Битва при Брайтенфельде (1642 г.)
| Вторая битва при Брайтенфельде | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Часть Тридцатилетней войны | |||||||
 Современная гравюра с изображением битвы | |||||||
| |||||||
| Воюющие стороны | |||||||
 Швеция |  Священная Римская империя | ||||||
| Командиры и лидеры | |||||||
| Леннарт Торстенссон Арвид Виттенберг Эрик Слэнг † Йохан Лиллихёк † | Эрцгерцог Леопольд Вильгельм Оттавио Пикколомини Аннибале Гонзага Ганс Кристоф фон Пуххайм Эрнст Роланд фон Зюйс ( военнопленный ) | ||||||
| Сила | |||||||
20,000 70 орудий | 26,000 46 орудий | ||||||
| Жертвы и потери | |||||||
4,000 | 8,000–9,500 46 орудий | ||||||
Вторая битва при Брайтенфельде , также известная как Первая битва при Лейпциге , произошла во время Тридцатилетней войны 2 ноября 1642 года в Брайтенфельде , к северо-востоку от Лейпцига в Германии . Шведская армия под командованием Леннарта Торстенссона решительно разгромила императорскую армию под командованием эрцгерцога Австрии Леопольда Вильгельма и его заместителя Оттавио Пикколомини . [6]
Победа позволила шведам занять и основать безопасную базу в Лейпциге, втором по значимости городе в Саксонском электорате . Однако, хотя Имперская армия была значительно ослаблена поражением и вынуждена перейти к обороне, она не позволила им полностью воспользоваться своей победой и не позволила Яну Георгу I, курфюрсту Саксонии, заключить мир со Швецией.
Прелюдия
[ редактировать ]В 1641 году шведская армия едва избежала преследования имперцев и баварцев после неудачной атаки на императорский сейм в Регенсбурге в январе. Его командир Йохан Банер потерял несколько тысяч человек в боях при Нойнбурге и Преснице до своей безвременной смерти в Хальберштадте в мае. С помощью своих союзников-французов и гвельфов остатки шведов отразили нападение имперцев в Вольфенбюттеле. [7] но только прибытие Леннарта Торстенссона в ноябре со свежими рекрутами и невыплаченным жалованием спасло их от мятежа. [8] Мир императора с гвельфами по Госларскому договору устранил стратегическую связь между шведами и французской армией под командованием Жана-Батиста Бюда де Гебриана , вынудив французов повернуть на запад, где они разгромили имперскую армию под командованием Гийома де Ламбуа в Кемпене в начале 1642. [9]
Из-за Кемпена вестфальская армия под командованием Мельхиора фон Хацфельда и баварцы под командованием Франца фон Мерси отделились от основных имперских сил, чтобы сдержать наступление Гебриана. [10] [11] И имперцы, и шведы двинулись на восток, где шведы разбили зимние квартиры в Бранденбурге , который объявил нейтралитет в 1641 году. Отказ Бранденбурга в военном доступе к имперцам помешал им напасть на шведов в феврале 1642 года. Поэтому имперский командующий эрцгерцог Леопольд Вильгельм был вынужден отступить из Гентина в Магдебургском епископстве и перебраться на зимние квартиры в конце февраля. [11] В апреле имперцы еще получали жилье, а шведы уже начали свою кампанию. [12]
Новый шведский командующий Торстенссон планировал в 1642 году крупное наступление, чтобы нанести удар по землям Габсбургов . В то время как мобильные силы под командованием Ганса Кристофа фон Кенигсмарка совершили набег на запад, в сторону Кведлинбурга , чтобы отвлечься, Торстенссон двинулся на восток, в Лужицу , откуда он вторгся в Силезию . он взял штурмом Глогув 4 мая , одну из самых сильных крепостей. Имперский командующий в Силезии Франц Альбрехт Саксен-Лауэнбургский собрал небольшую армию численностью 7500 человек и призвал на помощь австрийского эрцгерцога Леопольда Вильгельма . Прежде чем получить подкрепление отрядом основной императорской армии под командованием Оттавио Пикколомини , Франц Альбрехт попытался снять осаду Швейдница . Его обманом заставили атаковать гораздо более крупные шведские силы 31 мая, его войска были разбиты, а он сам смертельно ранен. [13]
Piccolomini withdrew to Brno to join up with the Archduke, while on 14 June Torstensson captured Olomouc in Moravia after a short siege. After collecting superior forces, the Imperials forced the outnumbered Swedes back into Silesia pursued by the Archduke. Leaving a blockading corps at Olomouc, on 25 July his vanguard under Raimondo Montecuccoli defeated a Swedish detachment at Troppau which was screening the siege of Brieg, forcing Torstensson to abandon it and retreat across the Oder river. The Archduke laid siege to Głogów on 10 August but abandoned it on 12 September when Torstensson offered him battle in front of the fortress. The Swedish army was now large enough to put the Imperials under pressure and they pulled back to the Bohemian border where they entrenched themselves and used their light cavalry to harass the Swedish supply lines. Withdrawing into Saxony in October, Torstensson laid siege to Leipzig, the second-largest city in Saxony and an important stronghold for John George I, Elector of Saxony, an Imperial ally.[14]
Battle
[edit]
The fast approach of the Imperial Army under the Archduke and Piccolomini forced Torstensson to lift the siege of Leipzig on 1 November. Assuming the Swedes were in disorderly retreat, the Archduke and his war council decided to attack against the advice of Piccolomini who considered them too strong for a direct assault. The Swedes retreated to better positions outside Breitenfeld where they awaited an attack.[15]
The Imperials had 26,000 men and 46 guns against 20,000 and 70 respectively for the Swedes.[1] Despite the disparity in numbers, the two forces were roughly equivalent because the Imperial army included many irregular Croatian and Hungarian cavalry of questionable combat value, as well as some dragoons and old-fashioned arquebusier regiments. In contrast, the Swedish cavalry was almost exclusively formed out of heavy cuirassiers. Both sides placed their cavalry on the wings, with the infantry in the centre, split into two subgroups because a small forest, the Linkelwald, bisected the Imperial lines.[16]
Battle began in the early morning of 2 November with an artillery duel in which Swedish infantry commander Johan Lilliehöök was mortally wounded. The Swedes crossed the Rietzschke river[1][16] and their right wing under Arvid Wittenberg attacked the Imperial left. Its commander Hans Christoph von Puchheim had not yet fully deployed his troops and some of his regiments took flight, allegedly led by Madlo's regiment of arquebusiers in the front line, followed by a number of neighbouring units and most of the Saxon regiments holding the second line.[16][17] The remainder were rallied by Colonel Nicola who repulsed two Swedish attacks with the support of the reserve cavalry under Ernst Roland von Suys before a third assault broke through, killing Nicola and several other officers.[18]
On the other side of the battlefield, the result was the opposite. The Imperial right under Annibale Gonzaga and Count Bruay shattered most of the Swedish left under Erik Slang and pushed them back onto their reserve under Königsmarck which continued to resist.[18] Torstensson now decided to split his victorious right; one part under Torsten Stålhandske pursued the fleeing Imperial left, while the rest under Wittenberg moved behind the Imperial centre to attack their right from behind. Under pressure from two sides, this broke while Piccolomini and the Archduke used their personal bodyguards along with the Alt- and Neu-Piccolomini, Mislik, Borneval and Luttke regiments as a rear guard to cover their retreat. Although the infantry north of the Linkelwald escaped, the group to the south was encircled by the Swedish cavalry and forced to surrender.[19]
The Imperial Army lost all 46 guns along with 3,000 to 5,000 dead or wounded plus another 4,500 or 5,000 taken prisoner,[4][5] including generals Suys and Fernemont.[20] Swedish casualties were 4,000 dead or wounded;[5] Generals Lilliehöök and Slang were killed, while General Stålhandske, commander of the Finnish Hakkapeliitta cavalry, was seriously wounded.[21]
Aftermath
[edit]
Rather than a renewed offensive, Torstensson renewed the siege of Leipzig which held out until 7 December. Its loss gave the Swedes a secure base in Saxony and was a serious blow to Elector John George, although most of the Imperial prisoners who joined the Swedish army after Breitenfeld deserted during the siege. Axel Lillie was appointed commander of Leipzig and enforced a large contribution of 150,000 talers. On 29 December, Wittenberg captured Chemnitz while Torstensson conferred with the French commander Guébriant. In early January, the Swedes besieged Freiberg, whose Saxon garrison resisted stubbornly and repelled a major assault on 13 January. Having rebuilt the Imperial Army in Bohemia, Piccolomini arrived outside Freiberg on 27 February, forcing the Swedes to abandon the siege,[22] an action that may have stopped John George from leaving the war.[23]
Archduke Leopold Wilhelm assembled a court-martial in Prague which sentenced the Madlo regiment to exemplary punishment at Rokycany. Six regiments, which had distinguished themselves in the battle, were assembled fully armed and surrounded Madlo's regiment, which was severely rebuked for its cowardice and misconduct and ordered to lay down its arms, after which their regimental colours were torn in pieces. In a process known as decimation, lots were drawn and every 10th soldier of the regiment and 5 officers were executed next day.[24]
Defeat ignited antagonism in the army between Germans and Italians, commonly called "Welsche" or "Walsche", who claimed it was due to the collapse of the mostly German left wing under Puchheim, who in turn argued the mostly Italian right under Gonzaga had failed to support them. The court-martial of Madlo's regiment seemed to confirm the guilt of the left wing but did not calm tempers. When the Archduke asked Hatzfeld, who had arrived with reinforcements in January 1643, to take over command while he travelled to Vienna, Hatzfeld refused saying he could not repair the mistakes of the Italians. Confronted with this insubordination, the Archduke resigned his command and in February was temporarily replaced by Piccolomini before he decided to enter Spanish service and stepped down in April.[25] The returning Trentine general Matthias Gallas took over command, largely because he was acceptable to both Germans and Italians.[26] Most of the Italian generals like the Gonzagas or Montecuccoli chose to retire or depart for Italy to fight in the First War of Castro. Only Bruay was persuaded by the Emperor to stay instead of following Piccolomini.[20]
In April, the Swedes started their next offensive. Gallas anticipated their aim of resupplying Olomouc and tried to block their way with a strong defensive position at Hradec Králové and by refusing them any crossing of the Elbe. Torstensson avoided Gallas' main force and feinted an attack at Brandýs nad Labem to distract the Imperials. In the meantime, he attained a crossing at Mělník. He moved forward and reached northern Moravia prior to Gallas where he resupplied the Swedish garrisons. Gallas and the Imperials followed him over Brno and again took a defensive position in front of the Swedes. The Imperials used their superior light cavalry to harass the Swedes in skirmishes. The Swedes held out until October when they retreated into Silesia and then left Habsburg territory entirely to attack Denmark in the Torstenson War.[27]
Commemoration
[edit]
The dissolution of the Swedish Royal First Life Grenadier Regiment in 1927 was commemorated by this medal showing on the obverse the Second Battle of Breitenfeld as "Leipzig 1642".
Notes
[edit]- ^ Jump up to: a b c Wilson 2011, p. 636.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Guthrie 2003, p. 115.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Guthrie 2003, p. 116.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Clodfelter 2017, p. 41.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d Wilson 2011, p. 638.
- ^ The second battle was 11 years after the first battle at the crossroads village where the Swedish forces under Gustavus II Adolphus had handed Field Marshal Count Tilly his first major defeat on the same plain.
- ^ Wilson 2011, pp. 626–630.
- ^ Höbelt 2016, p. 298.
- ^ Wilson 2011, pp. 632–633.
- ^ Höbelt 2016, pp. 304–306.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Höbelt 2016, pp. 316–319.
- ^ Höbelt 2016, pp. 322–324.
- ^ Guthrie 2003, pp. 107–108.
- ^ Guthrie 2003, pp. 108–109.
- ^ Guthrie 2003, pp. 109–110.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Guthrie 2003, p. 117.
- ^ Wilson 2011, p. 637.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Guthrie 2003, p. 118.
- ^ Guthrie 2003, p. 119.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Höbelt 2016, p. 345.
- ^ Guthrie 2003, p. 121.
- ^ Guthrie 2003, pp. 122–123.
- ^ Höbelt 2016, p. 341.
- ^ Boettger 1882, pp. 53–54.
- ^ Höbelt 2016, pp. 341–344.
- ^ Höbelt 2016, p. 347.
- ^ Guthrie 2003, pp. 123–124.
References
[edit]- Boettger, Hermann (1882). Die Ereignisse um Leipzig im Herbst 1642 (in German). Halle: Max Niemeyer.
- Clodfelter, M. (2017). Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492–2015 (4th ed.). Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. ISBN 978-0786474707.
- Guthrie, William P. (2003). The Later Thirty Years War: From the Battle of Wittstock to the Treaty of Westphalia. Greenwood Press. ISBN 9780313324086.
- Höbelt, Lothar (2016). Von Nördlingen bis Jankau: Kaiserliche Strategie und Kriegsführung 1634-1645 (in German). Wien: Heeresgeschichtliches Museum. ISBN 978-3902551733.
- Wilson, P. (2011). The Thirty Years War: Europe's Tragedy. Belknap Press. ISBN 978-0674062313.
