20160
W. Britain
A little over 1,800 British troops and their African
allies were encamped at the foot of Isandlwana hill in the early morning
hours of 22 January 1879. By afternoon more than 1,300 of them lay
dead. Of the nearly 20,000 Zulu, about 15,000 were engaged in the
fighting with an approximate figure of 3,000 killed. The fighting was a
desperate, hand-to-hand struggle with no quarter given by either side.
Later that day the small force garrisoned at the mission station at
Rorke’s Drift also came under Zulu attack. Of the approximate 150
defenders there, 14 died, two more were mortally wounded and eight more
were seriously wounded. Every man sustained some sort of wound.