Page 40 - All About History - Issue 38-16

Greatest Battles

The hospital Sweltering conditions
35 patients sat nervously in the hospital It was an incredibly hot day, but this favoured the
absent from the carnage unfolding outside. British, who had a well inside the perimeter. The
This changed after fire from Zulu rifles set Zulus meanwhile had to march 24 kilometres to
the thatched roof ablaze and warriors burst get to Rorke’s Drift and it is likely their increasing
into the building. The wounded and the fatigue was a result of dehydration among the
soldiers accompanying them had to fight men, who had an average age of 50.
room by room as they made an escape.

Attacking in waves
The saving grace for the British 24th
Regiment of Foot was the piecemeal
nature of the Zulu attacks, especially
later on in the battle. Rorke’s Drift was
so compact that numbers didn’t count
for as much as they could have done.

Broken barricades
The mission station was hardly an
impenetrable fortress. To stand any
chance of repelling the thousands of
attackers, mealie sacks and biscuit
boxes were hastily stacked up to form
makeshift barriers in which to fire from.

Medics doing overtime
More defenders were picked off by rifle
fire than were killed by Zulu spears and
there were already injured men in the
compound from past skirmishes. Medics
were on call to help wounded soldiers
and send them back in to bolster the
disciplined yet fragile front line.

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