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Page 2
The guns had to be hauled up the hill by manpower alone. Nothing daunted, the sailors attached three drag ropes to each gun, manned by 15-20 men apiece, and dragged the guns up. A man with musical talents, fiddler, flautist or simple voice, was mounted on each gun as a stimulant, and the men responded with a will:
Fore and aft, fore and aft? Did you hear that British cheer Fore and aft? Each heave was followed by a verse of a song, and the army watched with amazement at the inexorable progress of the heavy guns. The bluejackets of course were used to a daily round of climbing up and down ropes, compressing heavy often rainsodden resistant sailcloth into required shapes, manning capstans and similar duties, which developed their upper body and arm strength to a degree far beyond any level which standard military training might achieve. But even so, it was a tough regime. As Evelyn Wood recalled: 'Probably no 1200 men ever worked harder. We breakfasted daily at 5, began work at 5.30, and except for one hour at midday, worked till 6 P.M., doing actually the work of horses, the distance by the track from Balaklava to what was about to become the Right Attack being just eight miles.' However strong and fit, no detachment could drag a gun weighing four to five tons that distance in one shift, and Captain Lushington was obliged to subdivide his force between a group under Captain Moorsam R.N. operating between Balaklava and the summit of the Col, and a second under Captain William Peel R.N., from the summit to the emplacements. Indeed, as Murphy's law would have it, the heaviest naval guns were to be positioned on the extreme right of the allied position. The location of the first trench line could not be closer to the town defences than 1800 metres. This was determined by the circumstance which would determine events for the next year - the allies could not seal off the south town on the mountainous east side, and the Russians positioned there in October 1854 could take in enfilade any positions further forward. Moreover the ground forward of the initial trenches sloped away towards the town, and would demand increasingly higher, deeper and more complex protection the nearer they approached the town defences. But it is worth remembering that at the time the ground was first broken no one was anticipating a lengthy siege, and the trenches were developed with the main purpose of providing the maximum field of fire for the guns.
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