Posted on 08/22/2006 10:26:50 AM PDT by Marius3188
This thread will be of interest to FReepers who are interested in military history.
Cranking the ping machine....
Ping to an interesting thread on the Anglo-Zulu wars of the late 19th century
Napoleon Bonapart's grandson was killed by a Zulu in the Zulu War while fighting for the British.
An interesting read is "The defense of Duffer's Drift"
by E.D. Stinton.
In which our hero, Lt. Backsight Forethought has an interesting dream and learns to be a soldier.
The story is told in a repetitive manner with Lt.B.F. learning a little more in each dream about how to lead,
take care of his men, how to deal with the Boers, where to
defend etc.
It has been updated into a modern version called
"The Defense of Hill 781" by McDonough and transformed
into an allegory of modern mechanized combat, set in the
National Training Center (NTC).
The reader can make the choices for Lt.Col. A. "Tack" Always,
and follow how those choices effect the battle.
Worth reading both.
Thanks for the recommendations. I will try to get hold of both books...they certainly sound interesting.
Great movie, great soundtrack!
Here is "The way he took." from "Land and Sea Tales for
Scouts and Guides". by Kipling.
One of my Favorites, if you backtrack up the URl you can get to the master list of his works. A lot of stories about
the Boer and India campaigns, "Soldiers Three", "Barrack room Ballads, and many more.
http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/prose/LandandSea/wayhetook.html
Enjoy!
I think there is a line in the film describing the "Zulus" thusly:
"Get up in the morning, run forty miles, and then fight a battle. All in one day."
Truly. They need to remake it as a mini-series and lose the surplus American military vehicles.
It would absolutely rock to see reproduction German miltary vehicles in something like that.
"Chard: The army doesn't like more than one disaster in a day.
Bromhead: Looks bad in the newspaper and upsets civilians at their breakfast.
God I Love that!"
At the time, of course, it was a cliche.
Do you have a large version of that file?
Yeah, this is a Thoroughly Modern Miscellany heading topic. :') No ping, but definitely into the catalog. Thanks!
No.
Some more images here though.
Kipling is probably Politically incorrect today with verses like this:
"This was my Fathers belief
and this is also mine
Let the corn be of one sheaf
and the grapes be of one vine
ere our Children's teeth are set on edge
by bitter bread and wine".
(From Kipling's "The Stranger"
He would be spinning in his grave if he could see England today
Semper Fi!
"Zulu Dawn", a prequel to "Zulu" wasn't bad, either; at least insofar as it portrayed the battle of Ishandlwana.
Indeed. Ask about Fuzzy Wuzzies, and you'll get a blank stare. Same era.
In "Kelly's Heroes they uased a Yugoslavian TigerI, which was a TigerI body with a Russian supension and chassis. Apparently the Yugoslavs made a few conversions after WWII.
I knew it was a Tiger I, but thanks for the additional info. I had NO idea that any of those land battleships survived the war.
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I knew something wasn't right when I first saw it. I had to look at the damn thing three times before I noticed the Christie suspension.
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