17th July 1870 - Battle of St Wendle.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

As part of our continuing Franco-Prussian 'Black Powder/To The Last Gaiter Button' campaign, the French II Corps and III Corps continued their advance to attempt to hunt down the Prussian VIII Corps that had avoided them at Saarbruken.

The Prussians had chosen to hole up on the Oberlinxweileir, a long, broken and wooded ridge, to the south of St Wendle, they were ordered to dig fox holes and gun pits, but the ground was so rocky and full of roots that only limited shell scrapes and improvised pits could be dug.


The Prussians deploy their forces, a French Cavalry division had arrived at 10:00 hours, and after being briefly shelled had found dead ground to hide in until the rest of the French forces arrived.
(French to the left)

The Prussian line.

The two French corps arrived very differently, III Corps arrived along the Saarbruken road in Columns, having caught up with II corps on the march in, despite Macmahon carefully ordering the march to be timed. This was partly due to III Corps taking a more direct route along better roads and partly due to the French traffic control leaving Saarbruken!

II Corps arrived en masse, ready to advance in a broad sweep, and their first moves were very quick and effective.



However, this was never going to last, as the enire French formation stalled the turn after, until Frossard, commanding II Corps took personal charge of 1st Division!


The Prussian batteries were still ranged in on the route the French cavalry had taken, and their first volleys were devastating, forcing the 51st line to retire, and breaking the 95th in III Corps due to shear weight of artillery hits.
"It's an obscured target at long range, you'll need 6s."
*Sound of four dice rolling*
"Is 4 of them enough?"
"B****r!"



Despite a few stalls, II Corps carried on their advance.

Whilst III Corps tried to get organised, but again a French Corps advancing along a road ended up in a traffic jam! They had, however forced their guns up in front of their infantry, and even the dreaded mitrailleuse were able to fire for a few turns before jamming - dreaded by their crew as they try and get the things to work!
Le Boeuf "I'm holding them!"
Frossard in frustration "Take him out!"


Sortly II Corps started to turn the flank of 15th Division VIII Corps, severely damaging the 15th Division Jagers, a blow from which they would never recover (it would have helped if they hadn't been left out on the flank exposed)!
2nd Division blundering usefully forwards helped here...


The Prussian cavalry, stationed behind the ridge was almost committed to the right flank...


As the French tried, time and again, to launch an organised assault on the Prussian positions. But had to rely on small arms and artillery fire to wear down the Prussians instead.


The Prussian flank


Failing to get an organised attack, the French had to launch regiments in piecemeal.
This one actually failed to contact!


The Prussians tried to withdraw their troops (artillery limbering up), but orders to move off were never received. The gun broke shortly after as it sat limbered in the open in range of a whole French corps of shooting! The Prussian command ratings were 10 for Von Steinmetz, 9 for von Goeben and 8 for divisional commanders. No one rolled anything less than a 9 at this point, unless it was for moral, when it would be a 4 and a rout!

II Corps, II Division, failing again to attack!


At this point, Prussian 16th Division, seeing the position was not good, retired off the ridge. This was after the entirity of III Corps had failed to cause a single shooting hit for two turns!


The French Cavalry was brought up to try to clear the flank, and stayed there for the rest of the game!


The Prussian 15th Division failed to withdraw time and again, despite Von Steinmetz (army commander) and von Goeben (VIII Corps commander), both trying to get orders through to units. They Prussian line was so stubborn it held until it started to break, however, every time a unit managed to get out of it's shell scrapes, because it was now being enfiladed, they could not withstand the French fire and routed!


However, the French lost one battery to concentrated Prussian artillery fire at this point.


The Prussian Cavalry retired again to cover the retreat, but 16th Division needed time to reorganise after their withdrawal from the ridge, it was touch and go, would they get out without major losses?


The French III Corps even took the ridge and  started pouring fire down on the Prussians below (to no real effect it might be added)!


The envelopment of 15th Division continued.


And the French tried to charge the 67th, but were stopped by closing fire.


The Prussian 15th division was now down to two units of infantry and about the break.


While 16th Division tried to retreat, followed by the French III Corps.


As the right flank collapsed, the Prussians withdrew on the left, the Corps and Divisional artillery were safely evacuated, but von Steinmetz had to be escorted from the field personally by von Goeben as he refused to withdraw until he knew his men were safe.


The collapse of the Prussian flank was now total.


The French, with in excess of 3:1 odds, had broken the dug in Prussians for very little loss in 2 1/2 hours.
The Prussians were retreating, with 15th Division in full rout.
Overall, a massive improvement on Saarbruken! They also captured the main depot town of the Saarland of St Wendle. Prussian VIII Corps is now severely damaged, will it be able to continue until reinforcements arrive?

[Steve J]

Vive la France! A nice report once again and things not looking good for the Prussians at present...

[mollinary]

A great report of a sad day. You need to get those Krupp dice changed - at least I think that's what I heard a Prussian calling them over the ether!!!

Mollinary

[Techno]

Great stuff Lemmey !
Cheers - Phil.

[jchaos79]

Great battle, and very interesting basing.  It is great the campaing map!! seems a exciting campaing

[Hertsblue]

Great battle, Lemmey. I've always liked your "action" basing. Though how the French managed to get a 3:1 advantage over any part of the Prussian army remains a mystery. 

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Mostly because the Prussian army hasn't finished deployed yet, just wait! 

[Steve J]

Ah, so Les Francais are being lured in to a trap? These Boches are damned clever, nay fiendish even .

[cameronian]

Excellent report Lemmey. I see you're using the big moss green fleece (from Amazon?) as a playing mat, I bought two and am currently conducting an experiment. I place a high emphasis on the aesthetic appearnce of the table, its a personal thing but the problem hitherto has been that big purpose built boards take forever to build and are expensive, so I need an alternative. The plan is to buy one of those HUGE sheets of poystyrene insulation (8x6 I think) and use it as the base, then construct hills and so forth from sheets of thinner foam or poly, tack with UHU POR (and I do mean just tack) then lay fleece over contoured table, secure with LONG dressmaking pins (about 2") then spray with a dilute solution of ... and this is the problem, what? I need something to stiffen it slightly which will be completely washable afterwards in a normal washing machine. When wet, tamp into the contours, when dry mask and lightly apply with a sponge or small compressor, yellow, beige, different greens etc to look like fields, villages, woods etc. Roads can be damped and pressed then lightly painted, all paints washable (children's poster from early learnng centre). I reckon on doing a complete board, start to finish, in a dry weekend. Problem is what to use as the stiffener (no, not Playboy!), PVA probably wouldn't wash out completely, I did think of sugar or syrup in water, any ideas?

[Leon]

Excellent report, thanks for all the pics!

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Thanks guys,
Cameronian, to be honest, I have no idea to your query! Most standard PVA is soluble, but you need to soak it in cold water first.
That is a small selection from all my terrain kit is on table, the cloth is a friends 'FLUFFY GAMES W**KSHOP' mat over FOW rule books and army books. Then with my hills and tree bases on top for second contours.
I would love to have better terrain in 10mm (my 15mm stuff is amazing), but it's just moving it all. I have half a garage full of it, (enough for 7 6x4 tables 15mm WWII and 1 vietnam, plus a good deal of ancients 15mm & 28mm stuff too, oh, plus my 10mm AWI stuff)! Since I play at a club some 10 miles from where I live and I like to supply my own figures and terrain, so long as it looks good, in my eyes it is okay, but there is only so much you can fit in a Skoda!. The roads last night I'm not particularly happy with as I'm a) missing a box of mine b) forgot to buy any masking tape as a stand in! 

[petercooman]

Looks wonderfull!

How does the Gw battlemat behave? I have read here and there that it's the one thing from said company that doesn't 'stink' 

I'm on the lookout for something, and think their price is right, but i'm not sure.

What is this green fleece everyone is talking about ?

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

It's overpriced for what it is, but it actually works well as an 'over throw' to make hills etc.
The other one I believe is this from AMazon, Nik Harwood is the man to ask.
Think it's something like this, they usually use the non-fluffy side: http://www.amazon.co.uk/EXTRA-LARGE-THROW-BEDDING-ONLINE/dp/B0055PNRU0/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358020900&sr=8-1-fkmr0

[petercooman]

Thanks!

I think it's fairly reasonably priced, if you factor in the free shipping they provide!

[cameronian]

It's overpriced for what it is, but it actually works well as an 'over throw' to make hills etc.
The other one I believe is this from AMazon, Nik Harwood is the man to ask.
Think it's something like this, they usually use the non-fluffy side: http://www.amazon.co.uk/EXTRA-LARGE-THROW-BEDDING-ONLINE/dp/B0055PNRU0/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358020900&sr=8-1-fkmr0

Yup thats what I bought, less fluffy side up, I'm sure that with a bit of spray and a bit of poster it'll look the biz.
Oh, BTW, have you read Frank Henderson's SPICHERN (Helion) ?