It can be said that the Russian army's chain of command collapsed before the war started. The soldiers could only make their own decisions and must fight completely independently.
This is the ultimate test for the modern army. All progress relies on internal cooperation in small units. Each soldier will become his own general, which requires extremely high quality of soldiers!
Of course, the collapse of the Russian army's command sequence due to thick fog was a disadvantage, but the thick fog covering their actions was also a great benefit.
Under the cover of thick fog, the Russian soldiers successfully approached the position quite close to the British position. At this time, the performance advantage of the British Migne rifle could not be exerted, and in order to avoid the heavy rain, the British army's observation was still slightly
Even though someone noticed some movement on the top of the mountain earlier in the morning that day, they did not pay attention to it.
According to the British Army: "There was a thick fog outside, so thick that I couldn't see anyone ten yards away, and it rained almost all night, but it was normal before midnight, but when it was almost dawn, you could hear
The sound of wheels sounded like someone was moving a gun carriage. However, the officer on duty did not say anything, because the church bells in the nearby town had been ringing since nine o'clock, and the band was also playing continuously, shrouding us in
Amidst the huge noise.”
Before the British army could react, Soimorov's troops came down from the top of the mountain. The leading troops of the Russian army appeared in the thick fog. There were 6,000 people in total, from Kolyvansky, Yekaterinburg and Toto.
Three regiments of Mski.
The cannons set up by the Russian army on Cannonball Hill also began to fire, suppressing the British army with fierce firepower. The British army was suddenly in chaos and could only flee in panic.
The sound of gunfire finally woke up the British 2nd Infantry Division. The soldiers were running around in their underwear, getting dressed and packing up their tents. Then they grabbed their rifles and joined the queue.
Everything was so chaotic. Some of the animals pulling packages were frightened by the sound of gunfire and ran wildly in the camp, trampling some people and making the already chaotic scene even more unbearable.
The person in charge of commanding the 2nd Division that day was General Pennyfather, who was the deputy of Delessi Evans. Evans had to hand over the command to him earlier because he was injured in a fall from his horse, but Evans still
Stay at the camp to guide the work.
Pennyfather did not choose the same response tactics as Evans, but chose to send more troops to the front line to confront the Russian army head-on.
It cannot be said that Pennyfather's response was wrong. Due to the thick fog, he did not know that he was facing an enemy that was six times more than his own. However, Soimolov did not know how many people he had.
The British soldiers, under the command of Pennyfather, bravely fought against the Russian army. Due to the thick fog, communication between the various departments of the British army was interrupted and they could only fight in small groups.
Pennyfather was also very miserable. Because the fog was so thick, he couldn't see the movements of the Russian army and his own troops, let alone command. He could only order his two field artillery faces to fire in the direction where the enemy was probably.
.
According to his recollection: "I can imagine the gunners firing at the enemy's cannons mounted on the shells, but each time they fired, more artillery fire fell on their heads. Some gunners fell, even though I ordered them to lie down.
It fell, but a cannon ball still flew towards us. A soldier in the front row had his left arm and legs blown off, and a soldier behind him was killed, but there were no wounds on his body... The cannon fired at the fastest speed
Loading and firing at a fast speed. After each successful launch, the huge recoil caused the cannon to rush towards us... The gunners tried their best to push the cannon back to its original position, and everyone was panting from exhaustion..."
At this stage, the main task of the British gunner is to fire. As long as he can fire the cannon, it doesn't matter where the cannonballs go, because the enemy cannot be seen originally, and violent firing can mislead the enemy, making them think that the number of British artillery is
There are more than we actually have, probably just to fire artillery in exchange for time to wait for reinforcements.
If Soimolov knew the weakness of the British defense, he would definitely order the Russian army to charge, but he could not see anything in the thick fog, and the enemy's fierce shooting, especially the British army's Migne rifle, attacked the Russian army
Shooting after closing in is deadly accurate.
Because the casualties were relatively high, he decided to wait for Pavlov to follow up before launching an attack together.
But just a few minutes later, poor Soymolov was killed by a stray bullet from the British Migne rifle. Colonel Pristov Itov, who took over the command, was also killed a few minutes later. Uvazhnov who continued to take over the command
—Colonel Alexandrov was also killed not long after.
After that, no one knew who should take over the command, and the command sequence of the Russian army was already broken. No one was eager to step up and shoulder the heavy burden, so Captain Andrianov could only be sent to find a few
The general discussed the matter and wasted precious time.
At the same time, at five o'clock in the morning, Pavlov's troops arrived at the Inkelmann Bridge at the foot of the mountain, only to find that the naval detachment did not follow Dannenberg's order to prepare tools for them to cross the river, and had to wait for the pontoon bridge to be set up.
Then cross the river again.
At seven o'clock in the morning, after Pavlov crossed the river, his troops climbed up the high ground in three groups. The Okhotski Regiment, the Yakutsky Regiment, the Selenginsky Regiment and most of the artillery were on the right, and went up through the Sabo Road.
Climb to rendezvous with Soimolov's troops.
The Borodinsky regiment is in the middle, going up from the Volovia ravine, and the Tarutinsky regiment on the left is climbing up the steep and rocky slopes of the quarry ravine, under the cover of Soimolov artillery.
Attack the British fort.
At this time, there were fierce gun battles everywhere at the foot of the mountain. Small groups of armed forces ran around and used the cover of thick bushes to shoot at each other, just like harassing troops often do.
The fiercest battle took place at the fort on the right wing of the British defense line. Twenty minutes after crossing the Chornaya River, the leading battalion of the Tarutinsky Regiment repulsed the British security force at the fort, but immediately encountered a group of soldiers.
Attacked by a mixed force of only 700 British troops.
The commander of this force was Brigadier General Adams of the British army. After fierce melee fighting, the fort changed hands several times. By eight o'clock, the number of Adams's troops and the Russian army had reached one to ten, but because the battle was on a narrow road
The battle was carried out on the ridge of the mountain. The number of men and horses that the Russian army could invest in a single attack was limited, and they could not show their numerical superiority at all. The battle was very difficult and fierce.
In the end, Brigadier General Adams' troops could no longer hold on and had no choice but to retreat. On the way, the British reinforcements finally arrived. The Duke of Cambridge rushed to the scene with the Grenadier Regiment, and immediately joined Adams and launched an attack on the Russian army.
There was a backlash.
At this time, the symbolic significance of the British fort to the warring parties has far exceeded its actual strategic significance, and the competition around this place has entered a fierce battle...