Second battle near Höchstädt

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Second battle near Höchstädt (1704)
Battle of Höchstädt painting by John Wootton (1682–1764)
Battle of Höchstädt
painting by John Wootton (1682–1764)
date August 13, 1704
place Höchstädt on the Danube
output Grand Alliance Victory
Parties to the conflict

Hague Grand Alliance

France Kingdom 1792France France Bavaria Kurköln
Electorate of BavariaElectorate of Bavaria 
KurkölnKurköln 

Commander

John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough
Eugene of Savoy

Elector Maximilian II. Emanuel
Camille d'Hostun, comte de Tallard
Ferdinand de Marsin

Troop strength
52,000 men and
60 cannons 		56,000 men
90 cannons
losses

4,542 dead
7,942 wounded

20,000 dead and wounded
14,190 prisoners

Battles of the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714)

The Second Battle of Höchstädt (in English Battle of Blenheim ) was the first major conflict in the War of the Spanish Succession . An allied army of the Imperial and Imperial Army under the command of Prince Eugene of Savoy and the English under the command of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough defeated the troops of the French under the command of Marshal Tallard and the Bavarians under the on August 13, 1704 Order from Elector Maximilian II Emanuel . The victory prevented a threatening march of the allied French-Bavarian armies on Vienna.

The English form of Battle of Blenheim is likely to stem from the fact that the English troops used French reconnaissance aircraft. Their pronunciation of the name of the hamlet Blindheim (near Höchstädt on the Danube ) led to the English form Blenheim .

Starting position

In 1700, King Charles II, the last Habsburg to sit on the Spanish throne, died. On the basis of a will, France made claims to the throne. King Louis XIV proclaimed his grandson Philip of Anjou to be King of Spain and at the same time confirmed his claim to the French throne.

There was a threat of a power shift in Europe in favor of the great power France . On the initiative of England, the opponents ( England , Austria , Holland and various German imperial estates ) came together in the Great Hague Alliance . The Bavarian elector fought on France's side in the hope of royal dignity and territorial expansion.

In 1702 Bavarian soldiers occupied the imperial city of Ulm with its strategically important fortress, as well as the cities of Memmingen , Lauingen , Dillingen an der Donau , Neuburg an der Donau and Regensburg . Therefore, on September 30, 1702, the Imperial War against Bavaria, Kurköln and France was declared immediately.

On September 20, 1703, a French-Bavarian army defeated around 17,000 soldiers from the approaching imperial troops east of Höchstädt an der Donau under the command of General Field Marshal Hermann Otto II of Limburg-Styrum .

In disregard of the neutrality previously declared by the imperial city, imperial troops penetrated Augsburg . Bavaria and the French advanced. The cannonade of the city by French-Bavarian troops lasted from December 7th to 15th. A day later, the imperial family withdrew. France's Marshal Ferdinand de Marsin quartered himself in Augsburg with 11,500 men. His army left the city at the end of June 1704 and turned to Donauwörth .

In the same year, the two best generals in their ranks were commissioned by the British and Austrians to solve military problems: the Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy .

First battle near Höchstädt (September 20, 1703)

Under Marshal Villars and Maximilian II. Emanuel , French and Bavarian troops won a convincing victory over a contingent of Austria and the empire under Count Styrum. Only the resistance of Prussian units under Leopold I prevented the complete dissolution of the Austrian and imperial associations.

Second Battle of Höchstädt (August 13, 1704)

Battle course (preliminary phase)

His Grace the Duke of Marlborough , portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller , around 1705
Second battle map
Second battle near Höchstädt (Joshua Ross jr)
The Duke of Marlborough with his general, the Earl of Cadogan, during the battle of Höchstädt (Pieter van Bloemen (1657–1720))

Marlborough had to bring its Anglo-Dutch troops from the Netherlands to southern Germany. He took the risk of marching up the Rhine at the head of his combat troops, but sending his entourage up the Main via Bamberg and Nuremberg to the Nördlingen area . He discussed the next steps with Prince Eugene on June 12th and 13th in Großheppach (near Stuttgart). The Austrian general was supposed to combine several imperial troops operating in southern Germany with his own five regiments and then join Marlborough's army.

The Imperial Army (Baden, Hessian, Hanoverian, Saxon and Prussian units) with Margrave Ludwig Wilhelm von Baden (called Türkenlouis ) together with the allied Anglo-Dutch troops under Marlborough's command arrived at Donauwörth on July 2nd . The city and the north-facing and also fortified Schellenberg were occupied by French and mainly Bavarian troops under Johann Baptist von Arco . However, a connecting line of fortifications between the two bases was still under construction. Marlborough let attack the British and Dutch units from the march, despite the counter-speech by Ludwig Wilhelm von Baden, who pleaded for a rest. After the third attempt, the battle on Schellenberg was won for him. The Bavarians and the French left Donauwörth in a hurry. Elector Maximilian II. Emanuel withdrew to Augsburg with his remaining army units.

The army under Prince Eugen's command, consisting of Austrians, Swabians, Westerwalders, Hanoverians, Prussians and Danes, had assembled on July 21 and set out for the Danube. About 18,000 men were met on August 6 in the Höchstädt area.

Meanwhile, the French Marshal Camille d'Hostun, Comte de Tallard, had arrived with his elite units across the Black Forest near the fortress city of Ulm. The elector heard about it in Augsburg and wanted to join the fresh forces. He and his soldiers crossed the Danube between Lauingen and Dillingen. On August 7th, both troops united in the Donauried .

Course of the battle (main phase)

Marshal Tallard erroneously assumed that the Allied forces would withdraw to the north, which is why he and Marsin arrived too late (on August 10) to force the enemy into a decisive battle. To make matters worse, Tallard's cavalry was severely weakened by a horse disease, probably the snot (malleus). In the course of the battle - Marlborough's cavalry superiority at Unterglauheim was decisive - this was a considerable shortcoming.

When troop movements were reported from upstream posts on the morning of August 13, Tallard assumed that the Allies wanted to withdraw northwards. The result of this mistake was that most of the camp fell into the hands of the enemy because the Franco-Bavarian Army had to go to battle, almost awakened from sleep. During the course of the day - twilight set in at 3:50 a.m. - Marlborough decided to launch an attack on a broad front up the Danube Valley. The first skirmishes started around 3 a.m. behind Schwenningen. Although the forward observers had reported large movements of troops, Tallard continued to stick to his opinion. When the surprised Franco-Bavarian troops quickly took up position on the slight hills west of the Nebelbach, they were already exposed to the beginning artillery fire of the Allies.

The French had concentrated their infantry in the villages of Blindheim and Oberglauheim , and the Elector and Marsin between Lutzingen and Oberglauheim. The battle front from the Alten Berg near Lutzingen with the front line Riedgraben to Riedberg was defended by Bavarian guards infantry and cavalry. She succeeded in vehemently fighting with around 16,500 men against around 9,000 Prussians under Prince Leopold I of Anhalt-Dessau as well as around 8,000 imperial troops under Prince Eugene of Savoy (both with a lot of cavalry), who ran three times in the course of the battle behind the Riedgraben was thrown back to hold. Max Emanuel was particularly successful in recognizing enemy encirclement attempts along the tree line of today's Goldbergalm, which he successfully prevented. He wiped out the enemies, which resulted in an orderly retreat discussed below.

In the Anglo-Imperial troops, Prince Eugene commanded the right wing (see above), Marlborough commanded the center of the attack between Oberglauheim and Blindheim. It was a hot summer day when the main battle began at 11 a.m. The defenders held the villages with defensive fire, at Blindheim the attack by the British was violently repulsed, so the Royal North British Fusiliers Regiment lost its regiment commander and its two deputies. At Oberglauheim the French even went over to the counterattack, which Marlborough, however, threw back with its strong cavalry. The continued English attacks finally resulted in General Clerambault, the commander in Blindheim, ordered all infantry reserves of the French right wing to Blindheim. Tallard did not contradict these orders. During this phase, Tallard's wrong decisions to keep blind home and to unnecessarily concentrate troops that would have served better in the completely overstretched center of the front became particularly fatal. To make matters worse was the refusal to use parts of Marsin's cavalry as reinforcements. The fight continued to and fro until about 2 p.m. The French and Bavarians had gained slight advantages through the occupation and were also superior to artillery, which despite the surprise attack by means of the Nebelbach as an obstacle to approach, could form on the gentle slopes of the Geisberg.

Marlborough resumed the fighting at 2:30 p.m. and around 4 p.m. finally overcame the Nebelbach and the swamp with his cavalry over built crossings in order to use them on the battlefield south of Oberglauheim. Individual attacks by French cavalry were repulsed, which brought about the turning point. Marlborough used its entire cavalry (109 squadrons with about 13,000 riders), the cavalry was followed by 8,000 infantry and artillery. Tallard was able to oppose this contingent only 76 squadrons (8000 riders) as well as 4500 infantry and a few cannons. The majority of the Allied cavalry was still fresh, while the French squadrons had been deployed for hours and were therefore tired and in some cases also decimated. Nevertheless, the French managed to repel the first attack. Allegedly, after the first unsuccessful attack, Marlborough said to a fleeing English officer: " Sir, you are under a mistake, the enemy lies that way ... " (German: "Sir, you are subject to a mistake, the enemy is heading in this direction ...") . But the second attack broke through the French lines. The French infantry (9 battalions) were left to their fate. These "fine French troops" (according to Winston Churchill ) were killed on the spot, despite resistance, down to the last man; the day after the battle, one could see on the heaps of hundreds of corpses where their last positions had been. Tallard was wounded twice in the attack. The fleeing French cavalry was pursued by the Allied cavalry and driven into the Danube swamps or directly into the Danube, where a not inconsiderable number of the riders and their horses drowned.

Marlborough's maneuver cut off both Marsin and Max Emanuel II from the right wing and surrounded General Clerambault in Blindheim. The Bavarian and French troops then set the mills and farms on fire in order to make them useless as cover for the enemy, and withdrew in a very orderly manner. Operational cavalry was practically no longer available as a closed combat unit after the third setback. After this observation, many units stopped fighting and evacuated Lutzingen.

The French defending the place Blindheim (English Blenheim) were enclosed by the regiments under Lord Cutts . Marshal Tallard was victim of his short-sightedness while trying to lead troops from the village to a sortie on the field and was captured by Hessian dragoons at Sonderheim. Tallard's son had fallen a few hours earlier. The diffuse situation in the village of Blindheim did not improve for the French. The English gathered more and more troops to storm Blindheim. They succeeded in pushing the French troops back into the center of the village. The battles, which were very costly for both sides, shifted around the church. The artillery used by the English set many buildings on fire. General Philippe de Clérambault , the French commander in Blindheim, left his troops in the lurch and tried to swim across the Danube in order to reach the saving southern bank. The attempt cost him his life, he drowned. The fighting dragged on until around 8 p.m. because there was no uniform command structure and the trapped soldiers wanted to fight to the last cartridge . The English Lieutenant General George Hamilton, Earl of Orkney , offered the French, after his troops had already been thrown back three times, a temporary suspension of fire in order to be able to rescue the wounded from the burning houses. Hamilton used this break to persuade the Marquis de Blanzac , the new French commander, to surrender and to end the senseless sacrifice of his soldiers. De Blanzac saw the inevitability of defeat and at 9 p.m. the French laid down their arms. Rumor has it that the department and regimental flags were burned in Blindheim so that they would not fall into the hands of the enemy. The French Navarre regiment is said to have broken its weapons and thrown its flags into the flames of a burning house, but this is not credibly confirmed by contemporary sources.

prey

Fell into the hands of the Allies

  • about 11,000 prisoners (24 battalions of infantry and 4 regiments of dragoons)
  • 129 flags and 171 cavalry standards
  • almost the entire artillery as well as the train of Bavarians and French

consequences

Memorial stone at the French lookout point near Lutzingen
Blenheim Palace - Royal gift from the grateful British nation to the Duke of Marlborough

The victory strengthened the motivation on the Allied side to take further arms . The French had lost the nimbus of the invincibility of their army, which was widespread at the time. France had to withdraw behind the Rhine line.

The Nobel Prize for Literature and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill , a descendant of the Duke of Marlborough, wrote about this battle in his third book about English history:

“The victory of Höchstädt-Blenheim almost destroyed the French and Bavarian armies on the Danube. More than 40,000 men had been killed, wounded, captured or dispersed. The rest withdrew through the Black Forest to the Upper Rhine. A third of both armies lay on the ground. Thirteen thousand unwounded prisoners, including the most famous regiments in France, spent the night of the 13th in the custody of the British infantry. [...] All of Europe shuddered at this incredible event. Louis XIV could not believe that his best army was not only defeated but also destroyed. From that moment on he no longer thought of conquest, but only of an honorable exit from the war that he had conjured up. All the power of the Grand Alliance was reborn and consolidated. The horror of French arms that had weighed on Europe for a generation was broken. Marlborough stood there, even above his comrade, the great Eugene, as the first soldier of his age. And since he directed all diplomacy and the actions and aspirations of the alliance at the same time, this English general became for a while the real leader of the great alliance of nations that had come together against Louis XIV. With Marlborough England reached the height of its power, and the islanders, who had not known such a triumph since Crécy and Azincourt , three hundred years earlier, indulged in their joy. "

Bavaria was occupied by Austria under the Treaty of Ilbesheim . The Bavarian Elector Maximilian II. Emanuel went into exile, losing the Bavarian electoral dignity and the Upper Palatinate to the Palatinate Wittelsbacher Johann Wilhelm .

Prince Eugene and the Duke of Marlborough celebrated further triumphs on the battlefield against the French at Ramillies and Turin in 1706 , the Battle of Malplaquet (1709) ended without a clear winner. Only the Peace of Utrecht (1713), the Peace of Rastatt and the Peace of Baden (1714) ended the bloody dispute over the Spanish succession and the balance of power in Europe.

literature

Fiction

  • Iain Gale: Man of Honor . HarperCollins, 2007; German translation Steels Ehre. Jack Steel and the Battle of Höchstädt 1704 . Bastei Lübbe, 2012

Web links

Commons : Second battle near Höchstädt  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Second battle near Höchstädt  - sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ M. Junkelmann, PhD on ME II. And Junkelmann, Das greulichste Spectaculum .