On the 5th November 1854 a smaller British and (yes) French army beat off an assault by the Russians at Inkerman in the Crimea. It was known as “The Soldier’s Battle” as men fought small engagements due to poor visibility in dense fog.
The Russians had massed 32000 men on the Allied flank and headed for the 2700 man 2nd Division, commanded today by the aggressive Pennefather. Instead of falling back in the face of superior numbers, he advanced. The British had their rifles to thank this day as they took a terrible toll on the musket armed Russian Infantry, who were hemmed in by the valley’s bottle neck shape. The British 2nd Division pushed the Russians back onto their reinforcements and should have been routed by the Russians’ numbers, but the fog and the British Light Division saved them. Three successive Russian commanders were killed in this engagement.
The Russians other 15000 men approached and assailed the Sandbag Battery, but they were routed by 300 British defenders vaulting the wall, blunting the lead Battalions, who were then attacked in the flank. More Russian attacks ensured the Battery exchanged hands several times.
The British 4th Division was not as lucky. Arriving on the field, its flanking move was itself flanked and its commander, Cathcart, killed. This enabled the Russians to advance, but not for long. They were soon driven off by French units arriving from their camps and made no more headway.
The battle was lost and they had to withdraw.
This was the last time the Russians tried to defeat the Allied troops in the field. Despite this reverse, however, the Russian attack had seriously stalled the Allies from capturing Sevastopol. They had to instead, spend one harsh winter on the heights overlooking the city, before it fell in September of 1855.
The British suffered 2573 casualties, the French 1800 and the Russians 11959.
Film: Battle of the Pacific, 2011\.
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Picked up this film for £6 on Amazon. Was really impressed and captivated.
It is based on the true story of Capt Sakae Oba and his command of 46 other soldiers, who survived the Banzai attack of 7th July 1944 on Saipan, to continue a disruptive Guerrila war against the Marines on the island.
If you are interested in the Pacific War, I suggest you try and buy or rent a copy.
Might also be called: Oba, The Last Samurai. -
Sound interesting witt. Will look out for it.
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I have never been a Pacific War fan, but the story intrigued me.
Will bring it to you in November or post it, if I can find an envelope. -
Don’t worry Witt - bought it yesterday, before I saw your post, with my b/day amazon voucher
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Bugger! Hope you enjoy it.
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Watched it last night witt. May not have compared to your exciting evening but I did enjoy it.
Funny though - despite the big battles at the start it’s more of a peace film that a war film, if you know what I mean. Enemies that have learned to hate each other finding a path to a different future despite all the cultural and emotional barriers.
For that reason I found it especially poignant.
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One of the more interesting documentaries I’ve seen on the Pacific theatre in WWII is “They Filmed the War in Color: The Pacific War”, directed by René-Jean Bouyer. Unlike a lot of the colorized stuff that’s become popular over the last several years, this one consists of genuine colour film shot during WWII. It was one of four WWII colour documentaries originally produced (I think) for French television; only two have been released in English translation. What makes them intriguing is that, by limiting himself to genuine contemporary colour footage, Bouyer ends up presenting the war from a slightly unusual perspective. Many classic events of WWII were only shot in black-and-white, so Bouyer had to work around them or skip them altogether; conversely, he used a lot of seldom-seen (and in some cases just recently discovered) footage highlighting pieces of the war that are typically ignored in more conventional documentaries. His Pacific War documentary also has an excellent musical score in my opinion.
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Not seen it or any others of the four Marc.
How honestly did the series treat France’s war record?
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@Private:
How honestly did the series treat France’s war record?
The two that I own (the only two ever released on DVD, I think) are They Filmed the War in Color: The Pacific War and They Filmed the War in Color: Victory in Europe. The English title of the second one is a bit misleading because it was originally the “France is Free” episode of the TV series; it does give an overview of the war in Europe, but spends a lot of time on France from before the war up to the 1944 liberation. I haven’t watched it in a long while, so I don’t remember its details – but I don’t recall the film making any outrageous mistakes or being dishonest about France’s wartime role. In fact, the only scene which I do recall in some detail is a part near the beginning that shows amateur film footage of some sort of public gathering in a small town back in peacetime, and the narration is hardly flattering; it notes that the prewar hierarchical social structure of the town is in full view: the clergy, the magistrates and the peasants. I remember the Pacific one a lot better, and its narration didn’t pull any punches: in one of the first lines of the movie, the narrator says that on such-and-such a date, President Roosevelt lifted the wartime censorship restrictions against showing the corpses of American servicemen in newsreel films.
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Interesting Marc. Thanks.