On October 25, 1854, the British and French were battling against the Russian’s in the Crimean War in the Battle of Balaclava. The British Light Brigade, commanded by the Earl of Cardigan, had received orders from his chain of command, to launch a full frontal assault against who they thought were one of Russia’s equally matched artillery teams. As it turns out, the intelligence given to the Earl of Cardigan, and his next in the chain of command, the Earl of Lucan, was completely inaccurate. The Light Brigade was not up against the previously assessed, equally-matched, Russian artillery team, but approximately twenty infantry and artillery battalions strategically set up in defensive positions, patiently waiting for the Light Brigade. Historically, it has been stated that both the Earl of Lucan and the Earl of Cardigan had known that they were going to be out numbered in the battle to come. They had seen the Russian battalions set up in their defensive positions before they made their daring charge. Regardless, the orders were passed from the top, down to the Earl of Cardigan, and the orders were followed through. Approximately six hundred horsemen with the Light Brigade charged towards the Russian battalions, accumulating almost three hundred casualties instantaneously. Some may ask the question as to why these men charged to their inevitable death. One answer is what is stated in an 1835, Volume II, edition of the Southern Literary Messenger. It states that “duty requires obedience, and it would be dishonorable to disobey.” Obedience is defined as the compliance with an order, request, or law or submission to another’s authority, and to these men, backing down from a fight, even with a predicted, unfortunate outcome, would ... ... middle of paper ... ...able to show on paper these men’s desire to follow the orders they had been given. The end of the poem states, “Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon behind them Volley 'd and thunder 'd; Storm 'd at with shot and shell, While horse & hero fell, They that had fought so well Came thro ' the jaws of Death, Back from the mouth of Hell, All that was left of them, Left of six hundred. When can their glory fade? O the wild charge they made! All the world wonder 'd. Honour the charge they made! Honour the Light Brigade, Noble six hundred!” The six hundred horsemen of the British Light Brigade knew that the orders that were given to them would end in almost certain death, but in their training to follow orders, and their loyalty to their leaders, they acted with valor as they charged towards the Russian battalions to reach their end state.
“The war correspondent is responsible for most of the ideas of battle which the public possesses … I can’t write that it occurred if I know that it did not, even if by painting it that way I can rouse the blood and make the pulse beat faster – and undoubtedly these men here deserve that people’s pulses shall beat for them. But War Correspondents have so habitually exaggerated the heroism of battles that people don’t realise that real actions are heroic.”
The American Soldiers showing courage in the face of adversity during the raid has been evident throughout the research of this paper. From Cooks throwing boil pots of water, to Soldiers fighting with no shoes and half clothed. The adversary having planned and executed was not allowed to extract a devastating blow. This is a testament of the American Soldiers adaptability and courage.
From the very first word of the poem, there is a command coming from an unnamed speaker. This establishes a sense of authority and gives the speaker a dominant position where they are dictating the poem to the reader rather than a collaborative interacti...
While marching on the dusty road towards Thièvres, the battalion faced hills and forest along with the scorching heat of the sun; therefore, many of the men fell out of line, so to keep the pace, higher ranking officials would carry two or three rifles. After reaching Somme, heavy rain and German shells began to flood upon the men. The British communications trench, was reduced to ash from a direct hit, although the train station survived the attack, allowing for a slo...
page 175 “No help or backing was to be had then from his high-born comrades; that hand-picked troop broke ranks and ran for their lives to safety of the wood.” (Heaney)
Without a doubt, the men of this battalion greatly contributed to the final solution. The first action the 101st Battalion was order to do took place in Józefów. They went into the town and were ordered to "shoot anyone trying to escape" and "those that were too sick or frail to walk to the marketplace, as well as infants and anyone offering resistance or attempting to hid, were to be shot on the spot". (Browning, 57) They then trucked or marched the Jews they found into the woods just outside the village. "When the first truckload of thirty-five to forty Jews arrived, an equal number of policemen cam forward and, face to face, were paired off with their victims." (Browning, 61) The shear atrocity of this was too much for many of the policemen, so alcohol was provided to calm the men?s nerves. Only a dozen men stepped out and refused to shoot at all. As the day went on, however, many could not continue. They even had a "special technique" dubbed the "neck shot". "The men wer...
One of the most famous Pals Battalion was the Bradford Pals who were in the battle of Somme. They Were all from the town of Radford and over 200 of them left school at Radford High to join the military. The Battle of Somme as recalled by members of the battalion, “ We were wiped out door to door.”1 There were many casualties and only 146 men remained from the 800 men that went into battle with the Bradford Pals. They were just brave volunteers from Bradford who were up against the most trained fighting force in Europe. The German troops were thouroughly trained and were entrenched with machine guns that could cut down British soldiers as they crossed the fields in battle. Despite the large loss of life the Bradford Pals have not been forgotten and are in fact one of the most well known Pals Battalions who ever fought for the British.
An unfortunate placement, General St. Clair’s forces were discouraged, malnourished, over worked and complacent setting the stage for the upcoming defeat. They had setup camp on the frigid night of the 3rd of November, 1791 without fear of any enemy, even though there had been spotting of enemy along their route. The next morning, as complacency in full gear, Soldiers stacked their arms and commenced to eat breakfast, completely unaware they were being watched and about to come under attack. Apart from their arms, they were either bunched up or scattered while eating, unorganized and unprepared for the assault that was about to take place.
The personification in the poem is presented in line 29 where it states “A troop of Echoes whose sweet duty/ Was but to sing” (Poe). Echoes don't necessarily come in “troops,” like an army, but rather in ...
Warfare was in a state of transition. Older commanders and generals in the French and British militaries were very cavalry and infantry focused. These commanders believed that cavalry, infantry, and artillery would assure victory in any circumstance, against any foe. They clung to the static tactics of the bygone World War I era. World War I had been fought primarily on French soil, and the military as well as the government never wanted that to happen again, therefore they wanted to reinforce their main border against any future German. Little did they know that only twenty two years later they would be bested by German forces in a way that would shock the world. This research will be analyzing many important assumptions, oversights,...
It was the evening of Christmas, 1776. The voice of an army sergeant shouted, “Everybody, up this instant! We’ve got a battle to win!” George Washington’s order awoke us soldiers, and we prepared for a rough night, as General Washington knew it would be more than strenuous to get the Continental Army, made up of 2,400 men, across the Delaware River especially in such harsh weather conditions. The plan was to attack in the morning since the Hessians would be celebrating Christmas tonight, they will hopefully be too tired to put up a fight tomorrow morning. The cold, brisk air intruded into the tent, as the rest of the soldiers arose from their slumber, not knowing what the day would bring them, or should I say, night.
At the start of his book, Gilbert explains how: “every book on the Somme contributes in its own way to perpetuating the memory of those who fought and those who fell. This book seeks to make its contribution to that act of remembrance” (Gilbert, xxi). To be able to do this he begins to explain what is going on during the time before the battle took place. He gives some background on the size of the British army at the start of the war in 1914 and discusses who was eligible to fight and the formation of the battalions. An example of how battalions were started was when General Sir Henry Rawlinson “suggested that men would be more willing to enlist if they knew they would serve with those whom they knew: friends, neighbours...
Macksey, Kenneth. Military Errors of World War Two. Great Britain: Arms and Armour Press, 1987.
The police officers escorted the seventeen men into cars and took them to the county jail, but on the way they were halted by a group of armed men, which called themselves “Knights of Liberty”. Knights of Liberty took the seventeen men out of the car and tied them to the tree. As Ellsworth reports, “They were wiped on their back and then hot tar and feathers were then applied to the bloodied backs of the seventeen men” (30).
...them fight. As legislators, poets create an order that should be sought after and fought for, whether it’s part of a collaborative effort to stop a war, or to begin one.