CHAPTER 263: CHAPTER 252 WISSEMBURG BATTLE

On August 2nd, France’s Froesqueville’s Second Army and Bazan’s Third Army, consisting of six divisions, attacked Saarbrücken.

The majority of the Prussian army had already withdrawn from this location, so resistance was slight, and both sides suffered minimal losses. Prussia had 83 casualties, while the French had 86.

Napoleon III entered the city with the Crown Prince, riding a horse to receive the troops’ congratulations. Previously, Emperor Napoleon III had not ridden a horse for a long time due to hemorrhoids.

The French media enthusiastically celebrated the "Victory of Saarbrücken," with the news reports accompanied by graphic illustrations.

After capturing Saarbrücken, there was disagreement within the French army about the next step. Bazan hoped to expand this attack to eliminate the 40,000 Prussian troops gathering near Saarbrücken, but Napoleon III disagreed.

Reports from various places, as well as Prussian cavalry visible throughout the war zone, had already made Leboeuf and Napoleon III feel tense. Information from prisoners revealed that the Prussian army was poised to attack. Leboeuf suggested withdrawing the French army from Prussian territory and then deploying defenses along the border.

Thus, the Fourth Army led by General Paul de Radmerle, originally planned to advance and capture Saar Louis after taking Saarbrücken, was ordered back to defend the corridor leading from the Moselle River Valley to Thionville. The French forces occupying Saarbrücken also withdrew entirely, returning to the defensive positions within French borders at Folbach and Spicheren. Bazan’s Third Army retreated from Saargemina to Saint-Avold.

Feili, who was originally ordered to lead the Fifth Army and join the battle at Saarbrücken, was commanded to return to his starting point at the Beach Fortress.

McMahon’s First Army remained unchanged, still stationed at Froesqueville on the southern side of the Vosges Mountains, maintaining communication with Felix Dui’s Seventh Army in Belfort. The French reserves, Charles-Denis Bourbaki’s Guard and Marshal Canrobert’s Sixth Army, advanced; the Guard headed to Saint-Avold, and the Sixth Corps moved to Nancy.

The much-touted "second Jena" promised by Napoleon III before the war turned into a defensive stance, with high-level indecision greatly dampening the French army’s enthusiasm.

The French army fell into defense, and Mochi ordered the German army to counterattack on all fronts, simultaneously instructing the Third Corps to capture Weisenburg on August 4th.

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Weisenburg.

The eagerly awaiting Bavarian forces were the first to strike at the French garrison in Weisenburg.

The commander of McMahon’s 2nd Division was General Abel Dui, 61 years old, brother of Felix Dui, the commander of the Seventh Army, and former principal of the Saint-Cyr Military Academy. Dui led his troops to Wissembourg on the afternoon of August 3rd.

Wissembourg is a picturesque, ancient town on the banks of the Lauter River. Starting from the 18th century, France constructed defensive fortifications in Wissembourg, including a series of towers, forts, and moats. However, in 1867, Marshal Niel abandoned these somewhat outdated fortifications for a 19th-century army, dismantling the artillery to save on budget, leading to the gradual dereliction of the fortifications. Despite this, should the Prussians come to attack, it remained a strategic location as a transportation hub from Bavaria to Salzburg and Lower Alsace.

Upon arrival, after assessing the local situation, Dui’s engineer suggested, "Wissembourg needs to be renovated to serve as a stronghold for defense."

This suggestion was promptly reported to the First Army Command. However, Dui was unfortunate, as the telegraph had just been sent when the German army had already crossed the Lauter River, advancing toward the strategic point of Weisenburg without giving him time to respond.

The battle that erupted on August 4th was a complete surprise for the French army, who were entirely unaware of the 80,000 Prussian and Bavarian soldiers assembled opposite them. For several weeks, French infantry officers did not send any cavalry to scout the Prussian positions across the river, assuming "all was well." The previous evening, a local official reported that Bavarian troops had occupied the customs post at the Franco-German border, where a large number of German troops were discovered. However, the report arrived late, and the 61-year-old General Abel Dui, exhausted from the long travel, did not immediately dispatch cavalry to verify the situation. The next morning, he sent cavalry to scout, only for them to be quickly driven back by Prussian cavalry, resulting in some minor skirmishes. Dui didn’t take it too seriously, continuing with his usual routine of having coffee at 8 a.m., before reporting the reconnaissance results to Marshal McMahon in Strasbourg. McMahon felt he should reinforce the front lines and planned to move his command center forward to Weisenburg the next day. As the telegrapher was sending his plan to Leboeuf in Metz, the battle of Weisenburg broke out.

The defensive fortifications of Weisenburg, while somewhat outdated as they were built in the previous century, still served as an infantry defensive position. Despite being "taken by surprise," General Dui remained calm under pressure, quickly deploying two of his eight battalions, along with six cannons and several machine guns, at the forefront along the river in Wissembourg. Another battalion was stationed in Altenstadt, the small town adjacent to Wissembourg, with the remaining infantry, cavalry, and twelve cannons positioned on the slope behind the town. As the Bavarian 4th Division attacked, all the French troops and guns at the front erupted in fire, weaving a dense web of fire. French veterans used their Chassepot rifles to target the advancing Germans, causing significant casualties to the enemy.

It was also here that the Bavarians first heard the rattling sound of machine gun fire. However, at this time, the machine guns were not yet the devastating weapons of World War I; they couldn’t sweep, only focus intensely on a single target. This resulted in dozens of bullets hitting one person, who would immediately turn into pieces. The terror effect of this new weapon far exceeded its actual lethality. A Bavarian officer remarked that under these guns, there were no wounded; if you were hit, you had no chance of survival. The French artillery and rifle fire were so accurate that every detachment of Bavarian forces involved in the attack was scattered. The Bavarians retreated, and Prussian officers loudly reorganized the troops for another assault.

Bavarian and Prussian infantry hid under vines, exchanging fire with the French. They couldn’t see the French, only hearing their gunfire and shooting at the flashes of French guns. The Dreyse rifles of the Bavarian and Prussian troops were inherently less accurate and slower-firing than the French’s Chassepot rifles. Furthermore, while the Germans had to lie prone to conceal themselves to shoot, the French either stood in trenches or hid behind protective walls, enabling much faster reloading. Thus, the Germans were at a disadvantage in the exchange of fire. Fortunately, the Prussian and Bavarian forces also possessed a superior weapon: the new Krupp cannons. Several cannons were rolled across the river to join the infantry battle. The artillery duel began, with the Krupp breech-loading cannons quickly demonstrating superiority over the French muzzle-loading cannons. In addition, the French shells were equipped with very unreliable timed fuses, causing little harm to the German forces. The Krupp cannons, using percussion fuses, exploded upon impact. Soon, the French cannons were silenced, and the Prussian artillery began targeting the French infantry hiding in the trenches. Despite this, the Bavarian troops suffered heavy casualties under the firepower of the French infantry.

This enormously imbalanced battle, with eight French battalions facing the attack of 29 German battalions, resulted in an expected German victory, but with casualties exceeding those of the French, showcasing the combat capability of the French army, especially when facing the Bavarians as their opponents.