In a time where films such as U-571 rewrite history (it was, in fact, the British who captured the Enigma), it is important to remember that in many cases, scripts are re-written and created from scratch to suit the audience of the day. The real history comes from source material that can be verified, and it is only such material that can be used to form opinions and generate references.

As with any historical subject as emotive as the Defence of Rorke's Drift , it is inevitable that myths will spring up, either as the result of a desire to hide the truth, or simply as a mis-representation of what actually happened. Rorke's Drift has suffered from this over the past, in both favourable and unfavourable ways. 'Zulu' , the 1964 film starring Sir Stanley Baker as Chard and Sir Michael Caine as Bromhead, propagated and in some cases orignated many of these myths - although it goes without saying that the film does not suffer as a result!