Battle Report: Kidnap

Background

This seemed like an appropriate first scenario: One of the "excuses" used by the British prior to the invasion of Zululand involved an incident where several wives of a Zulu chief had eloped with their lovers into British territory.

Historically, the chief ordered his men to hunt down his wives, and bring them back, so that they could be properly executed on Zulu soil. This was duly done, and when the British caught word of these events, they demanded a ransom of 600 head of cattle for the unlawful kidnap of innocent men and women on British soil. When no response came, the Lord Chelmsford decided the best course of action was an invasion of Zululand to seize the cattle.

Modern history is often highly critical of events of which we rarely have full knowledge. But it's always good to try and see both sides of an argument. In this case it's easy to shrug off the kidnap incident as the excuse the British were waiting for to invade. But on the other hand, innocent women were executed in cold blood, and that just won't do now, will it.

In order to emphasize the conundrum, I decided to build a scenario based around this incident. A small group of men and women are "hiding" in British Natal. The Zulu chief has dispatched sixty Zulu warriors to capture them and return them. Now here's where the hypothetical part comes in: there is a small camp of British soldiers in the vicinity, and they have caught word of the escape of the elopers, and their predicament. Naturally, the Platoon begins its own search for the elopers.

Rules

Battle Report

The platoon of 2/24th split into two half-platoons. One was led by Sgt. Smith, while Lt. Henderson led the other nine men.

Both squads marched as skirmishers in order to begin searching the area as quickly as possible. The centre of the search area was dominated by a large hill. Sgt. Smith took his men towards the left of this hill, while Lt. Henderson marched towards the right.

The Zulu tribes covered their ground quickly, and managed to search several bushes in a short space of time, but with no luck. The British had still not reached the main search area, when twenty uVe warriors came into view, frantically rummaging through bushes.

"Tighten into line! And hold your dam' fire!" shouted Smith, before his men got could overreact. They were already cursing furiously at the sight they were marching towards. The uVe were dashing from one bush to another, probing with their spears as the Smith's men slowly marched in line formation. "We ain't too late if they're still lookin' for 'em are we?!" shouted Smith.

On the other side of the hill, Henderson's men now spotted about twenty uThulwana, also searching through a large bush. "Steady then chaps!" he called. He was strolling forwards with all the intent of a man out to find the perfect place for a picnic. At that moment the uThulwana gave up with the bush they had been searching, and came at a fantastic pace towards another large bush about 10 yards away from Henderson and his men. "HALT!" he snapped, and the ten men came to rest in a neat little line as the Zulus approached. "Lance-corporal Jones, would you mind asking them what the deuce they think they're playing at?"

The efforts of LCpl. Jones were ignored by the warriors who were now prodding the nearby bush with their spears, and Lt. Henderson watched with amazement. "Cheeky beggars don't seem to know who the devil they're dealing with!" He addressed the apparent most senior figure in the group: "NOW LOOK HERE OLD FELLOW, YOU CAN'T..."

By this point, Sgt. Smith's men had approached a large bush a the base of the left side of the hill. Smith had kept a keen eye on the activities of the Zulus ahead: the uVe had searched all other bushes in the area, while more Zulus, umBonambi by his reckoning, had also appeared from behind the hill. Some had rifles too by the looks, where the devil had they stolen them from? This bush then, must be the hiding place of these cheeky women. With the Zulus now starting to bound over toward the bush, he decided to pass the bush and form a defensive line in front of it, to prevent the Zulus from reaching it.

Suddenly, the uThulwana gave up their search of the bush under the supervision of Lt. Henderson, and sprinted at incredible speed right in front of his, and his men's eyes. "Now where the devil are they off to..." He glanced to his left. Sgt. Smith's squad had advanced round the hill and out of view, and would shortly be completely outflanked by the uThulwana he had previously been chatting to.

Lt. Henderson and his men watch with surprise as twenty uThulwana sprint past.

"Good God!" he exclaimed, "Fire I say, at once!" His men fired off a quick volley, injuring the uThulwana leader - but the warriors continued in their dash round the hill. Sgt. Smith heard the volley and didn't hesitate: "Right, FIRE!". Four uVe fell to his first volley, but he was unaware of the imminent danger approaching.

Sgt. Smith's men become entangled by a frontal uVe charge.

Someone cursed, and Smith glanced round to see a sight he would never forget: twenty uThulwana directly behind his line. "FORM SQUARE!" he bellowed, he knew it was a futile order, but what else could be done? His men were firing at will, and now the first thrown spears started to land around them. Three of his men were injured, everything was happening too fast.

Smith's men form a crumpled square against the combined uVe and uThulwana.

Henderson's men fired another volley at the backs of the uThulwana, several fell, but not enough. "Blast it! Fire for God's sakes! They'll eat them alive!" he started to scream. At that moment, a peppering of rifle shots was heard. Henderson glanced up to see several Zulu with rifles up the steep hill, taking pot shots at his men. Before he could react, his ears were suddenly deafened by an unrelenting roar from his left, and the Zulus in the hill started falling from their positions. He glanced round and to his relief saw four sailors operating the camp's Gatling gun most efficiently. The Zulus in the hill routed, and the sailors manoeuvred their gun into position against the uThulwana, but hesitated...

Smith's men had fallen, but bravely taken three Zulus each with them. But now he was the last man standing. He saw an escape route up the hill, and made for it. As he ran up the hill he could see the camp's Gatling gun preparing to fire into the mass of uThulwana and uVe. He hoped they would give 'em hell. The combined firepower of the Gatling gun, and Lt. Henderson's men wreaked terrible damage to the uVe who were now trying to organise a charge against Henderson. As Smith glanced the other way his heart sunk: a group of umBonambi was heading at full speed back towards Zululand, and with them they carried several pathetic looking men and women - the elopers! His men had died in vain then; that damn fool Henderson had a lot to answer for.

The last stand of Smith's men

Conclusions