Obscure Battles for Wargamers (Volume I): La Souffel, France 28 June 1815 by LTC Wilbur E. Gray Napoleon's strategic concept of operations in 1815 was to swiftly defeat the Allied armies in Belgium while auxilliary French corps delayed the Austro-Russian armies invading the country from across the Rhine. Once the situation in Belgium had been dispensed with, the Emperor intended to turn, move SE and defeat Barclay de Tolly's Russians and Schwarzenburg's Austro-Germans. One of these auxilliary corps was the Army of the Rhine under the command of MG Count Rapp. Rapp delayed his more numerous opponents masterfully but finally decided to make a stand along the Souffel River, some 40 km north of Strasbourg where he engaged the lead element of the Allies, Prinz Eugen von Wurtemburg's III Army Corps. Rapp deployed his forces into defensive posture as shown on the accompanying map. Word had already been recieved of Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo, but French morale remained high nonetheless. Eugen attacked the French at 1500 hours, 28 June 1815, in three columns. His own Wurtemburg corps was assigned the task of securing the bridge at Souffelweyersheim. The Hessian and Austrian Divisions under his control were assigned similar missions against the bridges at Mundolsheim and Lampertheim. Showing the tactical expertise of someone who had barely passed Viking 101, Eugen fed in his troops piecemeal. The battle raged back and forth for several hours until the Souffelweyersheim bridge was finally taken, Wurtemburg cavalry pouring across with their infantry right behind. At this point the French 15th Division refused its left flank and enfiladed the enemy with musketry and cannon fire. Simultaneously, Rapp personally led a brigade of cavalry against the head of the Wurtemburg column. The German cavalry broke and then recoiled into their own infantry. The entire formation routed off the field "where the confusion extended itself as far as Hagenau, and would have gone still farther if 30,000 Russians, who came up by Wissembourg, had not by their presence encouraged the fugitives." The battle ended in victory for France with some 700 French casualties as opposed to upwards of 4000 Allied. TIME: 1500 - 2000 hours TERRAIN: Gently rolling terrain with small patches of trees. Towns are of masonry and stone construction. Roads are hard packed dirt with sturdy wooden bridges. The river is unfordable except to cavalry along most its length. Cavalry which fords the river lose half their movement and become disorganized. Infantry may also ford the river west of Lampertheim, but suffer the same penalties as the cavalry. No off-board movement is allowed from the East edge of the board due to the presence of the Ill River. 1815 ORDER OF BATTLE Allied III ARMY CORPS Feldmarschall Kronprinz von Wurtemburg 9"G(10)+1 41 (or 9"G(5)+1) Wurtemburg Corps Franquemont 8"G(5)+1 25 Cavalry Division Prinz Adam von Wurtemburg 4"A(4)+0 8 12 WtLC 16 WtLC 24 Infantry Division von Koch 4"A(4)+0 8 24 WtLN 20 WtLN 20 WtLN 20 WtLN 28 WtLT 81 Art 1 Wt12#, 2 Wt6# 33 corps 179 Austrian Corps FML Prinz von Hessen-Homberg 8"G(6)+1 26 Austrian Division Palombini 4"A(4)+0 8 12 AsLC 12 AsLC 20 28 AsLN 28 AsLN 24 AsLN 24 AsLN 24 AsLN 86 1 As12# 10 Hessen-Darmstadt Division Prinz Emil von Hessen Darmstadt 4"A(4)+0 8 16 HsGD 16 HsLN 16 HsLN 16 HsLN 60 corps 218 total 438 French Corps Rapp 9"G(10)+2 (or 9"G(6)+2) 42 Div Rottemburg 4"G(7)+1 15 20 FrLN 20 FrLN 20 FrLN 51 Div Abert 3"G(8)+1 15 20 FrLT 20 FrLN 20 FrLN 52 Div Grandjean 3"A(7)+0 10 16 FrLT 20 FrLN 20 FrLN 48 Cav Merlin 3"A(6)+0 9 20 FrLC 13 Art 1 Fr12#, 1 Fr6# 22 total 277