Battle of Le Bourget

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Battle of Le Bourget
date October 28-30, 1870
place Le Bourget northeast of Paris France
output German victory
Parties to the conflict

North German ConfederationNorth German Confederation North German Confederation

Second empireSecond empire France

Commander

North German ConfederationNorth German Confederation Rudolph von Budritzki

Second empireSecond empire Adrien Carrey de Bellamare

Troop strength
? 16 battalions
losses

378 fallen and wounded

1,800 dead and wounded, 1,200 prisoners

Battles and Sieges of the
Franco-German War (1870–1871)

The Battle of Le Bourget , took place from October 28th to 30th, 1870 in the Franco-Prussian War between the 2nd Guard Infantry Division of the Prussian Army under the command of General von Budritzki and a French federation made up of Franc-shooters , naval units and friar regular troops of the Paris Defense Army under General Carrey de Bellamare .

initial situation

Since September 19, 1870, Paris was besieged by German associations. The Defense Army now consisted of up to 120,000 regular soldiers and 330,000 men of the National Guard .

General Carrey de Bellamare was in command of the Fort of Saint Denis , north of Paris. This was one of the largest and most heavily occupied fortresses in Paris. Since the village of Le Bourget could be reached by the guns of the forts, only one company was stationed in the village itself. This company belonged to the Regiment Queen Augusta Guard Grenadier Regiment No. 4 of the Guard Corps . Overall, the guard held the front between the towns of Montmagny and Aulnay-sous-Bois .

French attack

The Kaiser Alexander Guard Grenadier Regiment No. 1 on October 30, 1870 near Le Bourget, painting by Carl Röchling

In the early morning of October 28, 1870, the attack of the French began without any order being given. The German company was pushed out of the village. The guard themselves initially had no interest in retaking the position, but the Saxon Crown Prince Albert ordered the counterattack. From Le Bourget, the other Prussian positions would be within range of heavy French artillery. In order to expand his success, de Bellamare asked the Commander-in-Chief of Paris, General Louis Jules Trochu, for reinforcements, but the latter refused.

Prussian counterattack

Through an armed reconnaissance , the Prussians realized that strong associations were now occupying the place. A simple counterattack by infantry was no longer possible. So the whole next day, October 29, 1870, the place was bombarded with artillery. It did not succeed in driving the French units out of the place.

Finally, on October 30, 1870, an attack took place under the personal leadership of General von Budritzky. The attack took place with nine battalions of the 2nd Guards Infantry Division . The place was attacked from three sides at the same time. After a bitter struggle lasting four hours, in which almost every building had to be stormed individually, the place was recaptured.

The two regimental commanders, Conrad von Zaluskowsky (1825–1870) and Georg Graf von Waldersee (1824–1870) were among the 34 fallen officers of the Guard .

consequences

Le Bourget after the fighting

The outcome of this battle aroused great consternation in Paris. On the one hand, this was due to the fact that news of the surrender of Metz arrived around the same time , and on the other hand, many citizens had hoped for the capture of Le Bourget. In addition, there were also Parisian citizens among the many fallen and prisoners. There was even a manifesto dated October 31, calling for General Trochu to resign; However, this refused to resign from his command. This deterioration in sentiment was one of the reasons why the outage on Villiers was ordered at the end of November .

Second dropout from December 21, 1870

A second battle took place on December 21, 1870. This attack was to take place at the same time as the advance of the Northern Army and thus bring about relief for Paris. The fact that the attack by the Northern Army could not be brought to Paris as planned was no longer recognized in time.

After the battle in October, the Prussians occupied Le Bourget with only a small group of five companies from the 2nd Guard Infantry Division. The Prussian Line made a head start between the villages of Dugny and Le Blanc Mesnil . This crew was trapped by the attack that began early in the morning. Due to simultaneous attacks against Stains and Aulnay-sous-Bois , it was not noticed that German units were still in place. The attack was directed against German units of the Guard Corps and the XII. Corps .

Guard corps battles

Bivouac in front of the village of Le Bourget, after the battle of December 21, 1870

Stains was evacuated from the outposts, then taken under artillery fire and then recaptured by the 1st Guard Regiment. The crew of Le Bourget was able to hold out during the day until the German counterattack by three battalions of regiments No. 3 and No. 4 had pushed back the French in the afternoon. The Guards Corps lost 14 officers and 431 soldiers that day, dead, wounded and missing. Several hundred French were taken prisoner in the attack.

The events of December 21st inspired the French battle painter Alphonse de Neuville to paint his painting Bivouac devant Le Bourget, après le combat du 21 decembre 1870 'Bivouac in front of the village of Le Bourget, after the battle of December 21st 1870' , which was made in Paris in 1872 Salon was exhibited and established the artist's fame.

Battles of the XII. corps

The attack against the Saxon XII. Corps took place in the direction of Bobigny and Sevran and with a further focus against Rosny-sous-Bois and Neuilly-sur-Marne in the direction of Chelles . All these attacks, however, remained in the artillery fire and at the latest before the positions of the infantry. On December 22nd, the next attack took place at this point, which the Saxons and the flanking Württembergers had already expected. The French tactic of several attacks on consecutive days was also used here. On the German side, the artillery had therefore been positioned accordingly. All attacks, in which at least three French brigades are said to have been involved, remained in artillery fire. However, the French managed to establish themselves on the plateau of Mont Avron , east of Fort de Rosny . Here, however, the soldiers of the National Guard were exposed to massive German artillery fire without any means of cover. In addition, there was the severe frost that set in these days.

More battles for Mont Avron

On the French side, artillery positions had been constructed and erected in two weeks by December 17th. However, the positions did not provide adequate protection against fire. For their part, the German units had dug strong fortifications on the favorable elevations of Le Raincy and Montfermeil in order to be able to begin the bombardment of the Rosny fortress from here. This bombardment began in the early morning of December 27, 1870 with the fire of 76 guns. Within two days, the guns on Mont Avron were incapacitated, as the teams quickly left their positions due to the lack of protection, and the units standing in Noisy had to withdraw. On December 29, the last National Guards withdrew from Mont Avron and had to leave behind considerable equipment, but also the corpses of fallen comrades. The plateau was from the XII. Corps manned with very few own losses.

annotation

  1. ↑ «  Le governor de Paris ne capitulera pas.  »
  2. ^ Friedrich Engels , in The Pall Mall Gazette No. 1841 of January 6, 1871

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