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DateOriginal Topic
9th May 2003First use of Gatling Guns by the British Army?
By marc jung
I do feel a sod, coming back and forth and taking up so much space. Apologies, but it's your fault for having too damn good a site! Can anyone tell me if the two Gatling Guns used at Ulundi were the first ever used in combat/battle by the British army? Were they first used, as invented in, America.? Thanks.
DateReplies
9th May 2003Clive Dickens
Marc
I do not know when they where first used by the British Army but they where first used in The Anglo/Zulu war at the battle of Nyezane on the 22nd of January 1879 that's right the same day as Isanndlwana.
Clive
10th May 2003John Young
Marc,

I've actually answered this one previously on the site.

The use of the Gatling Guns at Ulundi, by No. 10 Battery, 7th Brigade, Royal Artillery, under the command Major J. F. Owen, was indeed the first combat use of the Gatling by men of the British Army. Obviously the Royal Navy had used them at Nyezane, as Clive points out and at Gingindlovu.

Garnet Wolseley did have a Gatling Gun Battery in the 1st Asante War, but they were never deployed in combat.

John Y.