Road Trip Day 4 - Rorke's Drift
Day 4 and I awoke early which was just as well as this was to be the start of another great adventure. Looking at a map whilst planning options for the trip to Durban I noticed that Zululand was the next province up. This put me in mind of the famous battle at Rorke's Drift popularised by “Not a lot of people know that” Michael Cain and I wondered how true to life the film was. The whole area on the map bordering Natal and Zululand is designated 'Battlefield Sites' and I realized how much fighting had gone on in the area against the Zulu and then the Boer shortly after. Much is mentioned of the First and Second World Wars but we in Britain have ancestors in many a forgotten field throughout the world.
This would be quite a long drive through a countryside much changed from the barren plains and mountains further south. Many forests lined the route until I entered the area of the campaign where there would have been few trees and large areas of tall grass with many fast flowing rivers and streams making passage difficult for an expeditionary force and its supply line hence Rorke's Drift, then a trading post consisting of a house, a store, a stone cook house and a stone kraal became a garrison to stockpile supplies.
This would prove fortuitous when word came that the main British camp at Isandlwana had been overrun. Lieutenant Chad used the plentiful supply of mealie bags and biscuit boxes to build ever decreasing lines of defence between the house, now being used as a hospital for sick and wounded troops, and the store, this is now the church in the photographs. All other buildings did not exist at the time. It took a drive of well over an hour along a dirt track to reach the site. Soldiers of the day must have found it hard going in their red tunics, white helmets and heavy rifles carrying their kit with them.
It was well worth the visit, the museum is interesting and the area has been laid out to depict the defences. There is an entrance fee of R30.00 to maintain the site and a guide book for R3.00 well worth is as it gives a blow by blow account of the battle relating the key markers to the site. I contemplated paraphrasing the guide in relation to the photographs but decided that there is enough history out there on the internet and I don't want to spoil your visit. Suffice it to say that the Zulu appeared from behind Shiyane (Oscarsburg) hill attacking on all fronts at different times. The masterful defences and the failure of the Zulu to press home their advantage once they had taken the house which housed the hospital and half of the Krall ultimately led to a British victory. It shows how desperate the situation was when a redoubt some nine feet high was constructed of mealie bags during the night. The wounded were lowered into this and snipers lay on top as a last line of defence if all else failed.
The garrison numbered some 390 men on the afternoon of January 22nd, 250 members of the Natal Native Force deserted. Of the remainder; 35 were patients in hospital. The Zulu attacked with a force of some 4000 warriors for some twelve hours until about 04:00 hours when they disappeared unlike the film. 17 British soldiers were killed along with an estimated 500 Zulu. Of the 20,000 rounds of ammunition available only 600 remained at the end of the battle. Eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded for gallantry.
Further Reading:-
F Emery, The Red Soldier.
I knight, Nothing Remains But To Fight.
I Knight, Zulu: The Battle of Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift.
J Iaband & P Thompson, Kingdom of Crisis: The Zulu Response to the British Invasion of 1879.
D R Morris, Washing of the Spears.
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