Member Reviews
Vansa D, Reviewer
I've always the Tennyson poem, 'The Charge of the Light Brigade', but I only had a very vague idea about the eponymous military action, that has had such a long afterlife- garments named after Cardigan, Raglan, Balaclava, The Thin Red Line, Florence Nightingale's work gaining importance and the establishment of the Victoria Cross. This excellently written account brings the battle alive. The book gives you a short explanation of the events Leading up to the war, and the roles that different countries played in it, very succinctly. Most of the book is focussed on the Battle of Balaclava itself. I'm not usually an avid reader of military histories, but this book doesn't overwhelm you with irrelevant technical details- the technical details mentioned are quite few, and all germane to the event. The author has painstakingly constructed the sequence of events, almost entirely from eyewitness accounts, and that adds an incredible level of authenticity and immediacy. I can't begin to imagine the hours of research and editing that must have been expended on this! The important players in this-Lords Raglan, Lucan and Cardigan, are described and their characters established in the opening chapters, to set the scene- something you appreciate as the events unfold, given how much of an impact their individual personalities had on the Battle. the animosity between Lord Cardigan and Lord Lucan, for instance, the many years they had spent outside the field of war, Lord Cardigan wanting to operate from his luxury yacht, the exhausting, constant watches and always, the bitter, bitter cold. I had a very vague idea about the Battle- all I knew was that some order was misinterpreted and a lot of men were sent off to certain deaths. What I didn't know was how completely avoidable this was, the callousness of the men in charge, and i knew nothing of the fact that the Light Brigade achieved their objective, of reaching the guns placed at the other side of the valley. Not only did they succeed at that, they even got a large part of the Russian armies to retreat, till they realised the worst- their backup, the Heavy Brigade, led by Lord Lucan, hadn't advanced at all, having seen the absolute carnage in a matter of seconds. Having survived all this, they had to then retreat all the way back to their lines. And they had to do this, under a barrage of gunfire, a battlefield of their dying comrades, confused and panicked horses. You can almost hear the cacophony of screaming men, horses and the din of the guns. The author also emphasises the bravery of the French Corps that consisted mostly of conscripts from their colonies in Africa- they played a huge role in attacking with the Russian gunners on the hills to lessen the firing on the Light Brigade. And they weren't even commanded on by Lord Raglan. Lord Raglan and his team must have realised immediately, they were witnesses to the disastrous Charge from their position on the hill overlooking the valley, and within seconds, the valley was covered in dust and gunfire smoke. Harrowing to witness. The author has made sure to include as many witness testimonies as possible, of the rank and file, and not focus only on the accounts of Commanding Officers. That emphasises the horror and the chaos and the confusion of it, they bore the brunt of this terrible decision. The appendices have more detailed eyewitness accounts, and they make for worthwhile reading too. Sadly though, it doesn't seem like any lessons were learnt, one of the major mistakes made in this campaign was repeated in World War I as well, in pretty much the same geographical location! I would have liked more maps to be included in this, as an aid to visualising the action, I used the excellent maps here http://www.historyofwar.org/Maps/maps_balaclava4.html
The National Army Museum in London has a section devoted to the Battle of Balaclava. One of the exhibits is a tattered note-Lord Raglan's fateful communique. It sent a chill down my spine then, and after reading this masterful description, seeing it again would be all the more evocative. Hugely recommend this immersive book.
William H, Reviewer
After completing my read of an ARC of "Into the Valley Of Death", written by Nick Thomas, to be published by Pen and Sword, I must confess to at first being somewhat mystified at what new material this could bring to a very familiar and oft covered topic, the infamous Charge of the Light Brigade. I am pleased to report that Thomas' recounting of the tale, clearly based principally on a reevaluation of primary sources from the late Victorian period, does shine some new light on the oft repeated tale and is therefore well worth a read if you are interested in the Crimean War (it does a good job with context) and its implications for the the British military. This link is, I think, one that we often miss as we fail to place the events in the Crimea in a context that will ultimately end up in the catastrophic events of World War I. Specifically, the bumbling of the British commanders and the myriad missed opportunities during the battle to turn disaster into something like success. Much of the characteristic bumbling and botched handling of this military disaster is owing to failed interpersonal relationships amongst the British leadership and little coordination with Allied French forces. Take this and mix it with arrogant ignorance, disdain for advice, and a willful insistence in going it alone, and you have a familiar recipe for disaster that presages such future adventures as Operation Market Garden and the even later British/French intervention in the Suez. In terms of new material brought to the table here, there may not be much, but the interpretation of that material, with its insistence that this tragedy could easily have turned into a triumph with a different kind of leadership is one often overlooked with the benefit of hindsight, and this alone makes this a tale well worth revisiting.
