The Light Brigade.

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11661, 27 October 1923, Page 12

The Light Brigade.

“ Britain’s Immortal Six Hundred. ”

(Specially Written for N.Z. Times By N. J. B.)

October 2>t.h, 1854! Once more comes round the anniversary of the “Charge of the Light Brigade—4th and iith Light Dragoons, 17th Lancers, Bth (King’s Royal Irish) aiul 11th (Prince Albert’s) Hussars—at Balaclava; one of the most astounding war episodes in the war history of the British race since ever its first proud banner had a trusy warrior to hold it aloft in the thick of a battle’s van.

To Antii'-out-an warrior kinsmen bolding proud allegiance to those old-time veteran troops of Britain through anniversaries of their own participation in the South African and the recent great World War campaigns, this particular war anniversary—the “Charge of the Light Brigade" in the Crimean campaign—should make its more than ever grand appeal. May its glorious memory never be dethroned! l ’Tht> history of the Crimean War centres round the name of Sebastopol. This place was the great Russian arsenal 1 and naval station, situated on a broad harbour in the southern portion of tlie Crimean peninsula. The object of the Allies—Britain, France, and Turkey (assisted by a few Sardinian troops) —was to reduce the fortress, and so strike an effective blow at the naval base of the Russians in the Black Sea. • •

“The British troops numbered about 28,000, under command of Lord Raglan, the great military leader, who had fought.and lost an arm at Waterloo, and ended liis career at the storming of Sebastopol in June. iSoo. some eight months after delivering his ill-fated ?otnnoand for the Light Brigade forces to charge the Russian batteries on the heights of Balaclava, and round whose illustrious memory is for ever wrapt the mystery of one of the most colossal blunders in the annals of the said great Crimean War campaign. “Among the English officers was Sir Colin Campbell, who had won a reputation in India whicn he wae destined to enhance in that same land. The French force was about equal in numbers to the British, and was under the command of Marshal St. Arnaud. The Russians, numbering some 40,000 troops entrenched in a loft\’ position commanding the valley, were led by Prince Menvsrhikoff, and among their generals was Todleben, one of the most brilliant soldiers of his time. “England had not been engaged in a European war since she took a foremost part in crushing the Emperor Napoleon; and yet, forty years later, we find both French and British troops in alliance with each other, equally determined to crush the growing military power of Russia, both England and France declaring war on Russia on March 27th, 1854 ; and rendering each other signal help until March, 1850. when terms of peace with Russia ended their great dual campaign —a war that cost England alone tne lose of 24,000 of her bravest fighting men; and a £30.000,000 addition to her National Debt, besides! This much for an outbreak which had been welcomed by many people in England as a change from a long period of peace and commercial prosperity! Or, as one historian puts it, ‘We had known so little of war for nearlv forty years that, added to all the other emotions which the coming of battle must bring, was the mere feeling of curiosity as to the sensation produced by a state of war. It was a thing to read of and discuss and make poetry and romance out of; but they could not yet realise what itself was like.* BATTLE OF ALMA.

“The battle of Alma took place on September 20th, 1354. Under a heavy fire from the Russian guns the Allied armies advanced, crossed the river, and captured the redoubts of the enemy. Had they followed up this victory they might have taker. Sebastopol, but Marshal St. Arnaud was ill, and the English troops were exhausted. They marched slowly upon Sebastopol, and instead of storming the city outright. • established themselves to the south of it, and began a siege which lasted for nearly a year. “The English jsiege lines wore drawn up to the soruth-east of the town, those of the French to the south-west. The supplies for both forces had to be brought from the harbour of Balaclava, at the southern point of the peninsula. The delay of the Allies had given the. great Ruasrian engineer, Todleben, opportunity to throw up strong earthworks for the defence of Sebastopol on its southern side; and, to prevent attack by sea, seven ships were sunk by the Russians, iu the entrance to the harbour, thus blocking the way of Allied naval attack upon Sebastopol as effectually as a reef of sunken rocks; whilst a large Russian force to the ea«*tward formed a continual menace to the lines of communication between the Allied camp* and the harbour of Balaclava. BALACLAVA.

“On October 17th Sebastopol was attacked by land and sea, but this first effort to storm the place was unsuccessful. A few days later there took place the famous battle of Balaclava, which was brought about by an attempt on the part of the Russians to capture the base of the Allied armies. Balaclava was weakly defended at the time, but the Russian advance wan checked by a brilliant charge of heavy dragoons under General Scarlet, which afforded time for the arrival of reinforcements from the troops round Sebastopol Then came the Charge of the Light Brigade,’ the glorious but disastrous result of a mistake! “When the Russians had been driven back by the 03rd Highlanders (an epic of the campaign that will likewise go down to history as a memorable feat of arms unexcelled by any foot regiment since ever civilised warfare on this earth began) and charged in flank by the heavy cavalry, an order was sent down by Captain Nolan, aide-de-camp to Major General Airov, that the Light Brigade was to charge the southern line of height? and drive the enemy fiom tho Turkish batteries. The order was easy of execution. Lord Lucan (the cavalry commander) must ha%e known along which line the Light Brigade ,vas to charge, and Captain Nolan knew perfectly whither to lead the troopers But Cardigan (tho divisional (ornmander) could see nothing from hu« station, and believed he was t‘» char-.r*' st.r«iic'ht along tlv valley in i’-onr of hue. Lord l.iuau did not inform him - ‘ hi - error, and Captain Nolan :: :; o r: o,, f( >,.|y kilVd ju-t. as he ponmv'd h •-a <"k-o*is dir.-'-t km the brigade * ,' ih •, ;•:■«{ while galloping to set it ri 1 i : “Ho-.v re, ri ■■ ;ima i; n. v rtai-d, the fact remains iliat 'or- rnno had blundered/ The men. (570 in number, rode a mile nnd a half through :l deadlv nail of shot and shell. They captured the enemyV battery; hut. larking support in the rear, were forced to beat

a retreat through a second storm of fire. Only 350 returned unhurt. ‘Never did a day of battle do more credit to English courage.’ INKER-MAN.

“On October v 26tU, and again on November 4th, the Russians attacked the right wing of the English siege lines*. Both attacks were splendidly repulsed. The second of these engagements took jdace at inkerman, and has been called the ‘soldiers’ battle.’ The attack was made under cover of a dark nnd drizzly mist. The battle was fought for a while almost absolutely in tiie dark; and, when the battle was won, it was found that a force of 9000 English, afterwards reinforced by 7000 French, had defeated a Russian army 40,000 strong! But, alas, even this great triumph oyer the Russian forces was not vigorously followed up, or Sebastopol might have fallen, and the Allied troops been spared the dread oncoming winter campaign.” In February, 1855, the Czar Nicholas died. The final assault took placo on September Bth, the French troops storming the Malakoff, the English gaining a footing in the Redan, but unable to retain it; the Russians, however, being glad that night to withdraw across the harbour, by a bridge of boats, leaving their erst-impregnable city and fortresses in flames! In March, 1856, terms of peace being arranged, the great Crimean war came thus to its long-drawn-out, spasmodic end. THE REWARD FOR VALOUR. On Friday, June 26fch, 1857, Queen Victoria—amid grand ceremonies of an impressive nature suited to the occasion—personally decorated, in the presence of a tremendous British public in Hyde Park, London, the first sixtytwo war veterans .to wear that most coveted of all war decorations, the “Victoria Cross”—these particular emblems of valour being made from the gun-metal of cannon captured at Se-bastopol—-whose warrant then, and since, goes to all wearers without consideration of rank, “To place all persons on an equal footing, neither rank, nor long service, nor wounds, nor any other circumstance or condition whatsoever, save the merit of conspicuous bravery, shall be held to establish a sufficient claim to tho honour.” A spectator of this first historic scene connected with the first bestowal of “Victoria Crosses” upon the breasts of Britain’s heroes in t«e Crimean campaign paints the scene in the following words : “As tbeso men stood in a row waiting the arrival of Her Majesty, one could not help feeling an emotion of sorrow that T hey were so few. and that tho majority of the meii who would have done" honour even to the Victoria Cross lie in their shallow giftves on the bleak cliffs of the Crimea. Where were the men who climbed the heights of Alma, who huiried fonvard over the plain of Balaclava to almost certain death, who, wearied and outnumbered, yet hold their ground on that dismal morning when the valley of Inkerman seethed with flames and smoke like some vast cauldron? Where were the troops who, during the feaxful winter, toiled through the snow, night after night, with just sufficient stiength to drag their sick and wasted forms down to the trenches which become their graves? Let not these men be forgotten at such a time as this; nor, while we pay honour to the few survivors of that gallant little ax my, omit a tribute to those bravo comrades of theirs who have passed away for ever.” A GREAT FEAT THE CHARGE OF THE SIX HUNDRED. And now we come back, once more, to the aforesaid greatest incident of all connected with a war whose veterans many New Zealanders have seen parading its city streets in the long intervening years since they fought so gallantly for Queen and Country at the Crimean campaign of 1854-56; and, a goodly number of them, in our own country’s defence during its troublesome days of Maori war—tho “Charge of tho Light Brigade” ; an incident, of a truth, that Holds us even spellbound at its audacity; and will do, whilst ever a Britisher on eaTth remains 4o speak its cryptic message, through tho course of history, year by year.

If, in our hours of comparative indolence and ease, some of us have failed to fully appreciate the many deed* of British valour on old-time battlefields, the fault is theirs who have pens and presses at command, nnd. across to contemporary issues of these war-inci-dent and historic days. From the “Illustrated Jjondon News,” is culled, for instance this never-dying war episode of 1354—the “Charge of tho Light Brigade.” “All eyes were turned, in breathless suspense, upon the scene. . . .

“CANNONS TO RIGHT OF THEM.* 1 “To the left of tho Light Brigade there was hostile artillery*; to their right front there was hostile artillery; and they would have to sweep along rifle range of three of the redoubts still in the hands of the enemy. . . . “But thifi is nothing! Straight bcfore those 600 devoted’ riders the whole of the Russian cavalry (now reunited) in six massive divisions, and pausing upon their own reserves (altogether at least 3000 strong) were drawn up diagonally across the great gallery of raking fire--acrt*s it diagonally, but far down. . . .

“Would any of the daring assailants ever reach them? But tnis again was nothing. . . . “Behind frowned (square to their front) thirty heavy guns along a regular line of six enormous battalions of infantry, over whose heads in the rear Umndored their great position-batteries from the hills out of which the assailants had originally drijourhod. and on which thev were now resting again in complete battle array-—a whole army, in short, of 30,(XX) men impregnahi.y po-tod, and holding perfectly in hand i v'-ryi/ning, wlii. h our glorious Six Hundred could attempt either to take “Gne word more remains to be said. . . . Before the little band who had to make their desperate onset amid the centripetal blaze of these piogro«*ivo!y increasing discharges of artillery could Mono in one stroke of the sabre, or one thrust of the lance, they had to

clear a mile and a half of ground! . . . The immortal regiments, whose lot it was thus, in all the pomp of war, hut without one of the military chances lof victory, to ride rejoicing like bridegrooms, into the embrace of death, were the Ith and 13th Light Dragoons, the 17th Lancers, the 11th (Prince Albert’s) Hussars, and the Bth (the King’s Royal Irish) Hussars. . . “Swerving a. little to their own left to get clearer space, this handful of horsemen broke away, superbly upon their appalling errand, their comrades and allies, on the heights, watching the movement, first with wonder ana even incredulity, then with absolute consternation and boundless horror. . . . The field battery which Lord Raglan had mentioned in his order, was not visible near them, nor behind .them; they wero alone! “ALL THE WORLD WONDERED.” “Cries of astonishment and dismay rose throughout the whole camp—the two Commanders-in-Chicf were lost in awe—none could co-operate with those horsemen or protect them now; they were past help. Let us follow them. “First, the redoubts opened with rifles and musketry upon their right; but, not turning a glance either to one side or the other, they were soon borne past by their speed, which visibly increased as they advanced. Every plume streaming back, every head bent slightly forward, every right arm aloft, every horse at grand racing stride, swift as a meteor, the pageant of real battle, flew oiiWards! . . . . “When they had cleared more than half tho distance which had se- ; parated them from the huge columns of Russian cavalry forming the nearest portion of the enemy before them, and when, of the mile and a half, much less than tlnoe-quarters of a mile intervened, a Haze of light burst along the front, faint bluish wreaths of 'smoko rose into the air behind the intervals in the Russian squadrons* obscuring the view of the Russian infantry masses, and at the same moment the first line of the careering brigade, so regular before, appeared like a line no longer, but all ravaged with gape; men were seeh lying oh the ground while their horses wheeled and flew bn-ck; others, on the contrary, extricating themselves from the charges which had fallen; a moment more and the thunders of the artillery which had irado this devastation were borne to the ears of the excited camp. . . But stili the charge was not checked, and on rode the survivors srraight upon the murderous Russian guns, into the very eyes of a storm of musketry from the army of foes behind them, and amid mother but now double cannonade on both sides of their advance—from the position-batteries of the hills. . . . . . . . “Different, indeed, was this manner of executing a charge; different, indeed, was this style of cavalry fighting, from that of the fifteen hundred Russian horse, who on that very morning had declined to meet the narrow front of a single regiment of Highlanders in a single line unsupported, and only two deep. . . . How truly startling the contrast —how unspeakable the difference. . . . “ONWARD THEY THUNDERED.” 1.... “A whole army, in battle array, 30.000 strong, all arms being reciprocally supported with the most perfect effect—an unassailable position—redoubts, batteries, skirmishers, and, finally, twelve times their own numbers of cavalry alone, could neither deter : the British Lignt Brigade from at- : tempting, nor hinder them from carrying, a ciiarge which swept through or swept down the whole of these defences, and fell like a spent thunderbolt on the further side, shaking the enemy’s united and entire force to such a degree that, had this wild swoop of our lost light cavalrv been but made !as a calculated sacrifice, instead of an inexplicable mistake, and had it been supported by anything approaching to a regular or co-ordinated movement, General Linrandi’s fine post would have been ‘annihilated’ that very day. . . . (Such was the opinion of those who beheld the effect, too late to profit by it; amongst others, of Prince Napoleon, who was as much amazed and thunderstruck ae anybody. They ‘saw’ but they had not ‘foreseen’; nor would such a holocaust, if foreseen, have been permitted). . . . .... “After riding beyond the guns, cutting down the gunners, breaking and shattering a column of infantry, and dispersing the cavalry that rode to the rescue, the heroes turned ‘to oharge home again/ their gory and streaming sabres no longer giving back the same flashes to the sun, and they themselves showing but one man to every three who had galloped, five minute® before, from beneath the heights of the Allied circumvallation. . . .

. . . . “Alas! dreadful as appeared such a change of numbers, the full alteration was not yet. Another tremendous douible hurricane of shot, which, coming from opposite quarters, seemed to meet in their persons, passed among them as they turned, and half their remaining force vanished on the spot! Then part of the Russian horse —a cloud of Cossack lances—closed in, and, interposing on their road, not only seemed to bar it, but helped, with the smoke, to hide them completely from the anxious gaze of their comrades in the camp. . . . “OUT OF THE JAWS OF HELL!”

.... “Among these it was a solemn moment when they thus mentally said farewell to every remnant of the noble Light Brigade! Bub a strange interest riveted every look, still, upon the blockod-up plain, and a stranger spectacle rewarded that interest. . . . Swift, sudden, strong, and mighty, was that ‘pounding crash/ which—as with a battering-ram—swung open the centre of the Cossack line, and flung it® folds in shivered fragments on either hand, ;is the Light Brigade ‘oame charging back and cleaving their terrible avenue home.’ .... It was, indeed, the remnant of the British cofpft which had looked bo magnificent and so glittering a few short minutes since. . . . Ah! quantum inutatus . . . Bloody, lacerated ; grim with tho evvent and smoke of battle; about n hundred