Battle of Rorke’s Drift

The Battle of Rorke’s Drift followed the British disaster at Isandlwana in January 1879. A small garrison defended a mission station and storehouse against repeated Zulu attacks.

The defence became famous in British military memory and was heavily commemorated, though it must be understood alongside the wider violence of the Anglo-Zulu War and the political causes of invasion.

For fiction, Rorke’s Drift offers a tight siege-like setting of exhaustion, fear, discipline, improvisation and contested heroism.