Struggle in Russia

After everything was ready, the coalition finally began to move. First up are the high morale Frenchmen who drank their last sips of coffee from tinplate cups and started cheering each other up and laughing about how to fatten Russians.

Soldiers lined up with backpacks on their backs, and the officers began to post enthusiastic pre-war mobilizations: "Cheer up! Are we French men? If we don't make it today, you're a bunch of bastards! Be careful I draw your guts out with my saber! Look to the right! Walk along!"

At the same time, the British finally launched an operation, and the soldiers also lined up to listen to the commander's instructions: "Brothers, we have been waiting for many days, and now the time for a big fight has finally come. We will not give the queen. Your Majesty is embarrassed, we will defeat the enemy, win glory for His Majesty, and win the merits of Kan Xuan!"

At exactly eleven o'clock, the prepared coalition soldiers marched slowly with the blessings of the priests in the army praying for the blessing of the Virgin Mary, and the battle of the Alma River broke out!

After the coalition forces were assembled, the British army was on the left of Sevastopol Road, and the French and Turkish troops were on the right, forming a formation together towards the coastal cliff.

It was a fine, clear, windless day, and a well-dressed crowd of high-ranking Russian officers in Sevastopol gathered on Telegraph Hill at Kornilov's request to observe The way the coalition fights.

From the telegraph hill, you can clearly see the details of the uniforms of the coalition troops. The sound of snare drums, bugles and bagpipes, even the slamming of metals and the neighing of military horses can be clearly heard.

As mentioned earlier, under the order of Peter Gorchakov, the Russian artillery set a distance benchmark on the necessary route of the coalition forces, so that the gunner knew when the enemy entered the range. When the coalition forces advanced to 1,800 meters, the Russian artillery opened fire!

Hundreds of artillery pieces roared in unison, and countless projectiles flew towards the advancing coalition soldiers. For a while, people turned their heads and flew, but the coalition was not intimidated, and continued to advance towards the Alma River at a fixed rate of action.

According to the battle plan agreed upon by Raglan and San Arnault, the British and French forces would simultaneously advance, maintaining a broad forward front, and then attack from the left, inland, to the Russian flank.

However, Raglan suddenly changed his mind again. He ordered his troops to stop advancing and wait for the French army to make a breakthrough on the right flank before defeating the Russian army in front of him.

Immediately, the British stopped advancing and lay down on standby within the range of the Russian artillery, waiting for the right opportunity to cross the Alma River.

This wait lasted for an hour and a half. From twelve o'clock to one point, the British suffered heavy losses under Russian artillery fire, with nearly 2,000 casualties.

On the other hand, the French also encountered trouble in their actions. The French Bosquet Division arrived on the bank of the Alma River. In front of them was a steep cliff that was almost 50 meters above the river!

Historically, the Russian army suffered a big loss here in the Battle of the Alma River commanded by Menshkov. In the eyes of the old eunuch, such a steep cliff could not be climbed unless the French army were monkeys, so this cliff was a natural insurmountable "chapter", and there was no need to send troops to defend it.

So the old **** let go of this place carelessly, but he had no idea that the forward of the Bosque Division was the Zhuav regiment. Most of the soldiers in this regiment were from North Africa and had accumulated rich experience in mountain combat on the Algerian battlefield.

The mountain soldiers of the Zhuav regiment threw their backpacks on the shore, swam across the Alma River, and quickly climbed up the cliff with their bare hands under the cover of the woods, which caught the Russian army by surprise!

The Russian army was stunned by the agility of the soldiers of the Zhuav regiment, and watched them climb the cliff under the cover of trees, as nimble as monkeys. After climbing the cliff, the Zhuav regiment immediately hid in the rocks and bushes, and took advantage of the speed and range of the Miner rifle to kill a small number of Russian defenders one by one!

Loire, the regiment commander who participated in the battle, later recalled: "These guys were amazing. They were so agile and concealed so cleverly that even the commander like me couldn't find where they were hiding!"

With the encouragement of the Zhuav regiment, the morale of the French army was boosted. Not only did more and more soldiers climb up the cliff, but they even transported twelve artillery pieces up the cliff, which hit Menshkov. A surprise, which directly led to the collapse of his defense line.

Of course, this is a mistake made by Menshkov in history, and neither Kornilov nor Pyotr Gorchakov will make the same mistake now.

They noticed this steep-looking cliff as early as when they laid out their defenses on the Alma River. At first, many officers, like Menshkov, thought that the cliff was insurmountable and suggested that Kornilov and Peter Gorchakov did not need to focus on defending here.

But who is Kornilov, he was deeply skeptical of this conclusion, so he simply sent a team of sailors to climb the cliff himself, and the sailors climbed up almost with their bare hands. This so-called natural moat is self-defeating!

Kornilov not only noticed that the cliff is a huge pit, but also found that the trees under the cliff are huge hidden dangers, they block a lot of sight, allowing the enemy to hide and move easily. So he immediately ordered Peter Gorchakov to send someone to cut down the trees in front of the cliff. uukanshu.com did not even leave a clump of grass or a stump to the French.

He even ordered a large number of mines to be laid under the cliff, and built a slightly smaller fort above the cliff, that is, three fortresses. At least twenty artillery pieces were arranged in this fortress, and their firepower could completely destroy the cliff. This one is completely blocked.

So when the French Bosquet Division arrived in front of the cliff again, there was a cliff waiting for them!

After the Zhuav regiment crossed the Alma River under the fierce firepower of the Russian army, it was extremely difficult not to mention climbing the cliff, even getting close to the cliff. pay the price in blood.

Moreover, unlike the history of bullying the Russian army by relying on the range advantage of the Miner rifle in hand, the Black Sea Fleet has long since replaced a new type of rifle. , the French army was beaten up.

After half an hour of fighting, the Zhu Afu regiment had more than half of the casualties and had to retreat to the north side of the river bank to rest in embarrassment.

It was almost two o'clock in the afternoon, and the coalition had fought fiercely for two hours from eleven o'clock. As a result, thousands of people were killed and injured, and the losses were not ordinary!