Guns at Batasi 1964 Regimental Sergeant Major Lauderdale Sir Richard Attenborough is a by the book, strict disciplinarian, who seems like an anachronism in a sleepy peacetime African outpost of the modern British commonwealth Ridiculed behind his back by his subordinate N C O s, he must play host to a liberal women M P making a tour of the base However, after an ambitious African officer, who happens to be a protege of the M P , initiates a coup detat against Captain Abraham Earl Cameron, the lawful African commandant, the resourceful Sergeant Major uses all of his military training to save his men from a certain firing squad