SCARLETT: Well then, they won’t be expecting an attack from a few hundred.
MAJOR: But they’re uphill from us, and the ground between is badly broken.
SCARLETT: Two more reasons why they won’t be expecting us. And look!
MAJOR: Surely they’re not halting there.
SCARLETT: Preparing to outflank us. We won’t give ’em time. Now’s our moment, while they’re not moving. Come on! (He draws his sword.) Trumpeter, sound the charge!
Trumpet sounds. SCARLETT’s force charge the Russians and a great fight ensues.
The Light Brigade are halted not far away.
PAGET: Smash into ’em, lads! Well done, old Scarlett!
CARDIGAN: These damned Heavies will have the laugh of us this day, Paget.
PAGET: Not if we move at once, my lord.
CARDIGAN: Lord Lucan’s orders are that we are on no account to leave this position.
PAGET: Can’t we attack without orders, sir?
CARDIGAN: Who are you to ask such a question?
From among the great fight comes the sound of English, Scottish and Irish cheers as the Russian force breaks and flees.
TROOPERS: They’re running for their bloody lives! We can cut ’em to pieces as they are now. Surely they’ll let us forward? What are we waiting for?
MORRIS: (Rides up to CARDIGAN.) My lord, are you not going to charge the flying enemy?
CARDIGAN: Certainly not, Captain Morris, we have clear orders to remain here.
MORRIS: But, my lord, it is our positive duty to follow up this advantage.
CARDIGAN: No, we must remain here.
MORRIS: I implore you, do, my lord, allow me to charge them with the 17th. See, my lord, they are in disorder!
CARDIGAN: No, no, sir, we must not stir from here.
MORRIS: (Turning away) Gentlemen, you are witnesses of my request.
PAGET: We’re all with you, Morris. But it’s no good.
MORRIS: My God, my God, what a chance we are losing!
LUCAN and his staff.
NOLAN: (Riding up) Lord Lucan, sir, message from the Commander-in-Chief, sir.
LUCAN: Kindly read it aloud so that all may hear.
NOLAN: Sir. (Reads) Lord Raglan wishes the cavalry to advance rapidly to the front. Follow the enemy and try to prevent the enemy carrying away the guns. Troop Horse Artillery may accompany. French cavalry is on your left. Immediate. Signed by the second-in-command.
LUCAN: I see. Or rather I fail to see. I can see nothing. From here, neither enemy nor guns are in sight. I know the enemy are in possession of guns of ours captured at the emplacements, and there are guns, Russian guns, at the end of the North Valley with the remnants of their cavalry. Which guns are meant? And is there to be no infantry support? Cavalry to charge artillery? Absurd.
NOLAN: Lord Raglan’s last words to me were that the cavalry are to attack immediately.
LUCAN: Attack, sir? Attack what? What guns, sir?
NOLAN: There, my lord, is your enemy, there are your guns.
LUCAN: The Russian guns. At the end of the valley. Very well.
NOLAN: Will that be all, Lord Lucan?
LUCAN: Thank you, Nolan.
NOLAN rides over to MORRIS.
NOLAN: Good day, Captain Morris. Are you now in command of the 17th?
MORRIS: Good day, Captain Nolan. Yes, my superiors are all off sick.
NOLAN: We are to charge the Russian guns. Have I your permission to ride next to you?
MORRIS: By all means . . . Lew – you mean those Russian guns down the valley?
NOLAN: It’s our chance come at last, Ivor, our chance to show the world.
MORRIS: Oh. Very well. We must do what we can.
LUCAN rides up to CARDIGAN.
LUCAN: Lord Cardigan, in pursuance of this order from the Commander-in-Chief, you will advance down the North Valley with the Light Brigade. I will follow in support with the Heavy Brigade.
CARDIGAN: Certainly, sir; but allow me to point out to you that the Russians have a battery of guns in the valley on our front, and batteries and riflemen on both sides.
LUCAN: I know it, but Lord Raglan will have it. We have no choice but to obey.
CARDIGAN: I understand, sir.
LUCAN: Advance very steadily and keep your men well in hand.
CARDIGAN rides over to his staff.
SERGEANT: (Calling to troopers) Right, pipes out there now. Don’t disgrace your regiment by smoking in the presence of the enemy.
PAGET: I hope that doesn’t apply to me, sergeant. I’ll wager there isn’t another cigar like this in all Balaclava.
SERGEANT: I think it’s up to you, sir.
PAGET: I don’t want to set a bad example.
CARDIGAN: (Rides up) Lord George, we are ordered to make an attack to the front. You will take command of the second line, and I expect your best support – mind, your best support.
PAGET: You shall have it, my lord.
CARDIGAN: In the first line, the 13th Light Dragoons, 11th Hussars, 17th Lancers. Second line, 4th Light Dragoons and the 8th Hussars.
STAFF OFFICER: Very good, my lord.
The regiments form up. CARDIGAN draws his sword.
CARDIGAN: (Quietly) The Light Brigade will advance. Walk march. Trot!
The troops set off, clearly audible owing to a sudden lull in firing. Then the distant guns crash out. As the first shots arrive, wounded men and horses cry out.
NOLAN: Oh, what have I done? Sweet heaven, forgive me!
He pulls ahead of MORRIS.
MORRIS: Get back in line, Lew! We’ve a long way to go and must be steady! (Shouts) Come back!
NOLAN overhauls CARDIGAN.
CARDIGAN: Here, captain, get back to your place in the line! Captain Nolan, get back, I say!
NOLAN: Now hear me, all you men!
The rest of his words are drowned in explosions. A final one is very near. NOLAN is hit. His horse wheels and begins to gallop back through the oncoming Light Brigade.
MORRIS: (Horrified) Oh Lew! Oh God, oh God!
From NOLAN
‘There burst a strange and appalling cry, a shriek so unearthly as to freeze the blood of all who heard him. The terrified horse carried the body, still shrieking, through the 4th Light Dragoons, and then at last NOLAN fell from the saddle, dead.’ The tumult of the battle fades to nothing.
CARDIGAN: That fellow Nolan behaved like a damned insubordinate dog, Scarlett. And a coward, too. Imagine the fellow screaming like a woman when he was hit.
SCARLETT: Say no more, my lord; you have just ridden over Captain Nolan’s dead body.
Sequence 6 – London
A convalescent home. CECIL is visiting MORRIS.
CECIL: You look remarkably well, Morris.
MORRIS: Yes, my lord, I probably do, for a man who’s had his head cut open here and there.
They laugh ruefully.
CECIL: How long will they keep you in this place?
MORRIS: I think they want to see me walk before they decide.
CECIL: (Tentatively) If it’s not too soon to ask you – what do you think happened at Balaclava?
MORRIS: Well, my lord, Lew Nolan was never an easy fellow to understand. He was behaving very oddly even for him when he rode up beside me just before the charge. But I’ve no doubt in my mind that about as soon as he read Lord Raglan’s order he decided to misdirect Lord Lucan. A great chance for Lew to test his theory about cavalry.
CECIL: But he underestimated the Russian artillery.
MORRIS: And his own feelings. Poor Lew hadn’t seen as much of the business of war as I had, and I reckon the sight of what those first shells did to our fellows and their horses was too much for him. It was a horrible reminder that cavalry are flesh and blood, not just part of a theory. I think when he was hit he was in the middle of telling us to turn back.
CECIL: (Slowly) Do you think he was influenced by my notion of bringing about something that would show our friends in St Petersburg the quality of
British cavalry, their high morale and their bravery?
MORRIS: I couldn’t say for certain, my lord, but I know he was powerfully impressed by it. Especially by your last message. He’d set his heart on proving you were right.
CECIL: (Heavily) I see.
MORRIS: My lord, have you heard whether the news of the charge has had any effect . . . back there?
CECIL: Not as yet.
Sequence 7 – St Petersburg
ROGACHEV and his faction in conclave.
ROGACHEV: Surely this ‘charge of the Light Brigade’ shows little but the blind stupidity of the British cavalryman.
GENERAL: It may or may not show that, Count Rogachev. What it certainly shows is miraculous discipline and magnificent courage.
ROGACHEV: So you witnessed it, general?
GENERAL: Your honour must know that I had not the opportunity. Nor the privilege. But a soldier need not be a witness of such a thing. For a soldier, to be told is enough.
ROGACHEV: We must beware of attaching too much importance to a single event. What is it, major?
MAJOR: I did witness that event, my lord count, from behind the battery which the Light Brigade were attacking. With all respect to the general, you have to see such a thing. Such a thing! (Begins to break down.) It was without parallel, it was unique, it was indescribable. The French general who saw it said it was magnificent, but it was not war. It was indeed magnificent, and it was war besides. (Weeping) Those noble fellows! If only we had ten such men in all Russia . . .
ROGACHEV: There, there, my poor major, what you need is a drink. (Rings handbell) Again, we must pay attention to the larger picture.
GENERAL: The larger picture is that, far from the British soldier being in a bad way, it is the Russian. Every man in our army, high and low, is dismayed and daunted and in a state of fear at the thought of an enemy who can do such things. We shall lose the war in the Crimea, we shall never defeat Turkey while she has such an ally, and India is safe from us while the British remain.
The double doors open. JOSEPH enters with SERGEI.
ROGACHEV: Ah, Joseph. Drinks for everybody, please. Champagne for his royal highness . . .
JOSEPH: At once, my lord. (To SERGEI) Champagne here . . . vodka here . . .
MAJOR: (To general) If you call for a vote now, sir, you will assuredly carry the day.
GENERAL: Will you support me?
MAJOR: Of course, and not only I.
GENERAL: Very well. (Raises his voice) I move that we petition the High Command to proceed no further with any plan to move against India. I call for a show of hands.
ROGACHEV: Immediately, general?
GENERAL: If it please your honour.
ROGACHEV: So be it. All present, please signify. For the general’s motion, that the Indian plan be called off forthwith.
Hands are raised in silence.
ROGACHEV: Against, that we are still resolved to move against India.
Another pause.
ROGACHEV: In the circumstances I will not call for a toast.
PRINCE: Better luck next time, Rogachev.
ROGACHEV: I thank your royal highness for an impeccably British sentiment. (Irritably) That will be all, Joseph.
JOSEPH: Thank you, my lord count.
Sequence 8 – London
The Retrenchment Club. We move over to where CECIL and MORRIS are sitting.
CECIL: Well, Morris, you look well enough to take a glass of port.
MORRIS: Thank you, my lord. I think I could manage just the one.
CECIL: I suppose one or other of us has to say a great deal has happened since we last sat here.
MORRIS: Yes.
CECIL: Do you mind talking about it?
MORRIS: No. No, not at all, my lord.
CECIL: Can you tell me how many were lost in the charge? The reports I’ve seen disagree.
MORRIS: I know for a fact that 673 officers and men began the charge. Afterwards, only 195 answered at the first muster. I was not one of them, and many unwounded men had lost their horses and only turned up later. Altogether 113 men were killed and 134 wounded. But for the French attack that followed, there would have been many more.
CECIL: A hundred and thirteen too many.
MORRIS: Oh, most certainly, my lord, but what would you? And if it’s any comfort, Lew Nolan would very likely have done just as he did do if you had never met him. He was a mad fellow.
Closing notes of the Last Post.
CECIL: Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die. But not in vain.
PS to Captain Nolan’s Chance
Ever since I first heard of it as a boy, I have suspected that the charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava was the result not of a blunder but of somebody’s intention. My recent look at the matter in some detail has confirmed me in this view. For instance, Cecil Woodham-Smith’s excellent, very full study, The Reason Why (1953), leaves one with at any rate a strong suspicion that Captain Lewis Nolan deliberately and vitally misled the commander of the Cavalry Division, Lord Lucan, about the objective of the charge.
Nolan had a unique chance to do so. He was the ADC of General Airey, Lord Raglan’s second-in-command and the Officer who wrote down and signed the fatal message that Nolan delivered. Up on the heights overlooking the battlefield, Raglan and Airey and their staff, who included Nolan, could see both (1) the captured British guns Raglan actually intended the Cavalry Division to recapture; and (2) the Russian artillery battery at the far end of the North Valley. From his lower position, Lucan could see neither (1), an easily attained objective, nor (2), to be attacked only at great risk. He was thus vulnerable to Nolan’s deception (and had negligently failed to acquaint himself with the Russian groupings).
The reason why Nolan misled Lucan, if he did, would clearly have been something above and beyond his amply documented zeal for action. He was also a fanatical believer in the unrealized powers of cavalry, especially light cavalry. This too is well documented; after a dazzling early career as a cavalryman he wrote not one but two books on the subject, and much of what I put into his mouth in the first sequence of my play is a close paraphrase of some views he expressed. But for good measure, and to contribute something of my own, I invented a small conspiracy that included Nolan and plotted to convince a sinister Russian cabal of the formidable fighting qualities of the British soldier, especially the cavalry soldier.
Two points might be added here. I hope my conspiracy and its doings are fun, but in the end I incline to the view I attribute to Morris in his last speech, that Nolan as portrayed ‘would very likely have done just as he did do’ if there had been no conspiracy. And as for whether the historical Nolan really misled Lucan on purpose, we shall never know. Still, I rather think he did. True, he had a lot of luck with the incompetence that surrounded him, but it was the sort of luck that comes the way of murderous maniacs.
With exceptions like Nolan’s discourse, most of my London and St Petersburg scenes (sequences 1, 2, 4, 6–8) are fiction. The Crimean sequences, 3 and 5, are largely factual, here and there closely so. For instance, Nolan’s face-to-face diatribe against Lucan, Cardigan’s remarks about siege warfare, Paget’s questions about the significance of the two flags (and the cannonade that interrupts them), Campbell’s words to his men, Morris’s exchange with Cardigan, the text of the order to Lucan (verbatim), Nolan’s placing himself beside Morris, Lucan’s talk with Cardigan just before the charge, the incident of Paget’s cigar and Cardigan’s orders immediately following, the momentary lull in firing, the circumstances of Nolan’s death and what Cardigan and Scarlett say about it afterwards are all matters of record. That record comes chiefly of course from what survivors of the battle wrote about it subsequently, and if one sometimes feels that they remembered with advantages, the capacity of human beings to say memorable or melodramatic things at great moments should not be forgotten.
Morris’s version of the numbers killed and wounded in the charge is taken from p. 272 of The Age of Reform (193
8) by E. L. Woodward.
1941/A
I – The Pacific Operation
. . . The Imperial Fleet that sailed from the Kuril Islands in the last days of November was the most powerful naval force ever assembled. It consisted in the first place of eleven battleships. The largest of them, Yamato, in which Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto flew his flag, was at 68,200 tons displacement one of the two largest battleships ever built, the other being her sister ship Musashi, then uncompleted. Each of their nine 18.1-inch guns (the biggest ever carried afloat) fired shells weighing 3,220 pounds. Top speed was a remarkable 27 knots to a range of 7,200 miles.
With the exception of the sister ships Nagato and Mutu, each bearing eight 16-inch guns, the other battleships in the Grand Fleet carried 14-inch primary armament, altogether providing a broadside of eighty pieces. Speeds of 22.5–28 knots could be attained. All the above ships could launch up to three aircraft via catapult.
The accompanying carrier component was likewise uniquely strong at the time, consisting as it did of no fewer than nine vessels, from the impressive sister ships Soryu and Hiryu with their capacity of seventy-one aircraft each and their top speed of 34.5 knots, to the smaller Taigo with her twenty-seven aircraft and 21 knots. In aggregate these ships carried the prodigious total of 380 aircraft.
Six heavy cruisers, fourteen light cruisers, sixty-six destroyers and nearly one hundred other craft, including a sufficiency of tankers for refuelling purposes, accompanied the capital ships.
Divided into four forces under vice-admirals, this unparalleled armada set its course due east. It passed hundreds of miles to the north of the main Pacific base of the US Navy at Pearl Harbor, the objective of an earlier strike plan now superseded. The change of plan had been largely the personal doing of Yamamoto, who had never wavered in his conviction that Japan could only hope to defeat America in a short war, the shorter the better.
Thanks to miracles of organization and the most rigid security, the Grand Fleet assembled intact and on schedule off the Californian coast, far enough off to be below its horizon. The four forces maintained for the voyage across the Pacific Ocean had become two, separated by some hundreds of miles, in fact the distance between San Francisco and Los Angeles.
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