The Alma River is a small river in the Crimean peninsula about halfway between Yevpatoria and Sevastopol. It is most famous for the Battle of the Alma, one of the first major military battles between the allied British, French, and Ottoman Turkish forces against the Russians during the Crimean War (1853–1856). On 20 September 1854, the two armies clashed at the Alma Heights, the last defensible position before Sevastopol near the river. The allied forces carried the day due to a surprise attack led by the French up cliffs the Russians had assumed were unassailable, and the superiority of the British rifle units. In spite of the victory, however, heavy casualties and the disjointed coordination of attack among the allies would foreshadow the general mismanagement of the war as a whole.