10. A Bungled British Battle
Good communication and attention to detail are vital to the success of any military plan – something hammered into recruits starting on their first day in the armed forces. Nobody seems to have explained that to the British commanders in charge of the Crimean War’s Battle of Balaclava, October 25th, 1854. That day, failures in communication, made worse by inattention to detail, led to a catastrophic blunder that became a byword in military screw-ups ever since. The disaster began on the morning of that fateful day, when a Russian attack chased away British-allied Ottoman soldiers from the Causeway Heights (see map, above) and captured some artillery pieces. From his vantage point on high ground, the British commander in chief, Lord Raglan, saw the Russians removing the guns back to their lines.
Raglan ordered a cavalry charge to stop the Russians from taking away the captured artillery pieces. The British cavalry commander, Lord Lucan, was issued an order that read: “Lord Raglan wishes the cavalry to advance rapidly to the front, follow the enemy, and try to prevent the enemy carrying away the guns“. Raglan wanted the cavalry to attack the Russians he saw moving artillery pieces on the Causeway Heights. Where Lucan was positioned, however, on lower ground in the North Valley, he could not see those guns. The only Russian guns Lucan could see where at the end of the valley, with Russians on high ground to both sides. To attack those guns would obviously result in lopsided losses, and both Lucan and his subordinate Lord Cardigan, commander of the Light Brigade, knew it was stupid. However, as seen below, they simply shrugged, and sent their men to their doom.
