"Fix bayonets and charge" - Sir Hugh Gough and the 1st Anglo-Sikh War
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ต.ค. 2024
- Today is the third instalment of my series examining the life of General Sir Hugh Gough. One of the pre-eminent Generals of Victorian military history.
Once again, Historian Chris Brice joins me on the show and explains Gough’s performance as Commander in Chief during the Anglo-Sikh wars of the late 1840s.
Chris's book on Gough can be purchased via helion.co.uk and you can save a whopping 20% by putting in the discount code LION2020 at checkout (limited time only).
If you are interested in the Zulu War, then please sign up for my mailing list to receive my free book on the subject: www.redcoathistory.com.
If you are very generous, you can also buy me a coffee and help support the channel via ko-fi.com/redc...
Now that’s soldiering
Excellent Video! Very informative. Thank you for going into deep detail on the Anglo Sikh Wars.
The Sikh engineer Chris Brice is taking about is called Lehna Singh Majithia
Listening to a discussion of best worst courses of action is interesting but one must always consider what the courses of action remained as the options are whittled down during the course of battle. What really struck me was how well the Indians fought not just as individuals but as an army. Very pleased that from then on (after those wars) we fought side by side as friends not enemies. Huge respect that was defined by various battles in both World Wars.
Thanks for that . Harry Flashman rated Gough highly . I'll have to reopen my Flashman books and take an exhilarating journey back into the past .
If you ever visit Dublin you can stay is his home, St Helen's which is now part of the Radisson Group. There's a fine portrait of him by the staircase in the old entrance hall.
The Dogra generals in the Sikh army had sold out to the British .They sent the Sikh army mustard seed instead of gun powder .
Paddy Gough, as he was known. Upon being told his artillery had run out of ammunition he said, thank goodness, now we can be at them with the bayonet.
Artillery officer 'Sir, we're almost out of ammunition'.
Sir Hugh Gough 'Thank God, then we'll be at them with the bayonet!'
Great interview!
If you like Wellington and Gough, you’ll love Marlborough.
Love your work, amigo! Top notch as usual.
What’s up with your eye?
Thanks. I still spar with younger lads at the boxing gym and sometimes they beat me up! 😥
General Harry Smith’s foray towards Ludhiana and Aliwal is pretty cool. This is probably too much to ask but is it also possible to mention a few words about Gough in the opium war or the gwalior campaign in one of your videos as I’m not very clued up on how he well he performed there. 👍
Hi. If you check the redcoat history podcast (audio) you’ll find an entire episode on Opium war 👍🏼
Ok, thanks
Goober the Traveling Bear loves Red Coat History!
Thank you.
Have you ever done a video historical episode of the Battle of New Orleans on January 8th, 1815? There are some accounts of the greatest discipline displayed by the HRM 93rd Southerland Highland unit. A great deal of forethought was placed into the preparation and positioning of the colonial artillery. I would very much like an accurate British Redcoat perspective. I was thinking many subscribers would enjoy the details tipping the scales in the battle. Again, thank you very much.
' they don't like it up 'em '
This affair cannot hang in the air any longer ! Sweep the feild with the bayonet ! Stonewall Jackson
If only the Sikhs had chosen better commanders, it would have been a more interesting war
The sikh khalsa were a law unto themselves and uncontrollable, hence it was decided to make them lose battles against the british to bring them to heel and tame them ,little realizing that we'd be enslaved for a century afterwards
At downing st
Fix bayonets and charge? It worked on the 2nd day of Gettysburg. Outnumbered, Out of ammunition and flank in the air , Charge downhill .
Not so much on the third day.
@@eldorados_lost_searcher if you are talking about Picket , that wasn’t really a bayonet charge, they had artillery on both flanks they were attacking up hill and behind cemetery ridge was a completely unengaged union reserve ( memory fails me , but other think it was 6th Corps) if picket had taken the ridge I believe it would have killed the morale of the army of Northern Virginia, as Pickets men would have disappeared over the ridge signaling victory only to be immediately replace by a new wall of blue .
But I think we have hijacked the comment’s enough.
Which other Great British generals/officers/soldiers are you thinking of doing ?.
Not sure yet - any preference?
@@redcoathistory Rowland Hill, Evelyn Wood, Guillermo Miller (latin American Wars of Independence) John Churchill 1st Duke of Marlborough.
@@redcoathistory Ian Hamilton, Duke of Cambridge, Duke of Connaught. Campaigns: Indian Mutiny, Indian Frontier Wars, Charge of the 21st Lancers at Omdurman. Future Series: Lesser-known Victorian VCs
Hey buddy I really love your vids your super knowledgeable, not for nothing man you should drop the interviews with these uncharismatic ppl and up the production value on your vids man your channel would take off. I know you do podcasts and stuff jus throwing it out there 😂either I'll keep watching.
Wouldn't every cavalry charge, especially in those days, be a form of bayonet charge? In the end a lance or a saber is just another piece of pointy metal to be used at short distance just like a bayonet.
There is a big difference between a infantry bayonet charge and a cavalry charge. The speed they could be delivered at makes a huge difference. Much more energy involved in a cavalry charge. Don't take many horses in a attack to make the ground shake as they are moving around.
@@matthewcharles5867
And don't forget the speed at which they can disengage from the fight against infantry and retreat to a safer space.
But all that energy and speed is useless if that cavalry charge is met with a well formed and disciplined square and is not supported by horse artillery to blow gaps in those squares.
But in a cavalry-vs-cavalry operation, it's still pointy metal to be used at close range. With saber to saber making distance even shorter for the individual soldier.
@@ducthman4737 the speed could also cause problems if the ground they went over had changes in terrain that weren't expected such as big wadis (gullys). Have read of one interesting instance of a Russian square being broken by some of Napoleon's lancers. The weather was bad enough that there muskets wouldn't fire and with the lances having a longer reach then the bayonets they took there time and speared the formation down where they stood. It's a interesting subject a bit like close in fighting in the trenches in ww1 where pretty much anything you could get your hands on would be used as a weapon.
@@matthewcharles5867
I remember that during a reenactment battle we past a small waterfall in a small canyon with loaded flintlocks. The first volley we fired 80% of our weapons did not spark.
There is no perfect weapon system.
It is the art of the person in command to use the available options in the best way possible.
@@ducthman4737 I shot competition with muzzleloaders before doing some reanacting etc. It's interesting to see some of the differences you see having a foot in each camp. Just the geometry in the different lock types can make huge difference in how well they function.
I see you walked into a door with your eye.
Lol, no I got punched 😂👍🏼
@@redcoathistory possibly the greatest reply on TH-cam ever 🤜💪👍
@@redcoathistory possibly the greatest reply on TH-cam ever 🤜💪👍
Several of the Falklands War battles were won with a bayonet charge.
...and even later in the middle east/afghanistan.
The most recent was Afghanistan, October 2011. Corporal Sean Jones led a small group of men, bayonets fixed, across open ground whilst under enemy fire. This was to relocate to a less tactically disadvantageous position. Corporal Jones received the Military Cross.
One can say the British were also lucky in thier wars in Hindustan
It may not have been a bayonet charge, but it looks like you've been in a bit of a rumble yourself Chris!
Ha ha yes well spotted / sparring with younger guys 😬
@@redcoathistory I know how you feel, carrying a few bruises myself. 😁
Give ‘em a taste of steel
I've been reading this history but always from the lens of knowing how it went. I still don't understand how the Brits won these wars with sp few people.
Because starting in mid-1700s, Europeans started training Indian soldiers to use European tactics under European officers, & found such Indian troops performed as well as Europeans; however, European troops were always considered less likely to mutiny.
Indians defeated other Indians as they were foolish enough to fight under britishers,little realizing that they were enslaveing themselves and their country for centuries
Simply put Britishers played smart and patient. In Sikh-Anglo scenario they signed trinity with Khalsa empire on peak waited calmly for opportunities, keep trying and finally found Lal Singh (PM) bribed him when empire was lowest. Army commander back out leaving soldiers on battlefield leading to defeat of outnumbered army as their tactics were disclosed and commanders were on paycheque.
What would the British Army ever have done without the Irish and Scots.
Surely we are aware of the result. But this this english man is favouring english army and hia commenders. But Sikh army was teachery bu thier generals. And we are still suffering the acts.
No one is favouring anyone here.
These are facts
Any Country that would Blow up a Trans Continental Gas Pipeline I served once but also after 10-23-83 and they gave that government 13 billion in 2012 [Iran] Never Again
AKALUHHHHH
Do you box, Christian? Blackeye
Yes I do. I have black eyes in about half my videos 😂🤦🏻♂️😎
@@redcoathistory I noticed and thought you couldn't be that clumsy
Nice shiner on your left eye there. Caught a good one?
Ha ha yes - I still think I can hold my own with the young lads at boxing…they like to show me otherwise 😂🤷🏼♂️
I thought you had a shiner, but I wasn't sure!
British bayonet charges are cool, but Russia and Soviet Bayonet charges are better. 😉
Ha ha full respect for any soldier running into gunfire whatever the nationality!
Hmmm …… I was hoping for an informative viewing. Was it so? Possibly it was! Possibly it wasn’t!
That is the tone of this video - constant repetition of possibilities for and against. I won’t be wasting any more time listening to this ‘expert’.
Were you hoping for a "This is what happened and there were never any other possible outcomes " telling of this history, just like we were taught in school? History isn't like that there are always the ifs, buts and maybes and its those that make history interesting.
@@tango6nf477 Not so. History is exactly that until someone comes along and decides to rewrite or confuse events as they don't like what happened. So what do these history 'experts' do? They start sowing contradictory seeds to attempt to justify their self anointment as an expert . The actual events around this post are well recorded and despite your attempts to make it foggy some us can see through your vanity.
What was that a right overhand or a right hook?
If Ranjit Singh were alive probably there would have been no need to make this youtube video. Period.
I guess we will never know.
@@redcoathistory absolutely !
@@redcoathistory well if maharaja Ranjit Singh we’re around it would have won no doubt, gough even said after that if British lost ferozeshah the empire in india would’ve collapsed
@Antim FFS So superior that they lost every engagement and both wars? If a superb army like the Sikh`s was beaten in battle, surely it was because of a superb adversary.
@Antim FFS not beaten? They lost both wars, and in every engagement, the Sikh army suffered far more casualties. Sorry, but Sikhs, even under Singh, were not superhumans or invincible, no matter what your excuse or nationalistic propaganda is, the Sikhs were defeated, surpassed and fortunately for them, afterwards, they were intelligent enough to enroll in the British Army.