25. Battle of Torrelavega - 28th February 1809

Following the battle of Santander, General Acevedo's Spanish and British forces reached the north coast town of Torrelavega. Here, perhaps inadvisedly, Acevedo called a halt and ordered the infantry division of General Romana's Corps south to Reynosa where a couple of days later it overwhelmed and captured the entire French garrison made up of the 4th battalion of the 51st infantry regiment.

Acevedo's main force remained halted while the bulk of the heavy artillery and cavalry continued to withdraw along the road to Oviedo.

On the 26th contact was made with French light cavalry patrols coming along the coast road from Santander. A hearty skirmish ensued and it became clear that Ney's VI Corps was moving in force west. Acevedo sent an urgent message to La Romana's infantry to hurry back to Torrelavega and now the Army of the Asturias is pinned in place at that town where it must hold the mountain road open until the force from Reynosa arrives.

Meanwhile French pressure from the east is growing.



We shall play this battle on the Fox's Gap map of the Gettysburg Antietam expansion pack. I have rotated the map 90deg clockwise so that west has become north. The range of hills across which Fox's and Turner's Gaps cross represents the coastal range of the Cantabrian mountains. The township of Neuerhausen is Torrelavega and the road to Reynosa runs off what is now the south map edge.

There is a safe exit zone for the Spanish in the north-west corner representing a coastal route towards Oviedo. The French VI Corps is advancing from Emminghausen which map corner represents the route to Santander.

The north map edge is considered to be the sea. The south map edge apart from the road to Reynosa leads into impassable mountains.

Both sides have had much of their heavy artillery, horse artillery and heavy cavalry deleted as the terrain in this region cannot support operations of such troops in large numbers. Light cavalry and some dragoons and medium and light artillery is present. Acevedo's artillery and cavalry have already been sent west off the map. Ney's heavy guns and cavalry are at the rear of his column and will not participate in the battle.

There are no other restrictions to combat on the low ground between the mountains and the sea.

The mountain tracks are passable for all troops but combat in the hills is going to be extremely difficult. The following rules apply:

1) All troops must pass over the mountains only by road, in road march column. The region between the orange dots is the area in which all movement must be on roads. The Spanish troops coming from Reynosa have a choice of several mountain tracks on the south side but these all converge eventually into three routes out of the mountains to the north: the eastern track leads down from Guntelfingen towards Emminghausen - the central track leads down from St. Peter to Torrelavega (Neuershausen) - and the western track passes from Alpersbach to Hochsteten. Only once units get to the northern orange markers on the roads can they then exit off road to continue cross country.

2) If there is combat in the mountains units may deploy but at least some of their sprites MUST remain on a road. Therefore the maximum frontage a force can deploy is 2 units abreast. This includes skirmisher units.

3) Units which fail morale and retreat away from a road must be returned to a road as soon as practical. They must not be ordered to continue across country.

The above rules should make it apparent that units must be TC'd for any mountain combat.

The game will need a minimum of 10 players.

We shall try to play this game next Friday, Saturday or Sunday; 30th, 31st Oct or 1st Nov. A doodle link is below. More to follow in the private forums.

Doodle


Note that clocks in the USA are set back one hour on Sunday 1st November so Eastern Daylight time is FOUR HOURS behind GMT on Friday and Saturday but FIVE HOURS behind on Sunday. Game time is therefore 16:00 EDT Fri and Sat but 15:00 EST on Sun.

Sunday is the most popular day so that's what I'm aiming for. However we have nowhere near enough people.

Can people please make Sunday? We need six more.

If we can't get enough players for the games the campaign generates I will have to rethink how to proceed.

Martin, know that this is a tough weekend here in the states as it's Halloween: I have a work party on Friday and a buddies party on Saturday, which will almost certainly run into Sunday:lol: . Additionally, I was talking some prior players (Josh) who are planning on getting Waterloo soon which will assuredly increase our numbers. Waterloo isn't even six months old, I would urge caution in developing any alternative plans as of yet.

I'd say Mark should take command of the French Corps.

We've got 9 players for Sunday so we are good-ish to go. Another would help. We will meet in TS at 19:45 GMT / 20:45 CET / 14:45 EST but as Mikel can only play from 21:00 GMT we'll have plenty of planning time.

See you all then.

huh? Why Pepe?

Because he's on the Spanish team.

Funny, Pepe.

Mr. Digby, my schedule limitation only applies to working days. For the weekends (saturday & sunday), I am generally available at the usual time.

So for me, you are free to readjust the battle time to 20:00 GMT - 21:00 CET - 15:00 EST.

Oh, ha-ha.

I am actually a competent corps commander. But I request all such postings to be noticed in advance, because I have to scout the terrain, formulate plans and look over orders of battles. So.... Division command for me lol

Methinks he was referencing your party schedule and hoping for a hungover opponent.

Lol that's why I am declining such posting

It is a fact that officer and men of every army in the Napoleonic wars got the peak of their fighting skills when generously provided with some kind of liquor and after very little sleep in the previous seventy-two hours.

Mikel, just to make sure, you need to have the Antietam expansion for SoW GB in order to play this battle.

Glad I just read that I don't have that so will not be there tonight Sorry

I do not have the Antietam expansion for SoW GB either, so I will not be able to play either. Sorry all.

Thanks all for the fun. Many lessons learned

Tom W.

The last day of February witnessed the war's second bloodiest battle. Only the fearsome confrontation at Santander two weeks previously resulted in greater losses. The French suffered 590 killed, 4,260 wounded and 100 missing. The Spanish lost 550 killed, 3,940 wounded and 90 missing. In both cases this was about 23% of the total engaged. It was a very hard fight but the French slowly lost their grip on what was originally perceived in the Spanish camp to be an easy victory. All the Spanish officers were resolved to suffer a defeat and were of the mind to try and escape once San Roman's division had arrived from the south over the mountains. A powerful and rapid French attack was expected as time was clearly in the Spaniard's favour and they perceived that the French needed to move rapidly to close the routes down from the mountain passes. Unfortunately for the French this was exactly what they did not do.

The fire and spirit for which Marechal Ney is feared across Europe was lacking and the French advance began at 9:00am, slowly and on a broad front, pausing often and giving General Acevedo time to keep moving his divisions back to more westerly defensive positions until General San Roman arrived at Hochsteten at 9:50am having taken the road from Alpersbach. San Roman enquired of Acevedo if there had been a great battle and had he missed it but it became apparent that battle had not yet been joined and the artillery fire heard was only a long range bombardment.

General Ballesteros' division (Kevin) formed up on the coastal plain with Llano Ponte's division (Mikel) south of him, inland astride a prominent height. The newly arrived San Roman (Martin) disposed his division atop a very high ridge with his right flank in the town of Hochsteten among densely wooded and rocky terrain. Acevedo (Pepe) placed de Fuy's division in reserve with the weak cavalry division of Ortega, just 6 squadrons, held in reserve also about the right centre.



Ney (Tom) sent Mermet's small 3rd division (Alex) against Ballesteros while Lagrange's 2nd division (Tom) made a general assault on the Spanish centre. Desolles' 4th division (Sean) was placed in the south, it's left hand brigade on the wooded heights facing San Roman. Marchand's 1st division (Steve) was initially a reserve but was committed to support Desolles and plug the gap between Desolles and Lagrange. Debellier's cavalry (Mark) initially swept across the high ground in the south but as the battle developed was committed to action in the centre.

The French attack when it came was indifferent in the south and after several shaky moments San Roman's Cacadores held up the French as they attempted to press up the steep slope of the eastern end of the ridge his left-most brigade occupied. One brigade attacked Hochsteten but was repulsed with high losses. While the French left was struggling and was eventually obliged to relinquish pressure on the Spanish right, the Spanish left flank collapsed! With his guns overrun and routed, Ballesteros' division fractured and his troops fled along the coast road pursued by eager French dragoons calling on all who would listen to flee. The Spanish left flank folded back along a useful spine of high ground giving them a new front that faced north-east and this bastion was assaulted by the combined efforts of three French divisions plus their cavalry. Acevedo and Llano Ponte were forced to give ground but the terrain dictated the shape of the battle and the more they advanced the more their left flank was exposed to the Spanish in the south where San Roman was holding steady and de Fuy was moving into the gap between Desolles and Lagrange.

The attack in the south was called off at 10:50 and from then on the divisions of Marchand and Desolles contributed no further effort to the battle beyond a long-range artillery bombardment. In the centre General Lagrange was badly wounded at 10:55 and it was a critical 15 minutes before this was understood at corps HQ and his next in command was notified. By then the central assault had run its course and by 11:20 firing was dying down all along the line. By midday the French pulled back to a line along the Eltz Fluss and the afternoon was spent by both sides in succouring the wounded. In the evening the Spanish were relieved to see the French march away east back to Santander.

General Acevedo has finally broken his string of defeats; this victory is his finest and echoes his first success in battle at San Milan last August. Only time will tell if this win is merely a pyrrhic one. Acevedo's army is now thinned out to a mere shadow of its former strength and it is known that Marechal Verdier's IV Corps is approaching Reynosa.

Replay file.

Ney has been summoned back to Paris to explain this setback.....

Given that your avatar was "killed" we might assume that Ney has been wounded while on foot, hatless, dishevelled, smoke-stained and leading a charge of grenadiers, sword in hand, wild-eyed. And other charges.

EDIT: Added a report on the NSD forums, with pictures:

http://www.norbsoftdev.net/forum/waterloo-mp-forum/70905-peninsular-campaign-1808-1814-being-refought#71066

The replay is crashing my viewer.....is there a new one since WL came out?

This is the most recent copy I have. Its dated 5th October:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wpmezbqusr3ux6a/ReplayViewer110.zip?dl=0

Since the two armies concluded the battle 800 yards apart, am I allowed to venture that the French may continue it the next day?

No, all battles are win/lose unless something like a siege results. Ney must retreat to Santander and the rule about losing a battle applies to him. I have to implement a rule like this or else we'd have some battles going on and on and the campaign would drag too much. I think we have too many battles as it is and have been scratching my head to try and slow down their rate of generation.

Strange I just tried to play a single player game for the first time after playing the battle of Torrelavega and now the game crashes.

Redownloaded KS MOD(S), Same problem.

Stock game works fine with my personal MOD.

Did you disable KS PenCamp 103 Mod?