Although there are more recent works on the 'Charge of the Light Brigade' (this was published in 1953), i doubt any of them can compare to 'The Reason Why' in terms of sheer readability. I love a good narrative History book - some of my favourites include Beevor's 'Stalingrad', Holland's 'Persian Fire' and Middlebrook's 'The First Day on the Somme'. All of these books i've found just as gripping as any novel, and Woodham-Smith more than compares to them.
'The Reason Why' describes the background to the Charge, in particular focussing on the role of Lucan and Cardigan as the two principal instigators in the disaster. Both are painted as essentially hot-headed aristocrats, out of their depth in their commands and widely disliked by their troops, although Lucan is at least described as being intelligent (Cardigan is derided as being essentially vain and stupid).
Of particular interest is a lengthy section on the purchase of commissions, which leads to both Cardigan and Lucan buying command of their various units over the heads of other officers who had actual experience of fighting and actual aptitude, in some cases leading to these officers leaving the British army in despair.
Cardigan's essential unsuitability for command was shown after he became the commanding officer of 15th The King's Hussars. Cardigan became so infamous for his bullying of this unit that he was eventually dismissed. Here the story might have ended, except by 1836 Cardigan was back in charge of the 11th Hussars, despite his earlier dismissal. The reasons behind this are explained at length in the book, but essentially it reveals the ridiculously out-of-date system of command in the British Army that led to such disaster in the Crimea 20 years later.
Also explored in the book is the tempestous relationship between Lucan and Cardigan - despite being brother-in-laws, they detested each other long before the fateful decision was made to put Lucan in overall charge of the Cavalry division sent to the Crimea, including the Light Brigade under the Charge of Cardigan. This would've been an explosive situation anyway, a situation made far worse by Raglan's inept leadership - he gave Cardigan the impression that he had an independent command and did not have to listen to Lucan, and failed to arbitrate in the dispute between the two.
Woodham-Smith's description of the fateful decision to land at the Crimea is particularly vivid. It never fails to amaze me how insane it seems that a whole armada of ships, British and French, left Bulgaria intending to invade the Crimea, without having any firm idea of where they were going to actually land! When one compares this to the level of planning that went into the D-Day invasions less than 100 years later it seems amazing that this could have ever happened.
The landing at the aptly-named 'Kalamita Bay' was as unplanned and chaotic as one might expect. One morbid piece of detail is that the army that left the beach head, heading towards its first confrontation with the Russians, was soon followed by hordes of vultures, despite them not being native to the Crimea. It seems that the temptation of thousands of soldiers dropping from the ranks and dying of exhaustion and cholera was enough to attract them away from their natural habitat in North Africa, hundreds of miles away.
The actual events of the Charge are as vivid as one might expect. Woodham-Smith doesn't blame any one party, but instead points the finger at the madness of allowing a British army to be led by soldiers who had no experience of warfare and no formal training, leading to Raglan's infamously vague order that sent the Light Brigade to their destruction and into the pages of history.
I highly recommend reading this book - I found it fascinating.
