1/72 Natal Native Contingent Box (HaT)

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Part Number: HTI_8192

Availability: Out of Stock

Description

HaT
32 figures in 8 poses
Grey
Unpainted 1/72 Scale Plastic Toy Soldiers (24.5 mm)

It is often the policy of imperial powers to help with the control and defence of their possessions by raising local troops, and with war looming in Natal in the late 1870s authority was given to raise what would become the Natal Native Contingent (NNC), which it was hoped would help make up for lack of numbers of regular British troops. By the end of December 1878 three regiments had been raised with a total of seven companies of roughly a thousand native troops each. Plans were made to uniform and arm all these men, but widespread fears by white settlers over the arming of so many natives meant that initially only about one in ten were given a rifle (and literally a handful of cartridges), and the rest had to make do with their traditional weapons. Officers were to be European, but were very hard to find, so in general were of very poor quality. With only a few days of training, the NNC were sent with the British forces to invade Zululand, where their performance could politely be described as 'mixed'. Badly lead and poorly armed, many recognised a bad situation when they saw it and ran when the Zulus approached, but others fared better, and some NNC remained as part of the British forces until the end of the war in 1879, after which their short existence was brought to an end.

1/72 Natal Native Contingent Box (HaT)

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