On the other hand, the coalition forces were finally less frightened after receiving reinforcements. Even though military discipline was still in a mess, they finally regained their position.
Then the coalition held another military meeting to discuss how to act next. The funny thing is that Raglan still advocated staying put and waiting for more reinforcements and sufficient supplies before taking action.
It's just that this time, neither the French nor the British wanted to listen to his nonsense. After a quarrel, although they still didn't come to a definite conclusion, the coalition believed that they should strengthen their reconnaissance and figure out Sevastopo on the one hand.
Regarding your situation, on the other hand, let's also see if there are any changes in the Russian troops on Telegraph Hill.
This so-called enhanced reconnaissance is very interesting, because the coalition did not go out personally, but bribed the local Tatars to help.
They believed that the coalition forces would not be particularly defensive against these locals, and it would be particularly suitable for them to explore the true identity of the Russian army.
It can only be said that this kind of idea is really fanciful. The reason is very simple. Kornilov is now very angry with the Tatars and thinks that these are very unreliable. Treating them like Duke Vorontsov with such preferential treatment is simply a white-eyed wolf.
The only way to truly and completely control Crimea is to tighten control over the Tatars and immigrate as many people as possible.
Therefore, the Tatars who had been bribed by the coalition forces were naturally not able to get any benefits when they encountered the Russian army who was waiting for them. They were quickly arrested for acting suspiciously, and then publicly shot.
In order to explain to the coalition forces, the Tatar spies who rarely escaped death could only fabricate lies. They told the coalition forces that the Star Fortress north of Sevastopol was impregnable, and that the Russian army was fully engaged in defense here.
There are almost no decent fortifications in the south of Sevastopol. It can be said that there is almost no defense at all!
To be honest, this information is quite deceptive. It was completely imagined by Tatar spies based on wrong impressions. Only people who have never been to Sevastopol would say this!
Whether currently or historically, the defenses in the southern port area of Sevastopol are much stronger than those in the north.
And from the perspective of military common sense, the coalition forces landed at Kalamita Bay, north of Sevastopol. They attacked Sevastopol from the south. If they wanted to attack the South Port of Sevastopol, the coalition forces would have to make a detour.
bend.
To be honest, this is a bit baffling. If you want to attack the South Port of Sevastopol, you might as well not go as far as Kalamita Bay to land. Directly land at Balaklava and Kamish south of Sevastopol.
Log in!
How simple would it be to directly capture these two ports and quickly launch an attack to the north?
It's crazy for the coalition forces to attack Sevastopol from north to south and then turn around. If they do this, they will not only put their logistics supply lines under attack by the Russian army, but also have to capture it again.
Balaklava and Kamish, once something goes wrong and neither of them can rely on each other, what kind of military strategist would make such a decision!
In fact, the reason why the coalition forces are so inexplicable in Crimea is very simple, that is, internal disagreements and the main commanders have been unable to make up their minds.
Judging from the landing of the coalition forces at Kalamita Bay, their initial idea was to quickly move south after landing and directly attack the North Port of Sevastopol.
This is only reasonable. However, after a series of situations after the landing, the coalition lost confidence in storming the North Port of Sevastopol. There are probably two reasons. One is that attacking the North Port of Sevastopol requires the support of the coalition navy, which requires the navy.
Go and suppress the forts north of Sevastopol.
According to the plan of the coalition navy, they planned to break into the port of Sevastopol directly, and then directly attack the Russian position in North Port from the port, so that the Russian army would be attacked from both sides.
However, this move was ruined by Kornilov and Nakhimov's decisive shipwreck and blockade of the port. The coalition navy had no way to break into the port. Naturally, it was out of the question to support the coalition army attacking North Port.
Another reason is that the Tatars' wrong intelligence caused the coalition forces to misjudge the defense situation of the north and south ports of Sevastopol, mistakenly believing that the south port was easier to attack.
But this is understandable, because since the birth of the city wall, siege operations have been particularly difficult. Even with the advent of artillery in modern times, to be honest, the threat to the city wall from artillery firing solid bullets is far less than what books say.
.
According to the military doctrine of this era, in siege operations, trenches must first be dug to a place not too far away from the city wall, which can cover one's artillery to bombard the opponent's fortifications. Then, under the cover of artillery fire, the infantry can launch an attack.
For example, the French army particularly liked this set of tactics, so they did a lot of work for the British and persuaded the British to abandon their original plan to quickly capture the North Port of Sevastopol and instead advance steadily and step by step.
Sir John Burgoying, the British engineer commander in chief, particularly praised this plan. His reasons were not ordinary. He said: If the North Port of Sevastopol is attacked, five hundred people may be lost. Such a "heavy" loss
The losses were completely unacceptable, so it was better to launch an encirclement operation from the south of Sevastopol slowly and strangle the Russian army step by step.
To be honest, this reason is really inexplicable. The Allied forces lost tens of thousands of people in the battle of Telegraph Hill. Please note that the fortifications there are not as good as those in Sevastopol.
Where did Burgoing get the confidence that he only needed to lose 500 people to attack the North Port of Sevastopol? Was his mathematics taught by his physical education teacher?
What's more, according to him, it is the best strategy to attack the city from the south and encircle and strangle the Russian army step by step. But the question is, is this really possible?
At least it seems impossible from history. The Russian army was not completely trapped. They held on for more than a year and caused heavy casualties to the coalition forces.
However, the coalition forces could not control this in the end. A week later, after another batch of reinforcements of about 20,000 people arrived in Crimea, the coalition forces once again approached the Alma River.
This time, the strength of the coalition forces was as high as 80,000, almost three times that of the Russian army on the opposite side. The pressure on Kornilov and Peter Gorchakov was not ordinary.
"The task I give you is to hold on for at least another week!" Kornilov gave the order expressionlessly, "You must try to protect yourself as much as possible and kill a large number of enemy forces."
To be honest, this order is a bit unreasonable. There are more than 20,000 people versus 80,000 people. You have to stick to it for a week without losing too much. This is too contradictory!
It's just that Kornilov doesn't care because he now needs more time to recruit troops to improve the defense facilities around Sevastopol...