Struggle in Russia

After this battle, the Russian army lost about 12,000 people. The British army's announced casualties were 2,610 people and the French army 1,726 people.

It's really scary that so many people died in just four hours of fighting!

This rate of loss of life is almost as high as the Battle of the Somme in World War I.

Dead and wounded soldiers were piled together, and scattered limbs scattered everywhere. British war correspondent Nicholas Woods wrote in War Correspondence:

Some of the corpses had their heads missing, as if they had been chopped off with an axe. Some had their thighs blown off, others had their arms missing, and some were shot in the chest or abdomen, as if they had been crushed by a machine.

What shocked me the most was a row of five Russian soldiers. They were lying on the road, face down and shoulder to shoulder in the same posture. They were still holding muskets tightly in their hands, with stern faces. Their expressions were exactly the same, they were all frowning in pain.

However, most of the Russian soldiers who died were stabbed to death with bayonets. Frenchman Louis Noir recalled: "Some Russian soldiers were dying, but most of them were already dead, lying on top of each other in a mess. From a pile of general In the yellow flesh and blood, sometimes you can see outstretched arms, as if begging for mercy. The corpse lying on its back usually has its arms stretched out, looking like it is either resisting danger or begging for forgiveness. Every day Individuals wore medals around their necks, or little copper boxes containing images of saints.”

Sometimes you can still find living people under the pile of dead bodies. They fell to the ground because of injuries, and then the dead soldiers fell on them. Sometimes you can still hear people breathing or moaning under the pile of corpses, because they are too weak to breathe. Use your strength to move the body of your companion who is pressing on you.

But even if they heard these weak voices, these poor soldiers would not be rescued immediately, because the British and French armies had to take care of their own wounded soldiers first, and they were also busy looting the belongings from the corpses and had no time to care about Russia. The life and death of wounded soldiers.

Major General Codrington of the British Light Infantry Division was shocked by the behavior of his soldiers. He said: "The most disgusting thing is that you find that those people who are wandering around the battlefield stealing things have come before you. After passing by, the pockets on the body were opened and the package was cut open. The purpose of these guys was to find money, and all valuable things were plundered - the officers' clothes were stripped off because they were dressed more good."

The coalition spent several days burying its own dead while transporting wounded troops to field hospitals. The casualties of the Russian army will have to wait longer, because Menshikov rejected the proposal of the coalition to cease fighting and clear the battlefield, because he was worried that the Russian soldiers would see that their own casualties were far more than the enemy's, which would affect morale and even cause Mutiny.

As a result, the dead and injured Russian soldiers were left on the battlefield for many days or even weeks. For example, on the twelfth day after the battle, French Colonel Claire discovered four wounded Russian soldiers who were still alive under the quarry ravine. .

These poor guys were lying under a protruding stone. When we asked them how they survived these days, they gestured directly to the sky. It was God who sent them water, and then pointed to a few pieces. Moldy bits of black bread, found in the rucksacks of the many corpses lying around.

Some of the bodies were not discovered until three months later, and according to Claire, they looked like desiccated mummies.

For the two stalemate armies, this battle was cruel. Even for the coalition forces, this victory was very empty. Yes, although they repelled the Russian attack and eliminated the threat to the supply lines from the flanking Russian troops, they paid a heavy price in casualties, and even their domestic public opinion found it difficult to accept this fact, especially when the public learned that The wisdom of launching the Crimean War was seriously questioned after the poor treatment of wounded soldiers in military hospitals.

On November 7, the coalition forces held a joint meeting at Raglan's headquarters, and the French army began to take over some of the British army's positions, which meant that the French army began to replace the British army as the leading coalition force.

At the meeting, Canrobert insisted on suspending any attack on Sevastopol until next spring, by which time the coalition should have more effective forces to join.

He pointed out that the Russian army's defenses were very strong and were simply beyond what the coalition forces could handle now. And with the arrival of Russian reinforcements from Ukraine, plus the original garrison in Sevastopol, the total strength may be around 100,000.

He was worried that "as long as Austria's attitude towards the Eastern Issue is unclear, the Russian army is likely to deploy troops from Bessarabia to continue to reinforce Crimea."

Canrobert concluded that there was no need for the coalition forces to risk a forceful attack until Britain and France formed a military alliance with Austria and sent huge reinforcements to Crimea.

Raglan and his staff agreed with Canrobel's analysis, but there was a thorny problem that the coalition had to face, and that was their lack of sufficient winter supplies. You must know that the Russian army has always had only two generals who are most capable of fighting - Generals of January and Generals of February.

Back then, Napoleon's troops were so powerful that they couldn't defeat these two generals, let alone these rotten eggs!

You must know that the condition of the coalition forces was not as good as that of Napoleon. The tents they used were light summer tents, and their military uniforms were autumn and summer clothes. There were no winter clothes at all.

However, Kangrobel said: "As long as a layer of stones is placed under the existing tent, it can resist the cold. He also believes that the climate along the Black Sea coast is healthy. Except for the cold north wind, the cold in winter is not serious."

It's just that not everyone is as stubborn as the French and never learn their lessons. For example, Delessi Evans asked Raglan to consider abandoning the siege of Sevastopol and withdrawing the British troops. The Duke of Cambridge also said that the troops should be withdrawn to Balaclava, where supplies are at least easy to obtain and there are at least some residential buildings nearby that can withstand the cold wind.

However, Raglan categorically rejected the two men's suggestions and insisted on stationing the troops near Sevastopol to spend the winter. So Evans and the Duke of Cambridge thought it was a crime to do so, and both resigned Raglan before the winter came, and returned to England full of disgust and disappointment with Raglan.

The resignation of these two sensible men triggered a wave of resignations among British military officers. In the two months after the end of the war, 222 of the 1,540 British military officers in Crimea Ten people left, of whom only sixty later returned.

As for the soldiers, morale became extremely low when they realized they would have to spend the winter in Sevastopol.