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Date	Original Topic
20th January 2004	Officers Uniforms/pistols and battle tactics By P.F Several topics 1) Was the 24th one of those Brotosh Regiments in which the dress uniforms are Scarlet for officers and red for NCO's & other ranks? 2) I saw a earlier posting asking about type of pistols used by Officers. It seems that nearly twenty years later Officers still had to buy their own handguns-Winston Churchill in 1890's owned a German .9mm Mauser pistol. (Regulation pistols not coming about till 1914?) 3) Would it be oversimple to state that of the following battles: Isandlwana-a classic Zulu tactic of engaging the enemy's line with the center units and outflanking the eneny line with Zulu left/right units and then enveloping the enemy by overwelming numbers and knock them to pieces in hand-to hand combat. Rorke's Drift-the classic Britsh Square behind fortress "Walls" whist firing in volleys so as to so decimate the enemy line they can't get close enough for hand-to hand combat. (Of the listing of the twenty-four 24th casualities killed/Wounded/died of disease/wounds where cause is listed 6 were result of assegai wounds (1/4)
Date	Replies
21st January 2004	Julian Whybra 1) Yes, scarlet for officers, red for ORs 3) Broadly speaking, yes.
21st January 2004	Adrian Whiting Hello, Scarlet tunics for all ranks were introduced in 1872, so obviously by 1879 the answer to your first question is no. All ranks wore scarlet. As you say, the details of pistols have been covered previously, but it was effectively the fact that the army settled on the .455" cartridge for service revolvers that meant officers also adopted revolvers in that calibre - the Royal Navy even had a semi auto in that calibre. Even still, officers were at liberty to purchase their own - they seem to simply have done so in that calibre. Adrian
27th January 2004	Julian whybra Apologies, Adrian is correct about the scarlet jackets. I make it 12 wounded/killed by assegais by the way.