British 11th Hussars Regiment[11th Hussars (Prince Albert's Own)] is a unit of light cavalry, which was formed in 1715, and therefore just after the end of the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1713 / 1714). The starting unit was a dragoons formation called Honeywood's Regiment of Dragoons, and it was baptized into combat during the Battle of Preston in 1715. In the course of the Jacobite uprising in 1745, she again entered the fight. She also took an active part in the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), distinguishing herself in the Battle of Warburg in 1760. In 1783, the unit changed its name to the 11th Regiment of Light Dragoons. The unit took part in the battles with revolutionary France (1792-1799), and in 1801 it served in Egypt for a short time. However, during most of the Napoleonic wars, the 11th Hussars Regiment served in the area of Iberian, taking part, inter alia, in the Battles of Badajoz and Salamanca in 1812. In 1815, the unit fought at Waterloo. After the Napoleonic Wars ended, the unit was not disbanded, but in 1840 it changed its name to 11th Hussars (Prince Albert's Own). The unit took part in many armed conflicts in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries - including the Crimean War (1853-1856), taking part in the famous Light Brigade charge, and in both world wars. In 1969, the unit was merged with the 10th Royal Hussars to form a new regiment called the Royal Hussars.
The Crimean War, fought in 1853-1856, is an armed conflict between Russia and Turkey, and later also France and Great Britain. The main cause of the conflict was the desire of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia of the Romanov dynasty to acquire territorial acquisitions at the expense of Turkey - primarily the capture of the Black Sea Straits. Throughout the war, the British army recruited around 108,000 soldiers and officers, of which as many as 40,000 were wounded or killed or died as a result of diseases. The British cavalry at the beginning of this conflict consisted of the Cavalry Division (commander: General Lord Lucan) divided into the Heavy (General Scarlett) and the Light Brigade (General Lord Cardigan). Each brigade consisted of five regiments and in total was able to put up to 1,000 people to fight. The Light Brigade consisted of: the 4th and 13th Regiment of Light Dragoons, the 17th Regiment of Lancers and the 8th and 11th Regiment of Hussars. The basic unit in the Troop regiment consisted of 62 soldiers. A squadron was created in Crimea from two such sub-divisions. From a tactical point of view, the British hussar regiments were seen in the Crimean War as fully fit for fighting in the open field. It is worth adding that the basic weapons of the British hussars were a saber and a cavalry rifle.