Siege of Oven (1849)
Pákozd - Schwechat - Košice - Mór - Piski - Mediasch - Kápolna - Hatvan - Tápió Bicske - Isaszeg - Waitzen I - Nagy-Salló - Komorn I - Mocsa - Kács - Pered - Raab - Ács (Komorn II) - Komorn III - Hegyes - Waitzen II - Tura - Sighișoara - Debreczin - Szöreg - Temesvár
Arad - Deva - Esseg - Karlsburg - Komorn - Leopoldov - Oven - Peterwardein - Temesvár
The siege of Ofen was part of the Hungarian War of Independence and lasted from May 4th to May 21st, 1849. The fortress of Ofen, later Buda , was defended by an imperial Austrian garrison with about 5000 men, and was under general by the Hungarian main army with about 30,000 men Artur Görgey included. After repelling about 20 assault attacks, the fortress fell.
prehistory
During the winter campaign of 1848–1849, the main Hungarian army lost the Battle of Mór against the Croats under Jellacic . For this reason General Görgey could no longer hold the positions on the Upper Danube . On January 5, 1849, the imperial army under Field Marshal Windisch-Grätz occupied Buda without a fight.
After the declaration of independence on April 14, Lajos Kossuth was elected imperial administrator of the country and presented a newly formed ministry. General Klapka was nominated instead of Damianich for the temporary leadership of the Ministry of War. After the Hungarian victory in the battle of Nagy-Salló (April 19), the imperial commander-in-chief Windisch-Grätz was replaced by Ludwig von Welden . Windisch-Grätz had appointed Major General Heinrich Hentzi von Arthurm to be in command of the Buda Fortress and commissioned him to strengthen the fortifications. He strengthened the old bastions and walls and built new defenses to protect the water town that was connected to the Chain Bridge. After the occupation of Komorn on April 26, the Hungarian Defense Minister had to decide how the operations should continue. General Görgey, on the other hand, on the advice of his chief of staff, Colonel Józef Bayer, wanted to advance on the right bank and left bank of the Danube in the direction of Pressburg and attack the Imperialists directly. General Klapka argued against this intention by saying that the main Hungarian army was not strong enough for another attack. In addition, he said that Buda was in Austrian hands and therefore neither the Danube nor the chain bridge that was under construction could be crossed by the Hungarian army.
The siege
On May 3, the Hungarians under Görgey began the siege of Oven with around 30,900 men and 133 cannons, which was defended by around 3,500 imperialists with 51 cannons. The next day, around 11 a.m., the Hungarians approached the fortress from all sides and forced the imperial outposts under Captain Balthasar Petrass to retreat into the fortress. The fortress was soon attacked, and the first storm was repulsed after a four-hour battle. Then Görgey sent a parliamentarian to the fortress with the request to surrender. Hentzi's answer was: “The place will be held in honor, we will oppose the most determined resistance”, he further remarked “that he has no obligations towards Hungary because he is not Hungarian, but Swiss”, at the end he also remarked “ one will defend the place according to duty and honor down to the last man. "
With the exception of the division under István Szekulics, which secured outside the city, the following Hungarian troops were involved in the siege: On the northern section between Kalvarienberg and the Swabian Alp up to the Wiener Tor, the 3rd Corps under General Karoly Knézich with 9400 men and 40 camped Cannons formed from the Czillich, Podoski and Pikaty divisions. Leaning against the Danube, in the so-called Wasserstadt (Víziváros) district, the Kmety division camped with 5600 men and 17 cannons and secured the section at the Chain Bridge up to the level of the Margaret Bridge . From the Swabian Alb to the small Gellértberg , the 1st Corps under General József Nagy-Sandor with 9240 men and 31 cannons, formed from the divisions Mariassy , Babich and István Mesterházy. The southern section in the suburb of Raizen between the Little Danube and the Gellértberg was cut by the 2nd Corps under Major General Lajos Aulich with 9750 men and 45 cannons, formed from the Asboth divisions . Horvath and Butler took position on the right bank of the Danube. The Hungarians also began to install guns in the surrounding highlands.
The days from May 5th to 7th passed with artillery fire from both sides. The siege army was by no means idle between May 5th and 16th. In the early morning hours of May 5th, Kmety's forces approached the water town (Víziváros) again, whereupon Hentzi bombed the water town. Despite several requests from Görgei to the commander of Komorn, General Guyon hesitated to send the heavy siege guns standing there to Buda. He argued that the Komorn would remain defenseless without the guns, although these weapons were not previously part of the arsenal of the fortress, but had only been confiscated from the Imperialists a few days earlier, on April 26th. While waiting for the siege artillery, Görgei ordered night attacks on the fortress to divert Hentzi's attention from new plans. Each army corps had to provide four battalions for the next attack, and the Kmety division two battalions. Until the arrival of the 40 or so heavy artillery pieces from Komorn, Görgey ordered a battery to be set up on the heights of Nar Hegy, which was aimed at the Fehérvár roundabout .
Smaller skirmishes continued on May 12th, followed by another artillery duel on both sides on May 13th. Hentzi also ordered the bombing of Pest, which was carried out almost every day from May 4th and especially on May 9th and 13th intensely, destroying several beautiful neoclassical buildings on the lower Danube. Whenever Hentzi appeared at the walls, one of his noisy officers used a huge tin megaphone to instruct the artillery officers about the enemy position on Kis Svábhegy Hill. The people of Pest fled the bombing outside the city.
On the night of May 14th, the imperial artillery tried to destroy the pontoon bridge built near Csepel Island by allowing 5 Brantner and two stone-laden barges to advance along the river. After the arrival of the heavy siege artillery, the Hungarian army was able to gain the necessary superiority in firepower to begin the actual bombardment of the castle of Ofen on May 16. The bombardment began at 4 a.m. and lasted until 4 p.m., the critical phase for the imperial garrison had been reached.
A major Hungarian attack against the east wall of the water town and against the roundabout of Fehérvár was to follow. In a council of war, Hentzi suggested continuing the bombardment on Pest, but his engineer-captain Philipp Pollini prevailed, who suggested concentrating the fire on the Hungarian artillery in order to weaken the enemy fire. The next day, a breach was made on the section of the wall south of the Rondelle-Fehérvár. The 1st Corps was to attack Rondelle III, the 4th Corps was to climb Rondelle IV with ladders and the Kmety Division carried out another attack against the water suburb. In the dark the soldiers of the 1st Corps got lost while advancing towards the breach. When this was finally found in the morning, they were discovered by the defenders and forced to retreat by a hail of bullets. Soldiers of the 3rd Corps attacked on the north side and climbed the walls, but the defenders rejected the attack, leaving 34 dead. The 9th Battalion was ordered to fire at the defenders from the windows and roofs of the houses on Attila Street. The 2nd Corps attacked Wasserstadt with the bayonet, but was repulsed. Kmety's troops reached the water town gate, were stopped there and lost around 200 men. Görgey had rashly ordered this attack because he wanted revenge for Hentzi's bombing of the plague and wanted to take the castle as soon as possible. After the attack failed on the night of 17-18 May, Görgey ordered that further attacks should follow each evening until 2 a.m. and end abruptly so as not to allow the garrison to recover. Görgey's plan was to get the defenders used to resting from 2 a.m. until morning.
At 90 feet (1.20 meters), the breakthrough gap became wider and wider and could no longer be closed. That night another attempt was made to fill the gap, but heavy artillery fire from the Hungarian side prevented the imperial engineers from doing their work. On May 18, Hentzi tried to fill the gap left by the Hungarian artillery near the Fehérvár roundabout, but a downpour during the night weakened the entire new barrier. A battery was erected on the Fehérvár roundabout, which on May 19 managed to temporarily silence two Hungarian guns.
On May 20th, Görgey gave the order to storm the castle the following day. As the effectiveness of the Hungarian artillery increased the crisis significantly, the morale of the defenders fell noticeably. On the night of May 20-21, the Hungarian artillery bombed the castle as usual until 2 a.m. and then had the fire stopped again.
Final attack on May 21st
General Görgey deployed 19 infantry battalions, 4 hunter companies and several sappers during the last attack. The decisive infantry storm began at 3 a.m. on May 21, after all the guns had fired into the castle. Before the attack, Görgei tried to improve the soldiers' morale by promising a high reward to the soldier who was supposed to capture Hentzi. After a counter-bombardment by the imperial defenders, who at 2 a.m. still believed that there would be no more fighting until sunrise, the Hungarian attack began. The 2nd Corps (General Aulich) stormed on the southern front: three battalions attacked the palace gardens (Palotakert), while two others stormed the water town. The other units of the corps remained in reserve. The 1st Corps attacked on the west side and the 3rd Corps on the north side. In the section of the 3rd Corps (General Knezić), the 3rd and 42nd Honvéd Battalions, as well as the 3rd Battalion of the 19th and 60th Infantry Regiments carried out an attack against the northern castle wall, against the Vienna Gate and the Esztergom roundabout by. The 63rd Battalion attacked the walls of the Krisztinaváros district, the reserves were placed between Városmajor and the brickworks. During the attack, many soldiers who had climbed the ladders were wounded by fire from the defenders. But when more and more defenders left the walls and the Hungarians streamed through the breach into the castle, the decision was made. The soldiers of the 2nd Corps entered the castle through the large garden by the western wall. The attackers advanced on the east side at Ferdinand Gate over the rubble of the destroyed wall. Here the imperial soldiers were soon surrounded and laid down their weapons. The Kmety division had the task of attacking the water town from the north and deploying three battalions and a hunter company. The Hungarians tried to climb the Wiener Tor and the neighboring section, about 30 Hungarian soldiers were killed during these attacks. The men of the 42nd Battalion were the first to overcome the ramparts, while the 3rd Battalion broke into the fortress at the Wiener Tor. After the first troops had penetrated the castle, the 9th Battalion followed. They captured several enemy artillery near the Vienna Gate at Rondelle IV and turned them against the retreating imperial soldiers. The attackers streamed on Országház Street towards the Fehérvár Gate and Szent György Square to support the 1st Corps, which was still standing against the wall. The Imperialists were there in the fire from two sides. At 4 a.m., the soldiers of the Italian Ceccopieri regiment, which was deployed on the western walls at the southern end of the castle hill and on the palace, capitulated. Around 500 Hungarian soldiers flocked to Szent György Square.
However, the main events took place on the north and west sides of the castle, where the Hungarian 1st and 3rd Corps attacked. Two battalions of the 1st Corps, led by General Józef Nagy-Sándor, began the attack on the north side and pushed into the breach, while four battalions attacked the terraces on the south-west side of the castle hill. The first units that penetrated the castle through the gap under Lieutenant Colonel Driquet were the 44th and 47th Honvéd Battalions and the "Don Miguel" infantry, supported by the fire of their comrades from the 34th and 17th battalions, who climbed the wall east of the roundabout, and through the 4th battalion, which was fired from, behind them, driving the defenders deeper and deeper into the streets of Buda Castle. The cover fire of the Hungarian artillery caused enormous losses for the defenders. Thanks to the determination of the attackers, Colonel János Máriássy managed to lead two battalions through the palace gardens to attack the flank of the Austrians.
When Hentzi heard what was happening on Szent-György-Platz, he hurried there with alarm units from the Wilhelm Company and stood at the head of the defenders who were supposed to stop the Hungarians who had broken in. Hentzi received a fatal gunshot wound in the stomach, next to him also Captain Gorini, who commanded the Wilhelm Company, and Captain Schröder were fatally wounded. The rest of the defenders on Szent-György-Platz under Lieutenant Kristin surrendered. After his wounding, Hentzi was taken to the hospital on Iskola (school square) and laid on a bed in the office of chief physician Moritz Bartl. The first Hungarian flag was hoisted on the wall of Buda Castle by Grácián Püspöky, the young standard bearer of the 47th Honvéd Battalion. The last of the imperial troops had returned to the palace of Buda Castle, where they surrendered at 7 a.m. After the Hungarians entered the castle, they found around 30 imperial soldiers there who were shot in a courtyard.
After the siege
The Imperialists lost 30 officers and 680 men, of which 4 officers and 174 men died from epidemics that broke out in the fortress during the siege. 113 officers and 4,091 men became prisoners of the Hungarians, plus 248 cannons, 8221 bullets, 931 kg of gunpowder, 5383 kg of saltpeter, 894 kg of sulfur, 276 horses and 55,766 forints in cash. According to Robert, the Hungarians were 368 dead and 700 wounded, and according to Asbóth's memoir, 427 dead and 692 wounded. As a result of the fighting and the Pest bombing, 40 buildings in Pest and 98 houses in Buda burned down, and another 61 buildings in Pest and 537 in Buda were badly damaged. Many neoclassical buildings on the lower Danube line and the Buda Royal Palace were badly hit.
The offensive initiated by Artúr Görgeis ended on June 20 and 21, 1849 with the Hungarian defeat at the Battle of Pered . The Hungarian attack came at an inopportune moment, because on June 19, FZM Julius von Haynau and his troops moved from the left (north) bank of the Danube to the right (south) bank of the river in order to retake the Hungarian capitals Pest and Buda. Because the Austrians did not yet have enough troops for the counter-offensive, around 15,000 Russian soldiers under Lieutenant General Panjutin reinforced it.
literature
- Peter Gosztony: The defense of the Buda fortress by General Hentzi in the spring of 1849 , Allgemeine Schweizerische Militärzeitschrift Volume 133 (1967), Issue 8. 478 f.
- József Bánlaky: A magyar nemzet hadtörténelme (Military history of the Hungarian nation) - Section 22 : Ferenc József háborúi az 1848/49. évi magyar szabadságharcot kivéve, Budapest 2001
- Róbert Hermann: 1848–1849 a szabadságharc hadtörténete , Budapest 2001, ISBN 963-9376-21-3
- Anatole Wacquant: The Hungarian Danube Army 1848–49 , Silesian Book Printing, Art and Art. Publishing house v. S. Schottlaender, Breslau 1900, p. 174 f.
Web links
- Róbert Hermann: Hentzi, the Leonidas of Buda (Hungarian)