Lieutenant John Chard:
The army doesn't like more than one disaster in a day.
Bromhead:
Looks bad in the newspapers and upsets civilians at their breakfast.
Colour Sergeant Bourne:
A prayer's as good as bayonet on a day like this.
Lieutenant John Chard:
I came here to build a bridge.
Pte. Thomas Cole:
Why is it us? Why us?
Colour Sergeant Bourne:
Because we're here, lad. Nobody else. Just us.
Reverend Otto Witt:
One thousand British soldiers have been massacred. While I stood here talking peace, a war has started.
Pte. Henry Hook:
Rourke's Drift... It'd take an Irishman to give his name to a rotten stinking middle o' nowhere hole like this.
Lieutenant John Chard:
What's our strength?
Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead:
Seven officers including surgeon, commissaries and so on; Adendorff now I suppose; wounded and sick 36, fit for duty 97 and about 40 native levies. Not much of an army for you.
Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead:
Damn the levies man... Cowardly blacks!
Adendorff:
What the hell do you mean "cowardly blacks?" They died on your side, didn't they? And who the hell do you think is coming to wipe out your little command? The Grenadier Guards?
Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead:
Sixty! We dropped at least 60, wouldn't you say?
Adendorff:
That leaves only 3,940.
Colour Sergeant Bourne:
It's a miracle.
Lieutenant John Chard:
If it's a miracle, Colour Sergeant, it's a short chamber Boxer Henry point 45 caliber miracle.
Colour Sergeant Bourne:
And a bayonet, sir, with some guts behind.
Lieutenant John Chard:
Mr. Bourne, there should be 12 more men working on this redoubt.
Color Sgt. Bourne:
They're very tired, sir.
[
Chard whirls around]
Lieutenant John Chard:
I don't give a damn! And I want this wall nine feet high, firing steps on the inside. Form details to clear away the Zulu bodies, rebuild the south rampart, keep 'em moving! Do you understand?
Color Sgt. Bourne:
Yes sir... very good, sir.
Surgeon Maj. Reynolds:
You know this boy?
Orderly:
Name is Cole, sir. He's a paper hanger.
Surgeon Maj. Reynolds:
Well, he's a dead paper hanger now.
Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead:
Now there's a bitter pill. Our own damned rifles!
Surgeon Maj. Reynolds:
Orderly, Damn it! Will you keep the flies away. Fan it! Damn you, Chard! Damn all you butchers!
[
points towards the fleeing cavalry]
Reverend Otto Witt:
The way of the Lord has been shown to us!
Bromhead:
You mean your only plan is to stand behind a few feet of mealie bags and wait for the attack?
Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead:
Fear certainly dries the throat, doesn't it? I was never so thirsty in my life!
Lieutenant John Chard:
I could have drunk a river.
Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead:
Was it like this for you? I mean, how did you feel the first time?
Lieutenant John Chard:
How do you feel?
Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead:
I feel afraid and there's something more. I feel ashamed. There. You asked me and I told you. How was it your first time?
Lieutenant John Chard:
Do you think I could stand this butcher's yard more than once?
Lieutenant John Chard:
Mr. Witt! When I have the impertinence to climb into your pulpit to deliver a sermon, then you can tell me my duty.
Cpl. William Allen:
[
both men are wounded but the soldier distributing ammunition has fallen] Can you move your leg?
Pte. Fred Hitch:
[
flippantly] If you want me to dance...
Cpl. William Allen:
I want you to *crawl*. Come on you slovenly soldier, we've got work to do.
Private Henry Hook:
[
after being ordered to help prepare for the Zulu attack] What for? Did I ever see a Zulu walk down a City road? No! So what am I doing here?
Bromhead:
If 1200 men couldn't hold a defensive position this morning, what chance have we with 100?
[
Bourne calls the roll after the battle]
Colour Sergeant Bourne:
Hitch... Hitch, I saw you. You're alive.
Pte. Fred Hitch:
I am? Oh, thanks very much.
Bromhead:
[
mounted, crossing stream] Hot work?
Lieutenant John Chard:
[
kneeling in stream] Damned hot work.
Bromhead:
Still, the river cooled you off a bit though, eh?
[
pause]
Bromhead:
Who are you?
Lieutenant John Chard:
John Chard, Royal Engineers.
Bromhead:
Bromhead. 24th. That's my post... up there.
[
points into middle distance]
Bromhead:
You've come down from the column?
Lieutenant John Chard:
That's right. They want a bridge across the river.
Bromhead:
Who said you could use my men?
Lieutenant John Chard:
They were sitting around on their backsides, doing nothing.
Bromhead:
Rather you asked first, old boy.
Lieutenant John Chard:
I was told that their officer was out hunting.
Bromhead:
Err... yes.
[
spurs on horse]
Bromhead:
I'll tell my man to clean your kit.
Lieutenant John Chard:
Don't bother!
Bromhead:
No bother... I'm not offering to clean it myself! Still, a chap ought to look smart in front of the men, don't you think? Well chin-chin... do carry on with your mud pies.
Reverend Otto Witt:
Death waits you! You have made a covenant with death, and with Hell you are in agreement. You're all going to die! Don't you realize? Can't you see? You're all going to die! Death awaits you all!
Bromhead:
Fire at will!
Pte. Owen:
That's very nice of him.
[
to the wounded Hook]
Surgeon Maj. Reynolds:
This is going to hurt you a lot more then it will me, I'm happy to say.
Cpl. William Allen:
Heave! Put a bit more weight on that rope, you men!
Pvt. John Williams:
He's even got a voice like a corporal!
Pvt. Fred Hitch:
Yeah, sort of like a female hippopotamus in labor.
Colour Sergeant Bourne:
The Lord of Hosts is with us.
Cpl. William Allen:
I hope so... as I live and die, I hope so.
Private Henry Hook:
Twenty eight days field punishment! No pay! Do you know what he did? He sent my money to my Mrs. Now what did he do that for?
Hughes:
Hey, Hooky... who's doing all that shooting? Who do you think?
Private Henry Hook:
Who do you think? Mister flamin' Bromhead, shooting flamin' defenseless animals for the flamin' officers' flamin' dinner.
Cpl. Frederic Schiess, NNC:
I belong to the Natal Mounted Police.
Pvt. William Jones:
Is that true then? He's come to arrest the Zulus.
Adendorff:
Haven't you had enough? Both of you! My god, can't you see it's all over! Your bloody egos don't matter anymore. We're dead!
Lieutenant John Chard:
You didn't say a thing to help, Bromhead.
Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead:
Well, when you take command, old boy, you're on your own. One of the first things that the general - my grandfather - ever taught me.
Lieutenant John Chard:
[
the Zulus are chanting before their final charge] Do you think the Welsh can do better than that, Owen?
Pte. Owen:
Well, they've got a very good bass section, mind, but no top tenors, that's for sure.
Sgt. Robert Maxfield:
You're no good to anyone, except the Queen and Sergeant Maxfield!
Pte. Henry Hook:
Well thank you very much, the both of you!
Private Henry Hook:
[
as Sergeant Maxfield raves deleriously in the hospital] Stuff me with green apples! If a dog was as sick as him,they'd shoot it!
Pvt. William Jones:
What's he up to, 593?
Pte. Robert Jones:
Oh, I think he wants to be hero, 716.
Cpl. Frederic Schiess, NNC:
Haven't you rednecks got names instead of numbers?
Pte. Robert Jones:
'Tis a Welsh regiment, man! I am Jones from Builth Wait, he is Jones from Builth Wells, and there are four more Joneses in C Company! Confusing, isn't it, Dutchy?
Lieutenant John Chard:
[
shouting] Front rank fire! Rear rank fire, reload!
Lieutenant John Chard:
[
repeats a few times as one line of soldiers fires and the other kneels and reloads their rifles]
Lieutenant John Chard:
Good. I can find work for baritones as well as tenors.
Color Sgt. Bourne:
[
doing roll call] Hughes!
Hughes:
Excused duty!
[
the soldiers begin to laugh]
Color Sgt. Bourne:
No comedians, please. Hughes.
Hughes:
Yes, Colour Sergeant.
[
repeated line]
Colour Sergeant Bourne:
All right, nobody told you to stop working.
Bromhead:
At one hundred yards! Fall in by, present! Aim! Fire!
Bromhead:
At one hundred yards! Volley fire, present! Aim! Fire!
Bromhead:
Well done, Adendorff, we'll make an Englishman of you yet!
Adendorff:
No, thanks. I'm a Boer. The Zulus are the enemies of my blood. What are you doing here?
Bromhead:
You don't object to our help, I hope?
Adendorff:
It all depends on what you damned English want for it, afterwards.
Related Links
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