Zouave's division effortlessly recaptured the British fort occupied by the Russian army, and then pursued the Russian army to the St. Clement ravine at the foot of the mountain. Even because the running momentum was too strong, the French army overran and rushed straight into it.
Up the quarry ravine.
This place was crowded with soldiers of the Tarutinsky Regiment who had withdrawn from the mountains. When they saw Zhuav's troops rushing towards them, they huddled together in horror. Some soldiers tried to fire at the French army, but they ended up hitting themselves.
people.
Fortunately, when the soldiers of the Zhuav Division saw the large number of Russian troops, they were worried that they were no match and quickly chose to retreat. Otherwise, this charge alone would collapse the Tarutinsky Regiment.
After returning to the fort, Zhuav's division found that the British army was in a very dangerous situation facing the right flank of Pavlov's troops.
Dannenberg is directing the pincer attack by the Okhotsk, Yakutsky and Selenginsky regiments as well as Soimolov's remaining troops.
The battle was very cruel. Captain Wilson of the Coldstream Guards recalled that wave after wave of Russian troops rushed towards them with bayonets in hand. If they were not knocked down by bullets, they would fight them hand to hand, foot to foot, and gun to gun.
Muzzle, butt versus butt struggle.
Facing the Russian army that far outnumbered them, the defenders of the Coldstream Guards were reinforced by six companies of Cathcart's 4th Division, led by General Torrens.
The newly arrived British troops were eager to join the battle (they missed the Battle of the Alma River and the Battle of Balaclava). When they received the order to attack the Russian troops near the fort, they chased them all the way down the hillside.
He completely forgot to obey the order, and was attacked from a height by the Russian Yakutsky and Selenkin regiments at close range. Cascart was killed in a hail of bullets, and his burial place was later named Cascart.
Mountain
At this time, the Duke of Cambridge's Guards were down to the last hundred men in the fort, and all their ammunition was gone, but there were still two thousand Russian troops outside.
So the Duke of Cambridge proposed to hold on to the fort until the end - a foolish sacrifice for a stronghold of no great strategic significance.
Fortunately, his staff persuaded him in time: if the Queen's nephew and her Guards standard were brought to the Tsar, it would be a disaster for Britain!
So the Guards began to retreat. The soldiers slowly retreated, ensuring that they were facing the enemy head-on, holding bayonets in their hands and getting ready to engage the enemy. When a soldier fell, his companions must immediately hit him, whether dead or injured.
s position.
Although the number of the Guards was getting smaller and smaller, they always maintained a tight formation and guarded the military flag without blinking an eye... Fortunately, the terrain was very steep, which prevented the enemy from attacking from the flanks.
Of course, from time to time, brave Russian troops would still rush up and try to seize the flag. At this time, two or three grenadiers would rush out to fight them with bayonets drawn, until they were driven back.
At the critical moment, Beauchamp's men finally arrived. The French have never been so welcome to the British. The Guards soldiers shouted to the approaching French soldiers: "Long live France!"
The French soldier responded: "Long live England!"
The Russian army was frightened by the sudden appearance of French soldiers, and immediately began to retreat, running towards Cannonball Hill in a panic. Some of the braver Russian troops tried to stay and consolidate their positions, but the overall morale of the Russian army was severely damaged.
Under a joint attack by the French and British troops, holding on to the position felt like there was little chance of victory.
As a result, people kept sneaking away without the officers noticing, and soon there were not many Russian troops left in the fort.
For a while, Dannenberg thought that he could still win with superior artillery fire. He had nearly a hundred cannons, including twelve-pound field guns and howitzers, much more than the British army.
But at half past nine, the two 18-pounder guns ordered by Raglan finally arrived at the scene and began to fire fiercely at the Russian army.
Huge artillery shells exploded at the Russian artillery positions, forcing the Russian artillery to retreat.
However, even at this time, the Russian army was not completely defeated. They still had 6,000 men on the high ground and 12,000 men in reserve at the foot of the mountain. If organized well, there was no chance of victory.
But in the end, Dannenberg decided to give up the attack and retreat because he found that his organization and command sequence had completely collapsed, and no matter how many people he had, they could not play any role.
However, Menshikov, who was watching the battle from a position 500 meters behind the main force of Dannenberg, and Grand Duke Nicholas and Mikhail, who were ordered by Nicholas I to arrive in Crimea to supervise the battle, did not like this decision.
, They unanimously asked Dannenberg to withdraw the retreat order.
But Dannenberg argued: "Your Highness, if the troops are not allowed to withdraw, then they will have to fight to the last man. I think this is extremely unfair and extremely cruel to the soldiers who have fought all morning. If you think
My order is wrong, so why not take back the command from me and let you continue to direct the battle yourself!"
After the conversation ended, the two had a heated argument for a long time. As a result, each other was unhappy with the other. Both blamed the other for the failure of the battle and were unwilling to take responsibility for the failure, because no matter how you look at it, the Russian army has an absolute advantage.
, absolutely should not lose.
So Menshikov blamed Dannenberg, and Dannenberg put the responsibility on Soimolov. After all, the latter was dead, and a dead man could not defend himself. In the end, the blame was passed on to Soimolov.
The generals agreed that the failure was caused by the lack of discipline and chaos among the soldiers.
Actually, when it comes to why the Russian army failed, the reason is actually very simple, it is the lack of command. The senior commanders are in chaos, and the middle and low-level commanders lack control. Especially Menshikov, the nominal commander-in-chief, speaking
To be honest, this guy did nothing during the battle. He had no idea, no command, and no one made any decisions. He was just like a passerby.
Even Grand Duke Nicholas said in a letter to Crown Prince Alexander: "After the battle started, we waited for Prince Menshikov near the Inkelmann Bridge, but he did not leave the house until half past six. At that time, our troops
The first position has been occupied. The prince and we have been staying on the right wing, and we have not seen any general reporting to him on the progress of the battle... The soldiers are not in order because there is no one to command them... All the chaos originates from Menshi
Cove. What’s even more unimaginable is that he doesn’t have a combat headquarters, and there are only three people around him. With the way they work, if you want to know something, you don’t know who to ask!”
After receiving the order to retreat, the Russian army began to flee in panic. The officers had no way to stop this avalanche of human flesh. The British and French armies continued to harass the Russian army with shelling from behind, making the Russian army's chaos even worse...