Llanes Campaign – Day 1

11 May 1813 – North Spain – Day 1

The whole French army advance to the border

This unexpected move takes Wellington by surprise

The French also start to move supplies to the forward depots

 

Comment

 

The French advance has taken Wellington by surprise

The Anglo-Portuguese corps are still in their garrison locations

This ensures that each corps is within one days march (3 squares) of their depot

 

The French corps are now out of range of their three eastern depots

Already supplies are being moved to the forward depots

The French movement has also disrupted the Spanish guerrilla bands

The three rear depots are now vulnerable to guerrilla attack

 

The yellow markers are Spanish troops, both regular and guerrilla

You will note that there are six allied corps, four British and two Spanish

The two Spanish corps are in the centre, with British support on both flanks

 

The French will still consider them to be the weak link in the allied position

However this is no longer the case, these two are the elite of the Spanish army

They are not quite up to the standard of the British brigades

But they are the equal of the Portuguese infantry

And both are at least as good as the French conscript brigades

 

There have been changes in the morale, firing and skirmish ability of all brigades

Generally all have been made slightly better, to avoid too many routs too easily

But the Spanish in particular have gained from this reassessment

 

It will be interesting to see how this all works out in practice