Friedland

Following the historical precedent the Austrian VIII Corps advanced west to consolidate their hold on the villages of Talponedo, Porcia and Palse. At this stage Ronche and Pieve were unoccupied. They took with them IX Corps’ 3 positional batteries with the aim of bombarding Fontanafredda from the west prior to IX Corps attack from the north.

The French decided against attacking Palse and Porcia due to their lack of light infantry and the broken terrain, which would slow their movement. Instead they marched north to take the village of Pieve and began to consolidate their forces in the centre. Meanwhile Grenier and Broussier occupied Vigonone and Fontanafredda respectively unopposed and secured the ground in between with their cavalry.

At the same time the Austrians decided to take Pieve and Ronche in divisional attacks. Ronche, being unoccupied, fell easily. They found Pieve occupied by 2 battalions, later 3, with the remaining French forces beginning to cross the Sentirone stream. Meanwhile Frimont’s forces had abandoned Porcia and were approaching Pieve from the south. The outnumbered French were driven back behind the stream leaving the 3 battalions surrounded in Pieve. A harsh artillery dual then ensued and following an overwhelming assault Pieve fell with one surviving French battalion breaking through the Austrian skirmish screen and escaping south with the rest of the defenders surrendering.

Meanwhile the Austrian commander deduced the enemy’s line of attack in the centre and launched IX Corps attack along the northern edge of the table west of the La Paisa River earlier than planned. Unfortunately his more numerous cavalry were caught deploying by the more aggressively handled French light cavalry and were driven from the field. The Austrian infantry wisely formed square but without sufficient artillery support and now lacking cavalry they were slowly driven east across the La Paisa River towards Ronche.

At this point the whole battle began to pivot clockwise around the central town of Fontanafredda. The Austrians were making strong, but slow gains in the broken terrain west of Pieve whilst the French left flank were driving the Austrian IX Corps east. The French then began a destructive counter battery fire in the centre driving off all the Austrian positional batteries. They then launched a narrow, squadron fronted cavalry charge down the road south of Ronche which, to everyone’s surprise, punched through the Austrian line. The game sadly ended at this critical point as 3 members of the French team had to leave early.

It was therefore left to the umpires to adjudicate. On a points basis the Austrians with 100 to 75 were the marginal victors as they held 4 villages. The French held the town of Fontanafredda and the village of Vigonone. It was generally agreed that had the battle continued it was likely that this position would have been reversed.

The turning points in the battle were the French failure to hold Pieve, and the Austrian loss of their cavalry and the destruction of their heavy artillery. All in all it proved to be a challenging game for all concerned with numerous lessons being learnt, even by the umpires.

The battle involved the following figures:

French: 867 Infantry, 78 Gunners, 68 Cavalry

Austrian: 882 Infantry, 140 Gunners, 97 Cavalry