Description

Throughout the Victorian Era, for sixty-four years, in red coats or dusty khaki, men from every British shire and county marched alongside their native allies in slow-moving columns, elephants jostling camels and bullocks plodding with donkeys and yaks, to a background jingle of mule-carried mountain guns. Sometimes, parties of boisterous straw-hatted sailors and Royal Marines, led by such dashing officers as Lord Charles Beresford, dragged Gatling and Gardner guns through the sand of the Sudan where, treating camels like leaking boats, they caulked their huge sores with pitch. Typical yet unique, each campaign was made notable by the men who fought them - the Regular British soldier, grumbling but obeying orders and doing his duty against militant tribesmen on the rugged North-West Frontier of India; subduing stubborn Boers, brave Maoris, wily Afghans, or fierce and fanatical Dervishes; battling against organised military formations of Sikhs, Zulus, Russians or rebellious India Sepoys. None of this great variety of opponents fought in the same fashion and rarely was there any prior knowledge of their strength, weapons, fighting ability, or methods of warfare - yet all were eventually beaten