Battle of Vitoria

Battle of Vitoria

Part of: Wellington's Spanish Campaign 1809–1813

date	June 21, 1813
place	Vitoria-Gasteiz in the Basque Country
output	Allied victory

Parties to the conflict
United Kingdom Portugal Spain	France
Commander
Arthur Wellesley Thomas Graham George Ramsay Rowland Hill	Joseph Bonaparte Jean-Baptiste Jourdan
Troop strength
79,062	66,000
losses
5,148 dead, wounded and missing	approx. 8,000 dead, wounded and missing

According to Weller

In the Battle of Vitoria on June 21, 1813, English, Portuguese and Spanish troops under the command of Wellington fought against French troops , who were under the nominal command of Joseph Bonaparte , but were commanded by Marshal Jourdan . The French lost the battle, fled, leaving a great deal of booty and cannons on the battlefield.

background

In July 1812, the French evacuated the city of Madrid after the Battle of Salamanca . Wellington's army took over the city on August 12, 1812. Wellington left three divisions in the city and marched north with the rest of his army to besiege the city ​​of Burgos, about 200 km away . However, he had underestimated the strength of the opposing troops and therefore had to break off the siege on October 21 and withdraw. On October 31, he had withdrawn from Madrid and fled via Salamanca to Ciudad Rodrigo , near the Portuguese border. This enabled him to prevent encirclement by French armies in the northeast and southeast.

Wellington spent the winter reorganizing and training his army. In contrast, Napoleon withdrew many soldiers from Spain as he had to reorganize his destroyed army, which had been decimated by the catastrophic Russian campaign . The following year Wellington marched with his troops from northern Portugal over the mountains of northern Spain to flank Marshal Jourdan's army. On May 20, 1813, he was with his army of 58,000 men between the Duero and Tajo rivers . To prevent Wellington's forces from blocking their way to France, the French withdrew to Burgos.

The battle

Finally, on June 21, Wellington attacked the French at Vitoria with three lines of battle. After a bitter fight, Thomas Picton's 3rd Division broke into the center of the French and destroyed the defensive line. This resulted in a disorderly escape in which 8,000 soldiers on the French side were killed or wounded and 2,000 soldiers were taken prisoner. There were 4,500 dead and wounded on the British side. At the same time, 152 cannons were captured. This ended Napoleon's rule in Spain.

The British soldiers neglected to pursue the fleeing French troops, preferring to plunder the covered wagons that were left behind, which contained many valuables that had previously been stolen by the French. It is estimated that the equivalent of around 150 million euros in booty was found there. Wellington was very angry about this indiscipline and later wrote in his report that the British soldier was "the scum of the earth".

After the battle

After order was soon restored, San Sebastian and Pamplona were conquered in December before his army marched into France and wintered there. On April 2, 1815, Ferdinand VII donated the cross of the Vitoria award as an order decoration . It had the words “Irurac Vat” ( Basque Irurak bat “the three, one”) in the middle and the inscription on the lapel as the motto “Recompensa de la batalla de Vitoria”, which means “reward for the Vitoria shaft”.

various

Ludwig van Beethoven placed a musical memorial to the battle in his composition Wellington's Victory or the Battle of Vittoria .

literature

• Ian Fletcher: Vittoria 1813 (= Osprey Military Campaign Series. Vol. 59). Osprey, London 1998, ISBN 1-85532-739-2 .
• Jac Weller: Wellington in the Peninsula. 1808-1814. Nicholas Vane, London 1962 (reprinted. Kaye, Ward, London, 1969).
• Roger Parkinson: The Peninsular War. Hart-Davis MacGibbon, London 1973, ISBN 0-246-64096-0 (here: (= Wordsworth Military Library. ) Wordsworth, Ware 2000, ISBN 1-84022-228-X ).

Web links

• Battle of Vitoria

Individual evidence

1. ^ Joseph von Niedermayr: About rewards in the state with an overview of the orders of merit, decorations and medals of the states of Europe and their statutes. EA Fleischmann, Munich 1836, p. 261