Wednesday 1 April 2020

Santiago Campaign – Day 11


Campaign Map on 29 October 1813
8th French corps occupy Santiago and secure depot and three days supplies
Ourense is now the main British depot

9th militia (guerrilla) occupy Astorga with its three days supplies
They ransack the town and burn all official buildings
Sanabria is now the main French depot

10th French brigade (the ex garrison of Astorga) rout towards Oviedo
They are ambushed by 5th militia (guerrilla) as they near the town
They try to surrender after a brief fight, but all are killed

Wellington is faced with a choice
He can either move south and retake Santiago
Or he can continue to attack in the north before the French can recover

He decides to abandon his lines of supply and attack Ribadeo
1st and 3rd British corps attack Ribadeo, both are well supplied

The town is defended by 7th and 16th French corps, who are both short of supplies
Battle of Ribadeo
Both armies start the battle with previous battle casualties.
This leaves them both with fragile morale
Wellington takes command of both corps artillery, and deploys them in the centre
The remainder of his army are kept in reserve out of artillery range of the French

He concentrates his artillery on the nearest French infantry brigade
They already have casualties, and are soon shaken
He moves his artillery to the next infantry brigade
Again they have casualties, and soon break and run
This causes the shaken infantry to test morale, they fail and also rout
This in turn has the same effect on the nearby dragoon brigade

With his centre in rout Soult orders his flanks to withdraw

Campaign Notes
Wellington took a risk in ordering an attack
The French has longer range 12 pounder artillery
And he could easily have suffered the same fate as Soult

However he was lucky, and he rolled better dice!

Both of the French corps started the battle with just two days supplies
The compulsory retreat will leave them out of supply
They will have to retreat, and accept attrition casualties, until they can resupply

The retreat will allow the Spanish guerrilla to retake Ribadeo and its depot
They already occupy Astorga, and control the French rear area

8th corps and the French reserve have occupied Santiago
But they are now very exposed to attack from both north and south

The situation of the French army is desperate.  

6 comments:

  1. Bold move, Nosey! Now he'd better hope the French decide to cut their losses rather than descend on Ourense with three corps...

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  2. Question - When a unit is out of supply and sustains attrition casualties, once it is resupplied, does that replace the attrition casualties, or does the casualty status remain the same until replacements are received?

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  3. Thistlebarrow,

    Wow! I expected Wellington to try to seize the initiative, but not quite as decisively as this. Mind you, the effect of the guerrilla attacks made it possible for Wellington to be so successful.

    I assume that the French will now pull back to draw breath, resupply, and rebuild their forces before resuming their offensive,

    All the best,

    Bob

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  4. Hi Yuri

    The French in the south are in a strong position.
    However in the north 7th and 16th corps are both in real danger
    Both have only one days supplies left
    In addition 7th corps are broken and in rout

    If 1st and 3rd British pursue, 16th corps could fight.
    But at odds of 2 to 1 they stand little chance
    If they lose and rout the French are finished

    Wellington could send 1st and 3rd corps south
    Then 8th and French reserve would be outnumbered 3 to

    Neither 13th Polish nor 4th British can afford to move

    A lot will depend on which general "blinks first"

    regards

    Paul

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  5. Hi irishserb

    Attrition casualties are 10% of one brigade.
    The corps commander can decide which brigade will receive them
    They are then counted the same as battle casualties

    To receive casualty replacements a corps must be in supply and stationary
    It will then receive 10% of one brigade in replacements (400 infantry or 100 cavalry/gunners) each day
    Normally gunners have priority over cavalry and both over infantry

    However 10% casualties always remain with each brigade
    This means once a brigade has received casualties it will never be 100% again
    This in turn means minus 1 on all combat and morale tests

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  6. Hi Bob

    A bad day for the French
    But also a lucky one for Wellington
    The guerrilla success was the result of a really good dice

    Both armies have pretty well fought themselves to a standstill
    Both have considerable battle casualties

    However the French are the aggressors in this campaign
    They must force Wellington to abandon Spain and move into Portugal
    In their present condition that is really not possible.

    So I must decide whether they can pull anything off in the south
    If not then they must withdraw to regroup, resully and reinforce
    That would mean that they had failed in their campaign objective

    best regards

    Paul

    ReplyDelete

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