Hell Riders : The True Story of the Charge of the Light Brigade

Rating:
Summary: A story of bickering,backstabbing commanding officers
Review: This is the best book about the charge of the Light Brigade during the 1854 Crimean War that has ever been written.Essentially,the entire chain of command of the British forces were personally antagonistic to each other(this is putting it mildly.It is quite likely that it would be more accurate to say that they hated each other).The four officers most responsible for this ill fated attack are Lord Raglan,Lord Lucan,Lord Cardigan,and Captain Nolan.The potential book buyer is encouraged to read the book and decide what degree of culpability to assign to each of the four officers involved on the day of the fateful charge.My own ranking assigns the greatest blame to Nolan,followed by Lucan,Raglan and Cardigan.The only other example of bickering and backstabbing calvary officers as worse as this would be case of Custer,Reno,and Benteen in the years leading up to the defeat of the 7th calvary at the Little Big Horn.The worst offenders in that case were Benteen and Reno;Custer,however,was responsible for allowing them to remain in the chain of command.This would also be the primary fault of Raglan-knowingly allowing them to remain in the chain of command.

Rating:
Summary: A Rivetting Account Of The Ill-Fated Charge
Review: Brighton briefly sketches the events that led to the Crimean War, but never loses focus on the Light Brigade. His account of the famous Charge is very detailed, and extends for over 100 pages. He skilfully allows the original participants (through their memoirs) to describe the action, and thus his descriptions have a first-hand 'feel' to them absent in some other books on the Charge. Brighton weaves these accounts together effectively. Despite the extraordinary detail of the section on the Charge, I never lost interest -- and was filled with admiration for the cavalrymen who rode up the valley and then down it in the hellfire of the Russian guns. Brighton examines Nolan's actions in (and after) relaying Raglan's orders to Lucan, and although apportioning most of the blame on Lucan, doesn't adopt a one-eyed strategy of making scapegoats of people. Instead, his discussions appear to be well balanced.

There are useful maps at the beginning of the book (though one showing the 'Thin Red Line' and the Heavy Brigade's repulsing of the Russians, prior to the Light Brigade's famous charge, would have been useful); and Brighton includes a list of those who rode in the Charge.

A great read and history 'brought to life' by those who created it.



Rating:
Summary: You are there
Review: Terry Brighton's writing of the actual minute by minute unfolding of the charge was so well written I felt I was in the middle of it. Utterly captivating.
As for the rest of the book, he does an excellent job looking at the causes of the Crimean War, and delves into things I would never have thought about; transporting all the horses by ships for one thing.
Two chapters that could have been left out were about who blew the bulge for the charge and about Florence Nightingale's involvement after the charge. Both interesting, but they seemed to be vestigial.
I am not a big fan of military history, but this was an engrossing book.


Rating:
Summary: Military history at its best
Review: This is a terrific book. It by the far the most readable and enlightening yet on a battle that rates among the most fascinating to anyone drawn to military history.

Rating:
Summary: Well, a very good book, no more no less...
Review: You will apreciate the more this book if is the first one you'll read about the "Charge of The Light Brigade"...
BUT, (yeah a BIG BUT...)
1) If you have already read about it... then nothing knew happens to be presented a part from the very good maps at the beginning and the full roster of the participants... REASON ENOUGH FOR ME! (but I am a collectionist about that war so I supose that opinion does not count a lot...)
2) You must know only 670 (aprox) horsemen charged (and that's the strenght of a Regiment!, there were detachments of five... but it was a very small "brigade" even for ACW standards...
3) The press publicized a lot the military action... (after all that was the british empire at his height of power...) but CUSTER did more charges of cavalry in the ACW with more horsemen behind him that Lord Cardigan ever did (he did only one...), and yes they charged guns too!
4) If you do not know what "jingoism" is you are for two or three full spoons of it...
5) The book is allright and very well written but is interesting to compare with "The Charge" by Mark Adkin... I am not saying who is right in the apreciations of responsability of the loss of the LB (who cares after all... this year is the 150th anniversary...) and the arguments will go on and on...
NOLAN (useful scapegoat because he died)
LUCAN (probably a bad manager of the Cavalry but no fool...)
CARDIGAN (an ass but for once he only carried the orders...)
RAGLAN (a fatherly figure and a gentlemen...protected by all afterwards... in the cover-up).

It's up to you to think about it... (I personally think too many mistakes in the same day...and a collective responsability by all commanders involved... including AIREY... and perhaps also NOLAN...)

A GOOD MILITARY WORK. (Very difficult to judge out of context of the military tradition of middle XIXth century...), a pity the charge of the French Chasseurs d'Afrique who silenced the guns on the left ridge is not given more coverage... (but French& Sardinian do not appear in british accounts of the war... mere allies...see Waterloo for that matter... anyone who reads a british account will think they won the battle themselves alone... (to be fair some works acknowledge the dutch&belgian, the hanoverian, the KGL, the Nassauers, and of course THE PRUSSIANS!... but that is another history...

TO BE ENJOYED BY MILITARY OR HISTORY FANS.