Background
At the end of June 1760, the French Grande Armée, under the command of the Duc de Broglie, proceeded to the invasion of Hesse, seizing Marburg. On July 10, at the Combat of Corbach, the Hereditary Prince of Brunswick failed to prevent the junction of the Army of the Lower Rhine, under Saint-Germain, with the Grande Armée. On July 15, Dillenburg surrendered to the French. On July 16, the Hereditary Prince surprised and captured a French corps at the engagement of Emsdorf but was unable to capture the magazines and the bakery established at Marburg which were timely rescued by M. de Stainville. From July 24, Broglie successfully manoeuvred to force Ferdinand of Brunswick out of his advantageous positions. On July 27, Broglie’s main army marched to Volkmarsen while the reserve under Prince Xavier marched to Naumburg; and the Chevalier de Muy marched downstream along the Diemel on Warburg. Meanwhile, Stainville’s Corps besieged the fort of Ziegenhain. Broglie’s manoeuvres aimed at cutting the Allies from Paderborn and Lippstadt. Reacting to these moves, Ferdinand sent the Hereditary Prince with 10 grenadier battalions and 8 squadrons and General Spörcken’s Corps to Körbecke to secure the passage of the Diemel. Together, the two joint forces amounted to 23 battalions, 22 squadrons, and 26 heavy guns totalling some 14,578 men on the day of battle, not including Spörcken’s detached command under Major von Bülow, one of Ferdinand’s most trusted general-adjutant, consisting of the “Légion Britannique”, the Bückeburg Carabiniers, and Captain von Linsingen’s Brigade of Hanoverian chasseurs already posted at the Diemel passage at Liebenau. On July 29, Spörcken’s reinforced corps passed the river.
On July 30, moving towards Kassel, Broglie marched to Zierenberg with his main army, leaving de Muy’s Corps dangerously isolated at Warburg. The Hereditary Prince reconnoitred de Muy’s position and recommended that their own corps should turn its left flank, while Ferdinand with the main army advanced against its front. The Hereditary Prince was not officially put in command of the attacking force, because Spörcken was senior in command, in fact, he was second in command of the Allied army at that time, but the idea for an attack stemmed from the Hereditary Prince’s driving initiative, which effectively put him at the head of the operation. As soon as Ferdinand was informed of the situation, he agreed and prepared his army. His general plan of attack was that Spörcken’s Corps and the Hereditary Prince should advance westward in two columns from Körbecke and form up in three lines between the tower and Papenheim, so as to fall on de Muy’s left flank and rear, while Ferdinand crossing the Diemel at Liebenau should attack his centre and right. As the Allied camp between Liebenau and Körbecke lay about 13 km from de Muy’s, and as Ferdinand’s camp lay between Imminghausen and Calden, some 24 km to the south of the Diemel from Liebenau, the operation called for extreme nicety in the execution. At 9:00 p.m., Ferdinand’s Army marched from its camp.
During this action the French lost 1,600 men killed and wounded, 2,000 taken prisoners, most of their baggage and 12 guns. The brigades of Bourbonnais, La Couronne, Rochefort and Planta (particularly Lochmann Infanterie) were the greatest sufferers. Colonel Chevalier de Valence of Bourbonnais Infanterie, the Prince de Rochefort and the Chevalier de la Tour-du-Pin were wounded. M. Lochmann was killed.
The Allies lost 1,200 men out of which 800 were British, including 590 men from the British cavalry, 240 men from Maxwell’s grenadiers. Colonel Beckwith was wounded in the head. For the British this battle redeemed the character of the cavalry which had been so shamefully sacrificed by Sackville at Minden; since it was evidently the recollection of that disgrace which spurred Granby on to so rapid an advance and so headlong an attack.
For Ferdinand the victory effectually opened the way into Westphalia.
http://www.kronoskaf.com/syw/index.php?title=1760-07-31_-_Battle_of_Warburg
The Game
The set up for the game was based on the historical deployments of the respective armies. The game started with the Allied units in position from march and the French deployed in their starting positions. The allies mission was to seize one of the bridges over the Diemel river. The French had to deny the allies this objective.
Scenario Special Rules:
- The Diemel river is impassible and can only be crossed over the two bridges.
- The forward ridge line is difficult terrain on the forward slope and disorders and slows down any units crossing it. This is true for all streams also. All other raised terrain is gentle and does not effect movement (just the normal defensive up hill bonus).
- The game continues until one side breaks or if the allies have the only units withing 6″ of a bridge.
Plans
The allies plan was to try to get behind the French left flank and position themselves between the river and the French. Further, once their cavalry had all arrived, they planned to try to overcome the French center cavalry and destroy the French forces before they could mass. The French seeing that their position had been outmaneuvered, hoped to shift their battle line an anchor against the Diemel river and thwart the allies advance.
The allies advanced deliberately towards the French left. Their formations were slowed by the terrain. The formations on the far right did not wish to get too far ahead of their battle line, so time their advance to enable the entire wing to close in unison. Fortunately for the French (and unfortunately for the allies), all the French formations were able to receive new orders to re-position and act on them. This resulted in a bit of a race as the allies moved forward to turn the flank and the French moved back to anchor their front and face the allies head on. The French were successful in their maneuvers and were able to re-align their front. The re-positioning had the unintended, but welcome consequence, of placing the strongest French units (the Swiss brigades) against the main attack by the allies.
While the French left was in maneuver, the French cavalry moved forward to support the new flank. This had the second impact of denying the at late arriving British Cavalry commanded by Granby to maneuver as freely as they had hoped, resulting in the units coming in somewhat disjointed.
On the French left, the armies engaged in a long grinding match. The stout Swiss were slowly ground down, but taking a disproportionate number of Hanoverian and Brunswick units with them. As both sides had massed the grind continued for quite a number of turns. the French center and left flank battalions were starting to buckle. However, the allies started to run out of steam and needed help from Granby or they would be repulsed.
On the French right, the French cavalry were able to catch the British cavalry still maneuvering into position. This resulted in a number of defeats for the British, requiring their remaining units to fall back. In the nick of time, the Hanoverian and Brunswick cavalry came up to put pressure on the French, so they could not pursue the falling back British. However, the French still managed to hold the upper hand until the British reformed and came back into the attack. With their forces reorganized and consolidated, the allies’ cavalry tried to finally overcome the French cavalry and swing the battle into their favor. Alas, it was not to be… The French were the better horseman on this day (at least they rolled a lot better during melees!) and were able to fight the allies’ cavalry to a stalemate.
The fight on the far right flank between the allies and French light forces around the town of Warburg was uneventful. The nearby cavalry fight kept both forces pinned down, so the town was safe.
With the allies infantry stalled, their cavalry requiring reorganization and night arriving, there was no way the bridges could be taken. The game was decided as an unhistorical French victory!
– Manteuffel