Chapter 782 Battle of Balaclava (3)

Lucan was completely confused when he received Raglan's order.

why?

The reason is that Raglan's order was too vague. Perhaps from his perspective, the order was very clear, which was to recapture the artillery that had been towed away by the Russian army. This couldn't be clearer.

But the problem is that Lucan is located at the western end of the Causeway Heights. What he can see is: the British artillery in the fortress on his right was intercepted by the Russian army from the Turkish defenders; on his left, there are also At the very end of the northern canyon, a large number of Russian troops were gathered, and he could see that the Russian troops were also dragging artillery there;

That's not all yet, further to the left, on the lower slopes of the Fejukshi Highlands, he could see that the Russian troops there were also deploying artillery.

Well, Raglan had given an order to seize the cannon. How did Lucan know which cannon to seize?

In fact, this problem could have been avoided if Raglan had been more precise when he issued his orders, and if Raglan's adjutant, Captain Nolan of the King's Horse, could have accurately conveyed Raglan's orders. Intention, the outcome of the subsequent British light cavalry charge may be very different.

But Captain Nolan had a big problem. Like many British cavalry officers, he was angry at Luken's inaction during the Crimean War. I feel that the reason why the great British cavalry did not perform well is that the commander Luken was as timid as a mouse and did not make full use of his bold and brave charge.

This is no longer the case twice. Before the Battle of the Alma River, Lucan stopped the light cavalry from chasing the fleeing Cossacks. After landing in Balaclava, Lucan stopped the cavalry from chasing the fleeing Russians. Military skirmishers.

And just now, when the heavy cavalry and the Russian army were dueling, it was clear that the heavy cavalry did not have an advantage in numbers. His light cavalry brigade was obviously not far away and could arrive in a few minutes, but Commander Cardigan The Lord refused to call in light cavalry to pursue the fleeing enemy.

This forced the soldiers of the light cavalry brigade to watch helplessly on the sidelines as their comrades in the heavy cavalry brigade fought the Cossacks for three hundred rounds. Many officers requested to attack more than once, but Cardigan flatly refused. This made the light cavalry brigade, from officers to soldiers, There were beginning to be signs of disobedience.

Many cavalrymen stood up straight in their stirrups and shouted: "Why are we staying here?"

Some people rushed out of the queue and then ran back, repeating the process over and over again. They were obviously extremely dissatisfied!

At this point Nolan played a role in adding fuel to the fire. But when Lucan asked him what Raglan's order meant, the relationship between the two was tense to the extreme. Nolan was obviously guilty of the following!

At that time, Nolan pointed to the end of the canyon in the distance in the most irreverent and affirmative manner and said: "Your enemy, sir, is there! Your cannon is also there!"

According to Luken, what Nolan was referring to at that time was not the British artillery on the causeway heights, but the main force of Cossack cavalry assembled at the far end of the gorge.

At this time, the Russian army had deployed a large number of cannons and new riflemen on both sides of the canyon. To be honest, Luken himself knew that letting the light cavalry penetrate such pockets was extremely risky, but he still accepted this outrageous order after much hesitation.

Then Lucan found Cardigan. As mentioned before, these two are brothers-in-law but their relationship is extremely tense. When Cardigan heard this outrageous order, he directly questioned whether it was a death sentence, but Lucan passed the blame to Raglan, saying that this was an order from the commander-in-chief that must be carried out.

In fact, the British army still had a chance to avoid tragedy at this time. If Lucan and Cardigan could have a good discussion, or stay united and remain open to the outside world, it would not be difficult to refuse Raglan's order.

After all, the British army had done similar things several times before, and the reason why Lucan and Cardigan didn't do it was because the two men didn't get along and were not of the same mind at all.

So under Lucan's strict order, the 661 cavalrymen of the Light Cavalry Brigade began to advance along the gentle downhill slope of the northern canyon. The 13th Light Dragoon Regiment and the 17th Lancer Dragoon Regiment formed the 1st One line, led by Cardigan, followed by the 11th Dragoons. Behind was a line composed of the 8th Hussars and the 4th Queen's Light Dragoons.

They were two thousand meters away from the end of the northern canyon, and it would take seven minutes to pass at standard speed. During this period, they will face Russian artillery attacks from the left, right and front.

When the first line of cavalry entered a trot, Nolan, who was with the 17th Lancers, rushed forward alone, waving his sword and shouting at the cavalry.

In various versions of the recollection, most say that he asked the cavalry to speed up to catch up as soon as possible, but some versions say that he realized his mistake and tried to guide the cavalry to the causeway heights or the southern canyon, where the light cavalry could avoid it. Russian artillery fire.

But no matter what the actual situation was, the first wave of grenades launched by the Russian army exploded directly on top of Nolan's head, and Nolan received a box lunch on the spot.

I don’t know if it’s Nolan’s role model or the light cavalry who are really eager to fight, or they want to increase their speed and quickly pass through the canyon to avoid damage from side fire. Anyway, the first two cavalry regiments have not received the order from Cardigan to charge. He started galloping wildly.

The British light cavalry moved forward at full speed despite crossfire from the surrounding hillsides. Cannonballs rained down like hailstones, hitting the soldiers and knocking down their horses. The sound of gunfire and explosions was deafening, and the smoke was so thick that it was almost impossible to see. War horses and cavalry fell everywhere, and the uninjured horses were also frightened. There was no way to keep them running in a straight line.

Whiteman, a cavalryman of the 17th Lancers, witnessed his sergeant being hit: "His head was blown off by a cannon ball, but his headless body still sat in the saddle and continued to charge forward for about thirty yards. The spear was still tucked tightly under his right arm.”

There were so many fallen soldiers and horses on the first British charging front that the cavalry on the second front one hundred meters behind had to detour or slow down. However, this further disrupted and stretched the British formation. , making it impossible for the cavalry to exert its impact.

A few minutes passed by, and the surviving cavalry on the first charge line finally rushed to the Russian artillery position.

It is said that Cardigan was the first to cross the Russian lines, his horse flinching at the last moment and evading an approaching volley.

Flames, smoke, and roars rushed towards them. The British cavalry slashed several Russian artillerymen with their long swords, then ran towards the Cossack cavalry and killed them...