Battle of Balaklava 25th Oct 1854.
Balaklava is one of the battles of the Crimea War (1854 to 1856) between the alliance of Britain, France, Turkey and Sardinia against Russia.
Two Victoria Crosses were later awarded to men of the Greys who distinguished themselves at Balaklava—Sergeant Major James Grieve, for saving an officer's life, and Trooper Henry Ramage, for rescuing three of his comrades, two of whom were wounded and one of whom was a prisoner. The following extract about the battle is taken from the book In The Finest Tradition by Stephen Wood on the history of the Regiment.
Few battles have inspired such evocative commemoration as that of Balaklava: the Thin Red Line, the Charge of the Light Brigade, the Charge of the Heavy Brigade. Essentially a cavalry action, for the good reason that the majority of the infantry were besieging Sebastopol, two hours' march away, Balaklava also involved horse artillery, the 93rd Highlanders and quantities of Turkish troops. As an immense Russian force gradually advanced towards Balaklava, pounding and then occupying the outlying redoubts, [a defensive position] the cavalry retired before them, being covered by the light guns of the horse artillery.
The principal actions took place on the floors of a series of wide valleys, each of which was interspersed by ridges and hills which blocked the view from the valley floor. This visual impediment was not identified by the Generals, who saw the action from six hundred feet up, on the heights at one end of the valleys. Thus, as the five regiments of the Heavy Brigade advanced eastwards along the north side of the southern valley floor, they were unaware that advancing westwards above them, behind hills and ridges which separated the two parallel valleys, was a vastly superior mass of Russian cavalry. As the Heavy Brigade halted, so the Russians began, coincidentally it appears, to wheel left - neither side being aware of the other's existence. First sight of the opposing forces seem to have been of mutual surprise and a few moments were spent in manoeuvring for the inevitable clash. The Russians extended their line to their left, the Heavies wheeled left into line, closed and dressed ranks and, uphill, charged. The Russians made no use of their superior position on a downward slope but received the charge motionless, having halted their downward advance to fire their carbines, a shot from one of which wounded the Greys' Commanding Officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Darby Griffith. The Heavies' Commander, Brigadier The Hon. James Scarlett, led the front rank of the Brigade formed of the Greys and 6th Inniskilling Dragoons, straight into the centre of the Russian horsemen, whose flanking squadrons extended to encircle the British. As the Russian pincer closed, so the 5th Dragoon Guards slammed into them on the Greys' left and the first squadron of the Inniskillings executed a similar manoeuvre on the right; the pincer had closed too soon. The remaining regiments of the Brigade, 4th Dragoon Guards and 1st Royal Dragoons, arrived after the melee was well under way and contributed to the gradual collapse and retreat of the Russian cavalry.
Once the two masses were joined there was little use of firearms. This was essentially a sword-to-sword engagement and, with the ineffective nature of the weapons used on both sides, actual deaths were few among the British, although horrific injuries were received. Cutting, chopping and slashing, the Greys milled about, each man fighting his own opponent, the shock effect of the charge dissipated but the advantage of height gradually beginning to tell (on average the Heavies were taller, when mounted, than their Russian adversaries). As the Russians faltered and fell back, so a troop of horse artillery came into action on their flank and, firing twenty-four-pound howitzer shells into them, completed the defeat.
Later on the morning of 25 October the Heavy Brigade was again ordered into action to cover the retreat of the shattered Light Brigade from its own charge and, this time, its casualties from musketry and artillery fire were considerable, the Greys suffering many more casualties than they had done earlier in the day.
The cavalry were little used in the campaign after Balaklava and the appalling Crimean winter of 1854-55 finished off the carnage begun in those battles. The Greys returned home from the Crimea in July 1856 to another long period of peace.
From a painting of The Royal Scots Greys at Balaklava it shows them hacking their way into the Russian Cavalry during the charge of the Heavy Brigade. The Greys were joined by the regimental butcher who can be seen still clad in his apron in the centre of the fight.