Byline: Martin Wainwright

The Light Brigade were victims of their pride rather than squabbling generals, according to a fresh analysis of Britain's most famous military blunder.

The gallant dash to a line of Russian guns might have been "impossible to prevent" once the ill-fated order had been read out in front of men branded cowards and raring to go.

The suicidal charge, 150 years ago today, and marked by a visit by the Duke of Edinburgh to the "Valley of Death" in the Crimea (now part of Ukraine), has been blamed on muddle and clashes between Lord Raglan, commander-in-chief, and his subordinates, Lord Lucan and Lord Cardigan.

Research into letters by some of the 673 cavalrymen before Balaclava highlights anger at taunts that the Light Brigade tried to avoid its Russian counterpart, the Cossacks.

"There has been some stupid...