Charge of The Light Brigade Culprit Revealed

Wonder if the letter was deliberately buried?
"A letter written by a soldier involved in the disastrous Charge of the Light Brigade has shed light on who was to blame for the military defeat.
On October 25, 1854, Lord Raglan, commander of the British forces, wanted to send the Light Brigade to stop Russians capturing weapons during the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War.
But due to miscommunication, 673 soldiers were instead sent to another location and became surrounded by a different artillery battery when they charged into the valley.
They were overpowered and 107 soldiers were killed, 187 were wounded, 50 were captured and 400 horses were slaughtered.
For years, the finger had been pointed at Lord Raglan, but Lieutenant Frederick Maxse's letter implies that a younger soldier was to blame for the disaster.
Lieut Maxse, who was serving on Lord Raglan's staff, wrote that Captain Louis Nolan, a 36-year-old officer, was responsible.
His letter was discovered with other documents inside the British Library, reports Patrick Sawer at the Sunday Telegraph.
Capt Nolan was the messenger who passed on Lord Raglan's orders to Lord Lucan - the officer who carried out his instructions.
He instructed him to 'follow the enemy and try to prevent the enemy from carrying away the guns'. "
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4021912/Lost-letter-finally-reveals-160-years-blame-blunder-sent-Light-Brigade-slaughter-Valley-Death.html#ixzz4SXUmkcPl

 

This is based on an in depth article in this month's BBC History magazine. Very interesting.

 

Nolan has been blamed by many over the years, so this letter is just another damning account.

If my memory is correct, the guns Raglan was referring to were not visible to Lucan down in the valley. They were up on the heights on the right (or left?) side of the valley, invisible from Lucan's position. The orders made no sense and Nolan just angrily gestured down the valley in the general direction, where the only guns visible to Lucan were the Russian batteries. Perhaps a better officer would have grabbed Nolan by his mutton chops and made him clarify the order, perhaps show him on the map where these guns were located. Lucan didn't do that, so no matter how impertinent an ass Nolan was, Lucan must hold the ultimate blame for the debacle. He thought he was being rebuked by Raglan, when in fact it as just this excitable ass Nolan.

In some ways it's similar to the order issued by Nimitz to Halsey at Leyte Gulf. Naval messages commonly had nonsense sentences attached at the end to confuse Japanese code breakers and in this case, the order ended with 'Where is Task Force 34? RR The World Wonders" "The World Wonders" was nonsense verbiage attached at the end, but the radio people delivered it to Halsey as part of the message, which he interpreted as an angry rebuke from Nimitz (and oddly, that phrase was a loose quote from Tennyson's poem Charge of the Light Brigade, because October 25th was the date of the battle at Balaclava). Anyway, Nolan's angry delivery of Raglan's message was interpreted as a rebuke from Raglan in the same way as Nimitz' message was read as a rebuke aimed at Halsey. Lucan attacked the only guns in sight because he thought Raglan was furious.

In Halsey's case, he too may have moved differently if he didn't think Nimitz was angry and criticizing the deployment of his forces. Leyte was an American victory, but not nearly as complete as it might have been had Halsey not moved his forces with the mistaken rebuke from Nimitz in mind.

Fog of war.

 

This is a load of recycled hash from the C19th on a quiet news day to promote Saul David and the university of Buckingham.

Nothing to see move along...

There were two possible interpretation to "The guns". There were the Turkish guns captured by the Russians being carried away along one valley and a line of Russian Guns at the end of another. It was reasonable and sensible to use the light cavalry to stop the Russians from carrying away the Turkish Guns, regardless of whether Raglan had intended the light cavalry to actually charge. It wasn't sensible to attack the guns that Lucan and Cardigan actually attacked.

Nolan was killed by one of the first shells galloping forward to the head of the Light Brigade,most likely because he knew it was the wrong valley.

Nolan wasn't a particularly popular officer. He was far too much of a military intellectual and had been trained and served in the Austro Hungarian army. He wrote two important books. One on training cavalry horses and a second on cavalry tactics. https://archive.org/details/cavalryitshistor00nola books on In the Crimea he may well have been seeking for ways to demonstrate the the effective use of light cavalry.

It does not surprise me that some snotty staff officer would blame Nolan, but it doesn't make it true or a revalation

 

History is not set in stone (regardless of what you were taught) Even if you were there, it should be seen as a possible explanation. It is the old conundrum of varying accounts of the witnesses at the same scene.

 

Okay...

Who's ultimately responsible for the debacle at Balkalva...?
Freyberg's force disposition on Crete - DID London tell him the German/Italian invasion flotillas had been turned back - or not?
Was Bismarck sunk or was she scuttled?
The Dowding/Park vs. Mallory/Douglas argument in September 1940...?

What other seesawing ultimately unanswered historical questions do we all know of?

 

I thought it was a battery of guns manned by the RN that had been captured and were being carried away.

A shame that the Heavy Brigade's Charge made at about the same time is overlooked due to the notoriety of that of the Light Brigade's.

 

I am truly astounded. Such a complete bolt from the blue someone could blame Nolan! Next there will be a headline saying documents have been found proving the battle of Kursk was not a German tank graveyard. Cue book number 1,456 telling the 'real story' of Kursk
It is along time since I was 'into' the Crimean War but even 40 years back (at least) this was an accepted version of events. It is just the latest in a long line of Daily Mail click-bait rubbish that they use to create a 'heated debate (copyright Mrs Murton) and boost the flagging paper.