"The great host came steadily on, spreading out spreading out -
spreading out till they seemed like a giant pair of nut-crackers opening
round the little nut of Rorke's Drift." - Surgeon Major James Henry
Reynolds V.C., Army Medical Department
On 22 January 1879, during the final hour of the Battle of iSandlwana -
one of the greatest disasters ever to befall British troops during the
Victorian era - a very different story was about to unfold a few miles
away at the mission station of Rorke's Drift. When a Zulu force of more
than 3,000 warriors turned their attention to the small outpost,
defended by around 150 British and Imperial troops, the odds of the
British surviving were staggeringly low. The British victory that
ensued, therefore, would go down as one of the most heroic actions of
all time, and has enraptured military history enthusiasts for decades.
Featuring a wide range of first-hand accounts and testimonies from those
present during the Battle of Rorke's Drift, Rorke's Drift By Those Who
Were There is a remarkable work of Anglo-Zulu military history by those
who know the topic best, Lee Stevenson and Ian Knight. This updated
edition of the classic work of the same name includes even more
first-person accounts from the combatants on both the British and Zulu
sides.
Providing personal, microscopic accounts of events, while at the same
time presenting a clear overview of the battle in its entirety, readers
will gain an impressive, unique breadth of knowledge about one of the
most awe-inspiring battles in British history.
