Nap Campaign: Battle of Sandowa (South France) 22nd April 1808

 

A reminder of the situation at the end of the day on the 21st April 1808. After the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Loverna the French Army of the South is split in two.

Soult with the survivors of the 6th Corps (blue 6) are pursued by the Spanish and have yet to halt their rout.

Gerard (blue 4) and what is left of the 4th Corps and 2nd Cavalry Corps retreats north pursued by Wellington and the Anglo/Portuguese army. Gerard sees an opportunity to make a stand behind a river and is the scene for this action. 

The battlefield map. The French occupy the area to the north of the river with Wellington to the south including the village of Sandowa.

Looking north west from behind the allied position.

Continued -

Table size = 4'6" x 3'9"

ORBATS

Turns 1 - 3

For the first hour (3 turns) the allies sought to soften up the French using musketry and particularly their advantage in artillery. The French have none! The task of forcing the bridge crossing has been given to Adam's brigade with the fabled 52nd Foot in the vanguard.

The Portuguese lining the river have the best of the early exchanges destroying 2 battalions and leaving others shaken. 

The one-sided nature of the shooting phases resulted in the French pulling back from the river line on their right flank.

2 batteries along with Whinyates rockets are positioned on the high ground overlooking the French right. Whinyates has an inauspicious start hitting a Portuguese battalion with its opening salvo.

The 95th Rifles pour rifle fire into the French battalion defending their side of the bridge. As with several other battalions, their brigade commander rallies them.

An overview at the end of turn 2.

Likewise from the French lines.

The aftermath of turn 3 with 2 French battalions destroyed.

Turns 4 - 5

The British launched their attack on turn 4 with the 52nd Foot leading the charge. They streamed over the bridge brushing off ineffective closing fire from a defending French battalion. In the subsequent melee the French were heavily defeated allowing the 52nd to deploy into line closely followed by the 71st Foot and the two battalions of the 95th Rifles. 

French morale was in danger of collapsing with Toussaint's Brigade breaking and other battalions falling back in disarray. Cavalry was quickly brought forward and with those battalions still in good order launched charges at Adam's Brigade before it could properly deploy. 

The French made no headway as cavalry morale began to replicate that of their infantry.

Attack of the 52nd.

   

Collapsing French infantry morale.

French charges attempt to destroy the bridgehead before it is established.

They fail so far! 

Turns 6 - 7

Du Platt's KGL Brigade quickly follows Adam's Light Brigade expanding the bridgehead. French attempts to stem the flow, including a charge on a march column that had yet to deploy into a fighting formation, failed. 

Squares were formed to counter the threat from the French dragoons and it became increasingly clear to the French that preservation of units was taking a greater priority than eliminating the bridgehead. They were being out-shot and out-fought at every level.

They planned to use their cavalry strength to act as a screen enabling the infantry to retreat from the battlefield. They were hampered by command role failures including a blunder leading to a failed charge by a dragoons regiment on the 52nd Foot's square.

With casualties mounting, including losses inflicted by British artillery on their cavalry, it became a mad scramble to extricate as many troops as possible.

Du Platt's Brigade begins to take up position to the left of Adam. 

The scene during turn 6 with Vivian's Hussars moving towards the bridge.

A command blunder causes the dragoon regiment in the middle of the photo to charge a square. They halted before contact could be made suffering casualties from all directions!

It is now turn 7 and much of the French has been pulled back as Vivian deploys to the right.

The view from behind British lines as Kemmis with the rest of the 2nd Division crosses the bridge.

The final position at the end of turn 7 with all French units now disengaged.

French cavalry provided the screen as their surviving infantry withdrew. It would have taken the British several turns to amass enough cavalry on the north side of the river to counter the French and therefore the game was concluded.

This is the most one-sided game of the campaign so far by some distance. Casualties are calculated on units that have become shaken or destroyed and who won or lost. The French lost a total of 156 to the British 3!

To say the dice were against the French is an understatement. By way of an example, the 52nd Foot charged across the bridge into a French battalion in line formation firing at full strength. The rules do not normally allow units in a march column to charge but they had no option given the narrowness of the bridge. To compensate, they lost the charging bonus and being in a march column they would suffer a -2 to their morale (save) throw. The French had the additional benefit of closing fire only requiring 3+ to hit.

The result! Firing - 3 rolls all 1's and 2's. Subsequent melee was a massacre. 52nd Foot lost 1 destroying the French battalion outright and killing their General in return.

Although pretty extreme, this symbolised the French experience throughout. The only slightly comical silver lining was the performance of Whinyates rockets. Opening salvo ploughed into a Portuguese battalion. Then followed a succession of duds until the final turn when they managed to hit a dragoon regiment. The cavalry unit saved the hit and shrugged off the impact with suitable gallic gesticulations.

I will shortly post campaign map moves that will deal with the aftermath of this battle.