Extraordinary! For once, instead of being at war with each other, Britain and France are going to war together against someone else. In this instance, Russia. And eventually in Crimea. Where the war is pretty much a constant succession of cockups, mostly by Britain, but from time to time by France too.

One of the most spectacular is also the most celebrated moment from that whole ghastly war, the Charge of the Light Brigade. Usually presented, not least by Alfred Lord Tennyson in his poem , as heroic it is in fact a ghastly case of incompetence compounded by personal conflicts leading to needless deaths for no useful gain.

Emblematic of the whole war, as it happens.

Illustration: The Relief of the Light Brigade by Richard Caton Woodville, Jr., public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License.