#1 – Zulu Rising
In 1879 newly commissioned Lieutenant William Blackwood arrives in southern Africa as British forces invade the Zulu Kingdom. Expecting the order and confidence of a professional imperial army, he instead finds confused columns, uncertain intelligence and soldiers trying to operate across difficult country against a disciplined…
#2 – Last Stand
Assigned to Evelyn Wood’s flying column, Blackwood takes part in raids and patrols along the north-western frontier of Zululand. The disastrous fighting at Hlobane leaves the column exposed and shaken, but there is no time to recover before a large Zulu army advances on the fortified…
#3 – Fallen Kings
In June 1879 the reorganised British invasion force advances towards Ulundi, capital of the Zulu Kingdom. Blackwood’s regiment crosses rivers, builds fortified camps and endures a campaign in which weather, distance and supply are constant enemies. Under Lord Chelmsford, the army intends to force the decisive…
#4 – March on Kabul
After the murder of the British mission in Kabul, Blackwood and the Monmouthshire Fusiliers are sent from India to join Frederick Roberts’s Kabul Field Force. The march through the Shutargardan Pass brings altitude, failing roads, strained supply and attacks from the surrounding heights. South of Kabul,…
#5 – Siege of Sherpur
As winter closes around Kabul, the British and Indian garrison concentrates inside Sherpur Cantonment. Afghan forces gather on the surrounding heights, test the walls by day and probe the ditches and nullahs at night. Blackwood helps organise patrols, repairs and defensive positions while cold, exhaustion and…
#6 – Battle for Kandahar
Following the British defeat at Maiwand, Blackwood marches south from Kabul with Frederick Roberts’s relief force. The journey to Kandahar covers roughly three hundred miles through heat, dust and disease, with water and transport as important as ammunition. Men fall out from exhaustion while the army…