Chapter 476: Sylistra Meat Grinder
February 23, 1854, at 9 a.m., in the tent of the Russian Empire, northwest of the fortress of Silistra.
A military meeting was being held in this tent about a general assault on the fortress of Silistra.
The meeting was attended by the commander of the Danube Russian Empire, Prince Paskevich, the deputy commander, General Gorchakov, the commanders of the 13th and 14th Army Corps, the Polish Corps, the Guards Corps, as well as staff officers and adjutants of the General Staff.
After unanimous discussions, the meeting adopted a plan for a general assault on the city of Silistra and its surrounding fortresses and trenches in the Ottoman Empire.
In order to accomplish this plan, the Russian Imperial Army transferred more than 30 siege cannons from the Polish territories on the basis of the original artillery, so that the number of artillery of the Russian Imperial Army was far greater than that of the Ottoman Empire in the Sylistra region, and even greater than the total number of field artillery in the entire Ottoman Empire's Eastern Front region.
Paskeewicz believed that if the Russian Empire could no longer capture the fortress and its surroundings under such powerful artillery, it would only show that the Russian Imperial Army was far less capable of fighting than it was during the Napoleonic Wars.
Next, the Russian Empire said that the only way to do it was to retreat.
Of course, that's just what Paskiewicz thinks in his heart. Paskeewicz at the meeting still stressed that all forces should use all their strength to completely capture Sistra within a week, and then move south along Silistra to fight the Anglo-French forces.
This time, the deployment of troops in the battle was the same as a few months ago, and it was still the Guards Division as the vanguard to launch an attack on the Turkish fortress.
General Hilde of the 13th Army Corps, as an auxiliary force of the Guards Division, carried out civil engineering work around the city of Silistra, digging deep trenches to transport cannons closer to the fortress, and the artillery on the central island of the Danube River in the northeast also had to form a significant fire suppression of the Independence Fort "Tabia of Arabia", the gateway to the fortress of Silistra, so that the Russian Imperial army could successfully ascend the fort.
The Polish Corps and the XIV Corps, all non-units except the cavalry, were used as general reserves. The Cossack cavalry units of these two corps bypassed the fortress of Silistra and reconnoitred southward, and as soon as they spotted the British and French troops, they immediately reported to Paskevich.
It is not so much that the Polish Corps and the XIV Corps were the general reserves against the fortress of Silistra, but that the reason why these two legions did not participate in the battle was because of the surprise attack of the British and French troops.
The battle between the Turkish and Russian units began in earnest at 2 p.m. on the same day, and the artillery units on the island in the center of the river, after receiving the order to attack from the general staff, immediately poured all their artillery on the fort outside the fortress of Silistra Fort.
As the outskirts of the city of Sili Strastra, the "Arab Tabia", which was connected to the keys to the other independent fortresses, was hit hard at the first time, and nearly 100 cannons directly collapsed the protective wall outside the fortress.
In order to prevent the Russian Empire from attacking as soon as the artillery fire stopped, the Albanian and Tunisian regiments defending the fortress were under their commanders, two captains from England, James. Butler & Charles. Under the orders of Nesmith, the crumbling walls were built under cannon attack.
Warriors loyal to the Sultan came to the edge of the collapsed walls, often starting in teams of six, two of whom were responsible for building the walls and the remaining four for cover.
The soldiers of the Russian Guards Division in the trenches were apparently unwilling to miss this golden opportunity, and they poked their heads out to shoot at the Turkish soldiers repairing the protective wall, and the remaining four soldiers also used rifles to shoot at the Russian soldiers in the trenches.
A meat grinder battle to repair the wall began, in which each soldier responsible for repairing the fort wall of the "Tabia of Arabia" survived for an average of only five minutes.
Often after the death of a soldier by a soldier of the Russian Empire, the next soldier immediately fills the vacancy.
The Turkish army, blessed with fanatical religious fervor, not only shocked the Russian Imperial troops in the trenches, but also deeply shocked the two British captains.
Before the start of the battle, the two captains believed that they would not be able to hold the fort with their troops, and that the best outcome would be to defend for 72 hours, and then retreat in an orderly manner to the main city area and fight street battles from the Russian Imperial army.
But they still underestimated the Turkish army. Although there is a big gap between this army and the British Army in terms of equipment, it is not at all inferior to the British Army in terms of will to fight, and the outcome of this battle is still an unknown suspense.
Thinking of this, the two British captains came from full confidence, and they believed that the Turkish army would definitely hold here.
With the help of Turkish soldiers, the collapsed protective wall was completed after a round of shelling.
However, the Turkish army lost hundreds of men, the vast majority of whom died at the guns of the Russian army, and a small part of the Turkish army died after being hit directly by artillery.
The Russian cannon brought only shock to the Turkish army, and the actual lethality effect was even inferior to that of light artillery.
Of course, these are only post-war summaries, and the cannon did shake the confidence of the Ottoman soldiers to a certain extent.
"For His Majesty the Tsar!"
With a roar from the commander of the Russian Imperial Guard, hundreds of soldiers of the Russian Imperial Guard climbed out of the trenches and carried the bridge towards the two and a half moon forts outside the fortress.
When the Russian Imperial Army climbed the slope of the fortress, the Turkish video stationed on the fortress immediately launched an attack, and light artillery and rifles did not hesitate to greet the group of invaders.
Due to the characteristics of the fortress itself, many Russian soldiers were killed by the Turkish soldiers on the walls of the fortress as soon as they broke out of the trenches, and the Russian Imperial soldiers finally arrived under the fortress walls exhausted after returning with hundreds of casualties.
The gate of the fortress opened, and a pair of soldiers in white turbans ran out screaming, they were soldiers from the Tunisian legion, each of whom was determined to die for Allah and His Majesty the Sultan.
"Praise be to Allah!"
This group of Tunisian soldiers, led by their commander, once again rushed towards the Russian Imperial Army with a frenzied cry.
The Russian army, which did not expect the Turkish army to take the initiative to go out of the city to meet the battle, immediately fell into a commotion, and Captain Balrett immediately ordered all the artillery and rifles on the fortress to be fired at the center of the group of Russian Imperial soldiers who were about to climb the fortress.
The artillery and infantry on the fort immediately followed his orders and fired, and the Russian Imperial Army, which had been slightly showing signs of defeat, was completely routed under the attack from both sides.
The Russian Guards, who claimed to be the elite troops of the Russian Empire, retreated like a tidal wave, and the Tunisian army immediately attacked. After some pursuit, hundreds of Russian soldiers were turned into consumables.
It's just that this fanatical Tunisian army seems to have advanced too deeply, and it is almost counterattacked by the follow-up troops in the Russian trenches.
After more than a hundred corpses left behind in the Russian trenches, the Tunisian regiments were able to return to the fortress.
The Tunisian legion, which returned to the fortress, was greeted and rewarded by the inhabitants of the fortress, as well as by Omar Pasha in the city of Silistra.
After rewarding the Tunisian regiment and the two captains, Umar Pasha announced in front of everyone that he would appoint Musa Pasha in the fortress of Silistra as the commander of the "tabia".
Anyone with a discerning eye can see that this so-called Musa Pasha is nothing more than a man sent by Omar Pasha to pick peaches.
However, Barrett and Nesmith have no objection to such an appointment.
Because they were originally a guest at the Fortress of Silistra, the victory of the fortress of Sillistra was not tied to their promotion.
Not to mention that Umar Pasha also assured them in a private assurance that Musa Pasha would not take away their command after assuming command, and would also give them a large sum of money.
In this way, Musa Pasha assumed command of the "Tabiya", and took office with the tacit consent of the "Tabiya" fortress.
At about seven o'clock in the evening, the Russian positions on the outskirts of the fortress sounded the sound of "rustling".
The Turkish soldiers stationed on the fort immediately reported the sound to Captain Butler, who ascended the fort with the soldiers.
Using the telescope to find the source of the sound and look into the past, it turned out that the army of the Russian Empire was taking advantage of the advance to advance.
Captain Barrett immediately understood that the Russian Empire wanted to imitate Marshal Vauban's tactics and advance their trenches all the way under the walls of the fortress, and then use artillery to suppress the attack.
Although this method of warfare is clumsy, it is very practical.
"We must not let them advance smoothly to the city!" Captain Barrett immediately came to this conclusion, and he hurriedly began to dispatch troops and set about attacking the Russian Imperial troops in the trenches.
As Captain Balrett approached the fortress, Captain Nesmith met him with Musa Pasha.
"What happened? Is it that the Russian Imperial Army is coming! Musa Pasha asked Captain Butler with a panicked expression.
Captain Barrett shook his head and told Captain Musa Pasha and Nesmith what he was going to do.
Musa Pasha and Captain Nesmith immediately agreed with Captain Balrett.
A carefully selected group of Turkish infantry retreated towards the rear trenches after attacking the Russian Empire all night, and after suffering heavy casualties from the Russian soldiers, they retreated towards the rear trenches.
Please know that the website of this book: 123 Reading Pen Mobile Version Reading:
『Click here to report error』『Add to bookmark』