Dennewitz 1813-2013 Part 3 (& a Milestone!)

At long last here is the final exciting installment of our big January weekend battle; the Battle of Dennewitz 1813.

To recap, Bertrand's IV Corps has been driven back over the stream to hold the crossing points at Dennewitz and Rohrbeck and hold the south of the stream against Andrew B.'s Prussian 4th Army Corps. Franquemont's 38th Division (Wurttemberger) of IV Corps hold the line Dennewitz-Göhlsdorf, while Reynier's VII Corps are spreading out west from Göhlsdorf trying to outflank or at least spread out the Prussian forces in front of them. My intention was for the approaching XII Corps to then push through the hopefully thinned centre to split the Prussian forces in two and roll up their line.

The situation at Dennewitz

Prussians and Cossacks approaching Rohrbeck, while Fontanelli's Italians occupy the village

The head of XII Corps' column enters the battlefield, while the Prussians consider what to do next.

The rest of XII Corps including the supply wagon.

A slight setback for Reynier's VII Corps!

The cavalry at the bottom of the picture soon had things back to rights, though!

The Poles hold the crossing at Dennewitz, but the Prussians still hold the north bank

Robin moves the 38th Div. Wurttembergers to the right to make room for and screen the lead division of Oudinot's (Malcolm) XII Corps, Guilleminot's (Johnny W.) 14th Division.

Behind them come the Bavarians of Raglovich's 29th Division (Malcolm) 

Pacthod's 13th Div. move to the left of Göhlsdorf in support of Reynier's VII Corps

Andrew S. recalls the Prussians in the face of this threat

Johnny W. masses his troops for the attack on the weakly held gap.

Saxons of Reynier's VII Corps advance

French battalions of VII Corps in closed column

Saxon Jägers

VII Corps mass west of Göhlsorf

Ney attaches himself to the assembling assault force

Bavarians moving into position

French artillery pound the intended assault target, but what's that in the background? Not @#$*^! reinforcements?!

Saxon artillery move up to try and flank the defending Prussian infantry

French artillery and cavalry keep forces in Wölmsdorf bottled up.

Saxon artillery screened by infantry and supported by cavalry approaching Wölmsdorf

Curses! The Russians have entered the board with truckloads of cavalry!
That charge of ours will have to happen soon if we're to have any chance of success.

It looks like it might be too late as the area behind our assault target fills up with more and more Prussians!

Johnny W.'s artillery continues to pound while the infantry get themselves sorted behind the ridge.

"Attendez!"

The Saxon heavy mob: Spiegel Grenadiers, Jägers, Guard Grenadiers and Poles. They were to charge the Prussian infantry and guns to the west of Wölmsdorf

Prussian infantry

More Prussian infantry...

and even more!!

And now Russian cavalry, too!

...and even more Russian cavalry!

The French and Bavarians assemble at the top of the picture, while more and more Prussians mass in response closest to camera

The same view from the French perspective.

The Saxon heavy mob readies itself for action west of Wölmsdorf while the Russian guns decide who to react to; infantry or...

...cavalry! A tiny unit of Garry's chasseurs charge, forcing the gunners to flee and the infantry to sqaure up.

The Saxons and Poles now have clear run at a nice juicy infantry square!

They charge home..

...smashing the square, but now are vulnerable to counter attack...

...which duly comes, forcing the Saxons back to where they started from.

Meanwhile, east of Wölmsdorf the first attack prepares.

Bavarian chevaux legere attack the battery at the base of the hill. 

In it goes, sending the gunners running! The left flank of the infantry attack is now secure.

The French advance over the hill to attack the Prussians in Nieder Görsdorf

Prussian hussars attempt to stem the tide..

...but are forced back

Johnny W. successfully unleashes his forces on Nieder Görsdorf, but this is the French high tide. Too many Prussian and Russian reinforcements arrived before the French breakthrough could be achieved. With no more French reinforcements, we could not exploit the seizure of the village. We gave it a red-hot go, but unless XII Corps had rocket skates, our plan was not going to work with the number of reinforcements the Allies still had to come. It just took too long for XII Corps to move up into position to land the hoped for breakthrough move.

The big task of packing up the troops

All finished for another year!

As my first command of a big game, I was pleased that at least we weren't pummeled by the opposition. I was told by both Andrews after the game that they weren't expecting the westward flanking movement, and were stretched for a time before reinforcements took the pressure off. Able support was given by my subordinates, especially Jim, Paul and Robin, who had to bear the pressure to begin with but held stoically until Quinny and the VII Corps turned up. Quinny, Jenko and Pete E. then set about stretching the Allied reach until Malcolm and Johnny W. appeared. Unfortunately, the Prussians had reinforcements as well, and our plan couldn't bear fruit in the time left. Saturday night saw the French concede the battle but by no means defeated!

Thanks again to Andrew B. for all the hard work setting up the battle, to Tim and Jill for again hosting the event, to Andrew S. for being a worthy opponent, and all the rest of the Prussian gang for the great game!

Dennewitz OB


This conclusion of the massive 3-part post also happily turns out to be the 400th post of this blog. Serendipity, I calls it!

Thanks everyone, for your continued interest and hopefully there'll be a lot more to come