1-12 THE APRIL BOMBARDMENT. chap, the rendering of that needed help which men in VI . one 'branch,' as we call it, were forced to be daily requiring from some other 'branch of the ' service';* whilst also there sometimes appeared an only too plain want of concert in matters where concert was needful.! incomplete- It was natural enough that a system which some of the failed in this way to co-ordinate the forces re- paratives, quired for siege-business should cause our people to furnish a sample of English ' unreadiness ' ; and Official Narrative tells us that on the eve of this ' April bombardment/ General Dacres pre- ferred a request — one not however conceded — that, in order to enable him to complete his arrangements, the opening of the fire might be postponed for forty-eight hours.j The Left What caused General Dacres to ask for delay Attack was the backwardness of certain preparatives in the realms of our Left Attack. There, the state of the siege-works was this : — In the 1st Parallel, there ranged a line of powerful batteries all ready for action, but at a distance of 1340 yards from the Great Redan, the nearest of the enemy's Works. In front of
- See the Journal of the Royal Engineers. It teems with
complaints against the infantry summoned to aid in the siege- works, sometimes denouncing the officers, and sometimes de- nouncing the men. f As e.g. in the omission to countermand the order for Older shaw's fight in the advanced No. VII. when the endeavours to arm the sister battery had failed, see post, p. 153. + Journal of the Royal Engineers, vol. ii. p. 145. Lord Raglan would not listen to the proposal. — Ibid.
