Struggle in Russia

In late September, the coalition forces finally made all preparations, reboarded the ship in Kalamita Bay and headed for Balaclava.

However, before that, the coalition forces suffered a new round of blows. Saint Arnaud finally could not bear the ravages of the disease and chose to hand over the command to Canrobert, and then boarded a steamship bound for Istanbul, but the ship ended up being just His body was sent to Istanbul.

The poor old guy had a heart attack and died on the boat!

St. Arnaud's sudden death was a heavy blow to the morale of the coalition forces. After all, everything had gone wrong since the landing in Crimea. Now even one of the commanders-in-chief of the coalition forces has been replaced. This made the superstitious ordinary soldiers generally believe that this was a bad omen and might indicate that the coalition forces would be defeated.

For a time, people in the coalition forces were panicked, and all kinds of chaos became more and more prominent.

Unfortunately, the coalition forces started the second landing operation at this time, otherwise the idle soldiers would have to cause something big.

The new landing site chosen by Raglan and St. Arnaud was located south of Sevastopol, a small fishing port called Balaclava.

In fact, this place was originally the territory of the Genoese people. According to Italian, it should be called Bellaclava. It was very prosperous before the 15th century, but Turkey destroyed everything. When the Ottoman Turks took over, they destroyed the small port and burned everything.

Strictly speaking, Balaclava is not suitable for use as a true port because its waterways are too narrow and the port facilities are difficult to describe. At least it cannot meet the supply needs of tens of thousands of people.

The reason why the coalition chose to land here is very simple. First of all, it is relatively close to Sevastopol. From here, passing through Kadikoy to the north, you can directly reach Sevastopol under the Mackenzie Highlands.

Kornilov was not very clear about the movements of the coalition forces. At least he did not expect that the enemy would suddenly board the ship again and conduct another landing operation, because this was completely inconsistent with any military common sense. Anyway, he couldn't make such a crazy decision.

Kornilov's judgment was that the coalition forces might wait for reinforcements and then storm Telegraph Hill again, and then go south to take the northern part of Sevastopol. Therefore, he ordered Peter Gorchakov to strengthen defenses and take advantage of the opportunity when the coalition forces were waiting for reinforcements to continue strengthening the fortifications on Telegraph Hill. It would be ideal if the coalition forces could be severely damaged again on Telegraph Hill.

So when the coalition forces suddenly appeared off the coast of Balaclava and began to force a landing, he was completely unprepared. He did not deploy any defensive forces in this direction. The only people defending this small port were some Greek soldiers and local militia groups. Under the heavy fire of the coalition forces, these people quickly retreated, leaving Balaclava to coalition forces.

Kornilov was very baffled when he learned that Balaklava had been occupied by the coalition forces. He couldn't figure out what the coalition forces were doing in occupying this small fish port.

In his eyes, this small fishing port was worthless. Please note that Kornilov's judgment is actually not wrong, because Balaklava does have little military value, as the coalition forces themselves will soon discover.

The reason is that the waterway of this port is so narrow that it cannot even be marked on the map, and it cannot accommodate a large number of ships to berth. And this means that it is simply unrealistic to use it as a supply port. It cannot supply the supplies needed by the coalition's more than 40,000 troops.

Raglan discovered this fatal problem on the third day after landing in Balaclava. Compared with the situation at Kalamita Bay, the supply situation of the coalition forces had not improved at all, and had even worsened!

But it was already too late to regret at this time. The coalition forces couldn't just board the ship again and change places to land for the third time, right?

In desperation, Raglan and Canrobel could only order the main force of the coalition to march towards Kamish and try to seize this small port.

Yes, Kamish is also a small port, located northwest of Balaclava, closer to Sevastopol. Raglan and Canrobel meant that since one port in Balaclava is not enough, Then seize another port. Two ports will always be better, right?

The truth is correct, but how could Kornilov let them succeed? After learning that Balaclava was occupied by the coalition forces, he thought for a moment and understood the coalition's intention. Wasn't it just that they couldn't find another way across the Alma River and Telegraph Hill? Who can hide this?

As the boss of the Black Sea Fleet, he is particularly familiar with Sevastopol and the surrounding areas of Crimea. He naturally knows the actual situation in Balaklava and knows that this port will definitely not be able to meet the needs of the coalition forces.

Since it is impossible for the coalition forces to re-open the route to Telegraph Hill, the only way for the coalition forces is to find another port. What other ports are available south of Sevastopol? It’s not just Kamish!

If Kornilov had enough troops, he might have had a good fight with the coalition during the Kamish era, and he would have definitely taught the coalition a profound lesson.

It is a pity that Kornilov did not have enough troops on hand. The only mobile force was given to Peter Gorchakov to intercept the coalition forces on the Alma River. After that, he did not have any force on hand to create an attack for the coalition forces in Kamish. Trouble.

So the only thing he could do was to completely destroy the port facilities of Kamish, destroy all the docks and lay piles of mines in the port, directly turning Kamish into a dead port.

So when the coalition forces mobilized and rushed to Kamish, they saw a ruins. The port and dock had been completely destroyed by fire. It would probably take ten days and a half to just clean up the ruins.

When the coalition's reconnaissance ship entered the harbor and was blown into two pieces, Raglan and Conrobel looked at each other and smiled bitterly. Obviously the Russians had guessed their intention and put an end to it!

In a letter to his wife that night, Canrobert said angrily: "These damn savages have once again resorted to the same methods as in 1812. They burned everything, destroyed their homes, and wanted to starve and trap us to death. It’s outrageously barbaric!”

Yes, everything about Kamish reminds the French of the cold winter of 1812, especially when the Allied forces marched towards Sevastopol and saw that all the villages and towns along the way were empty. When all the wells were filled with corpses and blocked, and all the warehouses and farmlands were empty, the feeling of déjà vu became even stronger.

When the coalition forces finally reached the foot of Inkelmann Mountain, they were all hungry, their throats were smoking, and they were extremely exhausted. At this time, all the dangerous terrain from Inkelman Mountain to Sevastopol is under the control of the Russian army. What awaits the coalition forces will be a hard battle!