Chapter 253 Battle of Wiesenberg
On August 2, six divisions of French Frossard's Second Army and Bazin's Third Army invaded Saarbrücken.
Most of the Prussian troops had withdrawn from this area, so the resistance was light and the losses on both sides were not significant. The Prussian side suffered 83 casualties and the French army suffered 86 casualties.
Napoleon III took the crown prince into the city and received congratulations from the troops on horseback. Before this, Emperor Napoleon III had not been able to ride a horse for a long time because he had hemorrhoids.
The French media enthusiastically cheered "Victory of Saarbrücken" and the news reports were accompanied by bloody illustrations.
The French army was divided on what to do next after taking Saarbrücken. Bazin hoped to develop this attack into the destruction of the 40,000 Prussian troops gathered near Saarbrücken, but Napoleon III disagreed.
The news obtained from everywhere, as well as the Prussian cavalry that could be seen everywhere in the war zone, had already made Leboeuf and Napoleon III nervous, and they learned from the prisoners that the Prussian army was about to launch an attack. Leboeuf suggested withdrawing the French army from Prussia and then setting up defenses along the border.
So the Fourth Army, which was originally planned to capture Saarbrücken and then move on to seize Saarlouis, commanded by General Paul de Radmorrell, returned to guard the Moselle Valley Pass in accordance with the new order. Go up the corridor to Tyonwy. The French troops who occupied Saarbrücken also retreated across the board and returned to Forbach and Spicheran, which were suitable for defense in France. Bazin's III Corps also withdrew from Sargemines to Saint-Avolde.
Feli, who was originally ordered to lead the Fifth Army and also came to join the battle of Saarbrücken, was ordered back to his starting point of Beech Fortress.
MacMahon's First Army remained unchanged and remained at Froesqueville, south of the Vosges Mountains, maintaining contact with Felix Douy's French Seventh Army at Belfort. The French reserves, Charles-Denis Bourbaki's Guards and Marshal Canrobert's VI Corps moved forward, with the Guards heading for Saint-Avolde and the VI Corps heading for Nancy.
The "Second Jena" promised by Napoleon III before the war turned into a huddled defense with wavering attitudes at the top, which greatly frustrated the French army's enthusiasm.
The French army fell into defense, and Moltke ordered the German army to counterattack across the board. At the same time, he ordered the Third Army to capture Wiesenberg on August 4.
…
Weissenberg.
The army of the Kingdom of Bavaria, which had been eager to take action, took the lead in launching an attack on the French defenders of Wiesenberg.
The commander of McMahon's 2nd Division is 61-year-old General Abel Doe, the brother of Felix Doe, commander of the Seventh Army, and the former principal of St. Cyr Military Academy. Duy led his troops to Wissembourg on the afternoon of August 3.
Wiesenberg is a picturesque old town on the Lauter River. Since the 18th century, France has built defensive fortresses in Wissembourg, including a series of towers, fortresses, moats, etc. However, in 1867, Marshal Niel abandoned these forts, which were somewhat outdated for the nineteenth-century army, and removed the cannons to save budget. After that, the fortifications and forts gradually became deserted. However, if the Prussians want to attack, this is a transportation hub from Bavaria to Salzburg and Lower Alsace, and it is still a strategic location.
After General Duy surveyed the local situation when he first arrived here, General Duy's engineer suggested: "Wissemburg needs to be renovated so that it can be held as a point."
This suggestion was immediately reported to the First Army headquarters. But Duy was unlucky. As soon as the telegram was sent, the German army had already crossed the Lauter River and attacked the strategic location of Wiesenberg, giving him no time to react.
The battle that started on August 4 was very sudden for the French army. The French army had no idea that more than 80,000 Prussian and Bavarian troops had assembled opposite them. For several weeks, the French infantry officers did not allow a single French cavalry officer to reconnoitre the situation of the Prussian army on the other side of the river. The French army always thought that "nothing happened". The previous evening a local governor reported that the Bavarian army had occupied the customs house on the Franco-German border and that a large number of German troops had been found there. However, the report was received very late, and the 61-year-old General Abel Duy did not immediately send cavalry to verify the situation. The next morning he sent the cavalry to conduct reconnaissance. The cavalry who went out to conduct reconnaissance was quickly driven back by the Prussian cavalry, and some small-scale contacts occurred between the two sides. General Duy didn't pay too much attention, and started drinking coffee at 8 o'clock in the morning as usual, and then reported the investigation results to Marshal McMahon in Strasbourg. Marshal MacMahon felt that he should send more troops to the front, and planned to move his headquarters to Wissembourg the next day. Just as the telegraph operator telegraphed his plans to Leboeuf in Metz, the battle of Wissembourg began.
The defensive fortress of Wissembourg, although somewhat outdated since it was built in the last century, still serves as a defensive position for the infantry. Despite the "surprise attack", General Duy remained calm in the face of danger and immediately deployed two of his eight battalions, as well as 6 cannons and several machine guns in front of Wissembourg along the river. One battalion was placed in Altenstadt, a small city next to Wissemburg, and the rest of the infantry, cavalry, and 12 guns were placed on the slope behind the city. As the Bavarian 4th Division attacked, all the French guns and artillery deployed at the front opened fire together, weaving into a dense fire net. The French veterans used their Chassebou rifles to aim at the approaching German troops and shoot, causing serious damage to the enemy.
It was also here that the Bavarians first heard the rattling sound of machine gun fire. It's just that the machine gun at this time was not the big killer weapon it was in World War I. It couldn't shoot at it, it could only hit a target hard. So dozens of bullets hit a person, and the person immediately turned into pieces. The intimidation effect of this new weapon far exceeds its actual lethality. A Bavarian officer said that there are no casualties with this kind of gun. If it hits you, you will die. The French artillery and rifle fire were so accurate that every group of Bavarian troops involved in the attack was scattered. The Bavarians retreated, and the Prussian officers shouted loudly to reorganize their troops and attack.
The Bavarian and Prussian infantry hid under the vines and fired at the French army. They could not see the French, they could only hear the sound of French gunfire, firing into the bright light of French fire. The accuracy and rate of fire of the Dresser rifles equipped by the Bavarian and Prussian armies were inherently inferior to the French Chassebou rifles. In addition, the German army needed to lie on the ground and shoot concealed, while the French army either stood in the trench or hid behind the protective wall and could reload their ammunition much faster, so they were at a disadvantage in shooting the German army. Fortunately, the Prussian and Bavarian armies also had superior weapons, namely the new Krupp cannon. Several cannons were pushed across the river and joined the infantry battle. The artillery of both sides began to fire at each other. The Krupp breech-loading cannon quickly showed its advantage over the French front-loading cannon. In addition, the French artillery shells also used very unreliable timing fuses, which caused very little damage to the German army. The Krupp cannon used a trigger fuse and exploded as soon as it hit the ground. Soon the French artillery misfired, and then the Prussian artillery began to shift its target and hit the French infantry hiding in the trenches. But even so, under the firepower of the French infantry, the Bavarian army was still littered with casualties.
In this battle with great disparity in strength, 8 battalions of the French army faced the attack of 29 battalions of the German army. There was no suspense about the outcome of the German army's victory, but the number of casualties exceeded the French army, which showed the combat effectiveness of the French army, especially when the opponent was the Bavarians. .