Blog Day 15: Tuesday 7 April 2020

Last night I was watching the magnificent movie Zulu, thanks to a heads up from Jo, and I realised that many of the lessons found in this movie could be applied to our battle against the corona virus.

Very briefly the movie Zulu is about the 1879 battle of Rorke's Drift.  In this battle around 150 British soldiers defended an unfortified mission station against numerous attacks by around 4,000 Zulu warriors. 

The movie set me to thinking as to how the vastly outnumbered British defeated the attacks by the battle hardened and ruthless enemy. (A couple of days prior to this battle the Zulus had defeated and massacred British column of 1,000 troops also capturing a quantity of arms and ammunition).

Ok, so how and why did the British win this battle and what lessons can we take out of it to deal with our current battle;

1) Strong Leadership: At Rorke's drift there were 2 British officers of equal rank, both being Lieutenants.  One was the officer in charge of the troops and the other was an engineer officer there to build a bridge across the 'drift'.  Both officers had been commissioned in the same year but the engineer had been commissioned earlier and therefore was the senior officer and took command.  This meant that his command position was unequivocal and after some initial hesitation the other Lieutenant accepted his position as commander of the post.

We have had a similar situation here, there was initially some confusion as to who was in charge of things however both Scott Morrison and Daniel Andrews have emerged as strong leaders who have taken charge in their respective jurisdictions.

2) Common Goal: The British at Rorke's Drift had a common goal, they had to defeat the Zulus.  There was no alternative, the Zulus were brave, well organised and ruthless and did not take prisoners.  Defeat meant death.

Once again the corona virus is our enemy and does not take prisoners, our common goal is the defeat of the virus.

3) Discipline and Training: I have put these two together as each is essential to the other.  The British army was a small professional well trained force.  Discipline was strict and ruthlessly applied I think that the lash and branding was still used during this period, if not other forms of discipline were equally draconian.  But it was this discipline, instilled in the training process, that made the soldier stand his ground against overwhelming odds.  In the movie a Private soldier asks the Colour Sergeant "why us?" and the Sergeant replied "because we are here, lad. Nobody else, just us".

So we as a community have to apply discipline in our daily lives, particularly in applying the lockdown and self quarantining rules.  Unfortunately we haven't had much training for this, in the place of training we will have to apply common sense.

4) Plenty of Ammunition: The garrison at Rorke's Drift was fortunate that the mission station was being used a depot for army units in the area and was well stocked with rifle ammunition so there was no need to preserve ammunition in the fight.

This could be likened to the availability of personal protection equipment (PPE) for our front line medical personnel and the future availability of corona virus vaccine, one of which is currently in short supply and the other not available yet.  Both will be needed to defeat the enemy.

5) Planning: There needs to be a plan.  In the midst of your battle the plan is probably short term, what happens if the enemy breaks through at a certain point, what if you run out of supplies, what do you do if the enemy brings up reinforcements.  You are probably not looking much beyond the immediate requirements, certainly not how to win the war.  The people at HQ are looking at the bigger picture.

Our immediate requirements are to control the virus and then defeat it.  Getting the economy moving, getting the AFL back on the footy field etc are issues that will need to be dealt with once the immediate threat is beaten.  Likewise we expect that the government is quietly working away in the background getting things ready for the recovery.

6) Grit: That indefinable quality called grit. This is the quality that the private soldiers demonstrated at Rorke's Drift, the ability to stand up against incredible odds, not once but many times.  The capacity to look after your comrades, what we call mateship.  Eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded for bravery at the battle of Rorke's Drift, some were awarded to men who came back to the firing line after being wounded, others were wounded men who struggled to distribute ammunition to the men who were still fighting.  The surgeon who was treating the wounded was awarded the VC as well as the two Lieutenants.

Lets hope we can show our grit, maybe even our True Grit, when called upon.

And to finish, one last quote;

Colour Sergeant Bourne "Its a miracle"

Lieutenant John Chard "If its a miracle, Colour Sergeant, its a short chamber Boxer Henry .45 calibre miracle"

Colour Sergeant Bourne "And a bayonet, sir, with some guts behind"

We make our own miracles!

Current Virus Stats 92

Vic: 1,191 infected (+33 from previous day) - 11 deaths (increase of 1)

Aus: 5,882 infected (+132 from previous day) - 46 deaths (increase of 8) Recovered 1,080

World: 1,346,299

(some of these figures are inconsistent with previous day's stats which I think is caused by when the news services update their online figures).