The Crimean War

The Crimean War was the last of the old wars, fought before Count Otto von Bismarck would usher in new rules of engagement. It was initiated for spurious reasons, used outmoded battle tactics, and was contested between combatants who had no real cause to be enemies at all.

The allies too had very little to unite them — while the soldiers at the battlefront were a motley mixture of professionals and mercenaries. The latter, of course, were there mainly for the adventure — and for the money which came with the adventure. Many were also bored, having joined their national armies for the purpose of warfare and yet not fighting.

The war began in March 1854 when Russia invaded a couple of Turkish principalities, apparently angry that the Sultan had appointed the Catholic Church to be custodian of the holy places in Palestine.

Hostility between these two powers was nothing new, happening on average every twenty years. What is strange, however, is that several countries in Europe chose to become involved in the war — and for rather spurious reasons.

France believed herself to have an age-old commitment to protect the Christian holy places in Palestine, a protection which Russia appeared to be threatening.

Britain, on the other hand, believed that there was a Russian threat to her dominance in Egypt and therefore to her trade route to India. The Russian victory at Sinope was presented by the British press as a massacre, inflaming public opinion and giving the British Empire the excuse to declare war.

Sardinia became involved just so that she could show the world she was there and needed to be respected. She also desired to be noticed so that one of the Great Powers would perhaps come to her aid at a later date to help her clear Italy of Austrian domination.

The initial clash was quickly over and the Russian army driven out of the principalities. A war without a struggle, however, surely provides no reasons to celebrate! And so the fighting continued, moving to the Black Sea where the allied forces senselessly attempted to capture the fortress of Sebastopol at the southern tip of the Crimean Peninsula.

Incompetent leadership then caused the war to drag on a further two years, leading to immense casualties on all sides through cholera, the bitter cold, starvation, low morale and poor discipline.

When the war began, Britain found it difficult to recruit sufficient soldiers and so went into battle severely under-strength. Heavy losses in several battles soon created a crisis situation. Conscription had still not become part of modern philosophy and conditions within the army were generally appalling and the pay so poor that few nationals would have wanted to enlist — at least, not as privates.

Hiring foreign adventure seekers, however, was a time-honoured procedure and so Britain once again turned to creating a foreign legion — even though this did not ensure loyalty in the ranks of the military.

Although the legionnaires came from all over Europe, the majority were from the various German states, a circumstance which presented problems on all sides — especially as regards Prussia and Austria because both these countries had interests in the war.

Although neither actually engaged in the hostilities in Crimea, they nevertheless also did not desire that their nationals should join the campaign on any side — and they certainly did not want nationals from any of the other German states to enlist.

On the other hand, the Germans had not seen warfare for some years. Officers and privates — who had joined the army for the excitement of fighting — were understandably bored with endless exercising and would have loved to become involved in the combat on the Crimean peninsula.

Many of these soldiers, therefore, upon hearing of the creation of the British Foreign Legion, promptly deserted their national armies and stole across Germany secretly — and often without passports — to enlist for the war.

When the fighting was over, therefore, the legionnaires found themselves in an awkward situation where they were not welcome to return to their own homeland — and the fact that they had all taken an oath of allegiance to Queen Victoria only worsened matters.

On the other hand, the war was ending while many of these legionnaires were still undergoing training in camps at Aldershot, Colchester, Hythe and Shorncliffe. Even though they had not seen battle, Britain was nevertheless responsible to pay them their contractual dues.

What then to do with men who needed to be supported but who were not welcome to return to their homes in Germany? The idea of settling them in England was not enthusiastically received. They could, however, be sent to one of Britain's far-flung colonies to become military settlers.

Then the War Office thought of Sir George Grey and his warnings that the Eastern Cape frontier was about to erupt into another conflagration — and it decided to offer him the British German Legion.

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