What Happened At The Battle of Omdurman, Sudan 1898?

During the filming of the battle sequence for the 1938 Korda production of ‘The Four Feathers’, The East Surrey Regiment was ‘conscripted’ as ‘Kitchener’s Army’, as they were based in the Sudan at the time. As a young Officer, my father witnessed it all and even managed to chat with Ralph Richardson in the evenings. If I remember correctly, during the filming of one long take the Mahdi’s ‘army’ had to be seen to be ‘cut down by rapid fire’. A huge number of local Sudanese were ‘drafted’ in for the ambitious sequence. But one man refused to fall ‘dead’ and remained standing. This was not in the script and caused much irritation as this scene obviously had to be carefully choreographed. On being confronted the elderly man apparently said, that he had survived the original battle 40 years before and he was “not going to die this time either”!

Whenever you hear about Churchill outside of WW2 it always feels a bit like a cameo.

As a Sudanese, we always had very few historians, and of those few, even fewer are objective, most are polishing the Mehdi to the point of distorting history. Your channel is rich, entertaining and most importantly... accurate, well done and keep up the good content.

American Anglophile and British military history buff here. I’m so glad I just now discovered this fantastic channel! Keep up the good work, my friend! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧

Very good presentation, the charge of the 21st Lancers at Omdurman was the last formal charge of a British Army cavalry regiment. Some 350 cavalry troopers against 3,000 Dervishes, the stuff of legend.

I'll just watch the Isandlwana episode I said, that was 10.30pm, I'm finally forcing myself to turn in....it's 3.30am! These videos are superb, I normally prefer longer historical shows but these are so well explained, so concise and so well delivered they are positively addictive! Even the wife is happy, she hasn't seen me for days! 😂

You've missed out on the greatest character of the time - Col. Frederick Burnaby who died in battle (a spear through his throat) as they fought their way up to relieve Gordon. Burnaby was 6'4" when the average grunt was 5'5". And what a man he was!

My grandfather fought at the battle of Omdurman and at Atbara. He was in the Lincolnshire Regiment. He was also at Fashada. He described part of his experiences such as watching the bullets from a Maxim machine gun cut across a horse.

Brilliant as always Chris. Appreciate the battle maps you added, helps clear up the image in your head!

Young Winston is a masterpiece which captures the charge of the 21st Lancers beautifully.

This may be the most delightful new history channels that I have come across in a while. Your storytelling skills are extremely coherent and easy to follow.

It's always a treat to see ANYTHING about this campaign and your details about what happened after the Lancers' charge are really appreciated because those events are rarely mentioned. I have all of the movies related to both Sudan campaigns and love all of the paintings & photos so it was nice to see some of them included here. This video is a worthy "documentary" and one for the collection! Cheers from Montreal.

Sir I thank you profusely for making a video about this battle. When I was in university I spent quite a long time studying both Charles Gordon and Lord Kitchener and writing about their deeds in Egypt and the Sudan. To the point that they both became heroes for me. That was several years ago and I had not thought of them for a long time until now when this video brought them back into my mind.

I love the enthusiasm of this presentation. It really gets you into the action.

"For less than the cost of a pint a month" That's the most adorably British thing to say. Love it, man. 🍻 Keep the good stuff coming.

Brilliantly explained keeping the facts in line, I hate it when some videos jump all over the place this one doesn't, Great stuff

Fascinating. Just came across this by accident (maybe). You certainly bring it to life. Half an hour or so well spent. And in these days of Covid, where ordinary people become experts on the home library of people making such content or being interviewed or reporting from home, you score highly in that department. Thank you.

My grandfather served with the Lancashire Fusiliers in this campaign and later in the 2nd Boer war. I still have photographs of him in uniform with the sphinx on the regimental collar badge.

You brought this battle into my front room with thundering cavalry charges and desert dust. Amazing detailed lecture. Both armies very brave and possibly the last we will ever see of that sort of warfare. Now need a cup of tea. That battle was thirsty work lol

btw....your descriptions of these historic character's personalities is BRILLIANT----focused sharp concise....I get meaningful impressions of the person you're discussing unlike many other videos or books I've looked into