I watched the film on Channel 4 today for the umpteenth time. I have to admit to paying more attention to detail this time as I visited the site of the battle in September this year. Here are some pictures that I took:-
I know several other site members have made a visit. I don’t know what you thought, but unless you had seen the film (has any one not) it is very hard to get a real picture the battle. In the film, the whole area looks bigger than it really is.
Boadicea's Chariot 
Thanks for these, Tocino.
Thanks Boa,
I will be very interested to know what JM thinks. Just prior to this, we had visited Isandlwana. That site is much easier to understand as you can see where the Zulu’s came from and where the British troops made their last stand. The trip to the battlefields was hellish. A flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg followed by a seven and a half hour coach trip to the hotel in KwaZulu-Natal. It was a 6am setoff to get to the battlefields the following day. knackering to say the least!
Funny old world, the guy facing our Zulu guide (named Prince) was a person whom I trained in a former life in 73!
I remember going to the film at the cinema years ago Toc, I missed the film yesterday. Thanks for these, they are excellent, and I just love your story with them too.
Years ago, when I was training, a crowd of us went to see it. As we left the cinema, we noticed a coloured cadet, looking somewhat down in the mouth.
‘What’s wrong, George?’we asked.
‘We lost,’ was the terse reply.
It was a great film and very probably ahead of its time. Stanley Baker did a very good job of portraying the soldiers as being mainly Welsh, himself being Welsh through and through. Almost at the very beginning there is this line…. ‘This is a Welsh regiment, although there are some foreigners in it mind.‘ It is one of the many myths that have grown up around the film.
The 24th Regiment in 1879 was the in fact 2nd Warwickshire’s; they didn’t change their title to the South Wales Borderers until 1st July 1881. They wouldn’t have been singing Men of Harlech as the Regimental March was The Warwickshire Lads.
As for the men of B Company, 49 were English, 18 from Monmouthshire, 16 Irish, 1 Scottish, 14 Welsh and 21 of unknown nationality. 🙂
In my company at Sandhurst, one year my senior, and destined for the SWBs was a grandson of the Bromhead, played by Michael Caine.
Zen,
He came from a very distinguished military family. This makes for an interesting read:
“A tiny garrison of soldiers earned a handful of Victoria Crosses in one night at the Battle of Rorke’s Drift. Alison Westwood relives the story”
http://www.getaway.co.za/article/historic-anglo-zulu-war-at-rorkes-drift-in-the-battlefields-of-kwazulu-natal-2009-01-01
A very modest, unassuming chap, I don’t know what became of him.
I didn’t find the film easy to follow, but the historian who took us around the sites of teh battles was incredible and bought it all to life. The white painted rocks were heart stoppingly sad.
Pseu,
The guide for our tour was a Zulu. He joined us in Cape Town having flown in from Durban where he lived. He was extremely knowledgeable not only about the battlefields but every thing of interest that we passed on what was a very long journey from Johannesburg to our hotel in Vryheid, Kwa Zulu Natal. He was with us for three days to include a sanitised tour of Soweto, which as it happened, was the only part of the tour that there wasn’t an option to miss out on!
I will put up some photos of Isandlwana at another time.
We stayed here:
http://www.isandlwana.co.za/
This was our base for the tour:
http://www.places.co.za/html/3876.html
Didn’t really see much of it as we arrived in darkness and set off for the tour in darkness!
Hi, toc
Thanks for this. Brings the memories flooding back.
Getting my own photos and post together to share. Might manage it by the anniversary on 22nd/23rd Jan but you never know. I’m not a hasty person, if truth be told.
I’d never have guessed, T11
😉
Haw Soutie, I get enough grief from Janus without you getting on my case as well!
I’ll check but T11 is probably a miss.
There’s always time enough in this world if you don’t panic and you never know. If I can get my act together and produce Battlefields revisited then I might just manage Battleships revisited as well.
Moving on, 1-1 and your decider starting on 2nd January? Off until the 5th so a feast of cricket awaits both in Sydney and Cape Town.
In case you had not noticed, getting a tad hyper as the bells draw nigh. See you the other side.
Have a good Old Year’s Night. Major smiley thing.
Cheers John
T = 20th letter of alphabet
Therefore T11 = …I won’t go on 🙂
Have a great
hangmanyhogwattsithogmoreokay, you know what I mean, have a good one!Thanks John,
I will put some more up at sometime. It was a memorable experience but one hard to capture on film. I look forward to seeing some of yours.