Balaclava battle

Balaclava battle
Balaclava battle
	Main Conflict: Crimean War
	; The military camp of the British troops near Balaclava.
date	October 13 (25), 1854
A place	Balaclava ( Crimea )
Total	Parity. The allies could not begin the assault on Sevastopol, the Russian Empire was not able to destroy the supply system of the allies.
Opponents
Great Britain; France; Ottoman Empire	Russian empire
Commanders
Lord Raglan ,; Francois Canrober	P.P. Liprandi
Forces of the parties
about 20,000	up to 16,000
Losses
the British - 547 killed (including 12 officers), 268 wounded (including 2 generals, 25 officers), 59 prisoners (including 4 officers); total - 874 people. (including 2 general and 41 officers), 2 guns, 1 banner; French - 23 killed (including 2 officers), 28 wounded, 3 prisoners; total 54 people (including 2 officers).; Turks - 170 killed (including 7 officers), St. 300 wounded, 89 prisoners (including 2 officers); total 559 people (including 9 officers), 8 guns, 1 badge; Total - 740 killed (including 21 officers), 596 wounded (including 2 generals, 25 officers), 151 prisoners (including 6 officers). In total - 1336 people. (including 2 generals, 52 officers), 10 guns, 1 banner, 1 badge.	131 killed (including 7 officers), 481 wounded (including 1 general, 32 officers), 15 missing.,; total - 627 people. (including 1 general, 39 officers).

The Balaklava battle of October 13 (25), 1854 is one of the field battles of the Crimean War of 1853-1856 between the allied forces of Great Britain , France and Turkey on the one hand, and the Russian troops on the other.

The battle took place in the valleys north of Balaklava , bounded by the low Fedyukhin mountains , Sapun-mountain and the Chernaya river . It was the first and only battle of the Crimean War , which brought the success of the Russian army.

This battle went down in history in connection with its four episodes: the capture by the Russian troops of four advanced redoubts defending the Allied camp; cavalry battle between the Russian hussar brigade and the heavy British cavalry brigade, the outcome of which still causes much controversy among historians; the defense of the 93th Scottish Infantry Regiment ( Thin red line ), and the attack of the light British cavalry brigade , undertaken by Lord Cardigan after a series of misunderstandings, which led to heavy losses among the British.

The battle was not decisive. The British could not take Sevastopol on the move, and the Russian troops failed to develop success and continue the attack on the positions of the allies ^[2] .

Content

Location of Allied Forces in Balaklava Camp

The Russian detachment, under the command of Lieutenant General Pavel Liprandi , numbered about 16 thousand people and included the Kiev and Ingermanland hussar , Ural and Don Cossack, Azov, Dnieper infantry, Odessa and Ukrainian hunter regiments (all - the 12th Infantry Division ) and a number other parts and units. Lieutenant General Liprandi served as Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Russian troops in Crimea, Prince Alexander Menshikov .

In mid-September 1854, on the hillocks around the occupied Balaclava, the Allied forces built 4 redoubts (3 large and one smaller), which defended the Turkish troops stationed there by order of Lord Raglan. There were 250 Turkish soldiers and 1 English gunner on each redoubt. However, only 3 large redoubts were equipped with artillery. The camp and military depots of the allied forces were located in Balaklava. The British contemptuously treated their Turkish allies, subjected them to corporal punishment for the slightest misconduct, and gave out a more than modest diet.

Allied forces, mainly represented by British troops, included two cavalry brigades. The heavy cavalry brigade under the command of Brigadier General James Scarlett consisted of the 4th and 5th Guards Regiments, the 1st, 2nd and 6th Dragoon Regiments (5 two-squadron regiments, a total of 800 people.) And was located to the south, closer to balaclava. The northern position, closer to the Fedyukhin mountains, was occupied by a light cavalry brigade, which included the 4th, 8th, 11th, 13th Hussar and 17th Lancers (5 regiments of two squadrons, a total of 700 people). The light brigade was commanded by Major General Lord Cardigan . The general command of the British cavalry was carried out by Major General Lord Lucan . French and Turkish units also participated in the battle, but their role was insignificant. The number of Allied forces was about four and a half thousand people. The British Expeditionary Force was commanded by Lieutenant General Lord Fitzroy Raglan , the French by the Division General Francois Canrober .

Plans and forces of the parties

Troop location

In October, Russian forces approached the allied Balaklava base. The city and port of Balaklava , located 15 km south of Sevastopol , was the base of the British expeditionary force in Crimea . The attack of the Russian troops on the positions of the allies near Balaklava could, if successful, lead to the release of the besieged Sevastopol and the disruption of the British supply.

Start of battle

Monument to the Fallen British in the Balaclava Valley

The battle began around five in the morning, before dawn. Russians with a bayonet attack knocked out Turkish troops from the redoubt No. 1, located on the southern flank, and destroyed about 170 Turks. The three remaining redoubts, located to the north and northwest, were abandoned by the Turks without a fight. The panicky fleeing Turkish troops did not render the artillery located on the redoubts unusable, and the Russians got nine guns as a trophy. The British had to stop the retreating Turks by force of arms.
After the capture of the redoubts, Lieutenant General Liprandi launched an attack on the hussar brigade of Lieutenant General Ryzhov with the goal of destroying the English artillery park, as suggested by the disposition drawn up on the eve of the battle. Going to the object of attack, Lieutenant General Ryzhov found instead of the alleged artillery park units of the British heavy cavalry brigade. The Russian hussars and English dragoons were separated by a part of the field tent camp of the English light cavalry brigade, which, most likely, on the eve of the battle, was taken by the Russian command for the mentioned artillery park. As pointed out by eyewitnesses and historians on both sides, this meeting came as a surprise to both cavalry commanders, as their movement hid from each other a rugged terrain. There was a fierce cavalry battle, as a result of which the heavy brigade of the British retreated. But Lieutenant General Ryzhov did not develop success and took his hussar brigade to its original position. The result of this cavalry battle remained uncertain, so each side attributed the victory to itself. However, knowing the combat mission assigned to Lieutenant General Ryzhov, Lieutenant General Liprandi, his retreat to the starting position is quite explainable. Having met the British on his way and having fought, the head of the Russian cavalry considered his task accomplished. He writes about this in his note and this is confirmed in the memoirs of the participant of this cavalry battle, officer of the Ingermanland hussar regiment Arbuzov. After the war, Lieutenant General Ryzhov and Staff Captain Arbuzov noted in their memoirs the uniqueness of this cavalry battle: it rarely happened when such cavalry masses were cut with equal bitterness for such a long time. Therefore, this battle should take pride of place in the history of Russian cavalry.

At the same time, while the hussar brigade of Lieutenant General Ryzhov was fighting with the English heavy cavalry brigade, the 1st Ural Cossack Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Khoroshkhin attacked the 93rd Scottish Infantry Regiment. To cover the front of the attack of the Russian Cossacks too wide, the commander of the 93rd Scottish Infantry Regiment, Baronet Colin Campbell ordered his soldiers to line up in two, instead of the four in line in the statutes in such cases. The words of Campbell's order and the response to them of his adjutant John Scott went into British military history:

“There will be no order to leave, guys.” You must die where you stand.

“Yes, sir Colin.” If necessary, we will do it.

The Times correspondent then described the Scottish regiment at that moment as "a thin red strip bristling with steel." Over time, this expression turned into a stable “ thin red line ”, meaning defense of the last forces.
The attack of the Cossacks was repelled.

Thin red line , picture by Robert Gibbs

Light Cavalry Brigade Attack

"Attack of the light brigade." Picture by Richard Woodville .

But Lord Raglan was extremely dissatisfied with the loss of nine guns at the beginning of the battle and gave the order, which led to tragic consequences. The text of this order to Lord Lucan , recorded by Quartermaster General R. Erie, read:

“Lord Raglan wants the cavalry to quickly attack the enemy in front of her and not allow him to take the guns back. Battery mounted artillery can accompany. French cavalry on your left flank. Immediately. R. Erie. "

The result of the execution of the order was an attack of about 600 horsemen on Russian positions along a three-kilometer valley, under the deadly crossfire of artillery and infantry, located on high ground along the entire valley. From the first line of riders to the Russian positions only about 50 people broke through. During the twenty-minute attack, which began at 12:20, 129 English cavalrymen were killed, and in total up to two-thirds of the attackers died. The rest of the brigade managed to retreat to their original positions. Nevertheless, even in the morning, wounded soldiers and officers returned to the English camp.

One of the participants in the battle, the French general Pierre Bosque, said a phrase that went down in history: “ It's great, but it's not a war .” The lesser-known ending of the sentence read “ This is insanity .”

The phrase "attack of the light cavalry brigade" has become a household name in English, meaning some desperately bold, but doomed actions.

Battle Results

By the end of the battle, the warring parties remained in their morning positions. The Allies died: the British - 547 people, the French - 23 people, the Turks - 170 people. The total number of wounded allies is not known, but only the Turks injured more than 300 people during the battle. Losses of Russians killed - 131 people. Some Western sources, causing the loss of allies to about 600 people, do not take into account the significant losses of the Turkish expeditionary force, which during the Balaclava battle was completely demoralized and was no longer used as an independent combat unit during the war. Separate units of the Turkish Expeditionary Force were attached to the English and French units as auxiliary, and were used mainly for the construction of defensive structures and the transfer of heavy loads.

During the Balaclava battle, the Russians could not achieve their goal - to defeat the English camp and stop supplying the British troops. Nevertheless, the result of the battle was the Allies rejected the idea of seizing Sevastopol by storm and switching to positional siege operations.