Battle of Triebl

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Battle of Triebl
date August 18, 1647 to September 5, 1647
place Třebel , Bohemia
output Victory of Ferdinand III's troops.
Parties to the conflict

Flag of Sweden.svg Sweden

Holy Roman Empire 1400Holy Roman Empire Holy Roman Empire

Commander

Major General Helmold Wilhelm Wrangel

Generals Raimondo Montecuccoli , Johann von Werth and General Peter Melander von Holzappel

losses

380 dead and wounded

approx. 120 dead and wounded

The Battle of Triebl ( Třebel ) took place from August 18 to September 5, 1647.

course

On July 17, 1647, the defense of the free imperial city of Eger collapsed after heavy attacks by the Swedish besiegers. The approach of the rescuing troops of Emperor Ferdinand III. through western Bohemia had been delayed so that the commander of the Swedish armed forces, Major General Helmold Wilhelm Wrangel , had ample opportunity to prepare the defense of the southern foreland of Eger. Strong equestrian forces shielded the area from the south, so that the aimless and haphazard attacks of the imperial troops fizzled out uselessly.

On August 8, 1647 had the imperial relief force to have achieved without military success, retired to the south and encamped at Křimiz and Tuschkau in the Pilsener level. General Wrangel pursued the imperial forces and crossed the Königswarter Pass with his army. There he rounded up all the farmers he could find and forced them to expand the entrenchments . Wrangel left a strong garrison there and continued the march south with the main forces. On August 13th he moved into his headquarters in plan . The troops camped near St. Anne's Church . For better security, however, the camp was demolished again and relocated to the nearby Bahuschaberg on August 16.

10 cavalry regiments and 1,500 infantry now took up positions between the villages of Schlief, Wieschka, Hangendorf and Goldwag on the other side of the Michelsberger Bach. They holed up there and set up a wide ring of field guards around the camp. An ensign with three dozen riders was deployed as a crew in Triebl Castle, which is on a steep slope across the stream .

General Wrangel had already promised the city fathers of Plan his protection on June 14th. Under threat of severe punishment, he had forbidden his troops to billet, requisition, and pillage his troops. Any use of force against the civilian population should be punished ruthlessly. For the citizens of Plan this letter of protection was an enormous reassurance, since the Swedish army was far from military discipline and order after the death of King Gustav Adolf . The military officials were busy trying to punish all offenses.

Emperor Ferdinand III. had learned of the Swedes' advance south. Fearing the loss of western Bohemia, he ordered his army to march north and attack the Swedish forces. Under the leadership of Generals Raimondo Montecuccoli , the Bavarian cavalry general Johann von Werth and General Peter Melander von Holzappel, the imperial army advanced and moved via Mies, Schweißing and Tschernoschin to the plateau of Wolfersdorf, where it holed up. An advance department, to which Johann von Schwanberg belonged, fought between Plan and Triebl near the Spittelteich pond with Swedish troops. In the course of the bitter struggle, Johann von Schwanberg was seriously wounded.

The results of the exploration soon made the imperial troops aware of Wrangel's positions and it was obvious that Triebl Castle, which served as an advanced observation post, had to be captured. Holzapfel immediately ordered guns to be set up on the northern slope of the Wolfsberg. The shelling of Triebl began on August 18 at around 2 a.m.

The Swedish crew found themselves helpless in the face of the bombardment, as they only had 2 field cannons of smaller caliber, with which one could not reach the long-range guns of the imperial armed forces. The bombardment lasted into the evening hours. After the ceasefire began, the Swedes set about making makeshift repairs to their fortress in order to withstand the onslaught.

At dawn on August 19th, Holzappel's gunners continued to fire. Under cover of darkness, the imperial infantry had worked their way up to the castle and completed the preparations for the storm. The Swedish ensign waited in vain for help, because the deep and impassable bottom of the Michelsberg brook makes it impossible to intervene quickly.

Třebel Castle, taken in August 2008

A direct hit in the wall of the castle caused it to collapse and buried 12 Swedish soldiers. The ensign decided to give up the castle. Before doing this he had the horses killed so as not to let them fall into the hands of the enemy. Shortly after, a white flag was shown and surrendered.

The advancing troops of the emperor immediately began to entrench themselves on the Triebl. Meanwhile, Swedish gunners brought two guns through the mud at enormous expense in order to recapture the castle. However, the crew of the castle dared a brave sortie and brought both cannons and operators under their control. On August 21, scouts brought the news that most of the Swedes were spread out in the surrounding countryside to get food and groceries. Generals Montecuccoli and Johann von Werth were immediately determined to seize the opportunity and storm the Swedish positions, perhaps even the main camp.

8,000 horsemen, 1,000 Croatian musketeers and 8 small field cannons were hastily assembled. A local woman, the wife of the village judge von Triebl, led the armed forces under the protection of the wooded ravine into the bottom of the Michelsberg brook before daybreak. The troops initially hid there. The Swedish guards replaced one another in complete ignorance when the valuable horsemen - under the protection of the musketeers - broke over them. Already the first attack threw the two regiments Wittenberg and Margrave Durlach . The breakthrough into the main camp succeeded. The Didemann , Kinsky and Jordan regiments stood there , but they also fell victim to the onrushing cavalry. A squadron of cavalry -Regiments Capricorn tried to stop the attackers, and was also shattered. The Swedes were on the run and were pursued to Hangendorf. During the advance, the imperial troops captured a large amount of war material and personal property from the Swedish soldiers. In addition, 4 standards of the Jordan Regiment , 3 standards of the Durlach Regiment and 1 standard each of the Wittenberg , Didemann and Steinbock regiments fell into their hands.

When General Wrangel heard of the defeat, he gathered all available riders to rush to the aid of his fleeing riders. He succeeded in bringing the battered regiments to a standstill and organizing a counterattack in which the heads of the imperial troops who had been chased back were repulsed. He suffered bloody losses again in a new battle. The Swedes were lucky that General Holzapfel intervened too late with his Croatian musketeers. After two hours, the Swedish troops succeeded in gaining a foothold on a broad front, but the Witkopf and Alexander Lilien regiments now also suffered heavy losses.

After nightfall, Wrangel lost 79 officers and 308 men. Two captains are captured, almost half of his standards have fallen into enemy hands. General Wrangel himself was wounded in the right side by several bullets and died the morning of the following day.

The losses of the imperial troops are also high: a colonel, several officers and over 100 horsemen were killed. Two officers were taken prisoner in Sweden. Several officers, including Colonel Lanow and Colonel Count Bossu, were seriously wounded. In the following days both armies held their positions. On September 5, 1647, the troops of Emperor Ferdinand III evacuated. their positions and moved north towards Tepl and in the direction of the Koenigswarter Pass. The Swedes took up the chase and another battle broke out at Tepl. Both armies holed up and faced each other for two weeks, ready to fight. After a failure of the imperial troops, they broke away from the enemy and moved into the recently abandoned camp near Triebl. The Swedes, however, now finally turned north towards Kaaden .

literature

  • Across borders - history, country and people of the Plan-Weseritzer district Tirschenreuth and Mähring