Struggle in Russia

Not to mention the navy, as spring gradually arrived, the British and French forces decided to continue on their previous path and besiege Sevastopol. To be honest, this winter was something that many British and French soldiers would never forget.

Throughout the winter, both warring parties were frantically reinforcing their fortifications. The French army was mainly responsible for digging trenches on the Allied side. The reason was that there were too many rocks on the British army's position and the low temperature made it impossible to dig.

In a few months, the French army dug a total of 66 kilometers of trenches, while the British army only dug 15 kilometers.

This is a dangerous, slow, and tiring job. You must dig the frozen hard soil in the ice and snow, or use explosives to blow up the underground rocks. At the same time, both sides continue to harass the other side's soil work with artillery fire. .

It can almost be said that for every one meter of trench dug, one life will be paid, sometimes even two!

Relatively speaking, the Russian army's project progressed relatively smoothly and easily. Under the personal command of the engineering genius Totrebian and the supervision of Kornilov, the Russian army developed a system that had never been seen before in the history of siege warfare. A complex system of fortifications and trenches.

At first, the Russian army's fortifications outside the city were just civil engineering works hastily reinforced with wicker sticks, firewood bundles and gabion nets. However, taking advantage of the winter truce, the Russian army built stronger fortifications and added gun emplacements to the bastion. and bunkers to enhance defense capabilities.

These bunkers, several meters deep underground and topped with thick wooden strips removed from ships and lined with earthen timber, could withstand the most intense shelling.

A labyrinth of bunkers and rooms was built in the most heavily defended Nikolai and Prism (the third bastion. Nikolai Bastion is located on the top of the mountain on the east side of the dock ravine). There is even a pool table and sofa chairs in one room of the bastion, and each bastion has a prayer hall and a field hospital in the bunker.

In order to protect these important facilities, the Russian army also built new fortifications outside the city wall, including the mamelon head fort in front of the Nicholas Bastion and the quarry pit fort in front of the sharp bastion.

The former was built by the Russian Kamchatka Regiment. During the construction process from February to March, it faced artillery fire from the French army almost all the time.

The number of Kamchatka regiment soldiers killed was so high that even under cover of night, the bodies could not be dragged back one by one, so the bodies of many fallen soldiers remained in the civil engineering works forever.

The Mamelon Fortress itself is a very complex fortress system. Its left wing is protected by a pair of mounds called "White Works". You can see thick wood-covered bunkers everywhere on the ground, where soldiers can avoid artillery fire. attack. There is also a huge basement that can accommodate hundreds of people. Moreover, some of the beds in this fortress have eiderdown quilts and complete supplies. The morale of the soldiers guarding it is relatively high.

Because his main focus was on digging and building fortifications, Kornilov did not launch a large-scale counterattack against the coalition forces outside the city, only occasional sporadic attacks. Some of the most daring attacks were commanded by Pyotr Koshka, who would later become a household hero.

But generally speaking, the scale of these attacks was small and the results were mediocre. They were often just like meat buns beating dogs and never came back, so it was difficult to have much impact on the coalition forces.

Of course, the coalition forces would also choose the same method to attack the Russian army. The most famous one was the attack by the Zhuav Division on the White Project. They briefly occupied the fortress, but were quickly repelled by the Russian army.

The only thing worth mentioning is that even though the Zhuav Division suffered more than 300 casualties during this operation, they did not abandon their injured comrades when they had to retreat, and even dragged back the bodies of their dead comrades.

During this period, the Russian army also launched large-scale attacks due to the persistence of Grand Duke Constantine and Grand Duke Nicholas and Mikhail. For example, in the middle of the night on March 22, about 5,000 Russian troops launched an attack on the French position in front of the mamelon fort.

The one that bore the greatest impact was the third regiment of the French Zouave Division. They engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the Russian army and firmly held their position.

The entire battle was fought in darkness, the only light being the flames of rifle and musket fire. Then came face-to-face bayonet to bayonet fist to fist.

After fierce fighting all night, both sides agreed to a six-hour truce during which time the dead and wounded officers and soldiers could be transported back.

Then the most astonishing scene happened. The warring officers and soldiers who had been fighting each other a few minutes ago began to communicate in a friendly manner, making gestures with their hands or expressing their opinions in one or two sentences in the other party's language.

You can see a group of French officers and soldiers mixed with some Russian officers and soldiers holding flags of truce. The officers from both sides chatted happily as if they were the closest friends. The same goes for the soldiers. Those who were talking to each other a few minutes ago People who shot each other now smoke together and share tobacco, rum and vodka.

It wasn't until the officers from both sides looked at their watches and realized that "the time is almost up" that they waved goodbye and returned to their own fortifications.

Apart from these meaningless harassment operations, the warring parties can be said to have nothing to do. British Army Staff Officer Henry Clifford recalled: "The siege war is now a formality. We do nothing but fire artillery shells during the day. Everything is in a stagnant state."

For soldiers on both sides of the war, some hated the boring civil engineering work, while others were content with it, either sleeping or playing cards in the trenches, while shells fell from time to time around them.

The only advantage is that it allows warring soldiers to learn to identify various artillery shells based on their sounds and then take evasive actions. For example, a solid bullet will make a sharp and piercing cry when it passes through the air, a shotgun will buzz past, and a group of birds will flap their wings rapidly. There is no difference...

Slowly, when both sides were unable to make progress in the siege, the exchange of fire became truly a symbolic act. Idle soldiers turned firefights into sports activities. One side would tie a strip of cloth to the bayonet of a rifle and stick it out of the trench to let the enemy on the opposite side use it as a target for shooting. If the opponent hit, everyone would cheer and cheer, and if they missed, they would boo.

Because they were so bored and becoming more and more familiar with it, the soldiers at the forward sentry began to go to the no man's land between the two armies to have fun or keep warm.

Raglan's nephew and his aide-de-camp Calthorpe recalled seeing a group of sterile, unarmed soldiers approaching the British post. The Russians gestured to borrow a fire to smoke their pipes, and the two sides began chatting happily. .

Russian Soldier A: Hello British!

British soldier A: Hello Russians!

Russian Soldier B: The Ottomans are not good!

British soldier B: Aha! Turks are bad!

Russian soldier a: Ottoman!

He made a face and spat fiercely on the ground to show his contempt.

British soldier a: Turks!

He pretended to be scared and ran away.

At this time, both parties laughed wildly together, then shook hands friendlyly and returned to their posts...