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Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 5:35 am

Was wondering if this stand or defensive position wasn't more important than it's been stated, firstly i must apologise and it wont come out as its in my head!! and will probably sound daft, so please bear with me.

Now QM Pullen had rallied or taken a group of men, when Durnford withdrew, these men basically covered the right flank, now Durnford had 1000s of Zulus following and flanking him, with H Company now I'd say like an island in a sea of Zulus, albeit hanging back from the rifle fire from them.

But if the Zulus had flowed around H Company surely this would have allowed even if it was 200 or so, to have got between C,F and E Companies as they withdrew? thus slowing them down enough for most of the Big last stands to have occured around the HQ area??

Maybe its a question of time, as the other way round with the Zulus getting there later it would mean it occured as it did.

Which leads me to think that either Durnford and Pullen had a lot more men stay with them before they bugged out, forgetting H Company as they were in their own private war so to speak, the 50 or so men of Pullen Durnford i don't see as stopping the Zulus long enough, as also the frontage they had to cover meant that certainly more Zulus from the uMbonambi would have got through and cut C,F and E off.

I'm just wondering is it more likely that more mounted troops stayed maybe as a separate unit and fired before breaking off, i could see this around the Mounted Troop/RA encampment area, just that the figures that are reckoned for Pullen-Durnford seem to have held off a hell of a lot of Zulus for probably quite (in the battle time) some time????

And i was right it doesn't sound the way its in my head Shocked

Posted: Thu Apr 27, 2006 12:57 pm

I think it would help others to answer if you told us which writer's account of the battle you were following. Talk of companies being 'cut off' is confusing. The convergence of the coys on the camp involved their drawing closer together, the carrying out of which was successfully completed; it was only after the withdrawl of the line to the camp area that the Zulus began to outflank and isolate individual coys. The account which talks of Pullen's group only speaks of 20 or so men (I write from memory).

Posted: Thu Apr 27, 2006 2:08 pm

Sorry Julian, was just offering an overview of what was happening, and though i labelled it QM Pullens stand it was also Durnfords stand as well, that held up the left flank of the Zulus.

What in my own humble way i was asking, was that from the area of the stand near the 1/24th encampment, to where C,F,E and A Companies were withdrawing , is a sizeable area, now allowing for Zulus who were fighting H Company as they withdrew towards were Pullen and Durnford where, its a big open area.

Which would have allowed Zulus probably from the iNgobamakhosi to have swept through the mounted troops area and stopped C,F and E companies getting to the saddle area, so i was wondering if it wasn't likely but maybe not seen or overlooked that troops of some description held an area between Pullen and the retiring left wing

I cant see H Company as its fighting its way back to were the square formed stopping Zulus from flowing past them and basically cutting the British lines in two.

I am referring to map 4 of Col Snooks book HCMDB