

To answer those questions, I collaborated with history student David Connors and history professor John Bonnett on an interdisciplinary study.
THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE MOVIE
The battle scene as depicted in the movie “The Charge of the Light Brigade” Which leader(s) deserved the blame for the disastrous charge? And could it have succeeded if it had followed one of the other alternatives? The leaders’ bickering ignited two ongoing historical debates. But Lucan halted it once he saw the cannon fire’s intensity. That brigade actually had started to advance. Lucan in turn complained that Raglan’s orders had been unclear and unwise.įor his part, Cardigan complained the Heavy Brigade should have charged too, to support his men. The charge was supposed to target Russian cannons on the heights, not in the valley. Raglan complained the Lucan had ineptly misinterpreted his orders. Either unit could charge cannons, but normally from their defenceless flanks, not head-on into their gunfire. It could overpower lighter cavalry or charge against infantry lines. The Heavy Brigade had larger, stronger horses. In battle it typically charged enemy troops who were disorganised or retreating. The Light Brigade rode smaller, faster horses. The British army commander, Lord Raglan, had issued notoriously vague orders to his cavalry commander, Lord Lucan: “Lord Raglan wishes the cavalry to advance rapidly to the front, and to try to prevent the enemy carrying away the guns.”īut which cavalry: the Light Brigade alone or the Heavy Brigade too? Which guns: those in the valley or those on the adjacent Causeway Heights? The British leaders immediately blamed each other for the fiasco. Outnumbered 11-to-1, the 195 survivors retreated. The ‘Valley of Death’ĭuring the charge, Lord Cardigan’s light cavalry brigade attacked Russian cannons in “the valley of death.” The brigade defeated the gunners, but was counter-attacked by roughly 2,160 Russian light cavalry. It quickly inspired a magnificent poem by Lord Tennyson and later a colourful movie. But it became infamous for its brave soldiers, incompetent leaders and senseless bloodshed. That was a small engagement that ended the inconclusive Battle of Balaclava on Oct. However, another of its features also remains in our memories: The Charge of the Light Brigade. That war is largely forgotten now, apart from its famous nurse Florence Nightingale.

Those descriptions sound like Russia’s 2014 takeover of Crimea.īut they also applied 150 years earlier during The Crimean War between Russia and a British-French-Turkish alliance. Western nations’ warships in the Black Sea. So choose your words well and pivot your organization to its next best.Middle East tensions. And internal communication has a significant role to play in it. To sum up, the essence of business is to do with people, with their simple needs and expectations regardless of technological advances. Choose your words mindfully, choose your words well to establish true, strong bonds and connections with one another, and go beyond in creating lasting relationships. When Empathy comes from the leadership team, it also seeps into the corporate culture, and hence leadership needs to be more cognizant about it. Empathy and genuine concern can genuinely help those around us and assist overall employee wellbeing. If there was a time when our co-workers needed empathy more than ever, it is now. Recently, the industry witnessed a strong example of "how not to communicate" when a large global company fired people online.Īs we become part of a global workforce and an increasingly diverse environment, it is imperative to understand different cultures' language nuances and be more aware of cultural sensitivity. It reinforces how an organization can flourish or doom based on the kind of communication practices that they follow. This poem is of critical significance for every leader. It resulted from a brilliant strategic decision followed by poor communication and execution. It talks of the disastrous mistake, the result of misinformation and miscommunication. This poem brilliantly narrates the tale of the incredibly brave but failed military charge led by Lord Cardigan against the Russian forces at the Battle of Balaklava (1854) during the Crimean War (1853-56). The Charge of the Light Brigade is one of my favorite poems that beautifully sums up a tragic episode from history. ALFRED LORD TENNYSON, “CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE”
