Struggle in Russia

Because the French army "dropped the chain" and the British army was unable to launch a large-scale offensive alone, they chose to attack some of the Russian bastions on the night of April 19. It was just that the British soon discovered that the Russian army was not generally tenacious. After three consecutive assaults, a large number of officers and soldiers of the 77th Regiment, including Colonel Thomas Edgerton, were either killed or injured and had to withdraw in embarrassment. return.

So Raglan could only turn around and ask again for the cooperation of the French army. In his report to Lord Panmore, the Minister of War on April 24, he said: "We must persuade Canrobert to take the mamelon head. , otherwise we cannot have any success or security as we move forward.”

Likewise, it was important for the French to take the mamelon head, otherwise they would not be able to move forward.

After some moderate bargaining, Canrobert was persuaded, but at this moment he handed over the command to Perlisier, the new French commander-in-chief who had exactly the same idea as Raglan and was ready to Dedicated to taking Sevastopol, the French began to attack the mamelon fort and the "quarry pit" with all their might.

The joint offensive began on June 6. The coalition first shelled the outer Russian positions. The shelling continued until 6 p.m. the next day, and then the infantry began to charge.

According to the plan, Raglan and Pelissier would meet on the battlefield, and then each would signal an attack.

It's just that when the pre-agreed time came, Raglan was embarrassed to find that Perisier was still sleeping, far away from the irascible and straight male commander who was about to take a nap before the start of the war. Who would have thought that fell asleep.

And no one in the French army dared to wake up the commander-in-chief. It wasn't until more than an hour later that he slowly woke up, and then he quickly ordered the French army to start the attack.

Inadvertently, Pelissier also created a military terrier - the famous male lion being commanded by a donkey came from this incident. Because at that time, the commander-in-chief of the Russian Army Corps of Engineers, Totley, said that "the French army is a force commanded by a lion and a donkey", but later this stalk fell on the head of the British army in World War I, and their performance in those years was better than that of today. What do the French want...

The French army's attack signal was sent by Bosquet. At that time, he lectured to each company. After each speech, the reaction of the troops was cheering, shouting and singing invariably.

If you just look at the state of the soldiers, they are more like going to a grand wedding than going into a life-and-death fight.

The main force began to move forward slowly, marching down the ravine through the French fort, facing the mamelon head.

At this moment Bosquet turned to Madame Fanny Duberly, who was with her, and said, "Ma'am, Paris knows only exhibitions, balls, and celebrations; but by half past one half of these brave men will be dead!"

Under the leadership of Zhuav's division, the French army rushed towards the mamelon fortress, and there was no order at all, so the Russian army shot them back with a volley of artillery. Many soldiers ran in panic, and officers had to take them back one by one to regroup and attack again.

This time the French army plunged into the ditch under the mamelon head in the rain of sharp bullets from the Russian army's rifles, and climbed up the wall with all their hands and feet, while the Russian army shot down from above. So much so that the Russian troops equipped with the new breech-loading rifles had no time to reload the ammunition, and could only lift a stone and smash it down.

The French army was also red-eyed, almost climbing up the four-meter-high protective wall one by one, and then pounced on the Russian army who threw stones. The advantage occupies the parapet.

At this time, the Russian artillery on the Nicholas Bastion fort opened fire, the scale of which was unimaginable!

Pieces of flames exploded in succession, one after the other. The Russian gunners were very skilled, wielding sickles like death to harvest the lives of the soldiers of the Zhuav Division.

A part of the brave French soldiers began to attack the Nicholas Bastion fort. They rushed to the ditch in front of the fort tower but had no way to get past. While they were hesitating, Russian artillery fire and platoons of bullets rained down. So the French army collapsed, turned around and fled to the mamelon head.

It's just that the mamelon head is being covered by Russian artillery fire at the moment, and there is no way to stand. So the French could only continue to retreat, retreating to their own trenches and waiting for the Russian artillery fire to cease.

The only good news for the French army was that the Russian army was under-strength, and the Nicholas Bastion battery next to the mamelon fort could not draw out its strength to retake the mamelon fort. After the heavy artillery bombardment ended, After only a few rounds of tug-of-war, the French captured the mamelon fort at the cost of 6,000 casualties.

On the other hand, the British army's attack on the quarry pit was also very difficult. Even if the Russian army in the quarry pit fortress only had a small group of troops stationed, but because of the support of the ribbed bastion, the British offensive troops often rushed into the quarry. The pit fort will be repelled by the Russian counter-charge.

The two sides continued to see each other all night. Under the cover of artillery fire, the Russian army inflicted huge losses on the British army. In the end, after killing 5,000 British soldiers, the Russian army gave up the quarry pit fort.

There were more than 10,000 casualties of the coalition forces in just one night, which stunned Raglan and Pelissier. It's just that the people below are much calmer than the two of them.

For example, after the two sides fought a truce with white flags, General Fay and General Polusky of the Russian army walked together to the no-man's land between the two sides' positions. After a few official speeches, the conversation between the two sides became friendly~www.NovelMTL .com~ The topic involves Paris, St. Petersburg, and the last difficult winter. After the bodies of fallen soldiers were cleaned up, the two sides gave each other cigars. People who didn't know the inside story thought it was a few friends getting together between hunting. smokes.

Even a large bottle of champagne was brought over by several soldiers at the order of General Fay, who proposed a toast to peace. General Polowski accepted it readily, and then he was even more pleased with the wine.

After six hours, the bodies and wounded were finally cleaned up. After checking that no soldiers were left in no-man’s land, the white flag was lowered on the position. According to Polusky’s suggestion, the Russian army moved from the fortress of Nikolai Fortress. A blank bullet was fired, which ended the armistice between the two sides.

For the Allies, the conditions for attacking the Nicholas Fortress after occupying the mamelon fortress and the quarry were basically ready. Raglan and Pelissier agreed to launch their most powerful attack on the Russians on June 18, the fortieth anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo...