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Over the centuries, South Africa has been home to numerous kingdoms. They traded with each other, competed for land and livestock, and often fought. Conquest could mean the destruction or absorption of enemy tribes, and captives were executed or turned into slaves. The arrival of Europeans added another layer to this complex region. In 1652, the Dutch established a permanent settlement at the Cape of Good Hope, strategically located on the sea route connecting Europe with Asia. As the colony expanded, so did its need for labor. The Dutch bought slaves from African suppliers who captured them.
Thousands of slaves were brought to the Cape, many of them from East Africa and Madagascar. Over a century later, Britain seized control of the Cape during the wars with Napoleonic France. The importance of this was difficult to overestimate. Before the opening of the Suez Canal, ships sailing between Britain and its extremely valuable possessions in India and Asia had to go around Africa. Control of the cape meant control of one of the most important strategic points along the way. Under British rule, the slave trade was banned, and slavery itself was later abolished at the Cape. But as British influence began to penetrate deeper into South
Africa, settlers moved deeper into the continent. Many Dutch-speaking settlers, known as Boers, grew increasingly resentful of British rule, particularly changes in colonial law and the abolition of slavery. Beginning in the 1830s, thousands of people migrated inland during the so-called Great Trek. By the late 1870s, South Africa was a divided land. British colonies, Boer republics, and powerful independent African kingdoms competed for territory and influence in the region. At the center of all this was the British Empire. Britain already controlled the Cape Colony and Natal. And in 1877, it annexed the neighboring Transvaal. But British ambitions went further.
Officials planned to unite much of South Africa into a single federation under British rule. However, the independent Zulu kingdom stood in its way. Led by King Setshwayo, the Zulus controlled a large territory along the border with British Natal. Their society had a formidable military system capable of mobilizing thousands of warriors. And Setshwayo had no intention of surrendering his independence or disbanding his army just because the British demanded it. Tensions on the border continued to rise. Then, in December 1878, the British High Commissioner, Sir Bartle Frere, issued an ultimatum to the Zulu leadership.
Among the demands were radical changes in the Zulu political and military system, including the virtual disbandment of the army that defended the kingdom. The Zulus were given 30 days to comply with the demands. They didn't do it. On January 11, 1879, British troops crossed the border into Zululand. 11 days later they suffered a disaster. The Zulus inflicted one of the most devastating defeats ever suffered by a British army at the hands of an indigenous people. But the fight is not over yet. Just 10 miles away was a small missionary station called Roark's Drift. There, barely 150 British and colonial soldiers were to learn that thousands of Zulu warriors were heading straight for them. They had little time to prepare and nowhere to retreat.
So how did such a small force manage to prepare to defend a remote mission against thousands of warriors? And how did this battle become one of the most famous final battles in British military history? Let's try to find out. Marine Corps veteran and filmmaker, and today on Forgotten History we'll try to answer these questions. The beginning of the most difficult 26 days in the history of the Marine Corps With faith in our armed forces, the 36th President of the United States passed away this afternoon. There are children and women here.
Cancel this. In January 1879, the British assembled an invasion force of about 18,000 men to enter Zululand under the command of Lieutenant General Lord Chelmsford. Along with the British regular troops were colonial volunteers and thousands of African auxiliaries recruited into the Natal Native Contingent. They were opposed by the Zulu army of King Setshwayo. The Zulus had a certain number of firearms, but the vast majority of their warriors fought with traditional weapons. The most important of these were a large shield made of oxhide and a fang-a short spear for close combat. The Zulus made up for their lack of modern weapons with numbers and aggressive
warfare tactics based on close quarters, which rendered British firepower useless. Their most famous battle formation was often described as " buffalo horns." The center engaged the enemy directly. The "horns " would flank the enemy, trying to surround him, while the reserve remained behind until needed. Chelmsford understood that the Zulu army was dangerous. But he also had something that no Zulu commander could match: a modern industrial army armed with artillery and Henry breech-loading rifles. On January 11, British troops crossed the Buffalo River and entered Zululand in several columns. The main column, personally commanded by Chelmsford, advanced towards the Zulu capital of Ulundi. One of the crossing points
was near Rorke's Drift. The station consisted mainly of two buildings: a house converted into a hospital, and a granary that the British used as a supply depot. It was not a fortress at all Chelmsford's column continued deep into Zululand and camped under a notable rocky hill called Isandlwana. Despite operating in enemy territory, the British did not build as fortified a camp as might have been expected. The wagons were not connected into a defensive wall, and Then, early in the morning of January 22, Zulus had been spotted nearby. Believing he had found part of the enemy army, Chelmsford divided his forces. He took thousands of men away from Isandlwana in search of the Zulus, leaving about 1,700 British, colonial, and African
soldiers to guard the camp. This was exactly the opportunity the Zulu commanders had been waiting for. The main Zulu army remained hidden from the eyes of the British Later that morning, British scouts discovered them. The Zulus immediately launched an attack. The British formed a wide line of fire and initially inflicted devastating losses. Martini-Henry rifles mowed down the advancing warriors, forcing parts of the Zulu line to seek cover. But the Zulus kept going. Their "horns" were expanding. Then the Zulus broke through. Then the massacre began. British units attempted to hold their ground in the camp, while others fled to the Buffalo River.
Some were caught before they could escape. Others died trying to cross the river. By early afternoon, the British camp near Isandlwana had been destroyed. Over 1,300 soldiers lay dead. The Zulus had just inflicted one of the worst defeats the British army had ever suffered at the hands of native forces. And several thousand Zulu warriors did not participate in the main battle. They mostly belonged to the army reserve. Instead of remaining in Isandlwane, they moved on to the Buffalo River, and right in their path was Roark's Drift. At Rorkes Drift, command of the post passed to Lieutenant John Chard of the Royal Engineers.
Chard had only recently arrived at Rorke's Drift and was technically there to supervise the engineering work at the crossing. Also there was Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead of the 24th Regiment, who commanded B Company of the 2nd Battalion. Shortly after 3 p.m. on January 22, two of the surviving riders from Isandlwana arrived with terrible news. The camp fell, and thousands of Zulu warriors were approaching Rorke's Drift. Chard and Bromhead were faced with an immediate choice. They could abandon the post and try to retreat to the British position at Helpmekaar, about 12 miles away, or they could stay and fight. Assistant Commissioner James Dalton, an experienced former soldier, strongly opposed the retreat. There were sick and
wounded people at the post who could not move quickly. A column attempting to escape across open terrain would have become vulnerable to the much faster Zulu forces. Their best chance is to stay. Chard agreed. The men hastily used hundreds of sacks of corn. They erected barricades connecting the hospital and the warehouse. Biscuit boxes and other supplies were added to the fortifications, creating a rough perimeter around the two main buildings. Chard also realized another problem. The perimeter was too large for the number of people who could defend it. A second barricade of biscuit boxes was erected in the middle of the yard. If part of the outer perimeter became untenable, the defenders could
retreat behind it and significantly shorten the defensive line. Nearby stood a stone fence for cattle, which was also included in the defense system. There were about 150 men at the station, but not all of them could fight. Some were hospital patients, others belonged to auxiliary units. The core of the defense consisted of about 100 soldiers from Company B, 2nd Battalion, 24th Regiment, armed with Martini- Henry rifles. As the fortifications were being formed, new survivors arrived, fleeing the Isandlwane massacre, led by Captain William Stevenson of the Natal Native Contingent. But they did n't stay. As the Zulus approached, Captain William Stevenson and his men continued on to Helpmekaar.
Their departure angered some defenders. According to later testimony, Private William Dunbar raised his rifle and fired a farewell shot after Stevenson, who was driving away. Then another warning came. Zulu warriors crossed the Buffalo River. Chard ordered the men to take their positions. At approximately 4:30 that day, a lookout noticed movement from the south. The first Zulu warriors appeared. And behind them are hundreds of others. The force advancing on Roark's Drift numbered about 4,000 men. The Battle of Rorke's Drift has begun. The Zulu warriors were commanded by Prince Dabulamanzi ka Mpande, half-brother of
King Ketshwayo. The first Zulus attack was made on the southern part of the missionary station. The British opened fire with their rifles. At close range, this weapon was devastating. But the Zulus took advantage of the terrain, outflanked the British positions, and tried to find weaknesses in the improvised defenses. Other soldiers occupied a rocky outcrop above the station and opened fire with muskets and captured rifles. Wave after wave they reached the barricades. There, the advantage of British firepower disappeared. The fight turned into a hand-to-hand fight. Zulu warriors tried to climb over sacks of corn, while British soldiers fired at close range or fought back with bayonets. Wounded but able-bodied fighters helped reload rifles and
brought ammunition to those who were still fighting. As the pressure increased, Chard ordered the men to leave part of the outer perimeter and retreat behind the second barricade. The defensive position was narrowing, and the Zulus were getting closer and closer. Then the attack shifted to the most vulnerable building in the camp-the hospital. Inside were sick and wounded men who could barely defend themselves. Zulu warriors surrounded the building, shooting at the windows before bursting inside . Soon the hospital caught fire. Privates John Williams, Henry Hook, and several others began to break through the interior walls of the hospital, opening passages from one room to another. One by one the wounded were pulled out through these
openings, while the Zulus entered the rooms after them. It became a desperate retreat through a burning building, sometimes separated from the enemy by only a wall of clay and brick. Some patients died. Others were carried or dragged through the last opening across the courtyard to the rest of the British defenses. The defenders lost one of their two main buildings. Night has come. They were surrounded, and the battle was far from over. By dark, Roark's Drift was already ablaze. The hospital was abandoned, and the defenders were forced to retreat to a much smaller area
around the warehouse and the internal barricades. But narrowing the perimeter gave them one advantage. This allowed the fire to be concentrated. The Zulus continued their attacks for hours, trying to break through the barricades, while others fired on the camp from the surrounding heights. The British responded with disciplined rifle fire, sometimes firing from a distance of only a few feet. The defenders fought from about 4:30 p.m. that day. However, the barricades held. As the night progressed, the large-scale Zulu attacks gradually subsided. Heavy casualties and difficulties coordinating attacks in the darkness were taking their toll. The Zulus
continued their shelling until midnight, but then it began to die down. Then, sometime before dawn, silence fell on the battlefield. At dawn on January 23, Zulu warriors could still be seen nearby. Eventually, they began to retreat. After more than 12 hours of fighting, the attack on Roark's Drift was over. 17 British defenders were killed. Zulu losses were significantly higher. Around 400 bodies were counted around the position, although some historical estimates place the total number of Zulus killed significantly higher, the wounded who later died are taken into account. But the people at Roark's Drift saw someone
approaching from the direction of Isandlwana. At dawn on January 23, 1879, the exhausted defenders of Rorke's Drift saw British troops led by Lord Chelmsford. His column spent the night among the ruins at Isandlwana, where the scale of the disaster became impossible to ignore. Now, as his men approached Rorke's Drift, they expected to see another destroyed British position. Instead, they found survivors. The mission station was devastated. The barricades were shattered, and the surrounding ground was strewn with the bodies of the dead. But Rorke's Drift still remained in British hands. The contrast between the two battles was simply striking. At Isandlwane, a sizeable British force, equipped with modern rifles and artillery, was defeated. In just a
few hours, just over 100 defenders of Rorke's Drift repelled repeated attacks by several thousand Zulu warriors. But for the Zulu Kingdom, Isandlwana demonstrated something that the British had greatly underestimated. The Zulu army was capable of destroying modern European forces. However, the war is not over yet. Britain returned with reinforcements and a much more cautious approach. On July 4, 1879, the second British invasion ended with the Battle of Ulunda, where the main Zulu army was defeated. Meanwhile, Rorke's Drift became one of the most celebrated defensive operations in British military history. Eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded for this battle, including Lieutenants John Chard and Gonville Bromhead. Seven of them
were awarded to soldiers from the 2nd Battalion of the 24th Regiment, which was the largest number of awards awarded to one regiment in one battle. Four medals "For Outstanding Conduct" were also awarded. After the British victory at Ulunda in July 1879, King Ketchwayo fled. The following month he was captured and sent into exile. The British eliminated his political power and divided Zululand into 13 separate territories under But the result was not peace. Without the authority that once united the kingdom, warring Zulu factions
began a civil war. Eventually, Ketchwayo traveled to Britain to personally request restoration to the throne. In 1883, the British allowed him to return, but only as ruler of a much reduced portion of his former kingdom. Its restoration did not last long. Ketchwayo's forces were defeated by his Zulu rivals, and the king was again forced to flee. On February 8, 1884, Ketchwayo died suddenly. At that time, there were rumors of poisoning. Although the doctor who examined him officially called the cause of death heart disease. His 15- year-old son Dinuzulu succeeded him, but the independent kingdom built by his ancestors was disappearing. In 1887, Britain officially annexed Zululand. 10 years later it was incorporated into the British colony of
Natal. The political map of South Africa continued to change. The British colonies and independent Boer republics later clashed in another, much larger conflict-the Second Boer War. After the British victory, the former Boer republics and British colonies were united in 1910 into the Union of South Africa, which laid the political foundation of the modern South African state. But for the people behind those barricades at Roark's Drift, the grand politics of empire and conquest were far away. These were soldiers who faced an enemy who greatly outnumbered them, and they had nowhere to retreat. They held the defense for over 12 hours. They fought through fire, exhaustion, injuries, and constant attacks. They carried wounded comrades out of the burning hospital,
fought hand-to-hand behind improvised barricades, and refused to surrender. They did not know that their feat would become legendary. They only knew: if the barricades fell, they would die. But the barricades never fell. And when the sun rose over Rorke's Drift on January 23, 1879, despite incredible difficulties, they were still standing. Share your thoughts on the Battle of Rorke's Drift in the comments below. Thank you for watching "Forgotten History." Please like, share, and subscribe. If you have any comments or ideas for new releases, we would love to hear them.
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