from the 'Anizzah, and were met at Beirut by the steamship Trent and transported back to Turkey. Staff officer Nolan returned to the British forces to join the Light Division at Devna as aide-de-camp to Airey. The Royal Navy had control over the Black Sea, and with a Russian treaty with Turkey and Austria, the enemy forces were withdrawing from Eastern Europe. Despite this favourable outcome, the British government wished to negotiate with the Russians from a strong position. The decision was taken to invade the Crimea itself, with the objective of destroying or capturing the Russian naval base at Sevastopol. Raglan personally considered this unrealistic – British forces knew little about the region, the port's defences, or the strength of the Russian military, with estimates of troop numbers varying between 45,000 and 140,000. It was also quite a distance away, causing logistical difficulties. With the Crimea identified as the target, Nolan and his fellow staff officers had to plan the assault, which eventually included 30,000 infantry, 1,240 cavalry and 54 guns, along with 24,000 French soldiers and 70 of their guns. The cavalry alone required 3,379 horses, and with such a small number of ships available the Heavy Brigade would be part of a second wave – until it arrived, the Light Brigade would be relied on as the sole unit of cavalry. The force departed for the Crimea on 2 September 1854, and began landing at Kalamita Bay, 35 miles north of Sevastopol itself. Airey had the light cavalry engage in reconnaissance and screening while the rest of the force moved off the transports, and they were fully ashore by the 18th. On the 19th, they began marching to Sevastopol – still without the Heavy Brigade. The force reached the Bulganak River that day, where skirmishers found a force of Cossacks and Russian infantry, with a light battery of artillery. The infantry and artillery had been hidden in a dip in the terrain while the British formed up, and their placement put the British cavalry in heavy danger. Raglan decided to withdraw, and sent a troop forward to cover the retreat; this body's confidence deceived the Russians into thinking that there was a larger British force than there was, and they failed to pursue the retreating cavalry. A day later, the British force, together with the French under General St Arnaud, defeated the Russians at the Battle of