Battle of Bretoncelles
| Battle of Bretoncelles | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Franco-Prussian War | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 French Republic | |||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Unknown |
 Freidrich Franz II[4] | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 250 Captured[4] | Unknown | ||||||
The Battle of Bretoncelles[5][6] was a battle of the Franco-Prussian War,[4] was held on November 21, 1870,[7] in Bretoncelles, under Orne, France.[2] This engagement ended with the defeat of the French army,[3] against a force of the Prussian army under the command of Friedrich Franz II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, who forced the French to conduct a retreat. The Battle of Bretoncelles was one of the most important battles in the advance of the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg in late 1870.[4]
The Battle
The Battle of Bretoncelles broke out in a narrow gorge in the hills, on both sides of which were densely forested and treacherous. French troops had deployed guns cannons to quell the door of the canyon, and they declared cannon on his company's pioneering vertical a squad of German troops when the German armies carried it into the gorge. However, the Germans immediately launched their army of soldiers into combat, and at the same time the German artillery force also entered the battle. Not long after that, the French batteries on the right side of the valley were silenced, and the French were badly beaten. The French batteries moved to the opposite direction, where the fighting continued. Behind the forests that cover the lower part of the hillside is an area with many fields and barriers; and once the French were driven out of their first defensive position, they flocked to the area. There, they leaned on every bush or other hiding place they could find, and so they shot quickly at the enemy, while the German soldiers were advancing through open spaces, and then the French would retreat to their next vantage point. This sporadic skirmish continued for a long period of time, and sometimes the French held out for 10 or 45 minutes. But in the end, a powerful attack by a substantial German force descended on the village from the hillsides in the rear, and completely overwhelmed the French position. Many French soldiers gave up their weapons and gathered in the orchards, to become prisoners once the Germans arrived.[4]
The main French army retreated in the direction of Nogent-le-Rotrou. However, for the next hour or two, the victors continued to shell them. 250 French troops were taken prisoner by the German army, and within three days, the Germans had taken 600 French troops into their hands. A number of French POWs were temporarily held in a quaint church in Bretoncelles, and some of them were just children. All in all, all of these prisoners were men who had no intention of joining the French army. Several other minor skirmishes also occurred during the campaigns of the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, which were won by the German army.[4]
References
- ^ Kurt Schmidt, Gotha, das Buch einer deutschen Stadt, Volume 2, Page 219
- ^ a b Georges d' Heylli, Journal du siége de Paris: Décrets, proclamations, circulaires, rapports, notes, renseignements, documents divers officiels et autres publiés, Volume 3, Page 622
- ^ a b Reginald Welbury Jeffery, The new Europe, 1789-1889, Page 346
- ^ a b c d e f g Edmund Ollier, Cassell's history of the war between France and Germany, 1870-1871, Pages 520-521.
- ^ Edmund Ollier, Cassell's history of the war between France and Germany, 1870-1871, Appendix.
- ^ Émile Louis Gustave Deshayes de Marcère, Le seize mai et la fin du septennat, Page 301
- ^ Revue de l'Anjou, Page 470