Battle of Balaclava (25 October 1854) - Russia vs Great Britain

[vostok]

 

[vostok]

Well, despite we've won the battle, but lost the war at the end.

 

[Muhammed45]

What happened in the end of that conflict? Looks like a movie

I guessed, British were the aggressors and Russian were defending. Is it true?

 

[Piotr]

Well, despite we've won the battle, but lost the war at the end.

You lost in Crimea, but you won in the Arctic (Solovsk Monastery), in the Far East (Petropavlovsk), in the Caucasus (Kars) and the Baltic (Sveaborg, Kroonstad) and Perfidious Albion failed to deprive Russia of the sea ports.

Also because of defeat in Crimea, Russia realized that reforms were needed and in fact many reforms were carried out.

 

[TMA]

You lost in Crimea, but you won in the Arctic (Solovsk Monastery), in the Far East (Petropavlovsk), in the Caucasus (Kars) and the Baltic (Sveaborg, Kroonstad) and Perfidious Albion failed to deprive Russia of the sea ports.

Also because of defeat in Crimea, Russia realized that reforms were needed and in fact many reforms were carried out.

Just recently there was another Crimean War where NATO tried to (eventually) capture Crimea permanently by supporting an illegal coup in Kiev...it seems Russia won that...

 

[wiseone2]

I remember reading the "Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred Tennyson

 

[Joe Shearer]

What happened in the end of that conflict? Looks like a movie

I guessed, British were the aggressors and Russian were defending. Is it true?

Are you joking? This was a battle in the Crimean War, and I am sure you will read my post and burst into laughter at my trusting response to your question.

You've just made a fool of me, right?

 

[Muhammed45]

Are you joking? This was a battle in the Crimean War, and I am sure you will read my post and burst into laughter at my trusting response to your question.

You've just made a fool of me, right?

What are you blabbering about? I knew its in Crimea thanks to wiki but as it seems you have filmed it since then the war. You have just made a fool of me, don't laugh at me, please.

 

[Joe Shearer]

What are you blabbering about? I knew its in Crimea thanks to wiki but as it seems you have filmed it since then the war. You have just made a fool of me, don't laugh at me, please.

I seriously don't know what's going on. I give up.

 

[Muhammed45]

I seriously don't know what's going on. I give up.

Well, the war happened because of Crimea but it extended to Balkans. Wiki says result of the war was Ottoman-France-UK alliance, Tsar Russia alone, Italy-Germany rapproachment. A side effect of the war on Crimea. Something similar to WW. Would be thankful if you add some point of yours.

 

[Joe Shearer]

Well, the war happened because of Crimea but it extended to Balkans. Wiki says result of the war was Ottoman-France-UK alliance, Tsar Russia alone, Italy-Germany rapproachment. A side effect of the war on Crimea. Something similar to WW. Would be thankful if you add some point of yours.

The last leaders of the Napoleonic Wars were seen on this battlefield on the British side, that was led by Lord Raglan, the one-armed British General. However, the greatest hero (heroine) who emerged was Florence Nightingale, who introduced improvements in the treatment of wounded soldiers that was largely in place even right through the Second World War.

There are many causes of the war. The biggest was the gradual failure of the Turkish Empire; this, the nineteenth century, saw the independence of Greece, soon after the detachment of the provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia, that formed the modern country of Romania. Finally, Egypt, supposedly a vassal state of Constantinople, under a viceroy, Muhammad Ali, beat the Turkish troops twice, and seemed on the verge of conquering Constantinople. Peace was achieved by ensuring the hereditary succession to the rule of Egypt to the descendants of Muhammad Ali, and to their paying a notional homage to the Ottoman Sultan. All this while, Russia had supported the Ottomans, and Britain and France had either tried to keep the balance or opposed the Ottomans. The situation was very tense, and everyone feared that one or the other of Russia, Britain or France would suddenly take advantage of the Turkish weakness and swoop down and obtain some unique advantage over the others.

The immediate cause of the war was a totally unnecessary aggressive attitude by France, who declared that she would protect Christians under the rule of the Ottomans. The Russians swiftly got involved, and said that France could take care of the rest, Russia would take care of the Orthodox Christians. Britain tried to cool things down, France reluctantly agreed, but Russia would not. So Russia fought Britain, France and the Ottomans, the aims of the war not being very clear.

The first two years were skirmishing in the Balkans. Without going into too much detail, it began to look as if Turkey would be heavily defeated by Russia. Britain and France tried to stop the Russians, but finally went to war, as they didn't want to leave Turkey to be torn apart by the Russians. After preliminary minor engagements in the Balkans, the allies - Britain, France, Turkey and Sardinia (for some reason, Sardinia was also a combatant) attacked Russia on the Crimean Peninsula, in an effort to stop her moving too far towards Turkey.

As you have said in one of your notes, the battles on the Crimea were like World War One. Very large numbers of men were cut down by very modern artillery, and in head-on infantry collisions. The number of wounded was huge, their treatment primitive in spite of the advances made by the French during the Napoleonic Wars. At the worst point of the suffering of the wounded soldiers, the British volunteer, Florence Nightingale, appeared on the scene and substantially improved the hygiene and standards of nursing the wounded. During this part of the campaign, three major battles were fought: the Battle of the Alma, when the allies landed; the Battle of Balaclava, that had two very famous incidents, and the Battle of Inkerman. There is nothing much to be said about these three battles that only succeeded in killing large numbers of soldiers.

The war was fought on a large number of fronts; only a determined professional historian could remain interested in the details. There was a Baltic Front; there was a trans-Danubian front; there was the Crimean front; there were fronts on other sides as well, of a minor nature. The results of the war were to totally discredit the Russian Tsardom; to leave Austria weak and isolated, as her old ally Russia furiously resented her failure to support Russia; to weaken the Turks even more; to put France on top in European politics, and to acknowledge British domination of the seas. Soon, Prussia had beaten Austria, then she beat France in 1871, and laid the foundation for the war of revenge that the French wanted to fight in 1914.

A sad little, bloody little war, where the generals showed that they were indeed donkeys, and the soldiers showed that they were indeed lions.

 

[rambro]

Great Britain?
Nah just call it britain.

Boycott commonwealth games

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

Russia lost the war mostly due to 2 reasons.

1.Very bad road infrastructure - Meaning they couldn't use their massive manpower advantage as large numbers of troops could not be logistically supplied within crimean peninsula.Anglo-french meanwhile were supplied from sea- a more efficient option before railways.

2.Inferior military technology and doctrine- The french were armed with latest minnie rifles with 1000 yards range,while the old non-rifled muskets of the russian army had 300 yards range at most.Moreover Many russian troops were issued just 2 musket rounds and asked to charge with bayonet in deep columns due to their obsession with suvorov doctrine of bayonet attacks that had succeeded in napoleonic wars and against turks.This failed to take into account the changes in military technology.

 

[jhungary]

Great Britain?
Nah just call it britain.

Boycott commonwealth games

Can you not post stupid comment on serious thread like this?

You do know it will only make you sounded stupid, right?

@Slav Defence please delete the post from the poster aforementioned