Anglo-Zulu War Battlefield Trip Pics!

[Jürg]

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Excellent pics. Even here in Switzerland some know this epic fight done by the brave Brits. Nice to see how the place looks like today. Many thanks.

Jürg

[Mike Dwyer]

Excellent pics. Even here in Switzerland some know this epic fight done by the brave Brits. Nice to see how the place looks like today. Many thanks.

Jürg

As well you should since a fellow Swiss, Corporal Ferdnand Christian Schiess, Natal Native Contingent was the first soldier serving in local South African forces to be awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions at Rorke's Drift.

http://www.rorkesdriftvc.com/vc/schiess.htm

[Greg]

Thanks for sharing these photos! It has always been a dream of mine to visit the Zulu War battlefields.

Regards,
Greg

[GEBIRGS-JAGER]

Thanks

Hi Thank you for the photos.You learn something new everyday. Brian

[Bill Grist]

Wonderful

Just plain Wonderful..What more can I say?...Thanks for the picts...BILL

[Chris Boonzaier]

Great, thanks

[Bob Hunter*]

It looks like you had fabulous weather for your trip. Thanks for the pictures.
I have a distant relative, Corporal Rober Hunter of the Natal Mounted Police, who was at Rorke's Drift.

[Allan P.]

Excellent, really brings the story to life.

Allan

[Simon O.]

Thanks for the pics. A few years ago i remember seeing an excellent documentary about some battlefield archaeology done at Isandlwana where they traced the British skirmish lines and reconstructed how problems with the rifles played their part in the defeat, all from shell casings and remnants of ammo boxes they found.

[Michael Root]

A few years ago i remember seeing an excellent documentary about some battlefield archaeology done at Isandlwana where they traced the British skirmish lines and reconstructed how problems with the rifles played their part in the defeat, all from shell casings and remnants of ammo boxes they found.

Really Simon... do you think?
That's yesterday's news for anyone that is even slightly familiar with the battle of Isandlwana.
I'm sure glad we have "experts" like you, that post what they watch on the history channel the night before.

Any-hoo, great pics. I would love to visit that someday.

[ccmax]

Excellent thread, thanks for posting.
Cesar.

[David G]

Really good pics.
Simon, the latest thinking on the defeat was that it was due not to faults with the Martini-Henrys, or ammo boxes which they reckon were all prepared for ammo disposal-but simply by weight of numbers of the Zulu and the outflanking manouvre on the British right flank.Ok problems with the rifles happened when they overheated, but the speed of the Zulus, -which should have been considered as cavalry-was phenomenal.

It was simply a Zulu victory

[Seigfried]

Further to this reply - there were 20,000 Zulu warriors vs 1000 British Soldiers (plus 500 native levies of dubious fighting value). We were not in tight defensive squares but thrown out in a wide screen with large gaps inbetween each man and also a good mile or more from the ammunition wagons. Smoke made by the Martini-Henry rifles also made aiming difficult - not to mention the eclipse!

[David G]

Further to this reply - there were 20,000 Zulu warriors vs 1000 British Soldiers (plus 500 native levies of dubious fighting value). We were not in tight defensive squares but thrown out in a wide screen with large gaps inbetween each man and also a good mile or more from the ammunition wagons. Smoke made by the Martini-Henry rifles also made aiming difficult - not to mention the eclipse!

The real cause of the defeat in my opinion, and many others, lies squarely at the door of one man, who completely underestimated what was up against him, split his force in order to takle the enemy as soon as he could.Had he waited a few more hours where he was, he would have got what he was looking for, and the first and probably last battle of the Anglo Zulu war would have taken place.
That was bad enough, but to blame the officer in charge of the camp, by making the slander that Col Anthony Durnford was to dishonour the dead who could not defend beyond the grave.
Durnford "rode to guns", and I find it hard to fault him.By the way, some of the native were in fact very good troops, such as the Edendale contingent, and fought with extreme volur on the day, and formed an orderly retreat.

Oh I forgot to mention the mans name?.............well he's named after a town in Essex!

[jacquesf]

John, very nice thread. I thought linking it with this thread would be interesting. http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?t=291431
Did you visit the Boear war sites as well? Jacques