Albacete Campaign – Day 4

Campaign Map on 11 September 1813 

Suchet orders 7^th corps to attack Hellin

15^th and 16^th corps will hold and resupply

Giron orders 2^nd corps to retreat and abandon Hellin

1^st corps will also redeploy

His army is now concentrated just north of Molina

He also orders his main depot at Molina to redistribute supplies

His depots at Calasparra, Molina and Orihuela are now ready to support his army

The garrison of Hellin abandons the town and becomes a guerrilla band

There are now seven guerrilla bands operational

They are now ready to attack the French lines of supply

Campaign Notes

The Spanish Army have a serious supply problem.

Each corps can only hold a maximum of three days supplies (the French can hold four days).  This means that they must halt at least every three days to resupply.  

If they fail to do so each corps will lose 10% of one brigade for each day that it is out of supply.   A dice is thrown to decide which infantry brigade will suffer.   Cavalry and artillery are not included, as it is assumed that priority will be given to those two arms by the corps commander.

To resupply the corps must not move for the whole day.

It must not be engaged by the enemy

It must be within three squares of a depot

Due to forced movement following defeat in battle, and redeployment to concentrate, all four Spanish corps are short of supplies.   At nightfall one corps is out of supply and the other three have only one days supplies.

The situation is worse because they have had to abandon so many towns.   Each town collects one days supplies for one corps each day it is not under attack.

The Spanish Army must hold a minimum of 12 days supplies (3 days per corps) at all times.   If it is unable to collect sufficient supplies each day, the balance is delivered to the main depot at Molina.   This can often mean that though there are sufficient supplies to feed the army, they are not always in the right place.  This is the case at present.

Because the Spanish Army is now concentrated they are all within reach of at least one depot.   But apart from Molina, the other two depots only have one days supplies each.  This is enough to prevent a corps running out of supplies, but not enough to bring them up to three days per corps.  Therefore they are unable to move or redeploy. 

Giron orders the four days supplies held at Molina to be transferred to Calaspara and Orihuela.   This will take 24 hours, but at least there is no threat from Guerrillas.