The Reason Why - Woodham-Smith

"The Reason Why" by Cecil Woodham-Smith and written in 1954 came as a recommendation through a friend of mine who is currently a major in the British Army.  My familiarity with the Charge of the Light Brigade, which occurred during the British, French, and Turkish campaign against the Russians during the Crimean War up until reading this book was lifted from visual snippets from my childhood when my dad would watch the 1936 Hollywood production with Errol Flynn, by the same name, but taking place during the wrong war for the wrong reasons with all the wrong characters, and the often quoted Tennyson poem from which the title originates.

"Their's not to make reply,

Their's not to reason why,

Their's but to do and die:

Into the valley of Death

 Rode the six hundred"

I'm glad I read this book and straightened out my truly twisted sense of British history on this one.  I also learned a great deal more.  This book is a masterpiece and I will feebly attempt to explain why.  To understand what really happened during the Battle of Balaclava, Woodham-Smith starts to illustrate the political and military culture within Britain starting just after the turn of the Century and then directly after the British victory over Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815.  It is very important to understand that British officers did not attend formal professional military schools nor did they move up through the ranks, they bought their commissions and either learned in the field, engaged in self-study if they were interested in subjects such as warfare, or they lead and managed men based on instinct.  Officer ship was entrusted to and required of only the upper social strata -- those who had a stake in the country were those best fit to lead the military, and more importantly were those less likely to turn the military against the social elite, themselves.  This was how the stability of the British aristocracy was balanced and maintained -- in peacetime it works -- the military is not going to over-throw the country.  During times of war -- it also works since the military with it's sabre now unsheathed, is typically sent abroad.  When sound military leaders emerge and victories are secured, the system is self ratifying.  When defeats occur abroad, however, the facts can be easily distorted to hide the incompetence of the officer elite and then too the system ratifies itself, or the aristocracy quietly takes care of it's own.  The reason why, not the title but the reason the Light Brigade trotted ceremoniously, not galloped, into the valley of death had everything to do with why the British system of officer ship was a failure and must be changed.  The book is a masterpiece because it combines the domestic sagas of a Jane Austen's novel complete with social parties, sex-scandals, and racial prejudices into a great description of the reality of a military campaign in progress.  Not just from the tactical descriptions of the battles as they were set-up and ensued but the logistics of supporting the infantry and the cavalry to get to those battles.  After she describes in great detail the unlikely British victory at the Battle of Alma she quotes the Duke of Wellington who said, "Next to a battle lost, there is nothing more dreadful than a battle won", and from her descriptions of the pain and human suffering inflicted on both sides, the Duke was right.  Yet Woodham-Smith adds even more to this book, the pure high drama of military incompetence at it's highest as Lord Raglan unwitting observes a battle unfold from his perch deep behind Russian, the enemy, lines.  And of Lord Lucan, who want's to be in charge but is never in the right place at the right time.  And to the Charge itself, when Edward Nolan, who carried the orders to Lord Cardigan, races to the front to correct Cardigan's fatal misinterpretation of his orders and is cut down by canon fire just before being able to divert the Light Brigade's direction away from the valley of death.    High drama, battle, scandal, intrigue, incompetence, and an outcome that would forever change the way we train our military officers.  A must read for every member of the military -- grunt to general officer, for every history buff, and for those who just like to poke fun at the British way of doing business or to understand why it is they do business their way.