Into the Valley of Death British Cavalry Division at Balaclava

 

Although by 1968, when Tony Richardson's film The Charge of the Light Brigade came out, much had been written about the Crimean War, from Kinglake's monumental history to the popular The Reason Why, virtually nothing had been published which described the uniforms and equipment in any sort of detail. Soon after the premiere of the film, however, John Mollo, who had been the historical adviser, and his brother Boris, who had helped with the background research, produced and published the scarce and now much sought-after Uniforms and Equipment of the Light Brigade based on the material they had amassed for the film. Although they subsequently published volumes on the British Artillery and Infantry in the Crimea, they never completed the series with a book on the Heavy Brigade, although there were many requests for them to do so.With this new volume the situation has been rectified. A revised and corrected text on the Light Brigade has been combined with entirely new sections on the uniforms and equipment of the Heavy Brigade, on Regimental Organisation, Formations and Movements, and on the general progress of the campaign up to and including the Battle of Balaclava.The text is illustrated with over 100 pictures carefully selected from contemporary sources, many previously, unpublished, while several are from drawings actually made in the Crimea which will be new to many students of the period. New maps help to clarify the technical details of the military movements involved in the charges of the Heavy and Light Brigades in particular, and the campaign in general.The uniforms and equipment described in the text are summarised in eight superb colour pages, containing twenty-four mounted figures, meticulously painted by Bryan Fosten. Apart from bringing the mundane paragraphs of the Dress Regulations vividly to life, these also illustrate a selection of the various movements of the sword `Exercise' in use at the time. Text, monochrome illustrations and colour plates combine to present the most carefully detailed impression ever published of the regiments of the British Cavalry on perhaps the most famous day in all their long history.

 

John & Boris Moll

Hardcover large format 127pp Windrow & Greene 1991 1st Ed

 

Fine/Vg

Book Code:  SH1960