Do you remember the movie - Zulu?

Bretrick

Bretrick

Well-known Member
Location
Perth Western Australia
140 years ago on the 22/23 January 1879, 139 men of the South Wales Borderers defended the mission house and hospital known as Rorke's Drift against some 4000 Zulus.
The incident became known as "The Defence of Rorke's Drift" for which 11 Victoria Crosses were awarded - more than for any other battle in British history.
In this scene from the 1964 film, Nigel Green as Colour Sergeant Bourne delivers the news of the approaching Zulus and steadies the nerves of the men in preparation for battle.
When I first watched the movie I felt sorry for the Zulu named Will, Every time the Zulus attacked Michael Caine shouted 'Fire at Will!'
One of the greatest films ever.
"Do your Tunic up. Where do you think you are Man"?

"Zulus to the Southwest - thousands of 'em"​


Zulu - Arrival of the Impi​


Battle Stack: The Battle of Rorke's Drift tactics​

 

Gaer said:
This was one of my late husband's favorite films! He watched it over and over, as well as dozens of books about the Boar War.
(must be a man thing)
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Not really. I also love this movie and have watched it several times.

What I love most about it is the scene where the Welsh members of the team respond to the Zulu war chant by singing Men of Harlech.

The scenes where the Zulus mass before attacking and beat their spears against their shields is quite frightening and reminds me of similar accounts of OT battles. It take a lot of courage to stand firm against such intimidation.

Then the scenes of calm, disciplined response in the form of rapid fire and reload drill helped me to understand what warfare was like in Victorian times.

I also understood why so many VCs were awarded for that battle.
 

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By way of contrast, another of my favourite movies is Breaker Morant. It is also set in South Africa but during the Boer War when warfare was very different. The Boer were using hit and run tactics, fighting a guerrilla war against the British forces.

It is of interest to Australians because three Aussies were court marshalled for shooting Boer prisoners and two were executed by firing squad by British command. Yesterday was the 120th anniversary of their deaths.

Public reaction in Australia was very hot and since then Australians serving under British command have been protected from execution. During WW I when British shell shocked soldiers were being shot as deserters the Australians were not.

It is questionable whether Morant and Hancock were legally guilty of shooting the prisoners but they probably did shoot a couple of German missionaries. The movie deals with all of these issues and the ending is particularly poignant.
 
The regiment involved was not called the South Wales Borderers at that time according to Wiki.

The film Zulu (1964), produced by Stanley Baker, portrays the Battle of Rorke's Drift.[57] The film received generally positive reviews from the critics. Some details of the film's account are, however, historically inaccurate (for example, in the movie the regiment is called the South Wales Borderers, but the unit was not in fact called that until two years after the battle, although the regiment had been based at Brecon in South Wales since 1873).[58] While most of the men of the 1st Battalion, 24th Regiment of Foot (1/24) were recruited from the industrial towns and agricultural classes of England, principally from Birmingham and adjacent southwest counties, only 10 soldiers of the 1/24 that fought in the battle were Welsh. Many of the soldiers of the junior battalion, the 2/24, were Welshmen.[59] Of the 122 soldiers of the 24th Regiment present at the Battle of Rorke's Drift, 49 are known to have been of English nationality, 32 were Welsh, 16 were Irish, one was a Scot, and three were born overseas. The nationalities of the remaining 21 are unknown.[60]
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After the movie Zulu another film, Zulu Dawn, was made that depicted the Battle of Isandlwana, where the British Army met its match against the Zulu nation.

It was a massacre of a large British force that had underestimated the Zulu leadership. The next day they arrived at Rorke's Drift where the small contingent of army engineers were busy. What followed was the story depicted in Zulu.

 
I saw a documentary about Isandlwana and they reckoned the defeat was caused by the army having too much faith in the Martini Henry rifles.
In the days of muskets soldiers stood shoulder to shoulder but with the Martini Henrys they were now standing at arms length.
Unfortunately these rifles were prone to jamming, not sure if that was due to over heating. This, of course would leave a large gap of about six or seven feet and a lot of Zulus could then get behind the line.
 
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