Struggle in Russia

Fortunately, although Raglan is unreliable, the military literacy of other British officers, especially some generals, is still excellent. When they lost contact with Raglan, they were flustered but quickly made their own judgments.

For example, the three regiments of the Guards Brigade: the Grenadiers, the Scottish Flintlocks, and the Coldstream Regiment crossed the Alma on their own. Wearing red military robes and tall bearskin hats, they looked very mighty.

But it took a long time for the Guards brigade to regroup after crossing the river.

Unable to bear the dawdling of the Guards brigade, the commander of the Highland Brigade, Sir Colin Campbell, ordered an immediate attack.

The man, who believed that bayonets were better than bullets, kept the Highland Brigades from firing until they were "just a yard away from the Russians." It can be imagined how much damage this ill-timed tactic will cause. Anyway, the Highland Brigade was overrun by the Russian army in rows, and soon the corpses were already covered on the riverbank.

The Scottish Flintlock Regiment of the Guards Brigade was the first unit to cross the river. After receiving the order, they immediately launched a charge to Datugang, which repeated the mistake of the previous Light Infantry Division!

At that time, the light infantry division had just retreated from the hillside.

The soldiers of the Scottish Flintlocks were knocked over one after another, and bearskin caps were flying everywhere. When they managed to avoid the fleeing friendly troops, only half of them were left, and the formation was scattered.

In the midst of the chaos, twenty-three-year-old second lieutenant Hugh Ainsley saw:

"Suddenly, the Russian army seemed to fill the earthen hills again, and their firepower became more and more intensive. At this time, the twenty-three regiments retreated from the hillside in a swarm, and smashed our front... I kept shouting: ' Guards, go forward!', and it took us no more than thirty or forty yards to reach the trench."

"At this moment, a bullet hit me in the mouth head-on. Immediately, black and gold stars shot out in front of me. I thought this time was over, so I lay on the ground and waited quietly to die. At this time, our adjutant He rode up with his saber in hand, and he loudly ordered us to retreat. I immediately got up from the ground, turned around and ran."

"I used all my strength and ran all the way to the river below the slope. At this time, the gunshots became more and more intense, and the ground was dusty. I thought that this time the murder was definitely dead, maybe in the next second. You'll be killed by a bullet."

"On the way, I tripped and fell to the ground, but I thought I was shot again, but when I got up, I realized that it was fine, so I took a deep breath and continued to run down. My gun , saber and bearskin hat are all lost, especially the bearskin hat, this thing is really cumbersome, and it is too hot, God knows which crazy person invented this kind of hat!"

Ainsley, who recovered his life, was seriously injured. The bullet entered from his left cheek and flew out from the right corner of his mouth, knocking out 23 teeth and part of his tongue.

It's just that he recovered a small life after all, and most of the soldiers of the Scottish Fusiliers failed to escape, some were killed, and the other was captured by the Russian army.

So much so that in this battle, even if they were repeatedly urged to fight again, the Scottish Flintlocks always delayed and refused for various reasons until it was over.

Two other regiments of the Guards filled the fighting gap left by the Scottish Fusiliers' retreat, but, like the Scottish Fusiliers, refused to continue the charge against the Russians on the big hill.

They began to use the Mignet rifles in their hands to shoot at the Russian army on the big hill, and the fight was so hot.

It’s just that compared with the Russian army, which was only equipped with old-fashioned smoothbore flintlock guns in history, the rifles in the hands of the Russian army at this time were only better than the Miner rifle. Historically, the Grenadier Regiment and the Lengxi Regiment used the Miner rifle. The advantage of the range is to give the Russian army a lesson, but at this time, it can only be suppressed by the Russian army and can't lift its head.

To tell the truth, the British army, whether it is a commander or a soldier, does not understand the biggest advantage of the Miner rifle in history or now!

That is, the range is far and the hit is accurate.

It is a pity that the British army issued the Minet rifle too late and too hastily, almost in a hasty change after the outbreak of the war.

Therefore, from officers to soldiers, they don't actually understand the difference between the Mignet rifle and the old-fashioned flintlock musket. In history, it was this battle that made the British army understand the advantages of the Mignet rifle, so that they have always seized this point to do The article often launched precision strikes outside the range of the Russian musket, which often made the Russian army miserable.

It's just that the British army is not so good now. The Russian army, which is also equipped with breech rifles, does not suffer at all in the hit, and can use the protection of fortifications and bunkers to attack the British army from a height.

After several confrontations, the casualties of the Grenadier Regiment and Lengxi Regiment gradually increased, and they gradually began to lose their strength. At this time Kornilov ordered the 1st Cossack cavalry regiment hidden behind Burlyuk to attack the defense line of the Guards division from the flank.

Seeing groups of Cossacks waving sabres rushing over, the British army began to panic. The officers kept cheering the soldiers up and ordering them to hold their positions, but the effect was getting worse and worse. In desperation, the officers could only ride Immediately whipping those soldiers who tried to escape with whips ~www.readwn.com~ There was no senior commander in control of the battle.

In the British army's own words: "No one gave us orders to tell us what to do to hold the position. The officers were just shouting to hold, but how?"

"In the fifth hour after the battle, we could neither see nor hear any orders from any division commander, brigade commander, regiment commander. We didn't get any orders from them - either to advance or retreat. ,nothing!"

"When we had to retreat, no one told us whether to turn left or right, and where to retreat, and we ended up turning around and running until we couldn't run anymore!"

The ultimate reason for the final collapse of the British army was the collapse of morale and the instability of the army. Later, the British army did its own investigation and found that morale is the decisive factor in modern warfare, because as the weapons become more and more powerful, the confrontation between the two armies will rarely turn into a face-to-face hand-to-hand battle. and escape.

On the battlefield, the most important thing is military discipline - whether the officer can keep the soldiers calm and not flee out of fear. Therefore, suppressing fear is the main responsibility of the officer. To achieve this goal, in addition to establishing authority, the key is to let the soldiers understand why they are fighting!