The Charge of the light brigade is a disastrous load of Cavalerie, directed by Lord Cardigan during the Bataille of Balaklava the October 25th 1854 at the time of the Crimean War. It remained in the history like the subject of a famous poem ( the load of the light brigade ) of Alfred Tennyson, of which the worms " There are not reason/it is to only act and mourir" made this load a symbol of the nonsense of the war.

Events

The load is carried out by the light brigade of the British cavalry , consisted of the 4 {{E}} and 13 {{E}} light dragons , of the 17 {{E}} lancers , and of the 8 {{E}} and 11 {{E}} , under the command of the Major-general, Lord Cardigan. They charge with the heavy brigade including/understanding the 4 {{E}} Irish dragons with the Guard , the 5 {{E}} dragons of the Guard , the 4 {{E}} dragons Inniskilling and the Gris Scot . These units were the British main forces of cavalry on the battle field. The general command of the cavalry returned to Lord Lucan.

Lucan accepted an order of the commander of the army, Lord Raglan indicating “Lord Raglan wishes that the cavalry advance quickly with the face, follows the enemy, and tries to prevent it from folding up its guns. The assembled artillery can follow. The French cavalry is on your line. Immediate. ”. The order is carried by the Nolan captain, of which it is possible that it transmitted oral complements.

In answer to the order, Cardigan directs 673 (or 661) riding directly in the valley between the hill of Fedyukhin and that of the roadway, named later " Valley of Mort" by Tennyson. The Russian forces, ordered by Pavel Liprandi, comprised approximately 20 battalions of Infanterie supported by more than fifty parts of Artillerie. These forces were deployed on the two sides and the bottom of the valley.

It seems that the order of Cardigan related to the mass of the Russian guns in a fears at the bottom of the valley, approximately 1,5 km further, while Raglan included/understood a group of fear on the other pouring of the hill forming the left side of the valley. Those were not visible light Brigade, placed in the content of the valley.

The brigade arrives in contact with the Russian forces to the bottom of the valley, and the constrained one to flee fears it. It undergoes heavy losses, and is soon forced to fold up itself. Lucan fails to support Cardigan, and some suspect that it was justified by its animosity against his brother-in-law: the heavy Brigade emerges in the valley, but does not advance further. The French cavalry, the hunters of Africa, are more effective in than they break the Russian line on the hill of Fedyukin and cover the survivors of the light brigade during their retirement.

Cardigan survives, and describes later engagement in a speech with Mansion House, with London, which is taken again and quoted in length with the common later:

"We advanced on a gradual slope of more than one kilometer, the batteries vomitting on us shell and scrap, with a battery on our left and one on our line, and intermediate space covered fusiliers Russian; thus when we arrived at 50 meters of the mouths of guns which had spit the destruction on us, us, in fact, were encircled by a wall of fire, in addition to that of the fusiliers on our side.

Whereas we climb the hill, the oblique fire of artillery poured on our back, in such a way that we had a fire heavy on the front one, the side and the back. We entered the battery, crossed it, the two regiments of head striking a great number of the Russian gunners to the passage. In the two regiments that I have the honor to direct, each officer, with only one exception, either was killed or wounded or had its horse killed under him or wounded. These regiments passed, followed by the second line, made up of two additional regiments, which continued the duty to strike the Russian gunners.

Ensuite came the third line, formed of another regiment, which supplemented the duty fixed at our brigade. I believe that it was done with a real success, and the result was that this body, composed of only 670 men approximately, managed to pass through the mass of the Russian cavalry who - as taught we since - was strong of 5240 men; and having crossed this mass, they transfer, like wants it our military technical expression, " with bout" , and withdrew same manner, making as much damage than possible on the enemy cavalry. While returning towards the hill from where the attack had left, we had to undergo same the gantelet iron and to undergo the same risk of the fire of the riflemen on our side as with the outward journey. Many our men were struck, men and horses were killed, and much men whose mountings were killed were massacred whereas they tried to flee.

But, mylord, which was the feeling of these brave men who returned to their position. From did each regiment return only one small detachment, two thirds of committed manpower having been lost? I think that each man engaged in this disastrous business of Balaklava, which was enough lucky to leave there alive, must feel that it was only by one decree of Divine Providence which he escaped dead most certain that it was possible of concevoir."

Consequences

The brigade is not completely destroyed, but terribly suffers: 118 killed, 127 wounded, and 362 lost horses. After the regrouping, only 195 men still have horses. The futility of the action and its imprudent bravery made say to the French general Pierre Bosquet: “It is splendid, but it is not the war. ” It is known as that the Russian commanders initially believed that the riders had drunk too much. The reputation of the English cavalry strongly improved after this load, even if one cannot say of it as much of that of their commanders.

The slowness of the communications by sea makes that the news of the disaster reaches the British public afterwards only three weeks. The reports of the face of the British commanders are published in an extraordinary edition of the London Gazette the November 12th 1854. Raglan Lucan blame for the load, informant that " By his incomprehension about advancing, the lieutenant-general (Lucan) considered that it was to attack at all costs, and it ordered to general major Cardigan to advance with the brigade légère".

In March 1855, Lucan is recalled to the United Kingdom. The load becomes a considerable subject of controversy and public debates on its return. It vigorously rejects the version of Raglan events, treating it of “charge obscuring my professional character seriously”. In a public exchange of correspondence printed in the pages of the Times of London, Lucan blames Raglan and its aide-de-camp (deceased) Nolan, messenger of the disputed order. Lucan defends at the time of a speech to the House of Lords the March 19th.

Lucan escapes the blame for the load, then made member of the Ordre of the Bath in July of the same year. Even if he were soldier of active never again, he reaches the row of general in 1865 and were made marshal the year preceding his death.

The load continues to be studied by the military historians and the students as an example of what can badly turn when one lacks a Military information precise and that the orders are not clear. Winston Churchill, which was a fine military historian and an old rider, insisted in 1945 at the time of the Conférence of Yalta to take time to go to see itself the battle field.

Poems of Tennyson

The load of the light brigade

The poem, published the December 9th 1854 in To examine , glorifie the brigade: " How their glory can weaken? O the wild load which they made! " while groaning on the terrible futility of the load: " Without the soldiers knowing, somebody made a boathook (…) Charging an army, when the world interroge" . Tennyson writes the poem a few minutes after having read an account of the battle in the Times . It becomes immediately very popular, until in the troop in the Crimea, where it is distributed in the form of lampoon.

Speculations exist to know if he were really written for glorifier the Brigade, or like a subtle message on the horrors of the war.

An audio recording of the reading by Tennyson of the poem, recorded in 1890 on a wax cylinder, is available on line.

Text on Wikisource: in

Answer of Kipling

In 1881, Rudyard Kipling writes an answer, titrated the last of the Light Brigade , which tries to give shame to the British public by describing the difficult conditions met by the survivors of the light Brigade.

Text on Wikisource (in English)

The load of the heavy brigade

The more favorable action of the heavy Brigade which takes place the same day is also commemorated by Tennyson in the Load of the heavy Brigade , a poem written in 1882 on a suggestion of Alexander William Kinglake. It never reaches the popularity of the precedent.

The poem is centered on the " three cent" heavy Brigade which took part in the load, i.e. the Scots Grey and the 2nd squadrons of Inniskilling Dragons . The " Scarlett" of which speaks the poem is Sir James Yorke Scarlett, which directs the load. The same day during the Crimean War (October 25th 1854) takes place an action of the 93e regiment immortalized like the fine red line , even if that remained only one legend.

Other media

This load was the subject twice of a film. The first, the Load of the light brigade (1936) by Michael Curtiz with Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland and David Niven is a Hollywood vision inspired by Rudyard Kipling, image mythical of the British imperialism. The second, strongly critical, is carried out in 1968 by Tony Richardson with John Gielgud and Trevor Howard and sought to be brutally authentic, while basing himself on the searchs for Cecil Woodham-Smith in The Reason Why (1953). The animations contemporary, into the style of the Punch Magazine and animated with the manner of the Monty Python introduced film to inform the American audience of the British policy. They contrast with the artistic director meticulous person of Edwad Marshall and the cinematography of David Watkin.

The group psychedelic Pearls Before Swine records an album titrated " Balaklava" , inspired by the events of the load.

The group of hard rock Iron Maiden wrote a song on the load, " The Trooper ". George MacDonald Fraser uses the countryside of the Crimea and the load in its novel Flashman At the Charge .

Worms of the poem is paraphrased in a cryptographic filling of the admiral Chester Nimitz at the time of the Bataille of the gulf of Leyte which takes place the day of the 90e birthday of the load.

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