Okay, Kids! Here is a little quiz for you on the Charge of the Light Brigade:

Question: What made the Charge of the Light Brigade famous?

Answer: Read the answer at http://www.uea.ac.uk/edu/learn/braysher/charge.htm. Historians are still shaking their heads about a muddled attack on superior forces. A famous poem kept the pot stirring.

Question: What armies were engaged?

Answer: The British were fighting the Russians.

Question: What war was that anyway?

Answer: The charge took place at the Battle of Balaclava (Ukraine) in the Crimean War (1854-56).

Question: What was the fighting all about?

Answer: The Russians had taken the Dardanelles. The British were afraid their sea lanes would be jeopardized.

Question: Who wrote the famous poem The Charge of the Light Brigade?

Answer: Lord Tennyson. The poem is short so read the poem at http://www.nationalcenter.org/ChargeoftheLightBrigade.html.

The historian Corelli Barnett said: It is curious that ... the charge of the Light Brigade should loom so large in British legend.

Only 673 men were involved, and they lost 157 men out of 20 000 war dead. Why have the British chosen to make a sentimental legend out of a pointless effort arising from muddled orders? The entirely successful and equally gallant charge of the Heavy Brigade earlier on the same day is generally forgotten... See again http://www.uea.ac.uk/edu/learn/braysher/charge.htm.

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