29 March 1813 – Northern Spain – Day 7
After six days and five battles both armies are tired, disorganised and urgently in need of casualty replacements. However the French are in a much worse state than the British
Being close to his supply bases Wellington has been able to resupply and regroup his army. All six corps have battle casualties, but have been able to concentrate the infantry in one brigade per corps.
Due to their success in the early part of the campaign, the French were too far forward to resupply all of their corps. Consequently all were low on supplies.
Comment
Both armies have suffered heavy casualties during the course of the campaign. Providing that they are out of contact with the enemy, and in supply, a corps can reorganise and regroup. This means that they can concentrate all of their infantry casualties, except for the first 10%, in one brigade. The result is that they lose one of their four brigades, but the remaining three have a maximum of 10% casualties per brigade.
At the end of a battle the losing corps retreat, the winners occupy the objective, for example a town. This means that both sides move, so neither can regroup or resupply. The following day both often halt, regroup and resupply. But this can be more difficult for the winning army, because they have often moved too far away from their supply depots, or the depot may not have sufficient supplies to bring all corps up to four days supplies. The losing side will have retreated towards their main depot, and will usually not have any difficulty obtaining sufficient supplies
This is the current situation for both armies. All British corps have two or three days supplies. Five of the six French corps are completely out of supply, and the sixth corps has only two days.
Both armies have considerable battle casualties, but the British have managed to rally all routed and shaken brigades. Four of the six French corps still have routed or shaken brigades.
Wellington is aware that any delay will allow the French to rally routed and shaken brigades, reorganise and even resupply. He therefore orders his battered army to advance. The French have no option to retreat.
Thistlebarrow,
ReplyDeleteI assume that Wellington will not pursue the French as they fall back as his army isn’t decisively stronger. Better to rest and recuperate where he is, and accept that the French will be back when they have rebuilt their forces.
An interesting campaign to date, and one that feels as if the results have been quite realistic.
All the best,
Bob
ReplyDeleteHi Bob
Wellington has achieved his campaign objective of taking the city of Valladolid and defeating the French army. In addition neither side can move off the campaign map and continue the campaign. Once a corps has moved off the map they are out of the current campaign phase.
I was surprised that the French army fell apart so quickly. This was largely due to advancing too far and being unable to reorganise their supply system quickly enouHigh.
The new six corps order of battle, organised in three armies per side, has played a significent part in the narrative of the campaign. In effect it has turned into three independent campaigns. This has advantages, but also disadvantages. It makes it easier to provide a battle for each day, but it also makes it more difficult to concentrate for increasingly larger battles as the campaign progresses.
All in all I am very happy with this campaign phase, but I will have to give some thought to how it develops.
regards
Paul