The Battle of Rorke's Drift
in 1879 South Africa
150 exhausted British Soldiers, including the many Welsh soldiers who had been recruited from Southeast Wales, had to somehow defend themselves against an onslaught of 4,000 Zulu warriors
Despite being denied reinforcements, being greatly outnumbered, low on morale and low on supplies, the British Regiment prevailed.
Thirteen Victoria Crosses were awarded after the Battle of Rorke's Drift, including one to Private James Owen.
The Battle of Rorke's Drift was the subject of the 1964 movie Zulu. Richard Burton narrated. The movie also was Michael Caine's first film role. At first, Caine had lost his chance at the role due to what he described as a terrible audition.
When the actor who had been given the role, fell ill, the director offered the role to Michael Caine on the night before the cast was due to fly to South Africa to film.
Zulu 7 minute clip featuring Richard Burton narrating the list of men who after valiantly defending Rorke's Drift, received the Victoria Cross.
Zulu 13 minute clip
The seven years long Siege of Harlech in 1460 was the original inspiration for the song Men of Harlech written in 1861. The filmmakers then revised the lyrics for the 1964 movie Zulu.
Excerpt from Data Wales: Men of Harlech
"Just who were the Men of Harlech and how did they come to be associated with a bloody battle in Africa? The answer is to be sought through the mists of time and the story starts in the year 1283 when King Edward I ordered a mighty castle to be built at Harlech on the coast of Merionethshire in north Wales.
This was just one of a ring of great castles designed to prevent the Welsh from challenging the sovereignty of England. The task of designing and building the castle was given to the Master of the King's Work in Wales, James of St. George.
This man, one of the great military engineers of history, built a castle of the concentric type defended at the back by the sea and at the front by massive towers and walls up to twelve feet thick.
The defences of Harlech Castle were first tested in 1294 when a 37 strong garrison fought off Welsh besiegers led by Madog.
In the next century the castle became neglected but was repaired before the occasion of the revolt led by Owain Glyndwr.
After a long and grim siege Harlech was captured by Owain in 1404. The revolt could not be sustained, however, and the castle was recovered for the crown in 1408.
A period of comparative peace was brought to an end by the Wars of the Roses. In 1460 the castle was held by Lancastrian forces and endured a siege which is said to have lasted seven years.
The constable, Dafydd ap Ieuan, and his garrison held out long after other Lancastrian commanders in England and Wales had surrendered to the Yorkist faction and Alan Reid (in The Castles of Wales, 1973, ISBN 0 85097 185 3) tells us the following story.
"Dafydd ... widened his fame by replying to one summons to surrender with the boast that he had once held a castle in France so long against siege that all the old women of Wales talked of it; and now he would hold a castle in Wales until all the old women of France talked of it."Eventually famine forced surrender and Dafydd handed the castle to Lord Herbert and his brother Sir Richard Herbert on honourable terms.
King Edward IV at first refused to honour the terms of the settlement but Sir Richard Herbert, out of respect for the bravery of the defenders, is said to have offered his own life in exchange for Dafydd's rather than see his promise broken. These defenders were the Men of Harlech commemorated in the song.
Men of Harlech from Data Wales