31. COUNTERATTACK
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31. COUNTERATTACK
The approximately 70,000 Italian troops deployed in Crimea spent their first Christmas in Russia besieging Sevastopol and exchanging shots with the Russians from their positions. Under the command of Alfonso La Marmora and his deputy Alfonso Cialdini, the expeditionary force was composed of men from all over the peninsula but framed in units all from the same state, divided into 8 divisions plus cavalry and Bersaglieri. Most of the troops came from the Kingdom of Sardinia with three divisions and most of the support, followed by Tuscany, Sicily and the Kingdom of Naples. The supplies of the corps were guaranteed by the Confederate navy which had a presence of fifty ships in the Black Sea, mainly stationed in Constantinople. These patrolled the waters protecting the convoys from Russian blockade runners who tried to sink them, exploiting the holes in the joint Italian-British blockade.
In the absence of fighting until the snow melted, Britain used the time gained to direct as many resources as possible into the conflict, increasing its military presence in the Balkans and the Mediterranean in view of the effort to be made. At the same time, British diplomacy was working to prevent Austria from entering the Balkan war, which began with the military occupation of Bosnia. Disraeli was willing to exchange the region for Austrian neutrality in the conflict; the Ottomans would not object, losing a peripheral province was preferable to having their empire dismantled. Therefore diplomatic channels were opened with Vienna still handling the aftermath of the invasion, mainly partisan activity by the more nationalist Serbs which was costing the army precious resources which forced the high command to concentrate much of the forces in the region. Unaware of all this, the British went to Vienna to negotiate with their Austrian counterparts.
With the arrival of spring, the Allies took the offensive on almost all fronts: on April 13, 1874, the English expeditionary force began its advance along the Black Sea towards Varna, while the Ottomans launched a pincer attack towards Sofia. About 600,000 Russians and 500,000 Allies clashed from the Black Sea to Southern Serbia in the largest military operation to date. Varna fell after four days of street fighting, the British suffered heavy losses while the Russians managed to retreat in order to their fortified lines along the Sumen-Constance line. The British advanced rapidly covered on the flanks by the cavalry which proved fundamental in the repression of the Bulgarian partisans. Dobric had been identified as the weakest point of the fortifications and therefore Lord Chelmsford directed his troops there. The goal of the British was to draw on them as many Russian troops as possible to facilitate the Ottoman attack on Sofia which began on May 25 when two armies, one from Macedonia and one from central Bulgaria, broke through the Russian lines in two places and began. to advance. Vannovsky realized too late that the British offensive was a distraction but by the end of June the damage was done: Sofia was surrounded along with 70,000 Russians, while 350,000 men were deployed on the Black Sea. The general ordered a redeployment of forces which moved about 150,000 men in Central Serbia who stopped the Ottoman advance in Nis with the help of the Serbian army and pulled the enemy back 50 km before the resistance was too strong. In six months Russia had lost almost everything it had gained the previous year plus parts of Bulgaria, suffering about 200,000 losses, while those of the allies stood at 150,000. The Russian high command decided to ignore the possibility of a British landing in the Baltic and sent the Belarusian and Baltic armies to the Balkans but reinforcements would arrive in late autumn.
Italian Bersaglieri battle Russian Cossacks during the battle of Yarke, one that would remain in the collective imagery of the unit's history
The Italians had their moment of glory in the summer of 1874 when the tenacity and steadfastness of the Confederate army were tested by the second Russian attempt to break the siege of Sevastopol: on July 2, 15,000 men of the Sevastopol garrison attempted a sortie while 85,000 soldiers of the Crimean Army pressed on the Italian lines to the north. Simferpool was the location of a month-long battle for the control of the city in which the Sicilian and Tuscan troops distinguished themselves for the courage and resourcefulness with which they defended the city preventing a collapse of the Italian flank. The Piedmontese sector was the scene of hard and mobile clashes in which the Cossacks clashed with swords against Carabinieri on horseback as in a battle of a century ago and the Bersaglieri cemented their reputation as elite infantry and experts in charging cavalry as they did to the battle of Yarke. With the arrival of September the Russians ended their offensive actions: they had only managed to advance a few kilometers and the sortie of Sevastopol had failed, halving an already tried garrison. The Italians, on the other hand, had managed, albeit at a high price, to keep up with the Russians by gaining prestige, with newspapers comparing Sevastopol to Alesia.
With the massacre of the Spring Offensive and the Battle of Crimea taking place before its eyes, the world was shocked by the massacre and numerous anti-war organizations in their infancy began to shout their dissent to the conflict. Others, however, moved by more humanitarian purposes, had organized funds and associations to provide relief to soldiers wounded in combat whose photos filled the newspapers. It was the first large-scale intervention of the Red Cross whose symbol quickly filled the rear of the armies. The great promoter of the association was Princess Alice, wife of Umberto, who did her utmost to provide support to the soldiers' families and making donations to the Italian section of the organization. France was the great neutral of the conflict: the Republic had preferred not to intervene in a great international conflict by concentrating its attention on West Africa. In October, Leon Gambetta, president of the French Republic, published the Gambetta manifesto which in its four points saw an agreement for the end of the war. The points were: The freedom of navigation along the Danube, the independence of the United Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Balkans and the demilitarization of the Black Sea. Russia proved itself in favor of only the first two points, rejecting any diplomatic action until the manifesto was corrected.
On October 16, Austria came out in favor of the manifesto, announcing that there will be no further military intervention in the Balkans after the capture of Bosnia. This news infuriated the Russians, who had always hoped for an Austrian intervention to end the war and was a big blow to allied diplomacy that had neutralized the threat of an attack on the Italian flank, allowing the Confederation to redeploy its troops. part of which was sent to the Crimea to strengthen the siege. On November 24, after repeated assaults that cost the Italians numerous losses, a breach was opened between the walls that was exploited by the Bersaglieri who ran into the city, followed by regular troops and at sunset the tricolor was hoisted on the highest bastion .
After this series of defeats Alexander II summoned his generals and gave them a year to reverse the situation in the Balkans and Anatolia, before the Tsar agreed to negotiate a peace with England. The army's goal would have been to deliver a devastating blow, not to win the war, but to have a better hand in the peace negotiations. The Russian economy had begun to suffer the strain of being at war for four consecutive years: the British naval blockade on the Baltic left only land routes for trade, but the Austrian protectionist tariffs had greatly restricted Russian potential trading partners and the internal market was not yet developed with the largely poor population. Economists predicted that the nation could endure another year of war before struggling to find the funds to continue it so it was vital to end the conflict within the next year.
The Balkans after the allied counterattack
The approximately 70,000 Italian troops deployed in Crimea spent their first Christmas in Russia besieging Sevastopol and exchanging shots with the Russians from their positions. Under the command of Alfonso La Marmora and his deputy Alfonso Cialdini, the expeditionary force was composed of men from all over the peninsula but framed in units all from the same state, divided into 8 divisions plus cavalry and Bersaglieri. Most of the troops came from the Kingdom of Sardinia with three divisions and most of the support, followed by Tuscany, Sicily and the Kingdom of Naples. The supplies of the corps were guaranteed by the Confederate navy which had a presence of fifty ships in the Black Sea, mainly stationed in Constantinople. These patrolled the waters protecting the convoys from Russian blockade runners who tried to sink them, exploiting the holes in the joint Italian-British blockade.
In the absence of fighting until the snow melted, Britain used the time gained to direct as many resources as possible into the conflict, increasing its military presence in the Balkans and the Mediterranean in view of the effort to be made. At the same time, British diplomacy was working to prevent Austria from entering the Balkan war, which began with the military occupation of Bosnia. Disraeli was willing to exchange the region for Austrian neutrality in the conflict; the Ottomans would not object, losing a peripheral province was preferable to having their empire dismantled. Therefore diplomatic channels were opened with Vienna still handling the aftermath of the invasion, mainly partisan activity by the more nationalist Serbs which was costing the army precious resources which forced the high command to concentrate much of the forces in the region. Unaware of all this, the British went to Vienna to negotiate with their Austrian counterparts.
With the arrival of spring, the Allies took the offensive on almost all fronts: on April 13, 1874, the English expeditionary force began its advance along the Black Sea towards Varna, while the Ottomans launched a pincer attack towards Sofia. About 600,000 Russians and 500,000 Allies clashed from the Black Sea to Southern Serbia in the largest military operation to date. Varna fell after four days of street fighting, the British suffered heavy losses while the Russians managed to retreat in order to their fortified lines along the Sumen-Constance line. The British advanced rapidly covered on the flanks by the cavalry which proved fundamental in the repression of the Bulgarian partisans. Dobric had been identified as the weakest point of the fortifications and therefore Lord Chelmsford directed his troops there. The goal of the British was to draw on them as many Russian troops as possible to facilitate the Ottoman attack on Sofia which began on May 25 when two armies, one from Macedonia and one from central Bulgaria, broke through the Russian lines in two places and began. to advance. Vannovsky realized too late that the British offensive was a distraction but by the end of June the damage was done: Sofia was surrounded along with 70,000 Russians, while 350,000 men were deployed on the Black Sea. The general ordered a redeployment of forces which moved about 150,000 men in Central Serbia who stopped the Ottoman advance in Nis with the help of the Serbian army and pulled the enemy back 50 km before the resistance was too strong. In six months Russia had lost almost everything it had gained the previous year plus parts of Bulgaria, suffering about 200,000 losses, while those of the allies stood at 150,000. The Russian high command decided to ignore the possibility of a British landing in the Baltic and sent the Belarusian and Baltic armies to the Balkans but reinforcements would arrive in late autumn.
Italian Bersaglieri battle Russian Cossacks during the battle of Yarke, one that would remain in the collective imagery of the unit's history
The Italians had their moment of glory in the summer of 1874 when the tenacity and steadfastness of the Confederate army were tested by the second Russian attempt to break the siege of Sevastopol: on July 2, 15,000 men of the Sevastopol garrison attempted a sortie while 85,000 soldiers of the Crimean Army pressed on the Italian lines to the north. Simferpool was the location of a month-long battle for the control of the city in which the Sicilian and Tuscan troops distinguished themselves for the courage and resourcefulness with which they defended the city preventing a collapse of the Italian flank. The Piedmontese sector was the scene of hard and mobile clashes in which the Cossacks clashed with swords against Carabinieri on horseback as in a battle of a century ago and the Bersaglieri cemented their reputation as elite infantry and experts in charging cavalry as they did to the battle of Yarke. With the arrival of September the Russians ended their offensive actions: they had only managed to advance a few kilometers and the sortie of Sevastopol had failed, halving an already tried garrison. The Italians, on the other hand, had managed, albeit at a high price, to keep up with the Russians by gaining prestige, with newspapers comparing Sevastopol to Alesia.
With the massacre of the Spring Offensive and the Battle of Crimea taking place before its eyes, the world was shocked by the massacre and numerous anti-war organizations in their infancy began to shout their dissent to the conflict. Others, however, moved by more humanitarian purposes, had organized funds and associations to provide relief to soldiers wounded in combat whose photos filled the newspapers. It was the first large-scale intervention of the Red Cross whose symbol quickly filled the rear of the armies. The great promoter of the association was Princess Alice, wife of Umberto, who did her utmost to provide support to the soldiers' families and making donations to the Italian section of the organization. France was the great neutral of the conflict: the Republic had preferred not to intervene in a great international conflict by concentrating its attention on West Africa. In October, Leon Gambetta, president of the French Republic, published the Gambetta manifesto which in its four points saw an agreement for the end of the war. The points were: The freedom of navigation along the Danube, the independence of the United Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Balkans and the demilitarization of the Black Sea. Russia proved itself in favor of only the first two points, rejecting any diplomatic action until the manifesto was corrected.
On October 16, Austria came out in favor of the manifesto, announcing that there will be no further military intervention in the Balkans after the capture of Bosnia. This news infuriated the Russians, who had always hoped for an Austrian intervention to end the war and was a big blow to allied diplomacy that had neutralized the threat of an attack on the Italian flank, allowing the Confederation to redeploy its troops. part of which was sent to the Crimea to strengthen the siege. On November 24, after repeated assaults that cost the Italians numerous losses, a breach was opened between the walls that was exploited by the Bersaglieri who ran into the city, followed by regular troops and at sunset the tricolor was hoisted on the highest bastion .
After this series of defeats Alexander II summoned his generals and gave them a year to reverse the situation in the Balkans and Anatolia, before the Tsar agreed to negotiate a peace with England. The army's goal would have been to deliver a devastating blow, not to win the war, but to have a better hand in the peace negotiations. The Russian economy had begun to suffer the strain of being at war for four consecutive years: the British naval blockade on the Baltic left only land routes for trade, but the Austrian protectionist tariffs had greatly restricted Russian potential trading partners and the internal market was not yet developed with the largely poor population. Economists predicted that the nation could endure another year of war before struggling to find the funds to continue it so it was vital to end the conflict within the next year.
The Balkans after the allied counterattack
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