31 August 1813 - Prussia sues for peace as Berlin falls

All of Prussia is reeling following the overwhelming defeat of their young, enthusiastic but outnumbered armies by the French.  The Emperor Napoleon gambled and massed his forces in the north for a knock out blow against the Prussians before their Austrian and Russian allies could join them.  The gamble has succeeded.  Following the defeat of Field Marshal Blucher two days ago at Jonsdorf, Napoleon has followed up with a massive assault on Berlin.  The city proved to be no Bluchergrad, and the hastily assembled Prussian conscripts that fought bravely to hold the line of the Spree were swept aside (see the battle report below).  Despite the pleas of his generals, after less than two weeks of lightning war, the King Frederick William has this morning sent a messenger to Napoleon requesting an armistice.  Witnesses report the Emperor danced a little jig at the news.

Austria and Russia have vowed to fight on and it is believed that General Yorck has marched south with his corps to join the Russians, contrary to the instructions of his king.  The Saxon commander at the French fortress of Torgau blew up the fortifications around that city and marched with his Division to join the Austrians who have now occupied the smoking ruins.  Russian cavalry have also skirmished with outposts of Marshal Ney's corps at Jonsdorf.  With most of his forces massed in the north around Berlin, Napoleon's supply base of Wittenberg is looking under serious threat. The Battle of Prussia is now over.  The Battle for Germany is about to begin.

Here follows an account of the Battle for Berlin by our guest blogger John Shaw.

Battle for Berlin

The Prussians had been forced back to the outskirts of Berlin. A scratch force of Landwehr had rallied to the cause. Although keen to evict the French from their land, they were very inexperienced. They had been joined by Yorck’s Prussian corps, buoyant after bloodying Marshal Ney’s corps. Some redoubts had been erected to help the defence of the river. Although crossable, the river would provide some benefit for the Prussian defenders and help to reduce the French advantage of the large amount of cavalry.

Unfortunately for the Prussians, the French (and Polish) also heavily outnumbered them in infantry, artillery and quality. Napoleon himself was there, trying to arrest the poor showing of his Marshal’s to date in the campaign. His Imperial Majesty was concerned about the battle because he was disappointed that his usually reliable Old Guard had been delayed by traffic jams.

The French deployed with a heavily strengthened right wing. From this deployment the Prussians suspected a flank march on this side to complete the concentration against their left. This they had correctly guessed and had held cavary reserves behind their left flank.

The French and Poles moved forward, double marching on their right, although the French artillery was a bit disorganised and slow to unlimber. However, they soon made up for this and commenced their bombardment on the Prussian lines.

The massed lines of French were soon exchanging skirmish fire with the Prussian defenders. On the far right of the French lines, some French and Polish artillery batteries were crossing the river in order to set up and bombard the side of the building whilst the infantry approached from the front.

In the centre, the French were setting up more artillery and moving infantry through the buildings south of the river in preparation for an attack on the Prussian centre.

The Polish flank division which was flank marching arrived quickly and began skirmishing with the Prussian left flank. They were warned of the Prussian reserves, so refused their flank so as not to be run down by the Prussian cavalry. This created a problem of space for them as they crowded into a smaller area than originally planned.

Great shooting from concentrated French fire forced the Prussian artillery battery to retire from the redoubt. With ineffective fire from the building, this allowed the infantry to cross the river unmolested.

Prolonging their artillery, the French and Poles were now in a position to launch an overwhelming strike against the Prussian left wing.

The masses of French fire only managed to disorder the defenders in the building. However, they shot effectively against the trained unit holding the bridge and forced them to retire a long way (the unit with the yellow marker). Unfortunately the Prussian commanders were only able to rally the Landwehr in the building.

The Prussian reserves came on, hoping to make life difficult for the Poles. Their Hussar unit and 2 Landwehr Cavalry units were countered by a single Polish light cavalry unit. The 3^rd Silesian Landwehr immediately behind the Prussian left flank building bravely withstood the attention of the Poles.

In the French centre, their artillery and infantry was now close enough to put pressure on the Prussian centre. The Landwehr tried to pivot back to stop the French unit crossing the bridge from getting on their flank but could not get organised in time.

This time the concentrated fire of the French routed the Landwehr defending the building (lots of 6’s will do that). The 3^rd Silesian Landwehr closed against the Veteran Poles. They became disordered during the ensuing melee, but managed to send the Poles back wavering. The Poles were lucky at this stage, because the abandoned building meant that the Prussians did not gain an extra 2 dice for right flank support. This could have given the extra hit needed to rout the Polish veterans.

The rout of the Landwehr from the building unfortunately caused many of the surrounding units to lose cohesion, including routing the wavering trained troops that had previously recoiled from the bridge. (Note for the Prussians that a green marker means Disordered, Yellow means Wavering and red means Broken).

The first charge of the Prussian Hussars failed to go in due to supporting artillery fire.

The French unit across the bridge charged the flank of the Landwehr unit. The Landwehr bravely saw off the French unit trying to cross the river, but succumbed to the flank assault. They bravely fought on until wavering, the French not good enough to rout them. Battle weary, they retired beside a building to attempt to rally.

The second charge of the Hussars a turn later made it in, but the Hussars were unlucky that day, despite their extra numbers. Initially wavering and about to retire, the death of their brigade commander was the final straw, breaking their spirit. Their rout created another chain reaction of morale loss throughout the Prussian left wing.

Tauentzien’s undersized conscript corps began disintegrating. Seeing it was hopeless to stay any longer, Yorck ordered his virtually untouched corps to filter back through Berlin whilst the French and Polish were slowed by the mass of fleeing troops on the Prussian left wing.

With a large part of the day over, Napoleon looked for the nearest inn, pleased with the accurate firing of his troops having brought him an easier victory than expected. Of course, he did not tell his Marshals that, but most likely used the opportunity to berate them again for their performance so far in the campaign. With the rest of Berlin to be occupied on the morrow, his thoughts were now turning to how many troops he would need to leave behind to keep the Prussians subdued whilst he went after the Austrians and Russians.

From Johann, Prussian war correspondent.