Part III: The British Advance to Contact and Fire Phase

The British Advance to Contact

In this illustration you can see the formation of the British on their advance to contact. Disordered skirmishers who could pull out of the line to reorder did so, but enough were left to fill the gaps between the formed battalions. Those advanced one-each on the French intruding formations, and present a solid ZOC wall across the engaged frontage.

The French Response

In the French response, they retreated the disordered 3/100^th Line, but notice the weakness that sometimes occurs with such 'mixte' formations as opposed to columns. Disordered, moving backward, and in rye, it takes 4 of the 6 MPs the battalion has to back up one hex, which doesn't leave enough for the next. So the disordered line has a tendency to wallow where it was hit. At 275 men after its losses, it is also not very safe from melee by a battalion or two opposite. And its additional firepower is nothing to get excited about - 8 fp at point blank when not moving, once disordered, in this case - hardly capable of standing toe to toe with the Black Watch, a good order 2-rank British line, which gets 42 firepower. For this turn, the French commander will cover for this weaker area of his line by directing the fire of his supporting battery on the Black Watch. The rest of the 100^th Line fights in a column with its skirmishers retained in the hex, thus giving 4 little shots of 1-4 fp each. It is also 4 targets to hit, and moves better disordered, but obviously such deeper formations also use upmore men per bit of frontage.

Meanwhile, on the French right, the 4^th Light fights in a supported skirmish line formation with its two remaining good-order battalions. It can dish out 9 little shots in this arrangement, each just a company firing. The anchoring columns provide the added stiffness needed to prevent being pushed back in melee by lone battalions; if there were any cavalry about, they would also provide the chance of square and safety for the skirmishers from that threat. The 1^st Brigade, meanwhile, edges down closer to the stream, ready to charge across for the second wave when Jamin's men falter. The French will take whatever fire the British dish out, and hope to get disordering hits with their own, offensive-fire response (their first, notice, on the British formed battalions). The 100^th Line column will even press into melee in a body if they fail to get hits, because the intention is to disorder the British line as much as possible, and there is relief behind.

British Fire Phase and Follow-up

The fire from the Brits is fierce, and drops 150 men and disorders 2 more French battalions. The reply gets 75, all from the 4^th Light, and will disorder the eastern two British battalions at the least. The French then press to melee on the west end, but lose the resulting 3:2 +0 attack, losing 75 men to the British 50. But they will probably disorder that battalion too. Jamin's brigade thus spends its 'first wind' in the first 45 minutes, with only 600 men in the brigade left undisordered, and the 100^th Line in yellow fatigue. But he got the desired foothold, drove in the skirmish line, and disordered most of the British front line. He also lost men nearly 2:1 against the British, however, with 550 French down to 275 British. Next, the British will have to relieve their disordered forward men where they can. This they easily do, by merely backing up their disordered lines and sending the second rank forward. They retain one good order battalion, the Gordon Highlanders, in the second line as an immediate reserve. The second rank easily shrugs off the defensive fire of the disordered French, and delivers its own fire, plus a skirmisher pushed back with the bayonet on the west end of the line. This is too much for the fatigued 100^th Line, which gives way in rout. The 1/100^th Line is in red fatigue and down to 175 men, plus its 50 detached skirmishers - still a loss of 200 out of 425 men in the battalion. The other two battalions are in yellow fatigue and the regiment has lost 400 out of 1200 men overall or 33%. The 4^th Light suffered a comparatively light 250 out of 1575 or 16%. One battalion is routed and another disordered, but about half the men are in good order and fatigue is green. They will be back; the 100^th Line will not. But both require immediate relief. The 4^th Light handles this particularly well, simply leaving a skirmish line along the crest as the rest of the men withdraw. The more scattered 100^th Line must simply do what it can; it will be an hour before it is a fighting organization again.

[Written by Jason Cawley. Courtesy of The Napoleonic Wargame Pages.]