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Monday 6 August 2018

Day 2 - Siege of Sevastopol - The French Assault


Having conferred during the night Lord Raglan and French commander General Pelissier agreed that the French should have a go at assaulting the Mamelon. Accordingly all supplies and action points would be allocated to this attack. 

At 9am four French regiments rise out of the forward trenches and advanced towards the Russian position.  


Immediately the light infantry on the left come under fire from the 32 pdrs up on the Mamelon. They waver under the hail of shot and pull back to the safety of the trenches. However, the Zouaves, Algerians and a French line regiment continue on, but soon another French unit is forced back.


The Zouaves reach the wall and begin to break in causing some Russian casualties.  Then the Russians counter attack. The Zouaves are all but wiped out and in the next turn all of the French pull back towards the safety of their own lines. 


The French are severely bruised, but they have destroyed one Russian regiment and damaged another.

The French artillery begins to bombard the Mamelon, this time aiming for the Russian infantry, causing more casualties. A second French assault is also unsuccessful and two of the French units are destroyed.

French reserves move, including a Guard Regiment and reorganise themselves for another assault.


  The Russian take advantage of the lull and move up more infantry into the Mamelon, just in time to receive the second French assault.  This time the French have a little more success, although one of the French line regiments is destroyed by a mix of artillery and musket fire.

The French guard and a line regiment reach the defences and storm into the Mamelon, sending a Russian regiment to destruction:
  however the other French units are not so successful and are forced back.  The Guards are now on their own inside the Mamelon.



The Russians immediately counter attack and the French Guard are overwhelmed and destroyed.  The Mamelon is now back in Russian hands.

The two remaining French regiments, which includes the battered Algerians, rally and once more charge up against the defences. 

They are met with a hail of musket balls and canister from the guns up on the Malakoff. The French attack fails and the remnants of six battalions limp back to the French lines:


As night falls the allied commanders confer and decide to try again in the morning. Once again the allies throw a strong 9 for resupply. During darkness they will bring up fresh troops for the morning assault and have sufficient to replenish the guns. The Russians again are not so lucky, throwing just two. They decide to use all their points to resupply the guns on the Mamelon and Malakoff defences.

12 comments:

  1. I never really thought about it before, but these sorts of actions really foreshadowed the Western Front of 60+ years later. In any case, an interesting segment of the ongoing game.

    Best Regards,

    Stokes

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    1. The Crimea was similar to the American Civil War, fighting napoleonic style with modern weapons and you are right, it took a long time for armies to adapt.

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  2. Raglan had more nouse that we give him credit for, clearly. Fight to the last Frenchman!

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  3. Indeed! I think the French outnumbered the British by about three to one and despite Raglan being in overall command the French vote was very powerful. Of interest it was about this time that the telegraph was completed to London and Paris and so political interference became a factor in the campaign.

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  4. So the rumour is true - the British will fight to the death of the last Frenchman - I went to a Cheshire grammar school in the later 1960's and when being taught about the Crimean War we weren't told the French were there, never mind being the largest force. Congrats on a good looking interesting game, I eagerly await the next part.

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    1. Yes indeed, there were many actions involving French and Turkish troops that do not appear in our school history books. It will be the French in action again next round!

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  5. A glorious action...

    The Zouaves and the Turcos looked magnificent...

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Thanks - they are 20mm Douglas Miniatures figures.

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  6. Absolutely magnificent squire. Right that's it. Time to dust off the Crimean collection.

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    1. Not at the expense of your superb Peninsular actions I hope! I look forward to seeing your Crimean troops though. If I recall you wrote an interesting piece on Inkerman some time ago? I am researching McKenzie's farm for a fuure 'what if' scenario.

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  7. Great stuff! (and good encouragement to me to stop faffing about with fiddly rule bits and get back to the sweep of the thing with dramatic action)

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    1. I have never fought an action like this before, with troops assaulting well defended prepared positions. I am also enjoying the logistic challenges too.

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