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Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 10:29 pm

I don�t know wether this has been discussed before.

If you look at the hospital it is a totally exposed area of the perimeter. To me it juts out like a knifepoint and the perimeter in front of the verandah is very narrow.

The way I see it is that Henderson and the NNH engage the first wave of Zulus I understand the initial action was with small groups. Henderson then bolts to Helpmekaar hotly followed by the NNC, Stevenson and their NCO�s.

Chard still feels he has enough men to defend the entire perimeter.

If this were the case I would have commenced moving the sick into the area behind the biscuit boxes and in front of the storehouse or even into the storehouse.

I find it unusual that Chard left these sick guysto fight for themselves, sure with some support. To me he seems to have written them off ?

As the initial Zulu army was small groups or even skirmishers they would have had time to evacuate the sick etc via outside the rear perimeter and then back into the perimeter and then over the biscuit boxes.The others via the Verandah inside the perimeter.

Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 2:10 am

Andrew

I was just reading Chard's report last night but am now doing it from memory so if I get something wrong, forgive me.

My understanding is Chard thought he had enough men to defend both hospital and store because of the presence of the NNC at RD at the time to augment B company. He built the perimeter accordingly, keeping in mind that some of the injured could probably not be moved (remember Maxwell). However when Henderson et al rode through to Helpmekaar, the NNC deserted in their wake and Chard started to build the inner perimeter as a safeguard. By this time the Zulus were moving close and it was a decision between move the injured or continue to build defences. He chose to concentrate on building the defences with the few men left at his disposal. Remember he had no idea when the Zulu attack would begin and was working against time all the way. He was not expected to be in a position where he would be in command of a post that needed defending. (Major Spalding had earlier ridden off to find out why reinforcements had not made an appearance at RD)

I don't think he had written off the guys in the hospital. He was just in a position of having to make a series of decisions in a short space of time and with limited information and he did the best he could at the time. His intention was to defend RD as a whole and only later events forced him to evacuate the hospital.

Dawn

Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 4:10 am

Good points Christine, but when I visited the place it would take approx 100 men a matter of minutes to build the biscuit wall. It is not a long wall. He could of also chosen to defend the area as he did and also start evacuating the sick at the same time, Maxfield was delirious with fever, most of the others had trench foot, lumbago or rheumatism and several patients were injured in wagon accidents, they could be moved in my view if desired.

Just remember the Zulus were only advancing cautiously at this stage and in small numbers the rest of the impi had been raiding farms and I believe even bumped into Spalding, forcing him to abandon his relief march to RD.

Spalding checked which was senior and told Chard he was in charge and nothing would happen , he departed RD for Helpmekaar at 2.00PM so Chard knew he would be in command of the post if it needed defending.

You really ought to try and visit Zululand I have been reading books on the subject for 15 years now and I realise how little I know . The terrain was nothing like I expected ,much more difficult to cross and intimidating . For me any way I have a much better understanding in my own mind and I have formed my own views. I have also found that every guide and author have their own opinions

Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 4:13 am

Sorry Dawn for calling you Christine, most embarrassing Embarassed

Regards
Andrew

Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 4:39 am

Andrew
I lived in Natal for 20 years and I visited Isandlwana and walked the Fugitives Trail in the late 80's. I ended up with a blister the size of a 50p piece on my heel so you can't talk to me about difficult terrain. The walk was organised by the MOTHS of Dundee and they had put on an inflatable boat to get us across the swollen Buffalo River. I remember commenting about halfway through the walk that, if I was being chased by Zulus, I'd give up round about now. Trail is a misnomer - there is no trail.

I meant to say before that I think the perimeter on the outside had been completed by the time the NNC departed but I'd have to check Chard's report. By then he would have been well aware that Zulus were on their way, in force and determined to continue what had been started on Isandlwana. Maybe a 'matter of minutes' was all he had in which to build that biscuit wall and were all 100 odd men seconded to that duty? Wouldn't some of them be occupied with other activities?

You're right, Major Spalding did determine that Chard was senior before he left, but he expected to make a quick journey and he wasn't thinking anything was going to happen in his absence. I doubt if Chard thought that within a few hours he would have to defend the place with only a handful of men.

Incidently my middle name is Christine! Laughing

How did you know??

Dawn

Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 5:36 am

I meant to add that, difficult the terrain would have been, it would not have been as intimidating to the Zulus who were well used to it.

Smith-Dorrien says "The ground down there down to the river was so broken that the Zulus went as fast as horses and kept killing all the way."

Therefore it would not have taken long for a Zulu force to reach Rorke's Drift.

The only concession I can make that after a long run over the Nqutu plateau, around the back of Isandlwana and then crossing the Buffalo, they would have needed a break by the time they were within sight of Rorke's Drift. But not much! These guys were there for a fight and I don't think the indunas would have held them back for long.

Dawn

Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 6:14 am

The entire Zulu impi did not head for RD when they initially set off from Isandlwana there is a school of thought that they did not know red coats were at RD they were after anything they could wash their spears with homesteads etc.only when they knew the company was at RD did they all come together.

Still my point is should Chard have left the men in such an exposed position as the hospital even if he decided to try and defend the entire perimeter. The hospital sticks out like a soar thumb so exposed and so narrow

Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 6:40 am

It was only the Undi corps that headed for RD as they had seen no action at Isandlwana and were, as you said, keen to wash their spears.

I'm reunited with my sources and have found the following in Chard's report:

"I saw that our line of defence was too extended for the small number of men now left us and at once commenced a retrenchment of biscuit boxes. We had not completed a wall two boxes high when about 4.30pm 500 or 600 of the Enemy came in sight around the hill to our south and advanced at a run against the south wall."

So sounds like things happened quite quickly.

Yes, the hospital was exposed and narrow but I don't think there was much else he could do.

Actually it was Bromhead who ordered the building of barricades, viz:

"Lt Bromhead had, with the assistance of Mr Dalton, Dr Reynolds and the other officers present, commenced barricading and loopholing the store building and the Missionary's house, which was used as a Hospital."

The sick are mentioned in Chard's reports but no mention made of why he didn't evacuate them. We can only presume he ran out of time, if he had time to think about it at all.

Dawn

Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 7:48 am

How do we know there was not much else he could do???

Only 400-500 not the full 4000 yet only 10%???

Saw the line to extended for the small number of men

equals the men in the hospital were left on the own no support ?

I am not trying to put Chard down here,but the thought entered my head and so must of entered other peoples heads??????

Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 9:10 am

Only 10% but the 400 to 500 kept them occupied. (this was already 4 to 5 times their number) viz:
"We opened fire on them...they rushed on in spite of their heavy loss to within 50 yards of the wall...and met with such a heavy direct fire from the mealie wall, and the Hospital at the same time, that they were checked as if by magic."

Doesn't sound like the Hospital was badly defended at the time.

From Chard's report we have the following timing:

Chard came up from the ponts at 3.30pm, and shots were heard at 4.20pm, then the NNC deserted and the biscuit box wall constructed. The attack started at about 4.30pm. That's not a lot of time to build a wall and evacute the sick from the hospital. So looks like he just ran out of time.

Dawn

Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 9:49 am

Andrew/Dawn

The "Down Under dayshift" has been very busy during the night!

Presumably, had Chard (or Bromhead/Dalton) not included the hospital building within their defensive perimeter, they would - by default - have surrendered it from the outset to the enemy. This would invite the Zulu to occupy part of the defensive force's own perimeter, or, at the very least (if the hospital had been excluded altogether from the defensive "wall") allowed them some very useful cover from which to (a) fire on the defenders at very close range and (b) use as a base from which to make rushes on the post over a very short distance, especially under cover of the complete darkness of a moonless night (no need for the Zulu to set fire to the roof!)

Chard was already uncomfortably aware that a lack of time had prevented the defenders from removing other obstacles outside the post which allowed the Zulu cover, such as trees, brush & cookhouse etc. The cover provided by the hospital building itself would have been a godsend to the Zulu. Clearly, in the hospital building the sick certainly were in a potentially (and, as it turned out, genuinely) vulnerable position, but Dalton, Chard & Bromhead not only made "the best of a bad job" in their defensive arrangements in double-quick time (never really knowing how much time they'd have in which to complete the work) but made their decisions in the light of what they knew or thought they knew, and with what forces and material they had (or thought they'd have!)

If the sick and the hospital defenders had ulimately been lost in the fight, then that would have been tough, but he (or Dalton) made some very quick decisions which (partly fortuitously) worked.

Peter

Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 10:07 am

Well, the down-under day shift is off to bed. The rest of you can carry on.

You're right about the perimeter. Later, Chard says, "I called all the men inside our retrenchment - and the enemy immediately occupied the wall we had abandoned and used it as a breastwork to fire over."

I'm sure Chard would not have deliberately sacrificed the hospital patients but would have been philosophical if they had been lost. This was a battle after all, and some casualities were to be expected. He was just hoping it wouldn't be all of them like at Isandlwana.

Dawn

Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 10:35 am

This is the Australian shift, just coming back from indoor soccer.

Didn't really think off it as providing cover for the Zulus, point taken. But when you stand in that area outside the Varandah you realise how small the area was and how exposed the hospital was.

I mean at the end of the day the survivors had to make it back to the wall on their own anyway.

Chard must have wondered with Reynolds and Dalton wether to try and get them out and keep rankers in the building? ?????

Sorry to keep going on.

Australian shift signing off.

Posted: Fri Nov 04, 2005 12:43 am

Ah, to be a fly on the hospital wall...

In truth, where would he have put them? There was only one other building and that was just as exposed - the walls formed part of the perimeter. Or within the barricade, on the ground where they would have got in the way and been targets for the Zulus to aim at. Perhaps they were safer in the building, behind walls and with some support.

Dawn

Posted: Fri Nov 04, 2005 8:29 am

They may have stood a better chance behind the wall or in the store house with surgeon Reynolds. you do not know?