Not a lot of people know this but I held Rourke's Rift with 100 men against 4000 Zulus?

Question

We fought with rifles and bayonets and hand to hand at close quarters and won

How would the US Army have dealt with the same odds in battle ?

ALLO HOOKIE

ST HELENS FAN
10 of them were in the infirmary so I don't count them

PETE
Thanks for being anal enough to point out my bad typing. It's not easy to do when you're 140 years old

D'you know what ZULU
You are going to blow my BLOODY COVER.

HEARTSNMINDS
D'you know, it's been a hundred and 27 years since that day and my memory is a bit sketchy to say the least. It's easy to lose a few bodies in the heat of battle

I've got a funeral to get to in Berlin
Oi TAXI !

Answer 1

Palmer! You should be on your way to Berlin!
Stop fecking around in Bromhead's uniform!

Answer 2

"Rorke's Drift was a mission station in Natal, South Africa situated near a natural ford (drift) on the Buffalo River. The defence of Rorke's Drift (January 22 – January 23, 1879) during the Anglo-Zulu War immediately followed the British Army's humiliating defeat at the Battle of Isandlwana earlier in the day. At Rorke's Drift 139 British soldiers successfully defended their garrison against an intense assault by four to five thousand Zulu warriors."

"Victoria Crosses

Artistic depiction of the Battle of Rorke's Drift.Eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded to the British defenders, the most ever received in a single action. This high number may be interpreted as a reaction to the earlier British defeat at the Battle of Isandlwana. The extolling of the victory at Rorke's Drift took the public's attention away from the massive defeat at Isandlwana and the fact that Lord Chelmsford had disobeyed orders by entering Zululand.

Dalton was not originally named among the VC recipients, eventually receiving his medal in January 1880 after an outcry because a number of accounts had credited Dalton, rather than Chard or Bromhead, for initiating the defence at Rorke's Drift.

Corporal William Wilson Allen
Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead
Lieutenant John Rouse Merriott Chard
Acting Assistant Commissary James Langley Dalton
Private Frederick Hitch
Private Alfred Henry Hook
Private Robert Jones
Private William Jones
Surgeon Major James Henry Reynolds
Corporal Christian Ferdinand Schiess
Private John Williams
See the list of Zulu War Victoria Cross recipients for a full list of VCs awarded during the war, and also list of Victoria Cross recipients by Campaign"

Answer 3

: Aww man, You Limeys did a workmanlike job at Rourke's...
The 82nd.. the 101st, the 173rd....the Big Red One..in the same SitRep? easy money, claymores and a quick call to Spooky the C-130 Spectre gunship.... How about reviewing Inchon Reservoir? Other Korean battles? Thousands of ChiComs routinely charged in mass (with automatic rifles) at hundreds of G.I.'s with old WW II Garands. Who finally pushed them back into Manchuria? Which U.S. Army unit actually charged and took San Juan Hill??? Try the U.S. Tenth Cavalry, an all BLACK unit. They did the charge up the hill while Teddy R. shouted orders and waved his arms from back where it was safe... Ever hear THAT one on BBC? NBC? CBS?

Answer 4

We deal with those odds all the time....

Somalia-a handful of Rangers (with rifles and bayonets) fought off estimated 4,000 militia and armed townspeople. Killed 1,200 too.

Iraqi Freedom-two understrength divisions defeated the fifth largest army in the world in a matter aof a few days. A feat that the Iranians were unable to do in the 80's despite having a force 70 times larger (in manpower...)

The actions of Raven42 at the Salman Pak Ambush, where a young MP Squad Leader's leadership held off attacks from 50 heavily armed insurgents. Despite several fatalities, her understrength squad of six military police held off the attackers, while protecting 30 large heavy transport trucks operated by Turkish civilians. BTW Raven42 is a female Sergeant from the Kentucky Army National Guard. She also received the Silver Star for Valor (deservedly so...).

Rourke's Drift is a wonderful military vignette that is used throughout US Army Officer training. It inspires us to believe that with proper planning, strong discipline, and high morale, a smaller force can prevail.

Answer 5

Actually, it was Rourke's Drift (not "Rift"). And you left out the part about the fortifications, which in military lingo, we call "a multiplier" because it multiplies the effectiveness of the troops. And it was 179 men and officers, not 100. Also, the number of Zulus was an estimate by the troops on the ground. I'm sure the U.S. Army would have done the same thing, but we'll never know.

Answer 6

The yanks are fine soldiers & have nothing to proove.Have you forgot about our total defeat down the road at Isalwanda ?
But what a great Victory at Rourkes drift-10 VCs won before breakfast !

Answer 7

actually, it was 110 men in 1879, the film Zulu is seriously out of tune from this, but a good film all the same, and the yanks would claim they won if the entire station had been destroyed by the Zulus!

Answer 8

Lets also remember that the Zulus fought without guns. It's true they had some guns from their recent victory at Isandhlwana but they'd had no training or practice with them.

Answer 9

We'd have called in artillary for illumination and close air support for effect.

You ever seen what a THUD (That's an F-104 Thunderchief to you.) can do with napalm? There'd have been crispy critters all over the landscape.

Answer 10

They would have fought but I very much doubt would have survived for instance....I remember a while ago in Croatia we come upon a Serbian patrol something that we did regularly but on this instance we had three U.S Special ops with us they sh*t out and hid they said "it ain't our fight ", so we had to deal with them ourselves good hard Yanks. A four man SAS unit took out a 10 man Serbian patrol with out a shot fired and the Yanks hid..One of the Yanks even puked when he saw one of the serbs heads on the deck minus a body.