72-8518 HAND TO HAND COMBAT 02 3 ENGLISH – 3 ZULU

The Anglo-Zulu War is an armed conflict between the British Empire and the Zulu kingdom that took place between January and July 1879. At the beginning of the war, Great Britain involved about 15,000-16,000 in the conflict. people, but after the first defeats this number increased to approx. 25 thousand. people. The basic strength of the British Army in this war was the volunteer infantry, whose conditions of recruitment and service were reformed by Edward Cardwell in the early 1870s, which shortened the period of regular service from 21 to 12 years, thus seeking to increase trained reserves . The armament of the British infantry in 1879 was the Martini-Henry sagittal rifle rifle, which had entered the service of the British Army eight years earlier (1871). Its rate of fire was up to 12 shots per minute, and the maximum range of the shot was about 1700 meters. During the Zulu War, the British infantry was divided into regiments, and these in turn into battalions, which were divided into eight infantry companies. The war began tragically for the British - with a humiliating defeat at the Battle of Isandlawana (January 11, 1879), when approximately 730 British soldiers were killed. However, this defeat had a sobering effect on many British officers involved in this war and was "avenged" in the heroic defense of Rorke's Drift station, the Battle of Kambula and in the decisive Battle of Ulundi, where the loser at Isandlavana (Lord Chelmsford) inflicted a terrible defeat on the Zulus.The Zulu people are an African people who still exist today and speak the Zulu language, which in turn belongs to the Bantu African language family. Currently, the largest Zulu population lives in South Africa. At the beginning of the 19th century, at about the same time as the Napoleonic wars in Europe, the Zulu created a series of militarized state or proto-state organizations in southern Africa, which the chief Shaka, probably, united into a rather loose confederation. Later, probably in the mid-19th century, many of them were further consolidated. There are also many indications that it was Shaka who introduced many changes in the field of Zulu military. First of all, he put into service the Zulu warriors (in Zulu: impi) you will start with shorter and more handy spears. He probably also introduced a new type of shield, providing better cover for the warrior. Shaka also put great emphasis on training warriors and maintaining their discipline. He also put emphasis on a much more aggressive conduct of combat operations and sought to increase the mobility of his troops. It is worth adding that firearms played a marginal role in the activities carried out by the Zulus, and all their tactics were aimed at fighting the enemy and outflanking them. In the course of the battle, the Zulu army formed an formation resembling a bull's head. It is quite often assumed that the basic tactical unit was ambabutho with about 1,500 warriors. The great test of Zulu tactics was the clash with the forces of the British Empire, which went down in history as the Anglo-Zulu war in 1879. Several battles were fought during this war, but two in particular have gone down in history. The first - at Isandlawana - was lost by the British, who lost almost the entire 1,600 unit. The battle of Ulundi, fought a few months later, was already a great British success, when the British army of about 5,300 soldiers completely defeated the Zulu army of 20,000. people. This battle was also tantamount to the complete collapse of the independent Zulu state.