History 05/03/20 “This is not war, this is madness!”: the British fought with the Russians at Balaclava
14 (2, old style) September 1854 began the main campaign of the Crimean war. Anglo-Franco-Turkish Alliance army smoothly landed on the Russian shore at Yalta. Chief of the Russian army and fleet Admiral Prince Alexander Menshikov allowed the enemy to disembark a whole, hoping to defeat him in a land battle. However, the battle at the river Alma 20 September ended with the defeat of the Russian army, primarily because of the superiority of the enemy in rifled small arms.
the background of the battle
some of the troops Menshikov took deep into the Crimean Peninsula, a part of them retreated under the protection of the fortress of Sevastopol. Menshikov ordered to flood the Russian black sea fleet to block enemy entrance to the roadstead of Sevastopol. 17 (5) October 1854, the allies made a fierce artillery bombardment of the city. However, Russian troops also responded with heavy fire, and it became clear that the shelling did not lead to the suppression of the Russian position. The allies refused immediate assault.
it Began almost a year trench warfare on the bastions of Sevastopol. One of the remarkable episodes was the battle of Balaclava 25 (13) October 1854. In Balaklava were the base of the British expeditionary force under the command of Lieutenant-General Lord Fitzroy Raglan. Menshikov gave the order to his Deputy in Sevastopol Lieutenant General Pavel Liprandi to attack in that direction.
the Defense of the approaches to Balaclava, from Kadikoy, the British thoughtlessly entrusted his Turkish allies, which were treated as pariahs. Liprandi did not choose this place to attack specially, it is by pure chance turned out to be the weakest of the enemy.
the success of the Russian early in the fight and subsequent failure
When, before dawn, 25 (13) October the Russian troops in a surprise attack took pernew Turkish redoubt and destroyed its defenders, for all the other three redoubts, the Turks fled in panic, leaving artillery. Raised firing at the feet of the British, made a kind of detachments, opening fire on the fleeing Turks. After that the hussar brigade of Lieutenant-General Ivan Ryzhov went to the Park the destruction of the English guns, which had, according to our intelligence, to be taken in the redoubts.
Contrary to expectations, the Kiev and Ingermanland hussar regiments met deployed the Dragoon brigade under the command of Brigadier General James Scarlett. There was a fierce bridge – the largest cavalry battle of the Crimean war. The British retreated, however, and Ryzhov gave the order to withdraw to their original positions.
Subsequently, these actions Ryzhov represented as a missed opportunity to overturn the whole British army and in General to lift the siege of Sevastopol. But Ryzhov, not directing the whole battle, did more than what was required of him in the order of the commander. After completing its task, and so he had to move. And here, instead of the expected object unprotected, he met the enemy head-on and gave him a fight.
At the same time, the 1st Ural Cossack regiment Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Horoshina attacked the 93rd Scottish regiment under the command of Colonel Colin Campbell. Trying to cover a wide front the Russian attack, the Colonel ordered his men to line up to four lines, as required by Statute, and only two. The Scots repelled the attack, and then counterattacked and drove the Russians back to Corgeno.
the Disastrous British attack
Meanwhile, to the field of battle arrived, both of the allied commanders Lord Raglan and the French major General françois Canrobert. It was still only around eleven in the morning. The battle, however, seemed to have already ended successfully for the allies. Despite the loss of the advanced redoubts of the Russian troops was then reflected across the line. Itself Russian command, having achieved limited success, didn’t even think about longasih its offensive attempts. Moreover, it intended to leave and taken at the beginning of the battle the Turkish redoubts, taking with them the captured guns.
Here for the sake of these nine guns and broke out the final episode of the battle of Balaklava, which turned the allied victory into a Pyrrhic. Seeing that the Russians are going to take away guns, Lord Raglan gave the order to the chief of the cavalry division of Lieutenant-General Lord George Lucano immediately attack and hit the gun.
To attack the Russian position, the cavalry had to gallop for at least three kilometres through a narrow valley, concise Fedjunina from the North elevation and the South elevation, which was a part of the Vorontsov road, East of Sapun-mountain. At the end of the valley, the attacker fell into a kind of horseshoe, surrounded by heights, on which were the Russian guns. However, Lucan not challenged the order, and instructed it to run the major-General Lord James Cardigan, the commander of the brigade of light cavalry.
Subsequently talked about the fact that captain Louis Nolan, who handed Lukano a written order to attack, did not give the oral order of the Raglan, “If possible.” That is, the final decision to attack was supposed to take himself Lucan. Nolan was killed during this attack, so he could not confirm or deny this testimony.
At the beginning of the attack Lucan ordered Dragoon brigade Scarlett to support her, but seeing that she was subjected to heavy cross-fire of Russian, told her to back off. However, he does not give such an order to crew Cardigan, alone continue to attack. The Cardigan has lost control over the situation, lost his unit, and after the fight he even wanted to bring charges of cowardice.
the First impulse of the British, overturned and drove in front of the Urals and the hussars, was irresistible. But the attack that led initially to limited success, ended, and was to be completed. Of 670 people, the team lost 110 killed, 160 wounded and 60 prisoners. Thanks to the help of the French, she managed repulsedü Russian counterattack, to avoid total destruction and to depart. Only in the battle of Balaklava were killed and went missing 146 Russian, 122 British, 13 French, and 170 of the Turkish soldiers and officers.
mark in the history
the Battle of Balaclava, has not led to any strategic results, gave rise to a huge number of memes of military history in the West. “Thin red line” as a reporter for the times, William Russell, called dvuhserijnyj a number of Scottish infantry, repelled the cavalry attack the Urals, has become proverbial, representing the defense from last forces. And the “charge of the light brigade” Cardigan has become a symbol of the heroic reckless actions.
Forever etched the epithet, which gave her the French General Pierre Bosquet, “This is great, but this is not war, it’s crazy.” The valley where this occurred, the British called the “Valley of death”. The fatal attack was the subject of many poems, musical works (and in the twentieth century and movies), including the poems of Alfred Tenison and Rudyard Kipling. Most importantly, it fell many officers who belonged to the best aristocratic families of England.
Yaroslav Butakov
Source:
© Russian Seven
Recommended statesalaska… Share: Comments Comments to the article “”This is not war, this is madness!”: the British fought with the Russians at Balaclava” Please log in to leave a comment! br>
Share on Tumblr
