Battle of Tourcoing

Battle of Tourcoing

Part of: First Coalition War

date	May 17, 1794 to May 18, 1794
place	Tourcoing
output	French victory

Parties to the conflict
France	Austria Great Britain
Commander
Joseph Souham Charles Pichegru Jean-Victor Moreau	Friedrich von Sachsen-Coburg Friedrich August
Troop strength
70,000 men	74,000 men
losses
3000 men	4,000 men dead or wounded, 1,500 men captured

The information on troop strength and losses can vary in the literature.

The Battle of Tourcoing took place on 17/18. May 1794 during the First Coalition War . On the part of the Allies it was planned as a decisive battle against the troops of the French Republic in Flanders . The plan failed and ended in clear defeat.

prehistory

In the Dutch theater of war, the French held fast to their goal of conquest at the beginning of the campaign in 1794. Your army should go on the offensive in Flanders and on the Sambre . On the other hand, the Allies wanted to conquer the French border fortresses and then advance on Paris . The Allied Commander-in-Chief Josias von Sachsen-Coburg began to besiege the city of Landrecies in mid-April with an army of 75,000 men. The city fell on April 30th. In the meantime the French had pushed the Allies under Clerfayt in Flanders across the Scheldt and enclosed the fortresses in West Flanders.

The French offensive threatened the British routes of communication . The allies had to bring reinforcements to the threatened area. The French attacked the Allies at the Battle of Willems on May 10 and a day later in Courtrai . In the first battle the Allies were victorious, in the second Clerfayt was forced to withdraw north. The Duke of York, who commanded the left wing of the Allies, called for reinforcements and Emperor Franz II , who was himself present at the Allied headquarters in Tournai , and the Commander-in-Chief Josias von Sachsen-Coburg decided to concentrate their main efforts in the west.

In mid-May the French under Charles Pichegru and Joseph Souham had about 82,000 men at their disposal between Lille and Courtrai . Of these, Souham with about 28,000 and Moreau with about 22,000 men were between Courtrai and Aelbeke . Another 20,000 men under Bonnaud were east of Lille and another 10,000 were south of Lille.

The allies under Josias von Sachsen-Coburg wanted to defeat the French in a decisive battle. General Karl Mack had drawn up a highly complex plan for this, which provided for a separate advance of six columns and an attack on a line of twenty miles. A basic problem was that only the victory of all sub-units would bring the plan to success.

The main attack was to come from the east. Field Marshal Lieutenant Rudolf von Otto was to advance towards Tourcoing with 10,000 men . To the left of it the Duke of York marched on Mouvaux . To Otto's right was a smaller unit of Hanoverians under General Bussche , advancing towards Mouscron . Clerfayt was in command on the left wing. He was to cross the River Lys at Wervicq and advance south behind Mouscron and Tourcoing. On the left wing, Count Kinsky was supposed to cross the bridge at Bouvines with 9,000 men . There he was supposed to wait for the troops under Archduke Karl with 14,000 men. Together they should then march north and unite with the Duke of York.

course

March

The plan failed after a short time. When Clerfayt reached Wervicq on May 17th, he found that the bridge there was heavily fortified and defended with strong forces. Under these circumstances, he wouldn't be able to cross the river until the next day. Bussche reached Mouscron , but was driven back by a French counterattack. Count Kinsky reached Bouvines, but could not prevent the French from destroying the bridge there. Archduke Karl made slow progress and was nowhere near the goal set for that day.

In the middle came from Otto to Tourcoing but had no connection with the Duke of York. The duke's vanguard reached Roubaix, where the French could be forced to vacate a strong position. Because the Duke felt himself in an isolated position, he wanted to withdraw a little. However, Francis II ordered the further advance. At the end of the day the duke reached the road between Roubaix and Mouvaux. Only the Duke of York and von Otto had reached the planned starting positions, so by the end of the day Mack's plan had already failed.

The French generals held a council of war in Menen ( French Menin ) without the absent commander-in-chief to plan the counterattack. The French left wing was south of the Lys near Mouscron. The right wing was east of Lille. Bonnaud's division on the right wing was to attack northwards towards Lannoy and Roubaix. The left wing was to advance south on Mouvaux, Tourcoing, Watrelos and Dottignies . The allied center was threatened by French units three times as strong.

Battle and aftermath

The next day, Otto and the Duke of York, isolated from the left and right wing of the Allies, were attacked by 60,000 French soldiers. Initially, Otto was attacked. The Duke sent reinforcements because he believed he could hold his position. But the troops came too late to be able to hold Tourcoing. Field Marshal Lieutenant Otto managed to escape with his troops. The Duke was now attacked from several sides and the British units were separated from one another. The Duke himself struggled to escape capture. The British troops had to fight their retreat with heavy losses. Clerfayt withdrew behind the Lys after several encounters with French troops. On the left wing of the Allies, Kinksy and Archduke Karl were little active.

The fighting ended in the afternoon. The Allies had lost between 3,000 and 5,000 men and 50 cannons . The French lost about 3,000 men dead and wounded. The allies had to withdraw towards Tournay. The advancing French wanted to drive the allies from the fortified positions there, but were defeated in the battle of Tournay on May 22nd.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ used here: Gaston Bodart: Military-historical War Lexicon, (1618-1905). Vienna, 1908 p. 289

literature

• David Eggenberger: An Encyclopedia of Battles. New York 1985, p. 441
• W. Riistow: Military dictionary volume 2 Zurich 1859, p. 323f. Digitized
• Francis Smith: The Wars from Antiquity to the Present. Berlin u. a. 1911, p. 500
• Gerhard Taddey (ed.): Lexicon of German history . People, events, institutions. From the turn of the times to the end of the 2nd World War. 2nd, revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-520-81302-5 , p. 1241.

Web links

• Rickard, J (19 January 2009): Battle of Tourcoing, 18 May 1794 , online version