Chapter 803 Repel

As the new British Minister of War, Lord Panmure is more supportive of Palmerston's plan and is preparing to make a big move in Crimea. It was he who had previously sent Raglan the memorandum on the capture of Simferopol.

However, Raglan refused to implement it. This time he turned to attack Kerch and still received his active support. At the end of February, Lord Panmure ordered Raglan to organize a land and sea operation to destroy Kerch's defenses.

This time Raglan did not object, because the Royal Navy was quite interested in this plan.

After all, the Royal Navy has done nothing since the start of the war, and at this time, the British army's contribution to the war has aroused strong doubts from the French army, so the British army must do something to show the French.

So Raglan nodded and agreed to the plan to attack Kerch. On the other hand, Canrobert actually had doubts about this plan, but he couldn't resist the British's persuasion, and finally agreed to let Admiral Bruat Led a French naval squadron and 8,500 soldiers to join the expeditionary fleet.

The person in charge of commanding this expeditionary fleet was Lieutenant General Brown, commander of the British Light Infantry Division. According to the plan, their fleet first moved northwest to Odessa to conceal its true purpose, and then turned around at sea and headed for Kerch.

But the funny thing is that just when the fleet was about to arrive in Kerch and prepare to show off its power, a fast ship caught up with the fleet and sent Canrobert's order to turn back the French fleet.

It turned out that shortly after the fleet launched its operation, Napoleon III issued an order to Canrobert through the newly erected submarine cable, asking him to transfer all the French army reserves in Constantinople to Crimea.

The French army naturally needed Admiral Bruard's naval fleet to carry out this task. Canrobert had doubts about attacking Kerch, so he just sent him a pillow when he fell asleep, so he immediately ordered the French fleet to attack Kerch. Chi retreats.

The French suddenly withdrew, and the British naturally couldn't play anymore. After all, they had few troops. Without the 8,500 French troops, their 3,000 men couldn't do anything to Kerch. So the British had no choice but to retreat.

As a result, this high-profile landing operation was aborted halfway, which made the British so angry that they almost jumped.

This incident made the already poor relationship between the British and French militaries even worse. It was also one of the reasons why Canrobert later chose to resign. In his words, he felt that his authority had been called into question, that he had let down the British and was therefore no longer able to force Raglan to carry out his plan to capture Simferopol.

After Canrobert resigned, the new commander-in-chief of the French army was General Pellissier. This guy was short and stocky, and his behavior was extremely rude and cheerful. However, he was far more decisive than Canrobert, and he was a man who did what he said.

Canrobert was a bit hesitant in character, so the British nicknamed him "Robert Can't".

But this is a later story. For the time being, Canrobert is still the commander-in-chief of the French army. He and Raglan both have hesitant and capricious characters, which also determines that the coalition forces can't do anything in the short term.

This gave Nakhimov time, and he personally supervised the overtime work in Kerch to reorganize the army and build fortifications. After nearly a month and a half of hard work, Kerch's defensive appearance has completely changed. There are no more hungover officers and no more soldiers who don't have enough to eat. The morale of the Kerch garrison was boosted.

It was at this time that Canrobert chose to resign, and Pelissier officially took office. The new commander-in-chief had similar views to Raglan, believing that the focus of the coalition was Sevastopol, and that the war could be won as long as Sevastopol was captured.

It's just that this guy believed that to achieve this goal, the gap between the British and French armies must be repaired, so he immediately agreed to the plan to attack Kerch without saying a word.

At the end of April, under Brown's command, 60 coalition warships set out carrying 7,000 French, 5,000 Turkish soldiers and 3,000 British troops. This time they didn't make any more pretense and headed straight for Kerch without saying a word.

It's just that this time the stubborn British and French coalition forces will be attacked head-on. Their own dillydally lost the best opportunity to capture Kerch. What awaits them now will be an unprecedentedly brutal battle.

The coalition fleet arrived in Kerch soon. The British and French battleships lined up and began to rain down bullets on Kerch. In just one hour, the coalition fired more than 10,000 artillery shells. The momentum was really scary.

It’s just that Nakhimov was commanding the battle. He had already seen the power of coalition artillery fire and deliberately improved Kerch’s defense facilities. The trenches were reinforced with logs, and they no longer were built into straight lines, but zigzag trenches. This greatly limited the lethality of coalition grenades. Looking at the massive shelling, the hair of the Kerch defenders was not even injured.

Moreover, Nakhimov specifically ordered his artillery not to fire back, deliberately creating the illusion that Kerch's defenses were lax and vulnerable, and tempting the coalition forces to land as soon as possible.

Lieutenant General Brown was indeed fooled. After the bombardment preparations were completed, he ordered the landing to begin with a wave of his hand, and dozens of fleets began to approach the Kerch coast, constantly sending coalition soldiers ashore.

At this moment, the long-hidden Russian artillery battery suddenly opened fire, pouring all the bullets on the heads of the coalition forces who had just landed and those who were preparing to land.

In an instant, the coalition forces were beaten to the point of being overturned. The soldiers trapped on the beach without cover were largely knocked down by grape bullets, and the small boats approaching to transport the landing troops were even more destroyed.

In just half an hour, the coalition landing troops were massacred with blood. The stalls were strewn with corpses, and there was even a layer of corpses floating on the sea. It was so miserable!

Seeing something bad, Brown quickly arranged his battleships to line up again to bombard the Russian forts, hoping to use ferocious firepower to suppress the Russian artillery fire and cover the advance of the beachhead and the troops halfway across the river.

It's just that the coalition navy couldn't take any advantage in this confrontation. The Russian forts were carefully reinforced. Even the battleship's cannons did not cause much damage. On the contrary, the coalition fleet lined up in a row was severely hit by the Russian forts. The fat man beat him up, and one second-class battleship was sunk on the spot, and two were severely damaged.

As for the coalition's landing force, they could not take advantage of the Kerch garrison equipped with new rifles, and the hastily organized attack was easily repelled.

This fierce battle lasted until four o'clock in the afternoon. In the end, the coalition landing force was killed and injured more than 5,000 people, and they could only escape hastily back to the sea.

And this also indicates that the coalition's first attack on Kerch failed, and they could only retreat to Varna in embarrassment to rest...