Chapter 253: The Battle of Wissembourg
On August 2, French generals Frossard's Second Corps and Bazaine's Third Corps—six divisions in total—occupied Saarbrücken.
Most of the Prussian forces had already withdrawn from this area, so the resistance was minimal. Both sides' losses were light: Prussia suffered 83 casualties and France 86.
Napoleon III entered the city on horseback with the Crown Prince, receiving congratulations from his troops. For a while, Napoleon III had refrained from riding because of his hemorrhoids, but now he was back in the saddle.
The French media enthusiastically hailed the "Victory of Saarbrücken," with news reports accompanied by gory illustrations.
After capturing Saarbrücken, a disagreement arose over what action to take next. Bazaine wanted to develop this offensive into destroying the 40,000 Prussian troops gathered near Saarbrücken. Napoleon III, however, disagreed.
Various pieces of intelligence and the constant appearance of Prussian cavalry throughout the theater made Leboeuf and Napoleon III anxious. From prisoners they learned that the Prussian Army would soon go on the offensive. Leboeuf advised withdrawing French forces from Prussian territory and deploying them along the border.
As a result, General Paul de Ladmirault's Fourth Corps, originally ordered to press onward after taking Saarbrücken and seize Saarlouis, was now told to hold the corridor leading from the Moselle Valley to Théonville. The French troops occupying Saarbrücken also fell back en masse to defensive positions on French soil at Forbach and Spicheren. Bazaine's Third Corps pulled back from Sarreguemines to Saint-Avold.
General Failly, who had been directed to bring the Fifth Corps into the battle at Saarbrücken, was now ordered back to his original position in the Bitche fortress.
There was no change for MacMahon's First Corps, which remained at Froeschwiller on the southern side of the Vosges Mountains, maintaining contact with General Félix Douay's Seventh Corps in Belfort. Meanwhile, part of the French reserve—General Charles-Denis Bourbaki's Imperial Guard and Marshal Canrobert's Sixth Corps—moved forward, the Guard heading to Saint-Avold and the Sixth Corps to Nancy.
Napoleon III had spoken before the war of a "second Jena," but his vacillating high command had now shrunk back into a defensive posture, severely damaging the French Army's morale.
With the French hunkering down, Moltke ordered a full-scale German counteroffensive, directing the Third Corps to capture Wissembourg on August 4.
Wissembourg
Eager for battle, the Bavarian Army took the lead in attacking the French defenders at Wissembourg.
The commander of MacMahon's 2nd Division was 61-year-old General Abel Douay, older brother of General Félix Douay of the Seventh Corps and a former superintendent of the Saint-Cyr Military Academy. Douay and his troops reached Wissembourg on the afternoon of August 3.
Wissembourg is an ancient, picturesque town along the Lauter River. Since the 18th century, France had fortified Wissembourg with a series of towers, forts, and moats. However, in 1867, Marshal Niel abandoned these outdated 18th-century fortifications, removing the cannons to cut costs. The town's defenses and forts subsequently fell into disrepair. Even so, should the Prussians attack, Wissembourg remained a strategic crossroads between Bavaria and the areas of Salzbourg and Lower Alsace.
Upon arrival, General Douay inspected the locality. His engineers recommended: "We should restore Wissembourg's defenses so it can serve as a strongpoint to hold."
That proposal was promptly reported to First Corps Headquarters. Douay was out of luck, though; right after sending the telegram, German troops crossed the Lauter River and moved against this strategic position at Wissembourg, giving him no time to react.
When the fighting began on August 4, it caught the French off guard. They had no idea that over 80,000 Prussian and Bavarian troops were already massed across from them. For weeks, the French infantry officers had not sent a single cavalry unit to scout the Prussian lines beyond the river, assuming the area to be "all clear." Late the previous evening, a local official reported that Bavarian troops had occupied the French-German customs station and discovered a large German force there. However, it was very late by the time this report arrived, and the 61-year-old General Abel Douay, exhausted from travel, did not immediately dispatch cavalry to verify. The next morning, he did send out cavalry on a scouting mission, but they were quickly forced back by Prussian horsemen in a minor skirmish. General Douay paid little heed—he proceeded with his usual routine of drinking coffee at 8 a.m. and then sent a message to Marshal MacMahon in Strasbourg with the scouting results. MacMahon decided he should send additional units to the frontline, planning to move his own headquarters forward to Wissembourg the next day. Right when his telegraph operator sent MacMahon's plan to Leboeuf in Metz, the battle for Wissembourg began.
Although Wissembourg's fortifications were outdated 18th-century works, they still provided a defensive position for infantry. Even though it was a "surprise attack," General Douay remained calm, dividing his eight battalions as follows: two battalions plus six cannons and a few machine guns in front of Wissembourg along the river; one battalion in Altenstadt, a small town beside Wissembourg; and the remaining infantry, cavalry, and twelve artillery pieces on the slope behind the city. As the Bavarian 4th Division advanced, the French opened up with the full complement of rifles and artillery in the forward positions, weaving a dense curtain of fire. The veteran French troops used their Chassepot rifles to mow down the advancing Germans, inflicting heavy casualties.
It was here that Bavarian troops first heard the "rat-tat-tat" of machine guns. Though these early machine guns were not the kind of sweeping weapons seen in World War I—they could only pour bullets into a single target—they packed a terrifying punch. Dozens of bullets hitting one man at once could blow him to pieces. The psychological impact far exceeded its actual lethality. One Bavarian officer noted that there were no wounded under such guns—if one hit you, death was certain. The French artillery and rifle fire were so accurate that each Bavarian wave was dispersed. Forced to retreat, the Bavarians tried to regroup under the shouted orders of Prussian officers.
Bavarian and Prussian infantry took cover behind vines and exchanged fire with the French. They could not see the French troops, only muzzle flashes. Equally challenging was that the Bavarians and Prussians were armed with Dreyse rifles, which had neither the range nor rate of fire of the French Chassepots. Moreover, the Germans had to fire from a prone position, while the French either fired from trenches or behind protective walls, allowing them to reload faster. In this firefight, the Germans were at a distinct disadvantage. The Prussian and Bavarian armies did, however, have one major advantage: their new Krupp artillery. Several guns were brought across the river to aid the infantry. An artillery duel broke out, but the breech-loading Krupp guns quickly revealed their superiority over the French muzzle-loaders. Moreover, the French shells used unreliable time fuzes, causing limited damage. Krupp shells, fitted with impact fuzes, detonated on contact. Soon the French batteries fell silent, and the Prussian guns shifted their fire onto the French soldiers in the trenches. Even so, under the intense infantry fire of the French, the Bavarian forces sustained heavy losses.
Although this was a one-sided contest—eight French battalions facing twenty-nine German battalions—the German victory was not in doubt. Yet the German casualties exceeded those of the French, demonstrating the French Army's fighting capability, especially when those enemies were Bavarian troops.
Friends, if you enjoyed the novel, you can subscribe to my Patreon channel.
Until November 30th, get 30% off your subscription and the purchase of the novel.
Read 40 Chapters In Advance: patreon.com/Canserbero10