IMAGES of North-East soldiers fighting in the first "modern" war were on display in the region this weekend.

The Crimean War, in 1854, became known as the first armchair war, as advances in technology and groundbreaking news reports brought the horrors of the bloody conflict directly to newspaper readers at home.

Alastair Massie, curator of the National Army Museum's exhibition on the Crimea, was at the Durham Light Infantry Museum in Durham City on Saturday, to give an illustrated talk on its impact.

It included pioneering photography by Roger Fenton, who took hundreds of pictures of frontline soldiers. Among them were shots of three troopers from the 68th Light Infantry, the forerunner to the DLI.

"The regiment had a very distinguished record in the Crimea," said Dr Massie. "They were not only a fine fighting unit, but were notoriously a very smart regiment - they were regarded quite enviously by other regiments for their smartness."

British troops joined forces with their French and Turkish allies to invade the Crimea in 1854 and captured the Russian naval base at Sevastopol.

For the first time, newsmen sent reports from the battlegrounds - first by fast steam ship and then by telegraph - giving their readership regular news of the conflict.

"Here was the true face of war, on the breakfast tables of houses across Britain," said Dr Massie.

The conflict is still chiefly remembered for the ill-fated Charge of the Light Brigade, when the British cavalry took on Russian guns.

"The exhibition portrays the war in its modernity and all its anachronistic glory," said Dr Massie.

"Soldiers still went to war and fought on the battlefield in their parade ground uniforms. The Charge of the Light Brigade was the most lethal costume parade in history."

The Crimea also saw the British infantry deploy rifles in large numbers for the first time and, behind the lines, Florence Nightingale quietly spearheaded a revolution in hospital sanitation.

"It was a war on the cusp, looking backwards in terms of tactics, and forwards in terms of the photography, reporting and the weapons," said Dr Massie.

His exhibition, entitled A Most Desperate Undertaking: The British Army in the Crimea 1854-56, is on display at the National Army Museum in London until the end of March.

Published: 08/11/2004