Some thoughts on the encounter:
My dear readers, I want to continue my series
about the 275th anniversaries of the battles of the Austrian succession. I
noticed that most of my readers of the series are speaking English and
therefore I decided to do without a German version. I assume that no Germans
will argue about that and promise to write in German again for the postings
about reenactment in Germany or something like the dancing series.
I asked myself for a long time, if I should try
my Melle-scenario again or to avoid it. We will see the reasons after a close
look on the event itself. If you didn’t read it already I would recommend looking
into my first posting about the battle of Fontenoy[1]. The
defeat at Fontenoy was not less than a decisive blow for the young commander of
the Pragmatic army the duke of Cumberland. He had to retreat and the maréchal
de Saxe meanwhile managed to capture Tournai. The complete French plan of
invading the Low Countries as shown in McNally’s book was ambitious[2].
Cumberland realized that he had to hold such key positions like Ghent, if he
wanted to defend the Austrian Netherlands. While he decided to defend Brussells
with his main army, he decided to send at least some reinforcements towards
Ghent.
The distance from Tournai to Ghent is
remarkable comparing de Saxe’s move with more cautious or over cautious
decisions of contemporary military leaders. In early July de Saxe had chosen du
Chayla – a more prominent French commander during the campaigns in Flanders –
to lead a force for reconnaissance in the area of Aalst and Melle.
The pragmatic force under the young Philip
baron of Moltke was really a mixed group, including British, Hanoverian,
Austrian and Dutch units[3].
However such a mix is appearing strange to us today and although we would think
over huge problems regarding different languages, tactics etcetera, such a
method was quiet common during the 18th century. We wonder how this
all did work anyway. Moltke himself was in fact in charge over the Austrian
forces at Fontenoy 2 months earlier, when his supervisor the old fieldmarshal
Königsegg acted more as an advisor to the duke of Cumberland.
Although meeting du Chayla’s outposts near
Aalst, Moltke didn’t change his plans. I would suppose that he was just
confident in the quality of his troops, which is not really surprising when we
look into the results of many Austrian skirmishes during the 1744 campaign,
when they defeated numerical superior French forces repeatedly[4]. Du Chayla however could rely on some Arquebusiers
de Grassin, which had performed very well at Fontenoy. Although I would doubt Berry’s
praising designation as “an elite light regiment”[5] as
they didn’t had much of experience at this time or special armament. The unit
was “levé par ordonnance du premier Janvier 1744”[6] maybe
responding on the demand of de Noailles, when the old marshal noticed the large
superiority of Austrian light troops during the disastrous French campaign in
Germany.
Lieutenant général du Chayla missed to rank his
troops properly although he was alarmed by his light infantry outposts. The
spearhead of Moltke’s column crossed the stream near the Prieure de Melle in
the early morning of that fatal July 9th[7].
The unawareness of du Chayla becomes even more obvious, when we are reading
about the chance for the British to capture a lot of French artillery at this
moment of the battle[8]. But when the French infantry came into action, the baron
von Moltke surely realized his personal danger and took some of his British and
Hanoverian cavalry to leave the battlefield breaking through the French
positions towards Ghent. When the French managed to strike earnestly Moltke
could only save half of his troops under his personal command. He already had
left the field, when brigadier Bligh finally arrived with his infantry and some
cavalry. Bligh noticed that he had a considerable force in front of him.
Differently from Moltke now Bligh formed a formidable battle line and had to
deal with a French counter attack. Besides the terrain was not suitable for
cavalry and the passage over the Grontrode Brook was not favoring a long line
of infantry as well. Perhaps therefore the French could not profit as much as
we would assume on a better terrain from their numerical advantage in infantry.
Although defending himself very well, Bligh had to realize, that he had no
chance to win this encounter, especially when du Chayla brought artillery in
the fighting and the arquebusiers de Grassin turned up in Bligh’s back,
capturing his baggage[9]. It’s
noticeable that the contemporary painting by Lenfant in the collection of
Versailles doesn’t show the terrain and focus on the French infantry attacking
in masses with a village in the background[10]. 2
hours after Moltke’s first real trouble with the French near the small town of
Melle, Bligh had to retreat after suffering heavy losses.
Within days the city of Ghent fell to the army
under the comte de Lowendahl and the British units, which had managed to break
through du Chayla’s lose line at the start of the battle of Melle were
captured.
I can’t see that von Moltke cared about the
destiny of most of his force as he left the battlefield before Bligh arrived.
However that fact seemingly had no impact on his career as he was rising to the
rank of Generalfeldmarschall through his career before dying in 1780. However
maybe the family Moltke was too important to not be recognized by the empress
later on. 8 members of the Moltke family served in the 13th regiment
Moltke during her reign[11].
Researching about the campaign and especially
about the battle of Melle, I had felt myself confirmed in my former observation,
that small encounters often have bigger consequences then famous and large
battles. We see the same at the battle of Simbach, when some quick decisions by
the commander in chief over the Bavarian forces smashed the whole allied plans
for the ensuing campaign of 1743[12]. The
allied losses at Melle were significant although not such a way as Minuzzi’s in
1743. Both commanders underestimated their counterparts and lost the ability to
react properly on the opponent, even abandoning many of their own forces.
After the victory at Pfaffenhofen[13] and
the following treaty of Füssen now Melle was the 3rd significant defeat
in 3 months for Maria Theresia’s cause. Frederick II. had turned the situation in
Silesia to his favour, the French and Spaniards were invading Italy again and
Maurice de Saxe gained the upper hand in the Low Countries. Melle was an
important blow for the plans of the Pragmatic forces in the Netherlands. They
not only had lost around 2.000 men killed, wounded or captured, but lost one of
the most important towns of the Austrian Netherlands. However I loved Reed
Browning’s sharp comparison of Hohenfriedberg and Fontenoy: “Prince Charles
made many [mistakes]. Frederick made few. Since at Hohenfriedberg – and at this
point the contrast with Fontenoy becomes clear – the ablest generals and the
ablest troops were engaged on the same side, the outcome of the battle was
dramatically one-sided.”[14] That
will be a constant characteristic of the war in Flanders. The French had at
least with de Saxe and Lowendahl really capable commanders, which made stunning
moves. However the Pragmatic armies could rely on very good troops which could compensate
the weakness in their high command.
A game using Honours of war and giving a more vivid picture of the fighting:
I had written a scenario for a table top game
using Honours of War 3 years ago. The scenario excluded the action at the
château de Massemen near Aalst in the early hours of the July 9th
1745. However I tried to include the different moments of the encounter around
Melle and the Prieur de Melle. Now it's time at the 275th anniversary.
OOB:
ALLIED CinC: FML Moltke (Dependable):
Initiative turn 1, can destroy the French guns on a 2-6 (halting)
1) british infantry - independent
- 1 bn. Royal Scots (superior for Shooting, large)
2) allied cavalry under direct command of Moltke
- 3 sqn.s Rich's Dragoons (superior)
- 1 sqn. han. Leibregiment (small)
- 1 sqn. han. Dragoons (small)
- austrian hussars
CinC: Brigadier Thomas Bligh (Dash.)
Arriving in A) in column in turn 3
3) 1st Group under direct command of Bligh
- 1 bn. Bligh's Regiment (superior for Shooting, large)
- 3 sqn.s dutch cavalry
4) 2nd Group under command of Col. O'Farrel ? (Dep.)
- 1 bn. Handasyde's Regiment (superior for Shooting, large)
- 3 sqns. of austrian dragoons
- 4 sqn.s of dutch cavalry (large)
FRENCH CinC: Lieut. Gén. du Chayla (Dep.)
1) Arquebusiers de Grassin - Independent
- 1 bn. (small)
Arriving in C) in turn 5
2) Col. Gabriel-Marie de Talleyrand - Brigade Normandie (Dith.)
- 4 bn.s Régiment Normandie
3) Marquis de Crillon - Brigade Crillon (Dith.)
- 4 bn.s Régiment Crillon
4) Louis de Biran ? - Brigade Berry (Dith.) From turn 2: 5-6 for first move
- 4 sqn.s Berry (inferior)
- 4 sqn.s other French horse (inferior)
5) Mestre de Camp De Castries - Brigade du Roy (Dith.) From turn 2: 5-6 for first move
- 4 sqns. du Roi (inferior)
- 4 sqn.s oher French horse (inferior)
6) Marquis de Charleval d’Auneuil - Brigade Royal Étranger (Dith.) From turn 2: 5-6 for first move
- 4 sqn.s Royal Étranger
- 4 sqn.s other French horse
7) French artillery - Independent
- 2 x light artillery
unlimbered and without Crew until turn 6
Guns could be destroyed after successfully charged on a 2-6
Victory conditions:
Allied minor victory 5 Units entering (B)
Allied deceisive victory: breaking the French OR 7 Units entering (B)
French minor victory stop the Allies breakthrough.
French Major victory breaking the allies.
Limit:
12 turns.
Terrain: All BUAs: light cover
Streams fordable, River not.
Streams fordable, River Schelde [Escaut in French] not
 |
| The initial battlefield. The Pragmatic forces are approaching from the left. The French troops are scattered over the whole terrain. |
