Chapter 800 Battle Brucel Three
Joseph used the back slope + thin red line tactic invented by the Duke of Wellington in history.
Oh, now it should be renamed the fine white line tactics -the French military uniform is white, and the right of this tactics has belonged to France.
In fact, Joseph's troops in front of them are less than 14,000, and what is excluded is not a regular battle line. At most, it can only be called the horizontal queue.
A large number of two rows of 100 to 150 meters are staggered front and back at the top of the slope.
There are still 10 meters between different Hengdang, so they can cover very wide battlefields with limited troops.
The Prussian Count Karl-Creuter thought that his attack position was beyond the end of the French defense line and that he could outflank its flanks. However, in fact, even if his troops extended another 100 meters to the west, there would still be a French line there. .
Moreover, in accordance with the tactical requirements of the rear slope, there is a skirmisher group covering each flank of the horizontal line, and there are cavalry further away.
If you want to compare the length of the battle line, the currently commonly used infantry line and skirmisher tactics are the younger brother in front of the "thin white line".
As for the density of firepower, the Duke of Wellington has conducted repeated tests. When occupying high ground, two rows of horizontal lines are enough, and the width of the battle line is the key.
As long as the front of the opponent is wider, it can play a higher fire density.
If Joseph was more aggressive, he could even turn the two wings inward at this time to outflank the Anglo-Prussian-Austrian coalition.
Of course, the rear slope + thin white line tactic also has shortcomings, mainly because it requires very high quality of soldiers.
The relative positions between the various horizontal lines must be maintained very accurately. When facing enemy artillery and cavalry surprise attacks, they must be able to quickly use the back of the slope for cover and transform into a dense four-row formation.
If the soldiers are not well trained enough, they will quickly disperse their own formation without the enemy attacking.
However, at this time, the main French army in Mechlon was the fourth infantry division of the Royal Family.
They have the level of training in Europe.
Even Joseph originally planned to use three weeks for them to practice the back slope + thin white line tactics, but they mastered it in less than half a month.
In fact, from the beginning, there was no suspense on the result of Mehhren's offensive and defensive war.
With the retreat of the Kark Royte Army on the west side, the last thought of the British army in the middle of the middle of the road completely disappeared. It was long long been beaten by the French army on the verge of collapse. At this time Downs.
General Harris didn't even make a struggle. He just ordered the Austrian skirmishers to break up and let the soldiers run down the slope.
At the same time, the French army sounded a drum.
Murat galloped across the highest point of the slope, drew his saber, waved forward majestically, and shouted: "In the name of the Crown Prince! Charge up with me!"
Behind him, the three company's cavalry lined up with a neat queue, shouting that the British infantry, who was chaotic, rushed up.
Miao La's face was still grayish yellow with a serious illness -he had severe dysentery before, and he just cured the team last week -but his spirit was extremely excited. The horse sword waved back and forth, and every time he brought a blood flower.
Since the Duke of York stretched the offensive front extremely wide, the Austrian skirmishers could only cover a few hundred meters on the west side at this time. Murat's cavalry came and went freely on both sides of them, harvesting the lives of British soldiers wantonly. In this way, less than 500 hussars drove tens of thousands of British infantry two kilometers away.
Until the British cavalry came to support, Mura retreated on the highland under the order of Lefifel. After all, the main task of the French army is to persist and should not chase too much.
But it was less than thousands of British infantry who had been cut to death by the French cavalry, and the British infantry who had trampled on each other.
The Duke of York was considered an excellent commander. He immediately mobilized Count Clayfart's Austrian legion to organize a defense line below the high ground and pressed all his own guards up, thus saving most of the defeated troops.
Two days after the coalition forces, the Duke York re -mobilized the army and launched an attack on the French position again.
It wasn't that he didn't want to bypass the line of defense of the French army. In fact, South Nidland's terrain was flat, and he could go to Brussels from Gand or Dist.
But Brussels could be captured by the French army at any time, which made him dare not take a detour and waste time. He could only fight the decisive battle on the battlefield chosen by Joseph.
This time the Duke of York adjusted the tactics and concentrated all the cavalry to attack the French artillery position. His artillery took the opportunity to occupy a raised place on the east side of the slope, where he bombarded the French defense line.
At the same time, the British and Austrian infantry, under the cover of artillery, stormed the top of the slope.
As for the Prussians, their morale has been low since the defeat three days ago, and they have no indomitable spirit like the Prussian army during the era of Frederick the Great. Therefore, the Duke of York can only let them be responsible for auxiliary work such as covering the two wings.
With the sound of deep trombones, more than 2,400 British and Austrian cavalry rushed towards the French artillery position from the east side of the slope.
There is no mistake in every song, one post, one content, one 6 one, one book, one book, take a look!
The French artillery immediately responded, and continuously hit the shells into the coalition cavalry queue accurately, and tore up the man and the horses.
But under the strict order of the Duke of York, these cavalry could only continue to challenge with horror shells.
Soon, the British cavalry commander vaguely saw the thin white infantry queue in front, and suddenly felt excited.
Exactly what General Harris said, it was just two rows of loose formations, and it was impossible to stop him.
As long as they easily pass through the infantry defense lines, the French artillery not far away will be lambs to be slaughtered by them!
But at this moment, the rhythm of the drums in the French army's position suddenly changed, and several horizontal columns in front of the artillery quickly changed their formations and gathered into a thick four-row line array.
The soldiers in the first two rows pointed the bayonet to the front, and the latter row aimed at the gun.
The entire formation change process only took two or three minutes!
The coalition cavalry faced such a "hedgehog formation" to bypass both sides, but on both sides of this infantry line, two infantry sideways were responsible for cover, and the shape of a flat "U" was formed as a whole.
In fact, this is a variant of a hollow square array. From the Paris Police School, hollow square matrix is one of the standard courses of infantry.
Because the coalition cavalry has been climbing, the speed of the French defense is already very slow, so there is no need to use a hollow square array. This kind of variant saving forces is enough to resist.
Sure enough, the coalition cavalry bypassed from both sides of the line of defense. After eating a few rounds of artillery shells, it was showing fatigue.
Just as the coalition cavalry commander wanted to re -gather the troops, and then tried to attack again, thousands of American soldiers in the east side of the slope suddenly emerged on the east side of the slope and under the star flag.
These Americans were in a scattered formation and did not fire. They just kept shouting obscenities at the coalition cavalry.
(End of chapter)