Battle of Malakoff

The Battle of Malakoff , opposed during the Crimean War, the French armies and Russian the September 7th 1855 and belonged to the battle having taken place within the framework of the Siège of Sébastopol. It ended by a French victory (France is then allied in the United Kingdom) under the orders of the Général MacMahon and in the death of all the Russian admirals: Pavel Nakhimov, Vladimir Istomin, and Vladimir Kornilov. The Zouave French Eugene Libaut managed to hoist the French flag in top of the Russian fortress.

This allied victory was going to ensure the fall of Sébastopol, a few days later, after what was one of the most memorable seats of XIXe, and to allow the victory Alliée (the United Kingdom, France, the Ottoman Empire, and the Piedmont-Sardinia).

Defensive preparations

The port of Sébastopol, formed by the Estuary of the Chernaya, was protected from the attacks coming from the sea, not only by the Russian ships which had been scuttled to deprive the access of them, but also by important granite fortifications in the South. In the city itself and the suburbs of Karabelnaya the trace of work remained during years. The Turn of Malakoff, a large stone tower, covered the suburbs, surrounded by each side by the Redan and the Small Step. The city was covered by a line of factories marked by a mast and central bastions, it was separated from the Step by the inner harbor.

The Lieutenant-colonel Eduard Totleben, the Russian chief engineer, had at the beginning sits it started to work on these sites, while repairing, rearming and improving the fortifications each days, he finally managed to connect them in a continuous way and to form an enclosure. Although Sébastopol is not yet, at the beginning of October 1854, the enormous fortress which it became thereafter, and Todleben itself, supported that if the Allies had attacked immediately, they would have succeeded in taking the place, saving time and human lives. There was however, of many reasons which dissuaded them to launch out so early to the attack, and the first attack did not take place before the October 17th.

The Battle

This day there a terrible artillery battle took place. The body of sudden French seat of heavy losses and its firepower were exceeded. The fleet engaged the harbor batteries close to the coasts, and lost 500 men, in addition to the damage inflicted with the ships. The British guns as for them had more success while making conceal the Russian guns from Malakoff and around, and, so of the failures had not taken place in other point of the city, the attack could have been victorious. Despite everything, the next morning, engineers de Todleben had repaired and improved the damaged fortifications.

During months, the head office of Sébastopol continued. During July, the Russians lost on average 250 men per day, which pushed them to decide that Gorchakov and the Russian infantry was to launch a new attack to Chernaya, the first since the Bataille of Inkerman. The August 16th the body of the general Pavel Petrovich Liprandi and of the Read general violently attacked the 37.000 French and Sardes with the top of the Pont Traktir. The attackers arrived with the greatest possible determination, but the exit of the combat was not any doubt at any time. At the end of the day, the Russians withdrew battle field leaving behind them 260 officers and 8000 men; allies while having lost only 1700.

With this defeat, the last chance for the Russians to save Sébastopol flew away. The same day, the allied bombardments had once more reduced Malakoff and its neighborhoods to silence, and it is with an absolute confidence that the general Aimable Pélissier planned the final attack. The September 8th 1855 at midday, the whole body ordered by Bosquet fell down suddenly on Malakoff. The combat was more desperate Russian side: each casemate, each trench, were taken one by one, but the French did not release not taken, and in spite of a new attack fallen through of the British on the Step, the Russians gathered in the fortress becoming of the ideal targets for the allied guns.

Even in the west, in the direction opposed at the height and with the central bastions, an intense body-with-body took place between the two armies. The fall of Malakoff marked the end of the seat. During the night, the Russians fled thanks to the bridges on Northern bank, and the September 9th the winners took possession of the empty building but in prey with the flames. The losses in the final attack had been very high: the Allies had lost approximately 10.000 men, Russians 13.000; not less than 19 generals had died this day there. But the crisis was overcome: with the catch of Sébastopol the losses passed more easily in the public opinion. No serious operation was undertaken against Gorchakov, which with its infantry and the remainders of the garrison continued to hold the heights of the Mackenzies farm, but Kinburn was attacked by the sea, and from a naval point of view, the attack is interesting insofar as she sees the first important deployment of Cuirassé S. an armistice were signed the February 26th and the Traité of fine Paris putting at the war the March 30th 1856.

Continuation

The decisive strategic importance of the head office of Sébastopol is not obvious: how the fall of a city, practically without fortification at the beginning of the conflict, put the tsar of Russia at knee. At first sight, Russia could seem invulnerable with an attack coming from the sea, and the absence of the first success, even crushing, could have humiliated Nicolas Ier. Indeed, the catch of Sébastopol in October 1854 would not have been this decisive, if the tsar had not decided to defend this arsenal until the end, it was the only one with being able to appreciate the need for defending the city, and with final the Russian resources limited operated in favor of the Allies.

The sea brought to besieging all which they needed, whereas the roads desert of the south of Russia were strewn with body of men and horses which had died before arriving at Sébastopol. The precipitated character of the fortifications, also, which rammed each day by the fire of hundreds of enemy guns, were to be rebuilt each night, that obliged to expose the workmen, and weighs down the losses considerably. The news of Leon Tolstoï, which was present at the time of the seat, gave an indication of the war from the Russian point of view; the misery of the crossing of the desert, and the greatest misery still of the life in the casemates, daily orders to go up to the face to await allied attacks which did not take place; and no witness of the seat could leave the city without testing deepest respect for courage, the discipline and the honesty of his defenders.

Memory

In France, the victory was celebrated in a strange way: put aside at the time of the Battle of Magenta (at the time of the Countryside of Italy), only the emperor Napoleon III could acquire titles following a victory, but this distinction was granted the Pélissier marshal. A commune of the Hauts-de-Seine, Malakoff was named in the honor of the victory. Today still, in Malakhov Kurgan place of the battle, a flame burns permanently, to commemorate the Siège of Sébastopol.

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