Lucan was completely confused when he received Raglan's order.
why?
The reason was that Raglan's order was too vague. Perhaps from his point of view, 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 has given an order to seize the cannon. How does 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. If Raglan's aide-de-camp, 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 have been very different.
It's just that Captain Nolan has a big problem. Like many British cavalry officers, he was angry at Luken's inaction during the Crimean War. He felt that the reason why the great British cavalry did not perform well was because of Luken.
The commander was as timid as a mouse and did not fully display his bold and brave charge.
This is not 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 was dueling with the Russian army, it was clear that the heavy cavalry did not have an advantage in numbers, and his light cavalry brigade was clearly 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?"
Others rushed out of the queue and then ran back, repeating themselves back and forth, obviously extremely dissatisfied!
At this time, 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 with the most irreverent and extremely certain gesture 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 it was not unusually risky to allow light cavalry to penetrate such pockets, but he still accepted it after hesitation.
gave this outrageous order.
Then Lucan found Cardigan. As mentioned before, the two were brothers-in-law but their relationship was extremely tense. When Cardigan heard this outrageous order, he directly questioned whether it was a death sentence, but Lucan turned the blame away.
Gave it 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 discuss it carefully, or unite as one 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
A line, led by Cardigan, followed by the 11th Hussars. Behind was a line composed of the 8th Hussars and the 4th Queen's Light Dragoons.
They were two kilometers away from the end of the northern canyon, and it would take seven minutes to pass at standard speed. During this time, they would 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.
However, no matter what the actual situation was, the first wave of grenades launched by the Russian army exploded directly above Nolan's head, and Nolan received his lunch box 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 flanking 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 artillery and explosions was deafening, and the smoke was so thick that almost everything was lost.
I couldn't see clearly. War horses and cavalry were falling everywhere. 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 rush 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 to exert the impact of the cavalry.
A few minutes passed by, and the surviving cavalry from the first charge line finally rushed to the Russian artillery position.
It is said that Cardigan was the first to cross the Russian line, and his horse shrank back at the last moment to avoid an approaching volley.
Flames, thick smoke, and roars rushed towards them. The British cavalry slashed several Russian artillerymen with their long swords and then ran towards the Cossack cavalry and killed them...