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French losses (8 pts.)
1/, 2/ and 3/8 legere; 4e Chevaux-Legers Lanciers
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Russian losses (14
pts.)
1/8th Jaegers and 1/ and 2/39th Jaegres; 1/Simbrisk IR; Light
Battery #35; Kourland DR and Coosacks: Karpov#2; Loukoffkin and
Kutainikov #4 |
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Comments:
The battlefield was, in theory, dominated by the bridges located in
the center and eastern zone, which could make possible the stopping of Russian
columns or even their break into two parts, out of range of each other.
However, the French vanguard lost a precious time, which turned out to be
unrecoverable, cleaning the central wood of enemies, so only a lone lancer
regiment was available to try the taking of the strategic central features.
Additionally, the appearance of the Russian units (based on the dice), allowed
Osteman-Sacken to deploy his forces in a way facilitating the defense, and thus
the line of western hills at South of Brugerkint, become the actual focal point
of the battlefield.
That hill line protected the only escaping route available to the Russians, i.e.
the road running through Burgkemnitz, since the other road was cut off by the
French advance almost from the beginning of the fight. The French C-iC- realized
its importance and left to their own devices to his right flank forces in a
continuous and futile skirmishing with the Russian Cossacks and regular cavalry,
which protected the withdrawal of the infantry units in that area. The French
vanguard also had a secondary role in the central sector, and although they
cleared the forest from Russian Jaegers, they suffered greatly at the hands of
Russian units covering the exits of the forest. Actually, the French vanguard
acted as a covering force of the French main attack.
That main attack was launched in the western sector, where the bulk of the
French forces inclined to the left. First the cavalry and then the infantry,
advanced uphill against the defensive line formed by the Russian C-i-C, which
also realized the importance of the position. At last, the Russian units
rejected several attacks of the French line infantry, which were left next to
collapsing point. This fact was used by the Russian forces to follow their march
westwards under the protection of their victorious infantry, because of the
excessive time needed by Bertrand to mount another assault.
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