![]() ![]() “As we moved off the Russians opened fire from all their batteries, the round shot passed through us, and the shells burst over and amongst us, causing great havoc. The best account of what happened to the 11th comes from the pen of Troop Sergeant Major Loy Smith, whose diary is in our museum’s possession. With him were 5 officers, a medical officer, Regimental Sergeant Major Bull and 135 men. The 11th was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel John Douglas, who had first joined the army in 1829, transferring to the 11th Hussars in 1839. The 11th Prince Albert’s Own Hussars were in the second line of the Light Brigade (the 13th Light Dragoons and 17th Lancers were in front, with the 4th Light Dragoons and 8th Hussars behind them). However, a cavalry attack on a regiment of British infantry (the 93rd Highlanders) defending the port of Balaclava was repulsed by the “thin red line tipped with steel”, and a subsequent attack on five British cavalry regiments of Dragoons and Dragoon Guards (The Heavy Brigade) ended with the Russian cavalry being chased from the field. The initial attack was successful, with a line of strongpoints (“redoubts”) along a crest of high ground being captured. For the British and French, the most serious fighting took place in the Crimean Peninsula (recently in the international spotlight again), when they besieged the important sea port of Sevastopol.īalaclava is a small port some distance from Sevastopol, where the British had established their main supply base: in the early hours of the 25th October, the Russians launched a major attack to try and capture the town. This action was part of the Battle of Balaclava, in the ill-fated Crimean War between Great Britain, France, Turkey and their allies against Russia. 25th October 1854 saw one of the most famous military blunders in history – the Charge of the Light Brigade. ![]()
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