The Valley of Death and the Thin Red Line

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    October 25th, 1854, saw the famous battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War. War and poetry joined forces to immortalize two iconic events in British military history, one disastrous, one triumphant.

    The Charge of the Light Brigade was an ill fated attack of a lightly armed cavalry brigade down a valley where the Russian guns waited at the other end. They made it all the way, but had to withdraw in the face of heavy losses. In the famous words of Alfred, Lord Tennyson:
    Into the valley of Death rode the six hundred

    The poem contributed to the long-held vision of the charge being the catastrophic result of an arrogant commander’s order who cared little for the lives of his men, but in reality it was due to a misinterpretation of the ambiguous orders that had been given. The original intent had been to stop a different group of Russians from retreating with British guns that they had captured.

    Early in the morning of that same day, the Russians had also seen a cavalry charge fail, when the 93rd Highland Regiment stood their ground in a line only two men deep, protecting the unprepared camp behind them from what might have been bloody slaughter. These men were the original “Thin Red Line of Heroes”, a phrase coined by another famous poet of the day, Rudyard Kipling.


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  • Very good post. Thank you Herr KaLeun.
    My thoughts are always on Agincourt on the 25th, so I often forget the Charge of The Light Brigade. (Was travelling yesterday too.)
    Very nice to be reminded in such a good way.


  • @Herr:

    The poem contributed to the long-held vision of the charge being the catastrophic result of an arrogant commander’s order who cared little for the lives of his men, but in reality it was due to a misinterpretation of the ambiguous orders that had been given.

    True, but it’s inexcusable and extremely dangerous for a commander to give ambiguous orders in a combat situation.  Getting killed because your commander is incompetent at setting clear objectives and communicating them properly isn’t any better that getting killed because your commander is arrogant and callous.

  • 2024 2023 '22 '21 '20 '19 '18 '17

    That’s partly a philosophical issue. I personally tend to be more lenient towards incompetence than towards malice - and I do consider blatant disregard for other people’s lives to be malicious. Also, when judging the error made, the circumstances of the era have to be taken into account. There was no instant communication, no fast technology to avail oneself of a situation, and a peerage would typically contribute more to an officer’s career than achievement would.
    Getting killed for one reason or the other…. it matters little to the dead, I suppose.


  • No matter what kind of battle, it is the ordinary people who suffered a lot.

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