Inkerman 1854: The Soldiers' Battle

Osprey Campaign #51

by Patrick Mercer

On November 5, 1854 the Russians marched out of the besieged city of Sevastopol to throw off the allied British and French forces by mounting a joint attack with their troops from outside the city. Despite outnumbering their enemies five to one the Russians failed to achieve victory in what looked to be almost a foregone conclusion. The third major action of the Crimean War (following Alma and Balaclava), the battle fought in heavy fog at Inkerman proved to be a testament to the skill and initiative of the individual men and officers of the British Army of the day. On 5 November 1854 the Russians marched out of the besieged city of Sevastopol to throw off the allied British and French forces by mounting a joint attack with their troops from outside the city. Despite outnumbering their enemies five to one the Russians failed to achieve victory in what looked to be almost a foregone conclusion. The third major action of the Crimean War (following Alma and Balaclava), the battle fought in heavy fog at Inkerman proved to be a testament to the skill and initiative of the individual men and officers of the British Army of the day. Although they and their French allies lost 2,357 and 929 men respectively, the Russians lost 10,729, six of which were general officers and another six regimental commanders. On an organisational level the effects of the battle on the Russian field army were of the battalions committed to the fight 16 were unscathed, 12 were utterly ruined, 12 had to be withdrawn from the order of battle and ten were deemed fit for duty but at reduced strength. The British felt their losses too, in spite of the victory. Unable to reinforce their troops speedily, the losses at Inkerman meant that a speedy assault on Sevastopol was no longer a the Russians, though defeated, had successfully stalled a crucial allied offensive.

Genres: History, Military History, Military Fiction, Nonfiction

96 pages, Hardcover

First published January 15, 1998

About the author

Born in 1956, Patrick Mercer read History at Oxford University before joining the Army. He commanded his battalion in Bosnia and Canada. Previously receiving a gallantry commendation, he was awarded the OBE in 1997. In 1999, Patrick Mercer accepted a post as the Defence Reporter for the Today Programme. In the 2001 election, he won the Tory seat in Newark. A respected historian, he has already published a non-fiction account of the Inkerman battle during the Crimean War.

Reviews

[Dimitri · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the context - which by vice of necessity drags us back to the origins of the Crimean war and the peninsular battles preceding Inkerman - overwhelms Mercer's story, his familiarity with the ground and life-long passion for the Crimea makes up for that. The brute slaughter among the mists and the boulders makes the illustrations come to life until you can almost feel the chill. He also has a keen eye for the innacuracies of Victorian engravings.

[Evan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second of the Praeger-Osprey military series of books covering The Crimean War, and this one on the Inkerman battle of November 1854 was even better than the earlier one that covered the Balaclava campaigns (see my review on that at: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... ).

This volume was superior in every way, including even more of the series' splendid 3-D battle maps, and numerous beautiful, vivid paintings of hand-to-hand combat by Graham Turner. Patrick Mercer's prose is much more in-depth and analytical and more engaging than John Sweetman's in the Balaclava book. The book also better covers and fills in gaps about earlier battles at Alma, for instance, that are skated over in the earlier book, and nicely recaps the Charge of the Light Brigade and other battles covered beforehand. This book also does a better job of explaining the command, the training, and the armaments of the combatants. It also includes a description and photos of the battlefields today, not something included in the other book.

Although I have been appalled by war for most of my life, I have to admit that reading about the British triumphs at Inkerman is inspirational. Outnumbered 5-to-1 by the numerically superior Russians, the Brits and their allies, as the enemy admitted, "fought like devils," and their exploits have rightly been the stuff of legend in the British colonial annals.

Fought in hilly, rough terrain amid the fog and smoke, Inkerman was called "the soldier's war," because it was personal. The battlefields were claustrophobic, the enemy could appear suddenly, and the fighting was very up close: hand-to-hand and bayonet-to-bayonet.

The Russians had a good plan with superior numbers, and in theory they should have been able to drive a wedge, link their armies, cut British supply lines and relieve the siege of Sevastopol. Author Mercer does a great job explaining why this didn't happen, and why the British victory against the odds, successful though it was in the short term, merely meant the prolonging of a war that lasted through two more excruciating winters.

(KevinR@Ky 2016)

[Станислав · Rating 3 out of 5]

Карты и текст сбивают с толку, приходится прыгать туда-сюда. Лучше бы разбил текст по промежуткам примерно в 30 минут и давал детальное описание какое соединение куда сместилось на какой стадии и перед этим карта.
По сражению: французы дождались пока британцы полностью вымотаются и пришли взять поле.

[Sean Chick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good if at times confusing book about a confusing battle. There was oddly no discussion of the state of the French army before the battle, although their troops played a key role in the battle.

[Cimuchowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some context on the famous "Charge of the Light Brigand"