The 30,000 strong zulu
army used to prepare itself for battle by using the infamous zulu
bull attack. Used successfully against the British
army in the first part of
war for control of zululand (insouth east Africa; south Africa, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swazailand) until effective counters after the first few battles.
The attack was really just a clever formation, where the forces would divides themselves into
four equal pieces.
Three of the pieces would line up, closely packed, next to eachother. These would represent the head of the
bull and it's horns. The other
25% would be behind the head, fairly spaced out, to give the impression of massiveness. These represented the body.
The head and horns would march slowly toward the enemy, and once within 250 metres, the head would
rush the enemy to test it's firepower. After many of the head had fallen, the rest could then
rush and the enemy would also. But the horns would move faster than the head,a nd surround the enemy. This left themwith two choices;
•retreat, which was near impossible. Zulu always made sure there was a slope nearby so the enemy would have
trouble with this
•
Rush into the remaining head and through the body. This would ultimately spell doom.
The weakness in this form of attack was that it relied on the enemy doing something. The British
army eventually figured that it should
stay still and only shoot at 100 yards, thus securing victory at many battles, notably the origianal test at Rorke's drift, where 140 soldiers, 36 of which were wounded, defeated 4500 Zulu by killing almost half.
