Chapter 253 Battle of Wissemburg

On August 2, six divisions of the French Second Army under Frossard and the Third Army under Bazaine attacked Saarbrücken.

Most of the Prussian troops had already withdrawn from this place, so the resistance was light and the losses on both sides were not great. The Prussians suffered 83 casualties and the French suffered 86.

Napoleon III entered the city with the crown prince and rode on horseback to accept the troops' congratulations. Before this, Emperor Napoleon III had not ridden a horse for a long time because of hemorrhoids.

The French media enthusiastically cheered the "Victory of Saarbrücken" and the news reports were accompanied by bloody illustrations.

The French army had a disagreement on what to do next after taking Saarbrücken. Bazaine hoped to develop this offensive into destroying the 40,000 Prussian troops assembled near Saarbrücken, but Napoleon III disagreed.

Leboeuf and Napoleon III were already nervous about the news they had received and the Prussian cavalry that could be seen everywhere in the war zone. They also learned from the prisoners that the Prussian army was about to launch an attack. Leboeuf suggested withdrawing the French army from Prussia and deploying it along the border.

The Fourth Army under General Paul de Lademerel, which was originally planned to capture Saarbrücken and then advance to capture Saarlouis, returned to defend the corridor from the Moselle Valley to Thionville according to the new order. The French army that occupied Saarbrücken also retreated to Forbach and Spicherens in France, which were suitable for defense. Bazaine's Third Army also withdrew from Sarreguemines to Saint-Avold.

Ferry, who was originally ordered to lead the Fifth Army and join the battle of Saarbrücken, was ordered to return to his starting point, Fort Bich.

MacMahon's First Corps remained unchanged, still at Froeschwiller, south of the Vosges, in contact with Felix Toui's Seventh Corps at Belfort. The French reserves, the Guards of Charles-Denis Bourbaki and Marshal Canrobert's Sixth Corps, moved forward, the Guards to Saint-Avold and the Sixth Corps to Nancy.

The "second Jena" that Napoleon III had promised before the war turned into a defensive retreat. The wavering attitude of the top leaders greatly dampened the enthusiasm of the French army.

The French army was on the defensive, and Moltke ordered the German army to counterattack on all fronts, and at the same time ordered the Third Army to capture Wissemburg on August 4.

…

Wiesenburg.

The Bavarian army, which had been eager to take action, took the lead in launching an attack on the French defenders in Wissemburg.

The commander of McMahon's 2nd Division was 61-year-old General Albert Duy, the elder brother of Felix Duy, commander of the 7th Army, and the former principal of the Saint-Cyr Military Academy. Duy led his troops to Wissembourg in the afternoon of August 3.

Wissembourg is a picturesque old town on the Lauter River. Since the 18th century, France has built a defensive fortress in Wissembourg, with a series of towers, fortresses, moats, etc. However, in 1867, Marshal Niel abandoned these fortresses, which were somewhat outdated for the 19th century army, and removed the cannons to save budget. After that, the fortifications and fortresses gradually became deserted. However, if the Prussians were to attack, this would still be a strategic location as a transportation hub from Bavaria to Salzburg and Lower Alsace.

General Duy, who had just arrived here and surveyed the local conditions, suggested by his engineer: "Wissambourg needs to be renovated so that it can be defended as a key 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 crossed the Lauter River and attacked the strategic location of Wissemburg, leaving him no time to react.

The battle that started on August 4th was very unexpected 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, French infantry officers had not sent a French cavalry to scout the situation of the Prussian army on the other side of the river, and the French army had always thought that "all was well". The evening of the previous day, a local governor reported that the Bavarian army occupied the customs on the Franco-German border, where a large number of German troops were found. However, the report was received very late, and the 61-year-old General Abel Duy was tired and did not immediately send cavalry to verify the situation. The next morning he sent cavalry to scout, but the cavalry that went out for scout was quickly driven back by the Prussian cavalry, and some small-scale contacts occurred between the two sides. General Duy did not care too much, and started drinking coffee at 8 o'clock in the morning as usual, and then reported the results of the reconnaissance to Marshal McMahon in Strasbourg. Marshal McMahon felt that he should send more troops to the front line and planned to move his headquarters to Wissembourg the next day. Just as the operator was telegraphing his plans to Le Boeuf in Metz, the battle of Wissembourg began.

Although the defensive fortress of Wissembourg was built in the last century and is somewhat outdated, it can still serve as a defensive position for infantry. Despite the "surprise attack", General Duy remained calm and immediately deployed two of his eight battalions, six guns and several machine guns in front of Wissembourg along the river, another battalion in Altenstadt, a small town next to Wissembourg, and the rest of the infantry, cavalry, and 12 guns on the slope behind the town. As the 4th Bavarian Division attacked, all the French guns and artillery deployed on the front line opened fire together, weaving a dense fire network. The French veterans used their Chassepeau rifles to aim at the rushing Germans and shoot, causing serious casualties to the enemy.

It was also here that the Bavarians heard the sound of machine gun fire for the first time. However, the machine guns at that time were not the killer weapons used in World War I. They could not be used for sweeping fire, but could only be used to shoot at a target. So dozens of bullets hit a person and the person was immediately shattered. The intimidation effect caused by this new weapon far exceeded its actual lethality. A Bavarian officer said that there were no casualties under this gun, and if it hit you, you would die. The French artillery and rifle fire were so accurate that every team of Bavarian troops participating in the attack was dispersed. The Bavarians retreated, and the Prussian officers shouted loudly to reorganize the troops to attack.

The Bavarian and Prussian infantry hid under the vines and fired at the French. They could not see the French, but could only hear the French gunfire, and fired at the bright lights of the French. The Dreyse rifles equipped by the Bavarian and Prussian armies were not as accurate and fast as the French Chassepeau rifles. In addition, the Germans needed to lie on the ground and shoot in concealment, while the French were either standing in trenches or hiding behind protective walls, and they could reload much faster, so the Germans were at a disadvantage in the shooting. Fortunately, the Prussian and Bavarian armies also had superior weapons, namely the new Krupp cannons. Several cannons were pushed across the river and joined the infantry battle. The cannons of both sides began to fire at each other, and the Krupp breech-loading cannons quickly showed their advantage over the French muzzle-loading cannons. In addition, the French shells used very unreliable time fuses, which caused little damage to the Germans. The Krupp guns used trigger fuses and exploded as soon as they hit the ground. Soon the French artillery was silenced, and then the Prussian artillery began to shift its target and attack the French infantry hiding in the trenches. However, even so, under the firepower of the French infantry, the Bavarian army was still killed and wounded.

In this battle with a huge disparity in strength, the French army's 8 battalions faced the attack of the German army's 29 battalions. The German victory was no surprise, but the number of casualties exceeded that of the French, which demonstrated the combat effectiveness of the French army, especially when their opponents were the Bavarians.

(End of this chapter)