Posted on 01/20/2013 4:05:47 PM PST by Argus
This week, January 22-23 marks the 134th anniversary of the Battle of Rorke's Drift in Natal Province, South Africa. Everyone knows the story of the small company of Welsh troops from the 24th Regiment of Foot who held off a force of up to 4,000 Zulu warriors who outnumbered them twenty to one.
I plan to celebrate the occasion tomorrow by viewing the classic movie of the siege starring Stanley Baker and Michael Caine, made fifty years ago. It looks like there won't be anything else worth watching on TV that day anyway.
What?
No semi-automatic, assault weapons?
No “High-capacity clips”?
How could such carnage happen?
/sarc
“Soldier 2 says... “The bullets give out! The bloody spears don’t!””
They must have had those illegal, high-capacity-clip spears.
(full auto is not always your friend)
His was the 208th Engineer Combat Battalion. Daddy always called them “Combat Engineers” but I noticed in their official history the Army always says “Engineer Combat Battalion”.
His outfit was what they called a Bastard outfit because they were not attached to any army. I think they mostly built pontoon bridges. The one they put across the Rhine was constructed while under artillery fire.
Daddy always claimed the truck drivers killed more men than the Germans.
Zulu, the complete original movie. BTW: The Brit uniforms are not completely correct. In the field, these guys didn't wear the bright helmet badge, and the sun helmets were dyed a tan color, not bright white.
Working link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSZXo9mfPg8
From Wiki:
"Men of Harlech" or "The March of the Men of Harlech" (in Welsh: Rhyfelgyrch Gwŷr Harlech) is a song and military march which is traditionally said [1] to describe events during the seven-year siege of Harlech Castle between 1461 and 1468. [2][3] Commanded by Constable Dafydd ap Ieuan, the garrison held out in what is the longest known siege in the history of the British Isles. [4]
Men of Harlech, stop your dreaming
Can't you see their spearpoints gleaming
See their warrior pennants streaming
To this battle field
Men of Harlech stand ye steady
It can not be ever said ye
For the battle were not ready
Welshmen never yield
From the hills rebounding
Let this war cry sounding
Summon all at Cambria's call
The mighty foe surrounding
Men of Harlech on to glory
This will every be your story
Keep these burning words before ye
Welshmen will not yield.
bfl
My son and I watch the movie on a regular basis. Never quit! Never give up!
Some historians say that so many VCs were given at the Drift to try to cover up the loss earlier in the day.
Thanks for the link. I need a good movie tonight-—I’m a Pats fan.:=(
.
“I’m a Pats fan”
Ouch.
There is an even more amazing story set in SW Africa. Four German Soldiers held a fort being attacked by hundreds of natives. I think it was 400 against 4. The Germans held it for a long time too.
Now there’s irony, I had an great uncle I met as a kid who was addled from surviving running a jeep into a loaded ammo truck and it went up, right in the area of one of the first crossings. He got blown hundreds of yards away and was paralyzed for quite a while on one side. I don’t think they even found tags for the guy with him...
First it is the British Army, not the Royal Army. Lt. Gronville Bromhead commanded Co. B 24th Foot. Lt. John Chard of the Royal Engineers, was senior to Bromhead in DOR and therefore commanded the action at Rourks Drift.
In addition to “The Washing of Spears”, I would highly recommend “How Can Man Better” about the Battle of Isandlwana, and “Like Wolves on the Fold”, about Rourk’s Drift. The author is Lt.Col. Mike Snook. The author was a former commander of the Royal Welsh Regiment
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