Crimean War DVD – Robert Hardy, Alan Larsen 

In the spring of 1854, British troops and their French allies were sailing east to the Black Sea, to help the Turks fight off Russia’s advances. The British army that sailed that spring had been described as the finest ever to leave Britain’s shores. But within months those British troops were dying in scores, falling victim to cholera and dysentery epidemics. The army’s medical support was found to be scandalously inadequate. Battles were mismanaged, leading to infamous blunders like the Charge of the Light Brigade. When winter came, the archaic army support services meant British troops were left frozen and on the brink of starvation.