On the 5th November 1854 a smaller British and (yes) French army beat off an assault by the Russians at Inkerman in the Crimea. It was known as “The Soldier’s Battle” as men fought small engagements due to poor visibility in dense fog.
The Russians had massed 32000 men on the Allied flank and headed for the 2700 man 2nd Division, commanded today by the aggressive Pennefather. Instead of falling back in the face of superior numbers, he advanced. The British had their rifles to thank this day as they took a terrible toll on the musket armed Russian Infantry, who were hemmed in by the valley’s bottle neck shape. The British 2nd Division pushed the Russians back onto their reinforcements and should have been routed by the Russians’ numbers, but the fog and the British Light Division saved them. Three successive Russian commanders were killed in this engagement.
The Russians other 15000 men approached and assailed the Sandbag Battery, but they were routed by 300 British defenders vaulting the wall, blunting the lead Battalions, who were then attacked in the flank. More Russian attacks ensured the Battery exchanged hands several times.
The British 4th Division was not as lucky. Arriving on the field, its flanking move was itself flanked and its commander, Cathcart, killed. This enabled the Russians to advance, but not for long. They were soon driven off by French units arriving from their camps and made no more headway.
The battle was lost and they had to withdraw.
This was the last time the Russians tried to defeat the Allied troops in the field. Despite this reverse, however, the Russian attack had seriously stalled the Allies from capturing Sevastopol. They had to instead, spend one harsh winter on the heights overlooking the city, before it fell in September of 1855.
The British suffered 2573 casualties, the French 1800 and the Russians 11959.
HELP! Old WW2 Movie?
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I am trying to find the name of an older (probably from the 60’s or 70’s maybe?) WW2 movie that I saw a long time ago. I don’t remember who was in it, only the plot - it was a chase (through the desert in Africa?) that lasted several days, a German tank was chasing an Allied plane that could run on the ground but not fly. Anyone know what movie I’m talking about?
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That’s an excellent movie! It’s called “Death Race” and it was a made for TV movie from the 70’s so it is very hard to find. It was an American P-40 I think, being chased by a German Tank Commander played by Loyd Bridges(don’t worry, he used to make serious movies!)
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So what ever happened to the Pesky P-40? Did it get shot down?
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if you ever find that movie plese relay where you got it back here, sound like a good one to see.
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that was me
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I did some research on the net and found out that the movie was released on VHS in 1986 under the name “State of Division”, so you may be able to find a video of it under that name instead of “Death Race”.
Here’s a brief summary without spoiling anything:
Two American P-40s go on a mission in Africa to bomb a minefield, and one of them gets shot down and has to make a crash landing. The second pilot lands to rescue his buddy, but a German tank and soldiers show up and a stray bullet takes out something or another so that the plane can no longer take off, but can still taxi along the ground. The remainder of the movie is about the Afrika Korps chasing the two pilots and the plane across the desert, and it has a great ending that I’m not going to tell you about… :grin:
It’s really good for a TV movie - on http://www.imdb.com it has a rating of 8.3 out of 10.
[ This Message was edited by: Ansbach on 2002-06-10 07:33 ]
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