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Praetorium Honoris

Thursday, October 24, 2024

Someone Had Blundered ...

Charge of the Light Brigade
Richard Caton Woodville Jr.
Source
Throughout the history of warfare there are recorded instances of events taking place for which no good reason can be offered. At the Battle of Balaclava, on the 25th of October 1854, during the Crimean War, such an incident took place. An incident which inspired a great poem by Britain's poet laureate, Sir Alfred Lord Tennyson, a number of films (some good, some not so good) and one book in the Flashman series written by George MacDonald Fraser.

The poem (well, part of it) -

Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
   Rode the six hundred.
“Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!” he said.
Into the valley of Death
   Rode the six hundred.

The field of battle (this is on the Crimea Peninsula, southeast of Sevastopol) -

The incident has come down to us as "The Charge of the Light Brigade."

Now who, or what, was the Light Brigade? Well, they were part of the Cavalry Division deployed with the British Army under Lord Raglan (a rather stuffy man who had lost an arm at Waterloo serving on Wellington's staff, some 49 years earlier). The division was composed of two brigades, the Light and, wait for it, the Heavy.

The Cavalry Division was commanded by Lieutenant-General George Bingham, 3rd Earl of Lucan. Whose own men had nicknamed him "Lord Look On" for his infamous inactivity at the Battle of the Alma. It's also worth noting that Lucan and Cardigan hated each other. 

The Heavy Brigade was made up of three regiments of dragoons and two regiments of dragoon guards (a fancier version of dragoons, but operationally used the same). The Light Brigade, commanded by  Major-General James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan (yes, the sweater is named after him) was made up of five regiments of light cavalry: two hussar regiments, two light dragoon regiments (pretty much the same as hussars but their uniforms weren't as fancy), and one regiment of lancers.

Yes, chaps on horseback carrying a lance, those are the fellows in the foreground of Woodville's painting above.

Now the battle itself was rather a confused affair, the Heavy Brigade won eternal glory (well, they would have had the light bobs not gotten shot to hell) for attacking a Russian cavalry force a lot larger than them. Which they drove off.

The 93rd Highlanders (see the map above) gained fame as the Thin Red Line, in case you've never heard that expression before, it started at Balaclava. Here's why the phrase was coined -

The Thin Red Line
Robert Gibb
Source
The commander of the 93rd, Sir Colin Campbell, felt that his men were too ill-trained and inexperienced to form a square as a mass of Russian cavalry advanced upon them. So he had them form up in two-deep line.

Two volleys saw the Russians turn around and go back from whence they came.

So two heroic incidents.

Meanwhile, on the Causeway Heights, the Russians were overrunning artillery positions manned by Turkish troops. Someone on Raglan's staff saw the Russians removing the guns after overrunning the Turks. Some wags say that the remark was heard mentioning that the Duke of Wellington had never lost a gun and perhaps someone should prevent this.

A Captain Nolan, superb horseman and a big-time cavalry theorist, was dispatched to order Lord Cardigan's brigade forward to prevent the loss of the artillery on the Causeway Heights.

Now from what I've read, Lord Cardigan was an intensely stupid and vain man, he also despised Captain Nolan. So when said Captain gallops up and gives Cardigan his orders, Cardigan, down in the valley, can't see the guns on the Causeway Heights.

"Guns, Sir? I see no guns." Cardigan allegedly said.

Nolan (whose opinion of Cardigan's intellect was very low) responded by sweeping his arm out across the scene and barked, "There my Lord, there are your guns!"

Rather than seek clarification Cardigan decided to advance down the valley towards the only guns he could see. Perhaps he would have asked Nolan for more details, but that man was struck by a shell fragment and his mount went careening across the front of the brigade.

Not realizing that Nolan was already dead, Cardigan assumed that the man, the effrontery of such a thing, had usurped control of the Light Brigade and intended to lead them down the valley.

He ordered the brigade to advance.

Sometimes soldiers will see a thing, an order, an objective, and know that it likely means their deaths. But they also know that sometimes a unit will be ordered into the fight by a general who knows what he's doing and sees an opportunity for victory, though that unit will pay a dear price.

Cardigan probably should have known better, he viewed Raglan as a fussy old man (which he was) but "orders are orders." Cardigan also had a reputation for being one of the most obstinate (and stupid) men in the British Army.

So that day, the Light Brigade went forward.

Out of a strength of roughly 660 men, 110 were killed and 161 were wounded.

They had run a gauntlet of Russian fire coming from both sides of the valley they were in. They had suffered volley after volley from the Russian guns to their front. And they had the audacity to actually reach the Russian gun line and start sabering the Russian gunners before being driven off by more Russians coming to support their guns.

Back down the valley they went, Cardigan in the lead both ways, untouched by shot and shell, unmoved by the destruction of his brigade before his eyes. He was of no more use to the Brigade than the meanest trooper.

Go forward, fall back. Result? You no longer have a Light Brigade.

While there was no lack of brave men that day, the British Army could have used a few more with tactical smarts.

Balaclava
Elizabeth Thompson, Lady Butler
Source
Theirs not to wonder why ...



When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
   All the world wondered.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
   Noble six hundred!
Ibid



32 comments:

  1. As to the second to last sentence......not just tactical smarts but average intelligence Sarge.

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    1. There was a certain amount of that lacking as well.

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  2. A league is about 3 miles (I looked it up)..

    >>A "league" is an old unit of distance, generally considered to be about 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) in English-speaking countries, and the name originates from the ancient Celtic word "leuga" which was adopted by the Romans, essentially representing the distance a person could walk in roughly one hour; making it a common measurement across Western Europe and Latin America<<

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  3. It also is remembered in one magnificent song, 'The Trooper'. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHlLP8NyA60

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  4. To Anon's point above, I think I would argue one of the greatest modern songs (in metal version) of a historical event.

    From the little I have read, Lord Cardigan was everything that you described, the sort of person that should precisely not be in charge of the local neighborhood watch, let alone a military unit. His recorded attitude reminds me much of the portrayal of Lord Chelmsford in Zulu Dawn: arrogant, more concerned about protocol that practice, and woefully underinformed about the tactical situation.

    Sadly, history suggest that while soldiers will often attack at great cost in the belief a greater strategic purpose is understood by their superiors, it is often not the case.

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    1. In many instances the superiors are there because of long service and checking the right boxes, not necessarily due to having talent.

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    2. Sarge,
      That statement was exactly why I retired from my last assignment in the pentagon (Non-capitalization deliberate). The ratio of shoe clerks to warriors might have been 90 to 10. MIGHT have been. We called them Shoe Clerks. The attitude was “You want what? What have you done for me lately?”
      Lord, I loathed the place.
      juvat

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    3. And the money to buy their commissions.

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    4. juvat - Yeah, HQs attract shoe clerks like shite attracts flies.

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    5. StB - Abolished in 1871. Finally.

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  5. George MacDonald Fraser.
    I've enjoyed reading all the Flashman series. The author had a keen insight for both history and human nature.

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    1. The Flashman books are great history. Fraser includes extensive bibliographies in all (most?) of his books. I can vouch for the following: The Reason Why by Cecil Woodham-Smith. First published in 1953 it remains the most authoritative book on The Charge.
      As for Flynn's version of The Charge ... horrible history, wonderful drama. Besides: Olivia de Havilland!

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    2. Cecil Woodham-Smith's book is superb.

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    3. The Mcauslan stories remind me of stories told by my uncle who served with the LRDG in World War Two. They were a different breed of men in those days. Thanks, Uncle Fred.

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    4. I wish he'd written more of those, loved those stories.

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  6. To offer a WW2 example, the tragicomedy of errors at Leyte...
    Halsey taking off in wild goose chase after empty carriers of Ozawa. Kurita almost getting to the defenceless transports, only to be distracted by heroes of Taffy 1, 2,3. Nimitz asking where is tf34. And anonymous signalman forgetting to mark end of message before adding chaff "the world wonders".

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    Replies
    1. Those sort of errors seem to be prevalent in warfare throughout history.

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  7. I'm rather fond if the 1968 version that, through overdramatization, illustrates the pompous, pigheaded prigs populating the British command structure. Plus nice costuming. A couple of clips
    https://youtu.be/jomcECjuYa0?si=MmP3sM1zqCT-7ua1

    https://youtu.be/PPTvqNuqiPY?si=Is3MHRkQu8-o2CvP

    To paraphrase, Dying gloriously for Queen and Country is all well and good, and makes for fine poetry but those who do the dying don't get to hear it.

    I think it was this poem that sparked my interest in muzzle loading artillery when I wevas rather young. "Stormed at with shot and shell." Caused me to hit several encyclopedias to find out about "shell." After all, every little boy knows that that type of cannon shoots solid iron balls.

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    Replies
    1. A far better film than the Errol Flynn version.

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  8. Precisely why I am self employed- I prefer to make my own mistakes and not be held hostage to the idiocy of others.
    Troopers would have been better off drawing straws to see who has to shoot the commander.
    Few places in life does stupidity have a more draconian penalty than in the military.
    And I fear we are shortly to have a remedial lesson in this.
    DEI is an IED.

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    Replies
    1. If you can find an occupation which allows that ...

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  9. I greatly admire the heroics and suffering of the Light Brigade and their comrades in arms, even when "mistakes were made."

    But, I really have to ask- What was the point of the Brits sending their young men, and expending treasure way up in the Black Sea in what is now more or less Ukraine?

    True, they learned a lot of important lessons, but for what geopolitical gain? What vital national interest was served? How did their allies benefit?

    We too often ignore history and the lessons which can be learned if we only look. National borders are imaginary lines drawn on maps, often from far away, usually by people with no personal skin in the game. These lines last only as long as folks in the neighborhood want to honor them, and if not, the lines will be redrawn in accordance with whatever changes the more powerful side wants.

    We have not learned that lesson. We can root for one side or another, even send them billions of borrowed dollars our grandchildren will be forced to repay. But we must resist the temptation to send other peoples sons and daughters off to die or be maimed in places most Americans cannot find on a map, for reasons no one can explain or understand. If looking for examples, the obvious ones are Ukraine (whose borders have shifted nearly continuously forever) and the island of Taiwan. Neither is a vital U.S. national interest for which we should sacrifice our children or go deeper in debt.

    We got broken stuff inside our borders we need to fix.
    John Blackshoe

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  10. Everything that the American Civil War was, from war of maneuver to war of siege, was done in smaller amounts in the Crimea. Nobody learned, especially the British, about the changing role of rifled muskets and rifled guns and trench warfare. Well, at least the American cavalry/dragoons on both sides tended towards pistols, carbines and sabers rather than lances.

    The more things change, the more they stay the same.

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    1. And they went back to the traditional definition of a dragoon, i.e. mounted infantry. The horse are for transport, not for charging in to the fray.

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    2. 6th PA (Rush's) Lancers were originally issued Lances. Used mostly for kindling. Eventually equipped as most Union cavalry.

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    3. It was all the rage at one time.

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  11. My 2 favorite trivia bits about the Charge of the Light Brigade:

    1. A French military attache saw the whole thing and remarked "C'est magnifique, mais c'est ne pas le guerre" ("It's great, but that's now how you fight")

    2. Michael Curtiz was the director of the 1936 film about the battle and wanted it to be spectacular. He had wires strung across where the horses would run, tripping 125 of them and killing 25. Leading man Errol Flynn was so angry at this that he took a swing at Curtiz, and had to be pulled off of him. The US Congress was so angry that they passed a law about animal cruelty in movies, which is why you see a statement like "No animals were harmed during the filming" in every single movie.

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    1. I remember watching the movie for the first time (no, not when it was first released 😁) and wondered how the horses survived such stunts, learning that many didn't, I was infuriated. At least some good came out of that.

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