With some of the first war photographs ever taken, as well as colour illustrations. The Crimean War of 1854-6 has become a byword for military incompetence mingle with confusion. The author vividly shows the long drawn-out Anglo-French efforts to curb Russian expansion into the Turkish Empire and in the bellicose words of Palmerston "make an example of the Red-haired barbarians". Combines oral accounts from eye-witness soldiers and the reports of the first-ever war correspondent, W H Russell of The Times. The Crimean War of 1854-6 has become a byword for military incompetence mingled with administrative confusion. Even today its most famous 'incident', even the Charge of the Light Brigade, is surrounded by controversy; it may have achieved little except to expose the lack of communication amongst the British commanders, yet it has been immortalized in Tennyson's poem and still symbolizes the magnificent heroism of the British soldier. 199PP.