| Date | Original Topic |
| 8th March 2005 | ROCKET BATTERY
By S P mann
The various accounts I have read of the death of Russell and his men are all along the lines of the ZULU DAWN version; if indeed they were set upon by a big mass of Zulu's from the plateau, how in fact did Grant and Trainer etc manage to extricate themselves (a) from that fight; (b) from the battler generally so as to survive? Were they mounted or on foot? Also, I recall that in the Spike Milligan book where he described (made up?) the involvement of an ancestor (who I think was called Sparrow?) in the Isandhlwana battle he described him as a part of the rocket battery. Whether he was called Milligan or Sparrow I don't believe anyone by that name was in the rocket battery so Spike was just padding out his book. By the way, we are in a possession of a wonderful diary from the 1920's compiled by a deceased friend who served as a private in India with the Queens Lancs. He was a fascinating man -very interested in the Indian culture- and the diaries are illustrated with many fascinating photos. Are such diaries common? Are they ever published? |
| Date | Replies |
| 8th March 2005 | Paul Cubbin
My understanding is that the surviving gunners 'played dead' until overrun and then legged it when left unattended (presumably since they were so far away from the camp they were overlooked and spared the usual disembowelling) and made their way back to Natal on foot. |
| 9th March 2005 | Peter Ewart
SPM & Paul
From the descriptions of the action and flight of the rocket battery given by Grant, Johnson & Trainer, it seems rather inaccurate to say that the RB was really "overrun" at all - the term which is usually used. It was fired upon from a distance and it fled - and the first volley from the Zulus who apparently couldn't shoot appears to have killed six!
Johnson & Trainer appear to have fled southwards separately and joined Durnford's force in the donga, before retreating to the camp. Grant appears to have fled in the direction of the camp. None of the three gave the impression that they were "overrun", nor that any of the fighting (if it could be called fighting) which they experienced at that point was at close hand at all. They simply joined their fleeing comrades & got away - Johnson claiming to try to help Russell escape, but the latter being then shot.
Doesn't seem as if the Zulu got very near to them at all - if they had they'd surely have caught up/overtaken & killed the fugitives.
Peter |
| 9th March 2005 | Julian whybra
Do not forget that Goff from the Rocket Battery also escaped. |
| 9th March 2005 | s p mann
Thanks for the comments. I have not seen the accounts by the survivors and always considered the "playing dead" idea a bit unconvincing. However I certainly read an eye witness account in the "Then & NOw" book from Cochrane? which described a hand-to-hand fight going on between the survivors of RB and Zulus as Durnford's troop returned, which would seem to scotch the idea that this didn't occur. How close did Durnford pass to the RB on his retreat? KLooking at the map he seemed about 6 miles out from camp when he met the Zulus with the RB about 3-4 miles out. Perhaps Grant and Trainer etc had horses and fled as soon as Russell was shot, leaving the NNC to have a hand-to-hand fight. |
| 9th March 2005 | Peter Ewart
SPM
According to the three accounts of Grant, Trainer & Johnson, at about the same time that Russell ordered the rocket to be fired, the enemy appeared in large numbers on the hill ahead & fired a successful volley, killing six. In one account, Russell was one of those shot, in another he was getting away with the help of a private but was shot (again?)
Grant was under orders to hold the horses in the vicinity of the rocket trough when the action began. In the rear, the Native Contingent fled after being fired at (although one account suggests they fired a few rounds before fleeing) and the mules bolted with the rockets, leaving the few surviving imperial privates (was this four?) high and dry - "not knowing what to do and having no leader" as one of them put it, so they got away as best they could.
Grant took three horses with him and "tried to reach the nearest party of our own troops" (i.e. presumably referring to the 1/24). He got back to - and witnessed the confusion in & fall of - the camp. Amazingly, considering the confusion, he saw Trainer & Johnson fall back with Durnford's combined forces, shared out the horses he still had, and the three successfully rode to the Buffalo.
Johnson (also 1/24) clamed to have tried to rally or assist the Native Contigent return fire but found them rather keen to retire! Also claims to have tried to assist Russell's escape. His destination makes it clear that he must have gone south (presumably on foot?) and come across the retreating mounted forces under Durnford, who asked him where the battery was! "I told him that the battery was cut up and the captain shot, when he said you had better go back and fetch him." Trainer appears to have brought Durnford back to reality and I believe there is an account somewhere (I'm not near my library) that Trainer might justifiably have felt hard done by here as he didn't receive much assistance at this time - someone else will know the reference I'm referring to I expect. But he managed to tag along with the retreating Basutos anyway. (His phrase "cut up", a common expression, obviously refers to having been roundly defeated, not cut up by assegais).
Trainer's account more or less confirms the sudden speed of the Zulu appearance and firing, followed by the flight of the mules and NC. "On seeing that they had all gone, I tried to make my way back to camp." He eventually met up with a couple of Basutos and seems to have joined the retreating Durnford's forces & taken part in the combined defence of the last donga (no doubt with Bradstreet's men etc). On reaching camp, he bumped into Grant, who gave him one of the horses.
Johnson bumped into Trainer, Grant and Gough/Goff & was also given a horse. Obviously, without these horses, there was no hope of survival. Talk about looking after your own!
One reads some accounts which imply that the exposed position of the battery under the slope at the time of the Zulu onrush down the hill led to their being completely overrun as the Zulu forces rushed straight at and through them, leaving most of them dead and continuing the attack towards the camp - but it clearly did not happen like that at all, otherwise neither the Native contigent nor a single private would have survived.
These three 1/24privates could obviously ride. Was this the reason they accompanied the battery? Or did they somehow learn "in extremis"?
Peter |
| 9th March 2005 | stephen mann
Thanks Peter
That's very interesting and sounds much more plausible than the idea of a whole crowd of Zulus descending on the battery and leaving some alive. How does it all fit in with the "playing dead" idea then? I think I read one account (may be Spike Milligan's!) of one of the survivors walking soth to escape across the Malakatas. This would seem entirely untrue if we have full explanations as above for all of them; although Goff? Perhaps the account of the "hand to hand" fight Cochrane saw was some stragglers disembowelling those who fell in the initial shooting, the rest already having fled. |
| 9th March 2005 | stephen mann
Thanks Peter
That's very interesting and sounds much more plausible than the idea of a whole crowd of Zulus descending on the battery and leaving some alive. How does it all fit in with the "playing dead" idea then? I think I read one account (may be Spike Milligan's!) of one of the survivors walking soth to escape across the Malakatas. This would seem entirely untrue if we have full explanations as above for all of them; although Goff? Perhaps the account of the "hand to hand" fight Cochrane saw was some stragglers disembowelling those who fell in the initial shooting, the rest already having fled. |
| 9th March 2005 | Peetr Ewart
Stephen
I can't recall reading an account anywhere of the battery survivors playing dead. At least, not a reliable one. The sheer impossibility of it is soon evident.
Spike Milligan? Of all the descriptions accorded him over the years, I've never seen it claimed that he was an authority on anything which happened at Isandlwana!
Which book? "Cetshwayo - my part in his downfall." ? :-)
Peter |
| 9th March 2005 | Simon Copley
I seem to remember reading (in Morris?) that one of the mules hopped on top of a rock and wouldn't come down!
Is this mentioned in the RB survivor's accounts or is it Morris spicing up the story? |
| 9th March 2005 | stephen mann
That's right: the one with Hary Secombe as Cetewayo on the cover, in black and whte minstrel make-up. No seriously- someone elsewhere on the sight referred to his book "It ends with magic" (or similar) which is an acount of Victorian military life for the Milligans/Sparrows. I think his granddad was killed on NW Frontier. Anyway, one of his ancestors (who I think was called William Sparrow but another contributor has down as Milligan; he may be right) is the subject of a "true" story in the book where he is described as one of the survivors of the rocket battery. Doesn't seem to fit with the records but perhaps he was one of the NNC (again back to the minstrels!) General consensus seems to be that Spike made that one up. I don't know where the "playing dead" bit comes from: Paul above seems to have seen it also. Perhaps its in the Milligan account. I've only read Morris, Knight's BMB and Then and Now books and the Red Soldier apart from that, so unless it was in one of them it must be. Like you, I think that the playing dead story is a bit far-fetched |
| 9th March 2005 | Glenn Wade
I do believe the relative in question is Sgt William Milligan, Royal Artillery. Search 'Milligan' on the search engine for the thread on 12th April 2001
All the best
Glenn |
| 9th March 2005 | Keith Smith
Stephen
You are quite correct about Cochrane's evidence, which states
"We retired steadily in skirmishing order, keeping up a steady fire for about two miles, when we came upon the remains of the Rocket Battery, which had been cut off and broken up. There was a hand to hand engagement going on with those that remained."
However, you must remember that the rocket battery was accompanied by Captain Nourse and his over-size NNC company. Although most of the Africans seem to have run away, Nourse and his other Europeans (at least two lieutenants and as many as 60 NCOs). There is a liklihood that this company lagged behind the RB because it had already marched some 17 kilometres, the NCOs were on foot, while the RB was mounted.
Another minor point - it is clear from the evidence that the whole Zulu force did not come down on the RB - it was simply the advance scouting elements, which explains how some of Nourse's men, including Nourse himself, were able to survive until 'rescued' by Durnford's retreating force.
|
| 10th March 2005 | Julian whybra
Goff did not go south to the Malakathas - he retreated back to camp with the others and down the Fugitives' Trail. Goff was in N/5 battery RA and attached to the RB in the same way the three escaping soldiers were.
A Milligan in the R.A. escaping from Isandhlwana - what rot! Why next we'll be hearing it was Gunners Wallace and Gromit!
Keith is correct about an advance party of skirmishers being involved - Morris has overblown this into the left horn and the myth has persisted.
Nourse seems to have been about a mile behind the RB. I believe Nourse and four of his men stood their ground while the others fled and were shortly afterwards saved in timely fashion - this in all likelihood is the event Cochrane is referring to, being close to the RB action. |
| 10th March 2005 | stephen mann
OK- seems then that no-one slipped off through the Malakathas (from the primary sources) so someone (I think its Morris again) is making it up. I guess if you thought the whole left chest/wing swept over the RB playing dead and slipping off through the Malakathas" sounds like the only logical means of survival. |
| 10th March 2005 | Paul Cubbin
Naughty Morris. I'm surprised he didn't concoct a tale about men strapping themselves to the rockets (they tested it with mules but they only got up to the top of some rocks) and jetting off to Jo'burg. |
| 10th March 2005 | Coll
Paul
It sounds like your describing the scene in Dr. Strangelove, when one of the bomber crew sits on the missile as it heads for the target.
Coll |
| 10th March 2005 | Paul Cubbin
Images of gunners riding bareback on a rocket, swinging their pith helmets in one hand whilst whooping madly now swirl around my head. |
| 10th March 2005 | Coll
Paul
Apparently the rockets were meant to scare the zulus anyway, but I think the above image would have terrified them more.
However, health and safety would require the individual 'pilots' to wear the appropriate kit - Biggles type flying helmet, goggles and of course the compulsory white scarf flapping in the wind.
Why am I now thinking of one of Russ Abbott's mad characters ?.
Coll |
| 11th March 2005 | stephen mann
Yeah- I checked. It was Morris making this one up. I guess he didn't have the first hand accounts and -absent an alternative explanation such as survivors going into orbit in one of the rockets before splashing down several weeks later in the Buffalo- assumed that playing dead and then walking off in a small group through several miles of hostile country was plausible. |
| 11th March 2005 | stephen mann
Yeah- I checked. It was Morris making this one up. I guess he didn't have the first hand accounts and -absent an alternative explanation such as survivors going into orbit in one of the rockets before splashing down several weeks later in the Buffalo- assumed that playing dead and then walking off in a small group through several miles of hostile country was plausible. |
| 11th March 2005 | Peter Ewart
With the benefit of hindsight, it is remarkable to consider that the weapon which was intended to do nothing other than create fear & panic in the ranks of the enemy, and to do that very effectively, did no such thing and was treated with derision by the enemy at Isandlwana.
And the weapon which was considered of little use in the hands of such an enemy and was nothing to be worried about - the rather obsolete firearm - was not only extremely effective but, indeed, decisive against the personnel handling the weapon designed to induce panic; and created the very panic among them which was confidently assumed would occur within the enemy's ranks.
I think I've mentioned before that, a year or so afterwards, the rockets did eventually create the expected panic when one of the unfired missiles was ignited by a grass fire and propelled itself quite a distance back towards Isandlwana and it took Charles Johnson a while to calm the terrified Zulus, who had seen and heard the astonishing "attack" from the east!
Peter |
| 12th March 2005 | Paul Cubbin
It's strange how many successful army weapons and kit have been developed by the navy and handed on. |
| 12th March 2005 | Coll
In the mini-series Rhodes starring Martin Shaw, when they were in Matabele territory, they apparently had a sort of searchlight, possibly used by the navy, that on the occasions when they switched it on, the warriors fled in terror. Do you think this was true ?.
Also, just out of curiosity, there was a scene in this programme, where on the wall I'm sure I saw a framed painting of Coghill making a stand against the approaching Zulus, Melvill lying lifeless at his feet.
Coll |
| 12th March 2005 | Martin Everett
Coll,
Re your para 2
Yes it was by Charles Fripp who more famously painted 'The Last Stand at Isandhlwana'. |
| 24th March 2005 | Julian whybra
Stephen
Morris certainly did see the first-hand accounts (see his bibliography) and he certainly went to Brecon where they are held. |
