The White Men Sang

This is a novel, but it is based accuratey on an epic incident in Rhodesian history...

On the afternoon of December 3rd, 1893, Major Allan Wilson led his patrol of volunteers across the rising Shangani River in pursuit of Lobengula, King of the warring Matabele. That night, finding himself surrounded by an enormous force of the enemy, Wilson sent back word to Major Forbes, the commander of the main expedition still on the river\'s south bank, that he should cross immediately with the whole column and the Maxim-guns. But Forbes, hesitant, sent only twenty men and no Maxims.

At dawn, the Matabele hordes began to close in on the tiny force of white men, and Wilson had to make his choice: to break out with the well-mounted men, leaving the wounded to be mutilated by the savages, or to stay with them ajnd commit thirty-four men against seven thousand ...

He and his officers decide unanimously to stand and fight. They fought for nearly twelve hours, killing over ten times their own number of the enemy. When men could no longer stand, they lay on their backs with the barrels of their rifles between their feet, and went on shooting. And when only six were left alive and there was a lull in the battle, they stood up and sang \"God Save the Queen.\"

Their supreme courage ended the Matabele War and marked the real birth of Rhodesia, in which country they are national heroes, buried next to the great Cecil Rhodes.

Hardcover with unclipped dustcover-Foreword vii + 216 pages text. Edges have some spotting as does the underside (blank) of dustcover. A Scarce book in good condition.