Battle of the Alma

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Battle of the Alma
Part of: Crimean War
"The Coldstream Guards at the Alma" by RC Woodville
"The Coldstream Guards at the Alma" by RC Woodville
date September 20, 1854
place Alma River
output Allied victory
Parties to the conflict

Russian Empire 1721Russian Empire Russia

Second empireSecond empire France United Kingdom
United Kingdom 1801United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland 

Commander

Russian Empire 1721Russian Empire Alexander Menshikov

Second empireSecond empire Armand Arnaud Fitzroy Somerset
United Kingdom 1801United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

Troop strength
37,000 men 62,000 men
losses

5,709 men

3,342 men

Crimean War (1853-1856)

The Battle of the Alma on September 20, 1854 was a battle in the Crimean War between Russia on the one hand and France and Great Britain on the other. It was the first meeting of the warring parties in the Crimea and ended with an Allied victory.

Structure of the armies

course

The Anglo-French expeditionary force landed on September 14, 1854 in the Crimea in Kalamita Bay , a good 50 km north of Sevastopol . It has a wide sandy beach, which is shielded on the land side by salt water lagoons. The day before Yevpatoria had been occupied, at that time a small port town at the northern end of the bay with about 9,000 inhabitants without a Russian military presence, in order to protect the northern flank of the landing operation.

The landing of the French and English troops took five days: infantry, cavalry, artillery and supply train. On the 19th, the Allies marched south towards Sevastopol, where they were awaited by the Russians under Prince Alexander Menshikov on the Alma River . Menshikov had taken a well-developed position on a hill south of the river bank. Gorchakov commanded the Russian right wing, Kirjakov the left. On the Allied side, the French covered the right seaward wing near the mouth of the river, where relatively steep cliffs rose up, and the British covered the left wing inland.

After difficulties in the coordination of the attack of the Allies between the commanders Marshal Arnaud and Lord Raglan , the French could Division of Pierre Bosquet reach the plateau. The British should launch a similar attack against the opposing right wing. However, this took place in a poorly coordinated manner and only did not lead to disaster because of the tenacity of the British soldiers. In the meantime, the French were able to create a second division and artillery on the plateau and thereby decide the battle.

rating

In the end, it turned out that the unprotected Russian left flank was a major weak point. Despite the cliffs at the mouth of the Alma and the steep hills that adjoin it, the French used these places for the advance. They even brought 12 cannons over a valley incision to the 50 m high plateau, from where they fired at the Russian positions further east, for which an attack from this direction was surprising.

Furthermore, the Minié projectiles of rifles with rifled barrel used on the Allied side demonstrated tactical advantages over the Russian muskets. Due to the significantly higher effective range , not only could enemy infantry be kept at a distance, but artillery could also be fought.

Monuments and memory

Napoleon III had one of the bridges over the Seine in Paris named after the battle, the Pont de l'Alma .

Alma - Marceau has been an underground station of the Paris Métro since 1923. On the other side of the Pont de l'Alma bridge is the Gare du Pont de l'Alma RER station in the 7th arrondissement, line C.

Until 1920, the metro station on Line 1, now known as George V, was named Alma . From 1900 to 1920, the Alma station was one of the historic stations on the oldest Paris metro line.

The Place de l'Alma in the 8th arrondissement in Paris has been commemorating the battle since 1858.

The Alma colliery in Gelsenkirchen-Ückendorf , planned by French engineers in 1855, was also baptized after this battle.

The following places were named after the battle: Alma (Québec) , Alma (New Brunswick) , Alma (Nova Scotia) and Alma (Ontario) in Canada; Alma (Victoria) , Alma (South Australia) , Port Alma and Electoral district of Alma in Australia; Alma, Buffalo County and Alma, Illinois in the United States.

literature

  • German Werth: THE CRIME WAR , Frankfurt / M. 1989, ISBN 3-548-34949-8
  • Denis Judd: The Crimean War , London 1975
  • Kinglake, The Invasion of the Crimea (nine volumes), London 1863–87, ISBN 978-1843424970
  • Karl Marx - Friedrich Engels - Werke, Berlin 1961, ISBN 3-320-00206-6
  • Baron de César Bazancourt (1856). The Crimean Expedition, to the Capture of Sebastopol 2 vols. Londres.
  • Alexander William Kinglake (1863-87). The Invasion of the Crimea, 8 vols. Edimburgo
  • Blake, RLV Ffrench (1973). The Crimean War. Sphere Books.
  • Brighton, Terry (2005). Hell Riders: The Truth about the Charge of the Light Brigade . Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-101831-7
  • Fletcher, Ian & Ishchenko, Natalia (2004). The Crimean War: A Clash of Empires . Spellmount Limited. ISBN 1-86227-238-7
  • Christopher Hibbert (1963). The Destruction of Lord Raglan: A tragedy of the Crimean War 1854-55 . Pelican Books
  • Pemberton, W. Baring (1962). Battles of the Crimean War . Pan Books Ltd. ISBN 0-330-02181-8
  • Royle, Trevor (2007). Crimea: The Great Crimean War 1854-1856 . Abacus. ISBN 978-0-349-11284-8

Web links

  1. ↑ Denis Judd: The Crimean War , pp. 185 f.
  2. ↑ Orlando Figues: Crimean War - The Last Crusade, Bloomsbury Verlag, Berlin, 2011. ISBN 978-3-8270-1028-5 (p. 299ff)
  3. ↑ View of the Alma Cliffs