Fort Malakov

Battle for Malakov

Part of: Crimean War

Storming of the fortifications on Malakov Hill by General Mac-Mahon and his Zouaves .

date	September 8, 1855
place	Sevastopol
output	Allied victory

Parties to the conflict
France United Kingdom	Russia
Commander
Patrice de Mac-Mahon Aimable Pélissier	Vladimir Kornilov †
losses
French people 1,634 dead 4,513 wounded 1,410 missing persons British 2,247 dead, wounded and missing	13,000 dead, wounded and missing

Fortress or Fort Malakow (or Malakoff ) is the common name in Western Europe for a group of temporary fortifications on the hill Malachow- Kurgan ( Russian Малахов курган ) southeast of the city of Sevastopol in the Crimea . The fortifications consisted primarily of several large earthworks, which were hastily erected during the Crimean War after the Allied troops had landed on the Crimean peninsula.

The Malachov Tower during the siege. Russian reserves on the throat of the plant during an Allied attack. (Detail from a painting by Franz Roubaud (1856–1928))

To the history of the plant

The permanent fortifications of Sevastopol, built before the war, served almost exclusively to protect the port entrance of the Russian war port, which was only founded in 1784. The construction of fortifications for the surrounding hills had already been planned in 1837, but so far the construction of fortifications had only been completed on the north side of the elongated bay (1818: Nordfort, Russian Северный форт ). Therefore, after the combined French-British-Turkish army landed in the Crimea, a provisional fortification line of earth walls, bulwarks and sandbags had to be erected on the south side, which consisted of a series of isolated bastions, redoubts and batteries. During the siege, the system of fortifications was expanded and in some cases connected to one another.

Battery built from earth walls and bulwarks on the Malachow Kurgan. (Photography after conquering the plant)

The core of the facilities on the Malachow Kurgan (about 2 ½ kilometers southeast of the city) was a two-story stone tower made of limestone, on which five heavy 18-pound cannons were erected at the beginning of the siege. When the tower was built cannot be taken from the descriptions of the siege. After General Todleben it was established by the Sevastopol merchants and then taken over by the naval administration. The tower was seven fathoms in diameter (about 14 to 15 meters) and 28 feet (about 8½ meters) high. Only this tower, which was built before the beginning of the war, is referred to by the Russians as the Malachow Tower (Russian Малахова башня ). All other newly built fortifications on this ridge had their own names, which were usually derived from their function, such as the Redoute Kornilow (Korniloff), at the top of which was the Malachow Tower, the Lunette Kamchatka or the battery No. 18 Stanislavski.

Since the Russians only provisionally built these fortifications at the beginning of the siege and therefore they were not yet listed by name on the existing maps, the systems on this ridge were simply referred to as "Fort Malakow" after the Kurgan in western reports (where in However, the reporting did not always clearly distinguish between the actual Malachow Kurgan and the Mamelon lying on the same ridge in front of it). The name "Fort Malakow" (or in French "Fort Malakoff") was retained in western literature on the Crimean War after the war, even if it was after the detailed description by General Todleben, the fortress' s engineer officer and builder in 1854/55 of the provisional fortifications during the siege was not actually an independent fort , but rather several connected fortifications that belonged to the chain of newly constructed fortifications south of Sevastopol.

Destruction in the Crimean War

French troops storm the fortifications on Malachow Hill on September 7, 1855. The troops in the foreground carrying the Fez are French Zouaves, that is, soldiers from North Africa. (Lithograph by Edmund Morin (1824–1882) based on a model by William Simpson (1823–1899))

During the almost one year siege of Sevastopol in the Crimean War , the fortifications on the Malachow were fiercely contested, as the whole city and the inner harbor could be overlooked from here. After its conquest by French soldiers under the command of Marshal Pélissier , the later Duke of Malakov (French: Duc de Malakoff ), and General Patrice de Mac-Mahon , the Russian defenders had to evacuate the entire city of Sevastopol on September 8, 1855, so that was the climax of this war passed. Since the fortress made it possible to control the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, the retreating Russian troops blew up the facilities. The victory of the Allies meant that Russia had to do without military fortresses on the Black Sea . The long-awaited Russian wish to dominate the inland sea and to maintain free access through the Bosporus to the Mediterranean and from there to the world's oceans did not come true.

Today's use of the name Malachow / Malakoff

During the long siege, the tower on Malachow Kurgan had become a household name in Europe due to the numerous, often exaggerated press reports. Shortly afterwards, numerous particularly large and massive towers were named after him throughout Western Europe, including a number of masonry winding towers in the Ruhr area (→ Malakow towers ), the so-called Kaponniere Fort Malakoff in Mainz and the Malakoff tower made of yellow sandstone in the city of Luxembourg . The Malakoff cake and a Parisian suburb are named after the Duke of Malakow , as well as a district of La Chaux-de-Fonds and a cheese dish in parts of Switzerland.

Web links

• http://festung-mainz.de/festung/rheinbefestigung.html#208
• http://www.allworldwars.com/Battlefields-of-the-Crimean-Campaign-1854-55.html

References and comments

1. ^ Founding of the city and the war port after the Russian conquest of the Crimean peninsula in 1783; Imperial ukase of February 10, 1784 ( Eduard Iwanowitsch Totleben : The Defense of Sebastopol, Vol. 1. Mittler, Berlin 1864, p. 86.)
2. ↑ Anonymous: Four months of the siege of Sebastopol. Weber, Leipzig 1855, p. 60 ff.
3. ↑ The different spellings Todleben and Totleben are explained by the different transcriptions into and from Russian
4. ↑ Since at the beginning of the siege around the tower a two-meter high glacis was thrown up at a distance of six meters, it towered over the area by only about 6½ meters (Todleben: Die Defense von Sebastopol. Vol. 1, 1864, p. 130 )
5. ↑ Means here a small fortification to protect several guns (see picture of such a battery on the Malachow Kurgan)
6. ^ G. Weigelt: The Siege of Sebastopol 1854-1856. Springer, Berlin 1861, p. 27 ff .; Gustav Wittje: The most important battles and sieges 1708–1855, Bd. 2 . Winter, Leipzig 1861, pp. 3–176.
7. ↑ A large Scythian burial mound
8. ↑ Often referred to as "Mamelon vert" in Western representations
9. ↑ Detailed description of the fortifications in: Death life: The defense of Sebastopol. Appendix to Volume 1 (1864) and Annexes to Volume 2 (1869)
10. ↑ On plans of the fortress and on city maps of the city of Mainz in the 19th century, the work on the banks of the Rhine is referred to as the "Artillery Tower" or "New Casematen Corps".