Battle of Mörchingen and Dieuze

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Battle of Mörchingen and Dieuze
Part of: First World War
French propaganda postcard
French propaganda postcard
date August 19-20, 1914
place near Mörchingen and Duss , in the Lorraine district
output German defensive success
Parties to the conflict

German EmpireThe German Imperium German Empire

Third French RepublicThird French Republic France

Commander

Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria

Edouard de Castelnau

Troop strength
6th Army
XXI. AK
I. bay AK
II. Bay AK
III. bay AK
I. bay RK 		2nd Army
15th Corps
16th Corps
20th Corps
1st Army
8th Corps

The battle of Mörchingen and Dieuze (Duss) on August 19 and August 20, 1914 was one of the so-called border battles of the First World War . It took place on the western front between Mörchingen and Duss . It was a relief attack by the French who had already advanced a few kilometers into the Reich territory in Lorraine in order to influence the German actions on their extreme right wing (circumvention maneuvers by the 1st Army ). The enterprise was a complete failure of the French 2nd Army under Édouard de Castelnau .

prehistory

General Noel de Castelnau
General Augustin Dubail

The French Chief of Staff Joseph Joffre was on 18 April 1914 in a secret directive on the mobilization and concentration of the French forces to Operation Plan XVII out, it was intended at the beginning of hostilities with the German Reich to launch two concurrent offensives in eastern France to the to recapture the province of Alsace-Lorraine, which was lost in the war of 1870/71 . A third of the French army with 24 divisions was to take part in the offensive. Initially, the 2nd Army planned for the main attack consisted of five army corps, but on August 9th General Joffre - concerned about the rapid German advance in Belgium - withdrew the 9th and 18th Corps from this army despite protests from General de Castelnau Reinforcements of 4th and 5th Armies to move north.

On August 14th the 2nd Army crossed the Seille and began its advance towards Morhange and Dieuze, this offensive was supported by the left wing of the 1st Army (General Dubail ) with the advance towards Saarburg . The opposite German positions were held by the 6th Army under the command of Crown Prince Rupprecht . Two strong French attack columns operated side by side against the cities of Mörchingen and Dieuze, which are about 17 kilometers apart.

The French 8th Corps (General de Castelli) advanced towards Domèvre , with the 16th Division on the right in the direction of Blâmont and on the left with the 15th Division north of the Mondon Forest. The 13th Corps (General Alix) on the right wing of the 2nd Army began the advance on Montreux . To the left of this the 15th and 16th Corps reached the Gondrexon - Xousse - Xures and Juvrecourt line . The newly established cavalry corps under General Louis Conneau (2nd, 6th and 10th Cavalry Divisions) established the connection between the left wing of the 1st and right wing of the 2nd Army . The Bavarian I. Corps strengthened their positions on the heights north and northeast of Saarburg between Berthelming and Réding . The French 20th Corps had to advance in the direction of Faulquemont , the left flank being covered by the 68th Reserve Division. The 15th Corps had to cross the Seille near Mulcey with the 30th Division and reached the southern foothills of the Foret of Bride and Köking, so that the 16th Corps, which was temporarily stopped further to the right, was able to resume the advance and use the Canal des Cross the Salines. On the evening of August 18, General de Castelnau ordered the 2nd Army to attack vigorously on the Morhange - Bensdorf line for the next day .

course

French offensive on August 19th

General Ferdinand Foch

Initially, the French were able to work with the 8th Corps (General de Castelli with the 15th and 16th Divisions) of the 1st Army Saarburg and with the 20th Corps belonging to the 2nd Army (General Foch with the 11th and 39th Divisions) Occupy Mörchingen and Dieuze with the 15th Corps (29th and 30th Divisions). The battle was initiated by an attack by the French 20th Corps (Général Ferdinand Foch ) south of Mörchingen and the 15th (Général Louis Espinasse) and 16th French Corps (Général Louis Taverna) north of Dieuze on August 19. The foremost German positions were in the Bride Forest north of Dieuze. The 15th Corps advanced towards Biedesdorf northeast of Dieuze and was attacked from the flank and thrown back by the Germans from the forest of Bride near Gebesdorf in the west and the forest of Bessingen in the north. The 15th Corps, which were hit by the greatest losses, and the only slightly less decimated 16th Corps operated near Dieuze, while the 20th Corps tried a few kilometers further northwest to advance to Rakringen and Bermering near Mörchingen , with no specific long-term goal specified. Both forward movements failed with heavy losses due to the resistance of the Germans and their massive use of heavy artillery.

German counter-offensive on August 20th

Location near Morhange-Sarrebourg on August 20, 1914

Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria, dissatisfied with the defensive role he had been assigned, asked the OHL in Koblenz on August 19 for permission to carry out a counterattack.

In a daily order he announced:

“Soldiers of the 6th Army! Orders have forced me to curb our martial momentum. The time of caution and restraint is over - we want to proceed now, our hour has come! It will be victory, we will win. "

On the morning of August 20th, the Germans began the counterattack with superior forces. It was agreed with the Governor of Metz , General of the Infantry von Winterfeld , that the main reserve of the fortress would be the right flank of the 6th Army against a French attack of the 2nd Group of the Reserve Divisions (General Léon Durand) from the area by an action in the Delme area Pont-à-Mousson - Nancy should secure. The commander of the Bavarian II Army Corps , (General Karl von Martini ) had the targets of the Bavarian 4th Division (Lieutenant General von Montgelas ) in the direction of Chateau-Salins and the heights northwest of it, as well as for the 3rd Division (Lieutenant General von Breitkopf ) the Puttigny-Dädeling line further south.

Ludwig Freiherr von Gebsattel
Karl von Fasbender

In the middle of the battle line at Mörchingen attacked the Bavarian III. Corps (General Ludwig von Gebsattel ). According to General Castelnau's orders, the French 20th Corps was only supposed to defend itself that day - but General Foch ordered his 11th Division (General Maurice Balfourier ) to attack the heights of Morhange at 4:00 a.m. After this failed with heavy losses, the left wing with the 39th Division (General Georges Dantant) was rolled up by being surrounded by the Bavarians. General Foch had to give up his threatened headquarters in Château-Salins.

The XXI. Army Corps (General of the Infantry Fritz von Below ) advanced on Dieuze and defeated the French 15th Corps (29th and 30th Infantry Divisions), which suffered great losses. The 31st Division ( Lieutenant General Albert von Berrer ) took Vergaville , and the 42nd Division (Lieutenant General Hasso von Bredow) was able to recapture Dieuze, which had been vacated by the French 29th Division (General Jean Baptiste Corbillet). The Bavarian I. Reserve Corps ( General of the Infantry Karl von Fasbender ) and the Bavarian I. Army Corps (General of the Infantry Oskar von Xylander ) fought down the French resistance near Saarburg. The originally not attacked 8th Corps of the French 1st Army was completely drawn into the fighting, the 16th Division (General Maudhuy ), which had entered Saarburg two days earlier with the 31st Brigade (General Reibell), had to vacate the city again . Bayern pushed in front of their lines at the southern edge of Saarburg and then pursued until 17:00 pm after Dolving and into the woods west of Sarraltroff . General Bajolle , commander of the 15th Division, covered the retreat by counterattacks at Kerprich-aux-Bois and kept the Bavarians in check until 7:00 p.m. General Dubail took his left wing back on the Cirey - Blâmont - Chazelles line and on the evening of August 20 also ordered his right wing back on the Rhine-Marne Canal. The troops of the German 6th Army reached the line Delmer Ridge - Gerbécourt (north of Château Salins) - Fresnes-en-Saulnois - Saarburg - Hochwalsch.

French equipment left behind after the battle

On the left flank of the 2nd Army at Nomeny , Castelnau was then completely defeated when the German main reserve at Metz intervened in the battle and threatened the French left flank from the north. The Bavarian II Army Corps pushed the French 70th Reserve Division (General Fayolle ) back and took Arraincourt . The French 277 infantry regiment tried in vain to hold the bridge there over the Seille. The withdrawal of the 1st Army and the heavy losses of the 2nd Army forced General de Castelnau to issue the general order to withdraw. By the evening of August 21, the French 2nd Army had already returned to the line Lunéville , Dombasle and the Grand Couronné before Nancy .

consequences

Development of the situation from August 20 to 23, 1914

The actual end of the battle cannot be precisely determined, it ran out and then had its direct continuation in the Battle of the Trouée de Charmes (24 to 26 August 1914).

The orderly retreat of the French and the successful battle of the Grand Couronné meant that Nancy was not attacked directly and the trench warfare began here too. Despite the heavy losses of the 29th Infantry Division from Marseille - the 3rd Battalion of the 141st Infantry Regiment alone lost 930 of 1,000 men killed, wounded and missing - it was branded a scapegoat by Commander-in-Chief Joffre and Minister Messimy, and finally by Senator Adolphe Gervais defamed in the newspaper Le Matin . This state-controlled lie sparked a polemic that continues to this day.

Two prominent French soldiers were killed in the Battle of Morhange:

  • Louis Laffitte, lieutenant in the 37th Infantry Regiment, professor at the École Supérieure de Commerce de Nantes , former Secretary General of the Meurthe-et-Moselle Chamber of Commerce and Industry and director of the 1909 International Exhibition of Eastern France in Nancy
  • Émile Toussaint, Sous-lieutenant in the 4th Infantry Battalion on foot and son of Général de Castelnau. He died on August 20, 1914 in Conthil .

literature

  • Jean-Paul Claudel: La bataille des frontières. Voges 1914-1915. Gérard Louis Éditions de l'Est, Strasbourg 1999, ISBN 2-7165-0501-2 .
  • René Christian-Frogé: Morhange et les Marsouins en Lorraine. Berger-Levrault, Paris 1917 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  • Jules Delmas: Mes hommes au feu. Avec la Division de Fer. A Morhange, sur l'Yser, en Artois. 1914-1918. Payot, Paris 1931 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  • Jacques Didier: Échec à Morhange. Août 1914. La bataille de Lorraine. Ysec, Louviers 2003, ISBN 2-84673-021-0 .
  • Karl Deuringer: The battle in Lorraine and in the Vosges 1914. The baptism of fire of the Bavarian army. Volume 1: Peaceful Figure of the Army. Mobilization. Events through August 22nd ( limited preview in Google Book Search). Volume 2: Events after August 22nd ( limited preview in Google Book Search). Ed .: Bavarian War Archives. Max Schick, Munich 1929.
  • Jacques Didier: Lorraine 1914. Guides des lieux de mémoire. Morhange. Le Grand Couronné de Nancy. Ysec, Louviers 2004, ISBN 2-84673-042-3 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  • Metz et la Bataille de Morhange (= Les Guides illustrés des champs de bataille ). Ed .: Michelin . Clermont-Ferrand 1919 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  • Maurice Mistre, Maurice Mistre-Rimbaud: La légende noire du 15 e Corps d'armée. L'honneur volé des Provençaux par le feu et par l'insulte (= Un territoire et des hommes ). C'est-à-dire, Saint-Michel-l'Observatoire 2009, ISBN 978-2-9527564-7-1 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  • Pierre Montagnon: Dictionnaire de la Grande Guerre. Pygmalion, Paris 2013, ISBN 978-2-7564-0833-0 ( full text in Google book search).
  • Maurice Naërt, Lefranc Gratien, Jean Laxague, Jean Courbis, J. Joubert: Les armées françaises dans la Grande guerre. Volume 1: La guerre de mouvement (avant le 14 novembre 1914). Ed .: Ministère de la guerre. Imprimerie nationale, Paris 1922–1934. Four volumes:
Volume 1: 1936 (new edition; first edition 1922). Part 1: L'avant-guerre. P. 1. Part 2: Le haut commandement dans la bataille des frontières. P. 93. Part 3: Les operations à l'est de la Moselle. P. 219. Part 4: Les opérations entre Moselle et Meuse. P. 345. Part 5: Les operations à l'ouest de la Meuse. P. 431 ( digitized on Gallica ). Annexes. 1922 ( digitized ).
Volume 2: 1925. Part 1: La manœuvre en retraite. P. 1. Part 2: Les préliminaires de la bataille de la Marne. P. 549 ( digitized version ).
Volume 3: 1932. Part 1: La manœuvre offensive. P. 82. Part 2: La bataille d'arrêt. P. 309. Part 3: La poursuite. P. 663. Part 4: Les armées de l'est. S. 1147. ( digitized version ).
Volume 4: 1934. Part 1: La bataille de l'Aisne (14-21 September 1914). S. 1. Part 2: La course à la mer (September 19 – October 15, 1914). P. 127. Part 3: La bataille des Flandres (15 octobre – 14 novembre 1914). P. 263. Part 4: Les opérations sur le front stabilisé (September 21 to November 14, 1914). P. 391 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ^ Bataille de Lorraine (20–22 août 1914). In: Sambre-Marne-Yser. Août – November 1914.
  2. ^ Laffitte Charles Louis. 1914-1918. In: MemorialGenWeb .
  3. ^ De Curières de Castelnau Joseph Marie Henri François Xavier. 1914-1918. In: MemorialGenWeb .