria to EACH individual, and quite frankly the information to do that is just not available. So, just because a soldier says he’s from Merthyr Tydfil, is not proof that he was Welsh !! Nor because he’s called Jones, or Evans, etc. And how accurate are the enlistment records ? The documentation may well have been done by someone who was not a Welsh speaker, and it is much easier for a “Sais” (Englishman) to write down and spell, for example, “Monmouth” rather than “Pontllanfraith” On 15 January 1880, a submission for a DCM was also made for Private Michael McMahon ( Army Hospital Corps). The submission was cancelled on 29 January 1880 for absence without leave and theft. [54] Depictions and dramatisations [ edit ] Illustration by C. H. M. Kerr for Haggard's story, 1893 The force was sufficient, in Chard's estimation, to fend off the Zulus. Chard posted the British soldiers around the perimeter, adding some of the more able patients, the 'casuals' and civilians, and those of the NNC who possessed firearms along the barricade. The rest of the NNC, armed only with spears, were posted outside the mealie bag and biscuit box barricade within the stone-walled cattle kraal. [18]

Think of Rorke’s Drift, and what comes to mind? A brutal battle, singing Welshmen (as if war isn’t bad enough already) Redcoats and Michael Caine. The truth is a little different and this book covers the whole battle, in the words of those who were there (because they were there). All previous attempts to ascribe nationalities to the defenders of Rorke’s Drift tend to mix the criteria, and can thus not said to be definitive. Featuring a wide range of first-hand accounts and testimonies from those present during the Battle of Rorke’s Drift, Rorke’s Drift By Those Who Were There is a remarkable work of Anglo-Zulu military history by those who know the topic best, Lee Stevenson and Ian Knight. This updated edition of the classic work of the same name includes even more first-person accounts from the combatants on both the British and Zulu sides.In the aftermath of the battle, modesty and graciousness were two other attributes displayed by both officers, as demonstrated in this quote from Chard: The bottom line is this. The film made it appear that the 24th was Welsh, it was not, it also made it appear that the regiment contained more Welshmen than the few 'forigners from England', it did not, it gave the impression that the 24th was very much a Welsh regiment by singing 'Men of Harlech', which was not the regimental song of the 24th at the time, and this never happened anyway, it made it appear that most V.C's went to Welshmen, they did not, it did state that the regiment was called the SWB, even if it was Richard Burton saying it at the end of the film, the name of the regiment was given has being the SWB, which it was not. The statistics I quoted were as a result of the point you raised about long service men. YOU stated “both battalions consisted of long term service men, meaning that it would have been well after Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift before newly trained recruits would have started to filter through to the ranks” (and Ian Knight does NOT say this, you have misinterpreted what he has written !). Do you not agree that the statistic of 75% of B Company having been trained at Brecon tends to disprove your statement ? The 1st battalion, 24th regiment, spent much of the 1870's in Mediterranean garrisons - Malta and Gibraltar - before being despatched directly to South Africa in November 1874. The 2nd battalion was based in Aldershot in 1874, Dover from August 1875 and Chatham from 1877 prior to its departure for the Cape in February 1878. Throughout that time both battalions continued to receive recruits through the efforts of recruiting sergeants ACCROSS THE COUNTRY, although there had been a SLIGHT increase in recruits from the area covered by the district depot as a result of its association with the local malitia.