Page 51 - History of War - Issue 29-16

SEDAN

“WHAT WAS LEFT OF THE ONCE IMPRESSIVE FRANCO-BAVARIAN

ARMY WAS NOT ENOUGH TO THREATEN VIENNA” Bavarian soldiers are caught in intense
street-to-street fi ghting to clear the
French from the Village of Bazeilles

around all of the French infantry trying to hold re. “Ah, those brave men!” said the German French emperor, who was suffering from a severe
back the blue tide. king as he watched from the opposite bank. bladder ailment, had ridden from one French unit
By early afternoon, Prussian artillery As mid-afternoon approached, it was clear the to another hoping that he would be killed on the
dominated the battle eld, having smashed any Prussian eld of cers had executed a textbook battle eld. Fate determined otherwise.
French batteries that dared to challenge them. example of Moltke’s kesselschlacht. The On the morning following the French defeat,
To the east, Ducrot’s I Corps had been pried Prussian artillery arm, which had red 20,000 Napoleon III met with Bismarck near the
from the Givonne Line and its ri e companies shells during the battle, had contributed Prussian royal headquarters to complete the
and platoons fell back to the ridges and ravines substantially to that victory. terms of the surrender. The French emperor
in the Bois de la Garenne. Likewise, some of Prince August of Württemberg mercilessly requested that he be allowed to travel to
the ri emen from Douay’s VII Corps sought ordered ten batteries from the Guard Corps to captivity in Germany over a different route than
protection from the omnipresent Prussian guns systematically shell every sector of the Bois de his soldiers. Bismarck approved the request.
in the large tract of woods. la Garenne. Under the rain of iron, white ags The Prussians had captured 21,000
Ducrot, who was assisting Wimpffen in appeared throughout the forest. At 2.30pm, the prisoners during the battle, and they took
directing the army, called on the reserve Guard regiments began mopping up in the forest. 83,000 more into captivity on 2 September.
cavalry, which was stationed in the vale By late afternoon those French soldiers The French had suffered 38,000 casualties
behind the VII Corps. This was an attempt who had not been slain were streaming south compared to 9,000 Prussian casualties.
to punch a hole in the XI Corps, by which the toward the citadel. When the fugitives from the Several thousand French soldiers managed to
French might be able to ght their way out to French front lines reached the citadel, they had escape to Belgium. Trapped in Metz, the French
the west. The task fell to the General Jean a fresh shock. Those inside had locked the Army of the Rhine surrendered in October. The
Margueritte’s chasseurs. They thundered gates. Driven to frenzy by the continued enemy Second Empire fell, and was replaced by the
across the rolling terrain between 1.30pm and shelling, many of the fugitives scaled the walls. Third Republic.
2pm, determined to attempt the impossible. Sick of the killing, Napoleon III sent a dispatch On 18 January 1871, the Germans proclaimed
Large swaths of men and horses were slain through the lines to the German King requesting King William as emperor of a united Germany in
in the torrent of Prussian ri e and canister an immediate armistice. Throughout the day the a ceremony at the Palace of Versailles. To add
even more insult, the Germans took possession
“PRINCE AUGUST OF WÜRTTEMBERG MERCILESSLY ORDERED TEN of Alsace-Lorraine as a spoil of war. The French
Army would not get a chance at revenge until the
BATTERIES FROM THE GUARD CORPS TO SYSTEMATICALLY SHELL next century. This would prove to be a far longer Images: Alamy, Getty
and bloodier con ict than any alive at the time
EVERY SECTOR OF THE BOIS DE LA GARENNE” could have guessed.

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