A gripping and vivid account of one of the British army's most famous battles

A myth-shattering study of the first clash between the Zulu kingdom and European interlopers and its dramatic effects on Boer and Zulu alike.

By the 1830s, the Zulu kingdom was consolidating its power as the strongest African polity in the south-east, but was under growing pressure from British traders and hunters on the coast, and descendants of the early Dutch settlers at the Cape - the Boers. In 1837, the vanguard of the Boers' Great Trek migration reached the borders of Zulu territory, causing alarm. When the Boer leader Piet Retief and his followers were massacred in cold blood, war broke out. Although the initial Boer counter-attacks were defeated by the Zulus, in December 1838 a new Trekker offensive resulted in a nation-defining clash between Boer and Zulu at the battle of Blood River.

In this ground-breaking and carefully balanced new work, containing stunning artwork and detailed maps, Ian Knight explores what has long been a controversial and partisan topic in South African history, placing the Zulus more squarely in this part of their history. Among the topics covered are the 1836 Boer/Ndebele conflict, the imbalance in technique and weaponry, the reasons why the British settlers allied themselves with the Boer Trekkers, and why the war was a key turning point in the use of traditional Zulu military techniques. This work also reveals that a Boer victory at Blood River was by no means a foregone conclusion.

Osprey's study of British troops prior to and during the Anglo-Zulu War (1879). On 4 March, 1878 at King William's Town, British Kaffraria, Gen. Sir Arthur Cunnynghame handed over supreme command of the British forces in southern Africa to his successor, Lt. Gen. Sir Frederic Thesiger. The High Commissioner, Sir Henry Bartle Frere, was convinced that one solution to the complex problems which beset the region was to overthrow the last powerful independent black kingdom bordering British possessions - the Zulu kingdom of King Cetshwayo KaMapande. However Cetshwayo had remained on the political defensive. This book descirbes the uniforms and equipment of the forces that Thesiger led across the border to wage war in Zululand.

A new study of the battles fought between Queen Victoria's infantry and the formidable Madhist Army in the Sudan, from the Gordon Relief Expedition of 1884-85 to the battles of Atbara and Omdurman in 1898.

In the early 1880s, Britain intervened in independent Egypt and seized control of the Suez Canal. British forces were soon deployed to Egypt's southern colony, the Sudan, where they confronted a determined and capable foe amid some of the world's most inhospitable terrain. In 1881 an Islamic fundamentalist revolt had broken out in the Sudan, led by a religious teacher named Muhammad Ahmad bin Abd Allah, who proclaimed himself al-Mahdi, The Guided One. In 1884, Mahdist forces besieged the Sudanese capital of Khartoum; Colonel Charles Gordon was sent to the city with orders to evacuate British personnel, but refused to leave. Although the British despatched a relief column to rescue Gordon, the Mahdists stormed Khartoum in January 1885 and he was killed. British troops abandoned much of the Sudan, but renewed their efforts to reconquer it in the late 1890s, in a bloody campaign that would decide the region's fate for generations. Written by leading expert Ian Knight, this fully illustrated study examines the evolving forces, weapons and tactics employed by both sides in the Sudan, notably at the battles of Abu Klea (January 16-18, 1885), Tofrek (March 22, 1885), and Atbara (April 8, 1898).

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.

Featuring rare period photos, this highly illustrated history tells the story of the frontier outlaws who defied the authorities on the wild Australian frontier in the Victorian era, and the Crown forces who eventually hunted them down.

The first bushrangers or frontier outlaws were escaped or time-expired convicts, who took to the wilderness--the bush--in New South Wales and on the island of Tasmania. Initially, the only Crown forces available were redcoats from the small, scattered garrisons, but by 1825 the problem of outlawry led to the formation of the first Mounted Police from these soldiers.

The gold strikes of the 1860s attracted a new group of men who preferred to get rich by the gun rather than the shovel. The roads, and later railways, that linked the mines with the cities offered many tempting targets and were preyed upon by the bushrangers.

This 1860s generation boasted many famous outlaws who passed into legend for their boldness. The last outbreak came in Victoria in 1880, when the notorious Kelly Gang staged several hold-ups and deliberately ambushed the pursuing police. Their last stand at Glenrowan has become a legendary episode in Australian history. Fully illustrated with some rare period photographs, this is the fascinating story of Australia's most infamous outlaws and the men tasked with tracking them down.

On 11 January 1879 the British Empire went to war with the independent kingdom of Zululand. The British anticipated a swift and decisive victory, placing great faith in modern firepower; no plans were made for suppressing the Zulu over a protracted period, or for providing defensive positions from which to occupy Zulu territory. However, the losses suffered at Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift quickly altered the British approach; throughout the rest of the war, the British fortified almost every position they occupied in Zululand, from permanent column depots to temporary halts. This title explores British defensive techniques employed during the war, and how these related to contemporary engineering theory. Among the sites covered are Eshowe Mission Station, forts Pearson and Tenedos, and Rorke's Drift.

Osprey's study of the battle of Isandlwana, which was fought on 22 January 1879 and was the greatest defeat suffered by the British Army during the Zulu War (1879). A Zulu army of 24,000 warriors had moved undetected to within striking distance of the British camp in the shadow of Isandlwana Mountain. From the start the 1,700 defenders underestimated the danger descending upon them. They were swept aside with horrifying speed and the final stage of the battle consisted of desperate hand-to-hand fighting amid the British camp. Over 1,300 men were killed; scarcely 60 Europeans survived. Ian Knight employs new archaeological and historical research to provide a completely new interpretation of the course of the battle.

Expert ananlyis and first-hand accounts of combat during the Anglo-Zulu war in 1879: Nyezane, iSandlwana, and Khambula. As seen in the movie Zulu, starring Michael Caine, Zulu discipline and courage overcame British firepower at iSandlwana, and almost at Rorke's Drift. Featuring specially commissioned artwork, expert analysis and carefully chosen first-hand accounts, this absorbing study traces the development of infantry tactics in the Anglo-Zulu War by examining three key clashes at unit level.

The short but savage Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 pitched well-equipped but complacent British soldiers and their auxiliaries into combat with one of history's finest fighting forces, the Zulu Nation. The clashes between these two very different combatants prompted rapid tactical innovation on both sides, as the British and their Zulu opponents sought to find the optimal combination of mobility and firepower.

Fought on 22 January 1879, the clash at Nyezane saw Zulu forces, among them the uMxapho ibutho, ambushing a British column; the British forces, including Lieutenant Martin's company of the 2/3rd Foot, engaged their opponents in the prescribed fashion, as honed in the recent conflict with the Xhosa a year earlier. The Zulu attack was premature, and by 9.30am, after about 90 minutes of heavy fighting, they were repulsed. The British tactics worked, but largely only because the Zulus had an uncharacteristically low numerical superiority.

At iSandlwana later that same day, however, the shortcomings of the British tactics, obscured at Nyezane, were made brutally apparent. The Zulus had sufficient manpower not only to withstand that level of casualties but also to complete their encirclement of the British forces, and as the British line disintegrated the firefight gave way to the close-quarter fighting at which the Zulus excelled; not one man of the 1/24th and 2/24th Foot survived. The British forces surrounded and crushed at iSandlwana included Captain W.E. Mostyn's company of the 1/24th Foot, which was initially deployed in advance of the British camp but was later withdrawn to form part of the firing line; their opponents included the iNgobamkhosi ibutho, many of whose warriors left first-hand accounts of the battle.

While iSandlwana demonstrated the strengths of the Zulu tactics, it also demonstrated their weaknesses - for the casualties inflicted by the British foreshadowed the carnage they would reap once the British wholeheartedly embraced close-order tactics and defended positions. At Khambula on 29 March 1879, a much bigger British force adopted a defensive position and defeated the same Zulu units who had previously triumphed at iSandlwana, including the uKhandempemvu ibutho, which came close to storming the British defences. At iSandlwana, the Zulus had been able to screen their advance with skirmishers and take advantage of the broken and grassy ground, but at Khambula their spontaneous attack did not allow them to disperse properly and they were funnelled together on a contracting front over woefully exposed ground. The British had learned the tactical lessons of iSandlwana and deliberately sought to restrict the Zulu ability to manoeuvre and co-ordinate their attacks, and to concentrate their own firepower.

The Zulu War of 1879 remains one of the best known British colonial wars and included two battles whose names reverberate through history. At Isandlwana the Zulus inflicted a crushing defeat on the British; the gallant British defence at Rorke's Drift followed and re-established British prestige. Yet as this book shows, there was more to the war than this. Six months of brutal fighting followed, until the Zulu kingdom was broken up, its king imprisoned and the whole structure of the Zulu state destroyed. Years of internecine strife followed, until the British finally annexed Zululand as a colonial possession.

Their lifestyle of hunting for sport and profit honed the Boers' skills of field-craft, horsemanship, and marksmanship, making them a formidable force in the field and well suited to guerrilla operations. This book describes the life and combat experiences of a typical Boer in this key period. Using meticulously researched analysis and comment, and the experiences of a composite character, Johannes de Bruyn, a revealing portrait of Boer life and military operations is drawn. The actions at Laing's Neck, Majuba, the Zulu Civil War and the Second Anglo-Boer War are covered in this packed and informative treatment.

Rorke's Drift sums up some of the best traditions of the British self-image: steadfastness against the odds, victory in adversity and the thin red line. The British stand deserves to go down in history as one of the most heroic actions of all time. The story of a mere 150 British and Imperial soldiers defending an isolated outpost against over 3,000 Zulu warriors summed up the experience of the colonial adventure for the Victorians and remains part of our heritage even today. Ian Knight recounts the course of this famous conflict in which no less than 11 Victoria crosses were won.

Waged across an inhospitable terrain which varied from open African savannah to broken mountain country and arid semi-desert, the Anglo-Boer wars of 1880-81 and 1899-1902 pitted the British Army and its allies against the Boers' commandos.

The nature of warfare across these campaigns was shaped by the realities of the terrain and by Boer fighting techniques. Independent and individualistic, the Boers were not professional soldiers but a civilian militia who were bound by the terms of the 'Commando system' to come together to protect their community against an outside threat. By contrast the British Army was a full-time professional body with an established military ethos, but its over-dependence on conventional infantry tactics led to a string of Boer victories.

This fully illustrated study examines the evolving nature of Boer military techniques, and contrasts them with the British experience, charting the development of effective British mounted tactics from the first faltering steps of 1881 through to the final successes of 1902.

By the time Queen Victoria came to the throne, India - some 1,600,000 square miles, ranging from soaring mountains to deserts and jungle swamps, populated by 400,000,000 people with a kaleidoscope of different cultures and religions - was firmly in the grip of a handful of British East India Company administrators, either ruling directly or through Indian nominees. However, the Company's search for a policy in western India embroiled it in a string of military campaigns, including one of the worst disasters ever to befall a British army. Ian Knight's fascinating text examines the absorbing, dramatic and brutal history of the Company's exploits against Victoria's Indian enemies.

The Maori people of New Zealand were experienced field engineers even before they came into conflict with Europeans in the 19th Century. Warfare between rival groups was endemic in Maori society, and it was common practice to protect villages with surrounding entrenchments and wooden palisades, known as pas. As contact with the European world increased, the Maori responded by adopting firearms into their traditional armory. It was not until 1845, however, with the first fighting between the Maori and the British, that it became clear just how strong and sophisticated the Maori fortifications were. For the best part of 20 years, the Maori held off the dominant and technologically superior British forces, by adapting and developing their defenses in response to every new improvement in the British artillery. The complex network of trenches and sheltered 'bomb-proof' dug outs, designed to resist further British assaults, proved so effective that they had a strong influence on the trench warfare systems of World War I. This book explores the evolution and design of Maori fortifications, and charts the course of a conflict that would ultimately see the British break the Maori pas, leading to a bitter guerrilla bush war.

In 1899 Great Britain was at the height of its Imperial power. The Queen Empress had been on the throne for more than 50 glittering years, and her domain touched upon every continent. Yet, even at this pinnacle of Imperial pomp and majesty, the British army, guardian of the Empire in countless wars across the globe, was destined to be humiliated by poorly-organised citizen militia consisting of men whom the British professionals despised as back-wood farmers. In one week in December 1899 the farmers of the South African Boer Republics of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal inflicted three serious reverses on British troops.