Editing Battle of the Alma (section)

===The French attack on the Russian left flank===
[[File:La bataille de l'Alma en 1854.jpg|thumb|300px|French troops at the Battle of the Alma]]

By mid-morning, the allied army was assembling on the plain, the British on the left of the Sevastopol Road, the French and the Turks on the right, stretching out towards the coast.{{sfnp|Egerton|2000|p=82}} According to the plan that the allies had agreed upon the day before, the two armies were to advance simultaneously on a broad front and try to turn the enemy's flank on the left further inland. At the final moment, Raglan decided to delay the British advance until the French had broken through on the right; the troops were ordered to lie on the ground, within range of the Russian guns, in a position from which they could scramble to the river when the time was right. They lay there from 13:15 to 14:45, losing men as the Russian gunners found their range.{{sfnp|Small|2007|p=47}}

While the British were holding their advance, on the far right, Bosquet's 2nd Division arrived at the river's mouth and encountered steep cliffs rising 50 m above the river. The Russians considered the cliffs so steep that they deemed it unnecessary to defend the position with artillery. Leaving their kitbags on the riverbank, the [[Zouave]]s at the division's head started to swim across the river and rapidly climbed the cliffs using the trees to scale it.{{sfnp|Figes|2011|p=209}} Once they had reached the plateau, they hid behind rocks and bushes to engage the defending forces of the Moscow Regiment and held the position until reinforcements could arrive. Following the Zouaves, more soldiers scaled the cliffs and carried 12 guns up a ravine. They arrived just in time to meet the extra infantry and artillery that Menshikov had transferred from the center in an attempt to organize the resistance and prevent the Russian Army from being outflanked on its left.{{sfnp|Gouttman|1995|pp=294-298}}

The Russian situation became hopeless. Before a counterattack could be made, the whole of Bosquet's division and many of the Turks had reached the plateau. The Russians had more guns{{snd}}28 to the French 12{{snd}}, but the French guns were of larger caliber and longer range, and Bosquet's riflemen kept the Russian gunners at a distance where only the heavier French guns could take effect. The guns of the allied fleet also started pounding the Russian positions on the cliffs, undermining the morale of their troops. By the time the first Russian battery of artillery arrived, it found the remnants of the Moscow Regiment already in retreat. Under heavy fire from the Zouaves, the Minsk Regiment also began to retreat.{{sfnp|Small|2007|p=50}}