During the War of the Fifth Coalition of the Napoleonic Wars, the Battle of Aspern-Essling took place between the villages of Aspern and Essling near Vienna (Austria) on May 21 and 22, 1809. Here, the Austrian army commanded by Grand Duke Karl Ludwig broke off the French army led by Emperor Napoleon's offensive on the Marchfeld Plain on the Donau's left bank. The French suffered heavily, particularly Jean Lannes, one of Napoleon's strongest generals.
Background
The War of the Fifth Coalition began on April 10, 1809, when the Austrian army attacked Bavaria, a French vassal in South Germany. The French army counterattacked against Bavaria under the direct command of Emperor Napoleon, and by the end of April, the Austrians had attacked their homeland. Napoleon then advanced into Austria, capturing the city of Vienna on May 12th. The main Austrian force, on the other hand, withdrew safely to the Marchfeld Plain on the Donau's north bank. As a result, soon after seizing Vienna, Napoleon rapidly planned to cross the Donau River and eliminate Austria's strongest army.On May 13, French Marshal Jean Lannes organized an attack to take the Nuisdorf bridge, which was guarded by two battalions of the Guards Band Vienna. The Austrians broke up the French attacks and knocked out 700 men in Lannes' army. Napoleon chose Lobau Island (one of the small islands in the middle of the Donau River) as his new crossing site after failing to take the Nuisdorf Bridge.
He had engineers construct bridges from Kaiser Ebersdorf on the Donau's south bank to the island of Lobau, and from Lobau to the Donau's north bank. French units crossed the Donau River in sequence throughout the two days of May 20–21, and by the morning of May 21, Napoleon had brought approximately 40,000 troops to the Marchfeld Plain.
Field Marshal-Grand Duke Karl Ludwig, Emperor Franz I's younger brother, commanded the major Austrian army. Because the topography on Lobau Island did not allow the Austrian army to fully promote their combat strength, Karl didn't prevent the French from crossing the Donau. Instead, Karl secretly concentrated 95,800 troops on the Marchfeld Plain, divided into four corps I, II, IV, and VI (commanded by Generals Heinrich von Bellegarde, Friedrich von Hohenzollern-Hechingen, and Johann von Hiller, respectively) and a reserve corps (including shock infantry and cavalry) commanded by Prince Johann I Josef of Liechtenstein.
Karl's strategy was to allow a substantial portion of the enemy to cross to the north bank, then assault and isolate this force before Napoleon's main army arrived at Marchfeld. Karl's purpose was to force the French to retreat to Lobau Island and not defeat the main French army. The Austrian engineer also launched many fireboats, watermills, and driftwood to damage the hurriedly erected bridge from Lobau to Marchfeld, which took the French engineer a long time to reconstruct and, more crucially, cost Napoleon. In the upcoming fight, he couldn't deploy all of his forces over the river.
After crossing the north bank of the Donau on the night of May 20, French Field Marshal André Masséna climbed the tower of the church in the town of Aspern and observed a few flashes of an Austrian campfire. Masséna promptly informed Napoleon of the Austrian army's withdrawal. On May 21, Napoleon personally crossed the Donau and subsequently ordered the strengthening of the French bridgehead defenders on the north bank. However, Masséna was only lightly prepared because he believed that holding the bridgehead while the Austrians were retiring was superfluous.
The actuality was the polar opposite of Masséna's thinking: on the late 20th - early 21st of May, the Austrian army began to march west of Marchfeld, intending to raid Masséna's IV corps between Aspern and Essling. Karl planned to concentrate his I, II, and IV corps and assault the French army's left flank at Aspern, while the IV corps attacked the French army's right flank at Essling. At the same time, Karl arranged a reserve cavalry corps in the center of the formation to prevent and destroy the counterattacking French cavalry.
Battle of Aspern-Essling
The leading force of the VI Corps (Austria), consisting of four infantry battalions and eight cavalry regiments, launched an attack on Aspern at 2:00 a.m. on May 21. The Austrians initially demolished the French outposts on the outskirts, but when they advanced closer into town, they were met with fierce resistance from two French battalions of the Molitor division. The French army slowed the enemy's progress considerably. Following that, the vanguard of I Corps (Austria) made a second attack on Aspern, but the French defeated the Austrians with reinforcements from four regiments outside Aspern.
A third wave of Austrian attacks likewise failed, resulting in significant deaths. Karl himself led a force of 20 battalions to attack Aspern from all sides at 5 p.m. After numerous terrible battles, the Austrians advanced deep into the town and drove the enemy out of Aspern's church and cemetery. By 6 p.m., the Austrians had taken control of most of Aspern, and the French soldiers defending Essling had been reduced to less than half their original strength after hours of battle. Masséna launched 4,000 men, who operated counterattacks against Aspern but were defeated.
Karl ordered the II Corps to join forces with the cavalry reserve to attack the French army center after conquering Aspern. While the Austrian cavalry was on the move, French Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bessières actively led a portion of the French cavalry, as well as German vassals (Baden and Hesse), to counterattack the enemy formation. The French cavalry defeated the Austrian cavalry's vanguards but was afterward entombed by the Austrian infantry's heavy fire.
Bessières was forced to retire his cavalry to the starting line, and he quickly reorganized his forces in preparation for a new assault. Napoleon also reinforced Bessières with an armored cavalry at 7 p.m. and ordered him to attack in three lines. The second French cavalry attack was identical to the first in that the Bessières horsemen burst through the two Austrian front lines but were subsequently trapped by the dense Austrian infantry. Faced with fierce resistance from the Austrian infantry and counterattacks by the Austrian cavalry headed by Liechtenstein, the French cavalry retired to the starting line, but they succeeded in preventing the Austrians from reaching the center. Military base in France.
Fighting erupted in Essling on May 21, just as it had in Aspern. Rosenberg's 25 Austrian battalions launched repeated fierce attacks on the defenses of the corps' Boudet division IV France, although under the leadership of II Corps commander Jean Lannes. The French, on the other hand, reinforced Essling's barn and foiled all of these attacks. Lannes deployed his cavalry to counterattack the IV Corps (Austria) at dark.
The French armored cavalry and light cavalry divisions of the Württemberg troops battled valiantly; but, by 6 p.m., the Austrians had blocked the French cavalry advance; many French soldiers died and were severely wounded. Both sides' armies were weary by 19:00 and stopped fighting until the end of May 20.
The French dispatched a strong force from the Donau's south bank to the Marchfeld Plain during the night, raising the total number of French troops fighting in Aspern-Essling to almost 70,000 men. Napoleon planned to encircle the Austrian flanks and smash Karl's center with this army. To do this, Napoleon first directed Masséna to launch a counterattack and seize Essling the following day.
Masséna launched a counterattack on Aspern at dawn on May 22. The Austrians successfully repelled the initial wave of the enemy's attack, but Masséna subsequently led her own force to drive the Austrians out of Aspern. At the same time, the French kept Essling safe from Rosenberg's onslaught. With these advantageous conditions, Napoleon dispatched Lannes' II Corps to invade the enemy's heartland. Lannes' infantry, supported by French armored and light cavalry, pushed two Hungarian regiments out of action and gradually broke through Austria's center.
The crisis reached a climax when Liechtenstein and Austria's left wing joined forces to push the French out of most of Essling, leaving the French army with only the town's granaries. Napoleon ordered all forces to withdraw to Lobau Island but utilized six Guard battalions to counterattack Essling to deter enemy pursuit and buy time for French engineers to repair the bridge.
Despite losing a quarter of their forces, French Guard units recaptured a substantial chunk of Essling. Because of this unexpected scenario, Karl was compelled to order the center and left forces to stop attacking in order to reassemble the unit. Fighting between the Austrian right wing and the French left wing near Aspern persisted until late afternoon, but by 4 p.m., the fight had effectively ended and the French had safely retreated to Lobau.
Battle of Aspern-Essling Outcome
After two days of combat, Archduke Karl and the Austrian army rendered the French offensive on the Donau's left bank ineffective, culminating in Napoleon's first major military loss. According to historian David Chandler, at least 20,000 French officers and troops were killed, injured, or captured. Among these are many good generals such as St. Hilaire (who died after the battle due to infection from the wound), Pouzet, Espagne (all killed in battle), Legrand (wound twice), and especially Jeane Lannes - one of Napoleon's most loyal marshals who was mortally wounded by Austrian shells while commanding the retreat of II Corps. Lannes died on May 30, and it was an irreparable loss for Napoleon.
The Austrian side suffered tremendous casualties as well, with 4288 dead, 16326 wounded, 1903 missing, and 803 taken prisoner. However, considering that the French army was the greatest force in Europe at the time and had continually defeated Austria in three wars from 1792 to 1805, the battle of Aspern-Essling was still a significant military triumph for the Austrians.
After the Aspern-Essling victory, Karl decided to let his troops stay on the north bank of the Donau River to correct the ranks, rather than counterattack to retake Vienna and drive the French out of Austria. This passive attitude by Karl allowed Napoleon to draw lessons from the Battle of Aspern-Essling and prepare a new attack on Marchfeld.
By early July 1809, Napoleon had amassed a massive force along the Donau, while French engineers were constructing sturdy bridges from the south bank of the Donau to Lobau and from Lobau to Marchfeld. The French army crossed the Donau River for the second time on July 4 and 5, combating Karl's army in the Battle of Wagram. As at Aspern-Essling, the Austrians intercepted multiple French attacks and inflicted large losses on the enemy, but by the end of the action, the French had won due to their advantage in numbers and artillery. The outcome of the Battle of Wagram undermined the Austrian military spirit and compelled the Austrian court to negotiate with France.
إرسال تعليق