The Battle of Durrenstein occured on 11th November 1805, when the Russian commander Kutuzov launched an attack on Gazan's isolated division of Marshal Mortier's V Corps. I re-fought the battle using the scenario in Michael Hopper's book
Rise of Eagles 1805.
Although the Wikipedia entry counts the battle as one between the French and an Austro-Russian force, the order of battle in the scenario book gives only Russian units. It is an action supposed to be fought in two parts, with 28 turns in the first part and if the action is still ongoing then there will be a break in the battle whilst the Russian's try an outflanking manoeuvre and the French bring up General Dupont's Division.
The Forces:
Imperial France:
C-in-C: Marshal Mortier (Capable)
Gazan's Division: Gazan (Capable)
1st Brigade: 2 bases of Trained SK2 Infantry, 1 base Trained/Elite SK1 Infantry
2nd Brigade: 6 bases of Trained SK1 Infantry
3rd Brigade: 1 base of Trained Dragoons
Dupont's Division: Dupont (Capable)
arrives at the end of Turn 32
1st Brigade: 2 bases of Trained SK2 Infantry
2nd Brigade: 2 bases of Trained SK1 Infantry
3rd Brigade: 1 base of Trained Light Cavalry
Imperial Russia:
C-in-C: Gen Kutuzov (Capable)
Miloradovich's Division: Miloradovich (Capable)
1st Brigade: 1 base of Trained/Elite SK1 Infantry, 1 base of Trained SK1 Infantry
2nd Brigade: 2 bases of Trained SK1 Infantry
3rd Brigade: 1 base of Trained Light Cavalry
Shtrik's Division: Shtrik (Plodding)
arrives at the end of Turn 10
1st Brigade: 1 base Trained SK2 Infantry, 1 base Trained SK1 Infantry
2nd Brigade: 2 bases Trained SK1 Infantry
Dokhturov's Division: Dokhturov (Capable)
arrives at the end of Turn 30
1st Brigade: 1 base Trained SK2 Infantry, 1 base Trained SK1 Infantry
2nd Brigade: 2 bases Trained SK1 Infantry
Schmidt's Brigade: 2 bases Trained SK1 Infantry
arrives at the end of Turn 30
The Set-Up:
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| The Battlefield, dominated by the villages of Unter-Loiben (bottom-left); Durrenstein (right); Rothenhof (bottom-centre) & Stein (bottom-right). There is a ruined castle on the heights at the edge of the forest (top-left) and another village, Egelsee, by the woods (top-right); The French are distributed around the villages to the left, the Russians are bottom-right, pushing forward of the village of Stein. |
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| The Russians: Kutuzov is with the Hussars (centre), the infantry division is along the road (right) |
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| Another view |
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| Mortier is with Gazan's leading brigade (4th Light Infantry and some elite companies) around Rothenhof |
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| A closer view of the French infantry deployed around the villages, with Gazan on the road near his weak Dragoon regiment |
The Battle:
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| Both sides show a bold front; Mortier and Kutuzov pushing their troops towards each other along the road |
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| It is a feint by the wily Kutuzov, who has forced Mortier to advance more slowly in a formation suitable for combat, before speedily retiring back towards Stein. |
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| Kutuzov re-occupies Stein and the heights above it (left) to await Mortier |
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| Mortier is keen to push forward and attack before any reinforcements reach the Russians |
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| With little time to co-ordinate a full divisional assault, Mortier personally leads the French chasseurs and elite companies in an attack on Stein |
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| The Russians hold on, and blistering fire from the houses causes the French to recoil with heavy casualties |
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| His initial assault having failed, Mortier must wait to bring up the rest of Gazan's Division in support; but Shtrik has now arrived to support Kutuzov (top-centre) |
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| Mortier begins another infantry assault around Stein |
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| Gazan (centre) organizes his Dragoons and a couple of battalions to deter any Russian attack on the left flank |
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| The French infantry assault having failed, Kutuzov orders a general attack along the line! |
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| A wider view of the same. Only the Russian Hussars (top-left) do not charge, fearing the heavier French Dragoons on the flat |
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| Crunch time in the infantry fight! Lots of point-blank musketry fire is exchanged and bayonets cross... |
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| The Russians have made good progress in the centre! The French infantry is pushed back with severe casualties... |
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| A wider-shot: the French light infantry on the right managed to drive the Russians back into Stein (top-right) but the centre is looking shaky... |
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| Kutuzov keeps the intitiative and urges on the Russian Jagers and Musketeers in the centre. A French battalion breaks (bottom-left)...and the centre is under severe pressure! |
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| Kutuzov, having a genuinely inspired day, turns his Jagers around (centre-left) and encircles the French regiment in Mortier's centre!!! |
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| Mortier, not in a position to stem this attack, instead launches a third assault into Stein and pushes the Russian musketeers back... |
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| The French Grenadiers have gained the Western half of the village and the Russians have suffered heavy losses! |
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| A closer-view |
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| And another |
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| However, Kutuzov keep his focus and applies the pressure. The central French regiment surrenders and the remainder start running West! |
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| The French in full retreat... |
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| The French Grenadiers have fortune and fate go against them, and are broken in renewed hand-to-hand fighting in Stein |
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| Mortier and the 4th Light fight on, but are attacked by superior numbers, trapped against the Danube... |
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| Gazan and his Dragoons are caught between Russian infantry and cavalry |
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| The 4th Light Infantry are driven in and defeated |
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| As are the isolated Dragoons |
Game Notes:
This was almost the Battle of Durrenstein as Kutuzov imagined it rather than as it occurred in real life: destroying Gazan's isolated division before succour could come to it. It was a particularly bloody battle in real life, but I don't think my refight was quite as sanguinary. The rub of the green was with the Russians as it seemed that they won more than their fair share of the 50:50 engagements and retained the initiative at all the key moments, but I also made a terrible mistake as Mortier, committing his two-battalion reserve to support the attack on Stein too early, when it should have been kept back. If I had done so, the attack by 1st Bn 8th Jagers would not have been so decisive.
A good fun game this. Given the relatively low numbers of troops, it would be another good starter battle for thus just building up their armies for this period. The only rules issue encountered was that it isn't particularly clear what should happen if a unit recoils into an enemy unit. This happened twice in this game, once when the French were pushed back into the Russian Jagers and at the end when the French Dragoons were pushed back into the Russian Hussars. There are quite a few little niggly issues of this sort with this game. On the other hand, the broad sweep of the game was fast, convincing and exciting.
Rules were
Polemos General de Division, figures by
Baccus 6mm and most of the buildings by
Leven.
I have to admit, I'm not into Napoleonic 6mm. But I decided to comment after 4 years anyhow, since I'm sort an expert of the terrain on your table. I literally walked any footpath on the battlefield.
ReplyDeleteThere are several problems, that totaly prevent anything near a historic flow of the battle.
The position of Dürnstein is so far off, that it can't play the role it played historical. Rothenhof instead has, because of its position, only minor influence on the battle (yes, I know how it looks on maps, but it has no line of sight towards Stein.)
Schmidt's Brigade came down from the high ground FAR off the table to the left. He would enter the battlefield on the upper left, through the town of Dürnstein, (which isn't there) and help the coloumn, that went down the stairs from Richard Lionheart castle into Dürnstein (which isn't there) to mob up the last French there. (In reality Schmidt was shot in the moment he came out of the forest into the wine gardens. His second in command attacked west and pushed the follow up french forces over the river.)
Sorry for my ignorance, but is artillery only represented in form of charts in this system?
Cheers Arne
Very many thanks for commenting Arne, comments on the real terrain always greatly appreciated. I think I mentioned that this battle was using the scenario published in Rise of Eagles. The table follows that one 'okay' although the castle (the only one I had at the time! my apologies) should have been closer to Durrenstein. Looking at the map on wikipedia, the scenario map has been quite heavily distorted to get more of it onto a 6'x4' table which accounts for the differences in the line of sight. If I do this one again at some point, I will make some modifications as you suggest.
DeleteThe system does represent artillery, but the scenario book's order of battle doesn't give any artillery for either side in this game.
Having thought about the set up for some time now, I'm not sure if it can be played like this at all.
DeleteThe medival city walls of Dürnstein run like an "U", with the ends at the Danube bank, blocking the road in both directions, with the castle as the northern most point. The wall itself had little defence value in 1805, after the Swedes had blown up the gates and the castle in 1645. Basicly, the castle is part of the town of Dürnstein. As soon as Russian troops, comming down from the castle, entered the town, no more French troops could move through town to join the batlle on the Loiben plain.
But the main problem ist the missing Pfaffenberg (Priests Hill). It is completely impossible to attack from Rothenhof to Stein in reality. The northern side of the road is a hill with about 30 meter vertical stone cliffs on the river side. The other sides of the Hill are compareable to "Little Round Top" (at Gettysburg) Rothenhof is build into and on the western side of the Pfaffenberg, therefore it has no line of sight to Stein. The Russians were sitting on top of the hill, preventing attempts to get on the hill.
The ideal situation at that bottleneck corner made Kutuzov come up with this divisional scale ambush into the flanks of the French. The Austrians had build a barricade across the road. The Russians had placed artillery on the bridge towers of the burned down Stein-Mautern bridge and could fire right into the French, jamed in front of the barricade.
The victory conditions for Mortier can only be, how much of his force can be evacuated to the south bank of the Danube.
I have to admit, I'm very much into this fascinating battle. The perfect usage of the terrain for a huge, coordinated back flanking maneuver of several divisions is IMHO a underrated tactical masterpiece of the napoleonic wars.
Many thanks Arne, I am very grateful to you for taking the time to post your thoughts. But I don't think the terrain as you describe would be impossible to recreate, granted that this is a wargame on a 150cm x 90cm table, not the real thing. Whether it would be that interesting is another matter of course, although we can always concentrate on smaller portions of the action. I will think about it!
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