Battle of Landshut 1809

Storming the Landshut Bridge (1809) painting by Louis Hersent (1777–1860)

Battle of Landshut . Shortly after the start of the war between Austria and France (→ Fifth Coalition War ) in spring 1809, there were two major battles over Landshut over possession of the Isar bridges . The first battle took place on April 16 when the Austrian army was advancing; the second battle, often referred to as the Battle of Landshut, on April 22nd when the left Austrian wing retreated after the → Battle of Abensberg . The two battles were part of the campaign near Regensburg, in which the Austrian army under Archduke Karl was decisively defeated by Emperor Napoleon and then had to retreat back to Austria (→ main article Battle of Regensburg ).

The history

On April 9, 1809, Austria declared war on France after prolonged diplomatic tensions. Shortly after the declaration of war was handed over, Austrian troops crossed the border between Eger in the north and Carinthia in the south to the French territory, which also included the Rhine Confederation and thus the Kingdom of Bavaria . Since the end of February, Emperor Napoleon had also gathered most of his troops in Germany there. On April 10, the main Austrian army (around 130,000 men) crossed the Inn between Schärding and Braunau and then slowly advanced to the Lower Bavarian capital via Pfarrkirchen and Vilsbiburg. The Bavarian Army only stationed outposts near the border, which, according to orders, slowly withdrew after crossing the Austrian border.

The battles

First battle of Landshut on April 16, 1809

After the Austrian declaration of war, Division General Deroy received orders to occupy the Isar crossings from Moosburg and Landshut with his division (the Bavarian 3rd Army Division) in order to delay the advance of the Austrians and the French army (including the contingents of the Rhine Confederation states as long as possible ) to give enough time to gather between Augsburg, Ingolstadt and Neustadt an der Donau. For this purpose, Deroy had numerous houses in Landshut near the bridge on the left (northern) bank of the Isar cleared and fortified them in fields. Then he also called in his troops from Moosburg after they had broken the bridge there.

When the vanguard of the 5th Austrian Army Corps under General Radetzky arrived in Landshut early in the morning of April 16 , they found the actual city of Landshut deserted by the enemy, but the bridges over the river had been completely broken and the houses on the north bank of the Isar in the suburbs Seligenthal occupied by Bavarian troops. The Deroy division was deployed on the heights beyond (between Altdorf and Ergolding). Therefore, the Austrians could only make a serious attempt to cross the river when Archduke Ludwig's entire V Army Corps had advanced with its heavy artillery. Under their protection, the Austrians made the first attempt to cross the river shortly after 10 a.m., which only succeeded when several houses in the suburbs on the north side of the river caught fire, which forced the Bavarian soldiers to retreat. Due to the continued resistance from parts of the Bavarian infantry, however, it was only around 2 p.m. to build one of the bridges so that the Austrian vanguard under Radetzky could cross the river and slowly advance north. A short time later, General Deroy received the message that Austrian troops had already crossed the Isar at Dingolfing and Moosburg . Since he saw his position threatened and feared being cut off from the retreat, he ordered his division to retreat to Abensberg. This had previously been designated as a rallying point for Marshal Lefebvre's army corps , which also included the Bavarian troops.

Second battle of Landshut on April 21, 1809 ("the Battle of Landshut")

After the Battle of Abensberg on April 20, the V. and VI. Austrian army corps were pushed to the southeast and then withdrew via Rottenburg and Pfeffenhausen to Landshut, where they arrived almost simultaneously in the night or in the early morning hours of April 21. The Austrian march through the (old town) of Landshut was mainly hindered by the fact that the only road to the south led through a narrow and steep ravine next to Trausnitz Castle over the hills south of the Isar. Therefore, Emperor Napoleon, accompanied by four infantry divisions, reached the heights north of Landshut even before the Austrian troops had completely crossed the Isar. The French artillery, which Napoleon had brought up, quickly caused a terrible chaos among the numerous wagons that were still waiting in front of the Isar bridges. The burning vehicles and the horses passing through also prevented the three Austrian battalions, which had remained at the Seligenthal monastery to cover the withdrawal of the columns, from building a continuous line of defense. Nevertheless, the French were only able to storm the suburb to the left of the Isar after a long battle under the protection of their heavy artillery and then cross the bridge over the river, which they had reached the city gate at almost the same time as the retreating Austrians before that time to close the Isar bridge.

Afterwards there was a bitter battle in the streets of Landshut, which were clogged with burning and overturned carts. Despite being outnumbered, the Austrian rearguard stubbornly held out until the artillery and the rest of the vehicle fleet were finally brought to the heights south of the city. Since the vanguard of Marshal Masséna's army corps were already marching up at Golding (about 5 km west of Landshut) to the hills behind Trausnitz Castle, Lieutenant Hiller , who was in command of the left Austrian wing, ordered his entire army to withdraw the Vils and then behind the Inn.

In this second battle for Landshut, the Austrians lost around 2,500 dead and wounded and roughly the same number of prisoners. The exact number of losses on the French side is not specified.

The consequences

After the relatively rapid loss of Landshut and the Isar barrier, the Austrian army was finally broken in two. Without the possibility of establishing direct contact with the main army under Generalissimo Archduke Karl, who had to withdraw to the Upper Palatinate, Field Marshal Lieutenant Hiller was forced to withdraw first to the Vils and then gradually back to Austria.

Remarks

1. ↑ According to the Rhine Confederation Act, the ruling French Emperor was also the “protector” of the Rhine Confederation - that is, he was practically the head of state of the Confederation
2. ^ Lossau: Characteristics of Napoleon's wars. Vol. 3, 1847, pp. 11-16.
3. ^ Schneidawind : Carl, Archduke of Austria. Vol. 2, 1840, p. 96; KK Generalstab (ed.): The campaign of 1809 in southern Germany. Vol. 1, ÖMZ 1862/63 (1865), p. 229; Höfler: The campaign of 1809 in Germany and Tyrol. 1858, p. 16.
4. ↑ with "field-based means", ie provisionally with the available materials
5. ^ For this reason Austrian troops were able to occupy the Isar crossings from Munich, Moosburg and Dingolfing without a fight. In the meantime, Austrian hussars had also occupied Freising, and they even succeeded in extinguishing the bridge that the withdrawing Bavarian soldiers had already set on fire (Höfler: The campaign of 1809 in Germany and Tyrol. 1858, p. 21f.)
6. ^ Höfler: The campaign of 1809 in Germany and Tyrol. 1858, pp. 21-28.
7. ↑ with them marched the 2nd Reserve Corps, which, however, only had the strength of about a strong infantry division
8. ^ The army corps of Marshal Lannes, the Bavarian division Wrede and the Württemberg division, as well as the heavy cavalry under Marshal Bessières and other support troops
9. ^ Höfler: The campaign of 1809 in Germany and Tyrol. 1858, p. 98.
10. ^ Lossau: Characteristics of Napoleon's wars. Vol. 3, 1847, pp. 73f; Höfler: The campaign of 1809 in Germany and Tyrol. 1858, p. 98.
11. ↑ The “Dictionnaire de la Grande Armée” by Alain Pigear (2002) names “774” without further information and without further citing the source. It is therefore not possible to see here whether the Bavarians and Württembergians are also taken into account. The “War history of Bavaria under King Maximilian Joseph I, 1826, Vol. 2” by Völderndorff, a detailed history of the Bavarian army, only lists all Bavarian “individuals” who received an award for the battle for Landshut that day . The French general Pelet lost after the detailed description of the storming of the Isar bridge, "this beautiful act of arms, which the emperor had immortalized by a wonderful painting" (General Pelet: Kaiser Napoleons Feldzug in Deutschland 1809. Vol. 2, 1824, p. 35) , the interest in the battle. On the attack: see the picture of Louis Hersent's picture on General Mouton, later Comte de Lobau, who leads the French vanguard in the storming of the Outer Isar Gate.