Cannae [Illustrated Edition]

Field-Marshal Alfred Graf Von Schlieffen

• Publisher: Wagram Press
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781782892373
• Topic: Histoire
• Subtopic: Guerres napoléoniennes

Over 100 maps and diagrams are included.
As one of the foremost of a new generation of officers around the time of Prussian expansionism and the birth of a federal Germany, he was to experience much warfare first-hand. After graduating with honours from the famed Prussian Kriegsakadamie he was appointed to the planning unit of the German General Staff. He was to see the plans that he worked upon come to bloody but successful conclusions during the wars with Austria in 1866 and most famously the annihilation of French army during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Schlieffen's lasting impression on the world was his famous "Schlieffen Plan" which he designed to enable the German army to knock France out of a two front war by a huge flanking manoeuvre through the Low Countries.
He studied military history extensively leading to his most famous work was "Cannae", intended to explain and illustrate the driving idea of the battle of encirclement that had achieved so much success throughout history. Using examples from the wars of Hannibal, Frederick the Great, Napoleon and the recent German led wars with Austria and France, he sets out how the encirclement and destruction of an enemy's army should be achieved.
The book was seen as a watershed in military theory and was widely read across the world; to ensure that the ideas were disseminated to their students the American Army translated it into English. The effect of Schlieffen's thinking was still felt by the senior officers that fought in the Second World War who were imbued with the principles of Cannae which would be so well defined as part of the German Blitzkrieg. No less a military leader but General Erich Ludendorff, the principal German strategist of the First World War, declared that Schlieffen was "one of the greatest soldiers ever." no mean testament to the man and his principal book.

CHAPTER I — THE BATTLE OF CANNAE

The army of Hannibal, fronting west, stood on 2 August, 216 P.C., in the Apulian plain to the left of Aufidus (Ofanto) in the vicinity of the village Cannae,{2} situated near the mouth of the river, and opposite the troops of Consul Terentius Varro{3}. The latter, to whom had been transferred by the other Consul Aemilius Paulus the daily alternating commandership, had

55,000 heavily armed men,

8,000 lightly armed men,

6,000 mounted men,

on hand and, in the two fortified camps,

2,600 heavily armed men,

7,400 lightly armed men.

10,000 men.

at his further disposition, so that the total strength of the Roman army amounted to 79,000 men,

Hannibal had at his disposition only

32,000 heavily armed men,

8,000 lightly armed men,

10,000 mounted men.

50,000 men.

His position, with a considerably superior enemy in his front and the sea in his rear, was by no means a favorable one. Nevertheless, Consul Aemilius Paulus, in concurrence with Proconsul Servilius, wished to avoid a battle. Both feared the superior Carthaginian cavalry to which Hannibal particularly owed his victories on the Ticinus, on the Trebia and at the Trasimene lake. Terentius Varro, nevertheless, wished to seek a decision and avenge the defeats suffered. He counted on the superiority of his 5,000 heavily armed men as against, the 32,000 hostile ones, consisting of only 12,000 Carthaginians and of 20,000 Iberians and. Gauls who, in equipment and training, could not be considered as auxiliaries of full value. In order to give increased energy to the attack, Terentius gave his army a new battle formation.{4} The cavalry was placed on the wings. The lightly armed troops, destined to begin the combat, to envelop the enemy and to support the cavalry, were not much considered by either side.

Hannibal opposed to the enemy's front only his 20,000 Iberians and Gauls, which were probably 12 files deep. The greater part of his cavalry under Hasdrubal was placed on the left wing and the light Numidian on the right. In rear of this cavalry the 12,000 heavily armed Carthaginian infantry were formed equally divided between the two wings.

Both armies advanced against each other. Hasdrubal overpowered the weaker hostile cavalry on the right flank. The Roman knights were overwhelmed, thrown into the Aufidus or scattered{5}. The conqueror turned the hostile infantry and advanced against the Roman cavalry on the wing which, until then, had only skirmished with the Numidian light horse. Attacked on both sides, the Romans were here also completely routed. Upon the destruction of the hostile cavalry, Hasdrubal turned against the rear of the Roman phalanx.

In the meanwhile, both infantry masses had advanced{6}. The Iberian and Gallic auxiliary forces were thrown back at the impact not so much on account of the strength of the attack of the 36 Roman files as on account of the inferior armament and the lesser training in close combat. The advance of the Romans was, however, checked, as soon as the Carthaginian flanking echelons, kept back so far, came up and attacked the enemy on the right and left, and as soon as Hasdrubal's cavalry threatened the Roman rear. The triarii turned back, the maniples of both wings moved outward. A long, entire square had been forced to halt, fronting all sides and was attacked on all sides by the infantry with short swords and by the cavalry with javelins, arrows, and slingshots, never missing in the compact mass. The Romans were constantly pushed back and crowded together. Without weapons and without aid, they expected death. Hannibal, his heart full of hatred, circled the arena of the bloody work, encouraging the zealous, lashing on the sluggish. His soldiers desisted only hours later. Weary of slaughter, they took the remaining 3000 men prisoners. On a narrow area 48,000 corpses lay in heaps. Both Aemilius Paulus and Servilius had fallen, Varro had escaped with a few cavalrymen, a few of the heavily armed and the greater part of the lightly armed men. Thousands fell into the hands of the victors in the village of Cannae and in both camps. The conquerors had lost about 6,000 men. These were mostly Iberian-s and Gauls.

A battle of complete extermination had been fought, most wonderfully through the fact that in spite of all theories, it had been won by a numerical inferiority. Clausewitz said “concentric action against the enemy behooves not the weaker” and Napoleon taught “the weaker must not turn both wings simultaneously.” The weaker Hannibal had, however, acted concentrically, though in an unseemly way, and turned not only both wings, but even the rear of the enemy.

Arms and the mode of combat have undergone a complete change during these 2000 years. No attack takes place at close quarters with short swords, but firing is used at thousands of meters range; the bow has been replaced by the recoil gun, the slingshot by machine guns. Capitulations have taken the place of slaughter. Still the greater conditions of warfare have remained unchanged. The battle of extermination may be fought today according to the same plan as elaborated by Hannibal in long forgotten times. The hostile front is not the aim of the principal attack. It is not against that point that the troops should be massed and the reserves disposed; the essential thing is to crush the flanks. The wings ought not to be sought at the advanced flank points of the front, but along the entire depth and extension of the hostile formation. The extermination is completed by an attack against the rear of the enemy. The cavalry plays here the principal role. It need not attack “intact infantry,” but may wreak havoc among the hostile masses by long range fire.

A condition of success lies, it is true, in a deep formation of the hostile forces with shortened front through massing of reserves, thus deepening the flanks and increasing the number of combatants forced to remain in inactivity. It was Hannibal's good luck to have opposed to him Terentius Varro, who eliminated his superiority by disposing his infantry 36 men. deep. At all times there have been generals of his school, but not during the period when they would have been most desirable for Prussia.

 

CHAPTER II — FREDERICK THE GREAT AND NAPOLEON

None more than Frederick the Great was so apt to fight a battle of extermination with a numerically inferior strength. He was, however, unable to attack at Leuthen with his “unequal force” of 35,000 men, however thin he might have made it, the wide front of Prince Charles of Lorraine with his 65,000 warriors. He would not have had any troops left for the surrounding of the overpowering superiority of the enemy. He directed the main attack against one flank, as had already been attempted at Seer and executed at Prague. He succeeded in deceiving the enemy, turning him and bringing up the Prussian army perpendicularly to the lengthened front against the hostile left flank. The extreme left wing, thus placed in a precarious position, was broken. The Austrians turned their masses towards the threatened flank; however, they were unable to reform, in their haste, their original long front in the new direction, but fell unintentionally into a formation 40 men deep, quite similar to the one assumed by Terentius Varro. The position, in general, corresponded to that of Cannae. The narrow Austrian front was attacked by the not much wider Prussian. Cavalry was assembled on both wings. There lacked, however, the two echelons of Carthaginian Infantry of 6000 men each, The numbers on hand did not suffice for their formation. The little that was left was not sufficient to turn in to the right and left. The entire deep envelopment had to be replaced; on the right—by an oblique drawing up of a few battalions against the hostile left wing, on the left—by placing a battery acting in a similar way. The preponderance of cavalry was likewise lacking.{7} It is true that Zieten had thrown back the hostile cavalry on the right. He was, however, prevented from advancing against the infantry by the difficulties of the terrain. On the left, Driesen was too weak to advance at once and had to await a favorable moment in order to overthrow Lucchesi’s cavalry and to strike a decisive blow by attacking the right infantry flank and force the enemy to retreat shaken by a long frontal combat. The retreat, starting in confusion on the left flank toward Lissa, was changed into rout by pursuit.

The disproportion of strength was too great, the forces too unequal. Leuthen could be only a mutilated Cannae. The problem of fighting a battle of extermination with a strength half that of the enemy was, however, solved to a certain degree. What was lacking during the combat for extermination in turning, enveloping, and surrounding was, at least, partially compensated for by the forced retreat to the left flank. If, during the further pursuit by Zieten and Fouqué, they could have acted “with more vivacité,” and sat “closer on the heels of the enemy,” the results would have been greater but were still considerable. “Of the proud Imperial army which crossed the Queiss at Lauban with 90,000 men, scarcely one fourth left the soil of Silesia and returned over the frontier of Bohemia in the greatest dejection and discouragement.” This came pretty close to extermination.

The turning movement at Zorndorf was to be executed in a still more effective way. Fermor, with 40,000 Russians, invested Küstrin in August, 1758, on the right from the Warthe and the Oder. Frederick the Great had formed, on the other bank of the Oder, at Manschnow and Gorgast, an army of 36,000 men with the troops brought from Bohemia and those which advanced with Count Dohna from East Prussia and Pomerania. To lead these troops through the fortress against the Russians did not promise much success{8}. The King marched downstream and on 23 August, crossed the Oder at Güstebiese, for the purpose of pushing the enemy against the river and the fortress and thus to surround him entirely. Fermor met this turning movement and took up position in rear of the Mietzel, at Quartschen. It was impossible for the Prussians to deliver an attack against the Russians over the marshy little river, difficult to cross. A new turning movement was to be made and a crossing sought further up. The left bank of the Mietzel was won on 25 August, at the Neudamm mill and Kerstenbrügge. It was found too difficult to immediately attack the eastern flank of the Russian army, assembled at Quartschen, over a row of ponds situated between Wilkersdorf and Grutzberg as well as over the Langengrund. The turning movement was continued over Batelow and Wilkersdorf against Zorndorf, and when the head of the columns reached the Zaberngrund, they marched to the right. The advance was directed against the rear of the enemy and not against his flank. According to this, Fermor made a countermarch within the regiments, making them turn back, placing the second line in the line and the first line in the second. The width of the front was not narrowed but maintained the same as before{9}. The attack, was, consequently, not rendered less difficult. Only after a victory would it be seen that an obstacle, situated in the rear of the Russian army and difficult to surmount, would prove of great advantage. Should the Russians be vanquished, they would likewise be destroyed. Fortunately, the battlefield was divided. The Russians were drawn up near Quartschen, fronting Zorndorf, their right wing between the Zabern and the Galgengrund, the center and left wing between the Galgen and Langengrund, the mass of cavalry under Demiku, to the left and in the rear near Zicher.

The flanks of this position were securely protected; the wings could not be surrounded. The King decided to press upon the right wing, separated from the rest of the army, with superior forces, then to attack the center and left wing from the west. For this purpose, the advance guard (8 battalions) under Manteuffel and, following at 300 paces, the left flank (nine battalions of the first and six battalions of the second line) under Kanitz advanced between the Zabern and Galgengrund, the right wing (eleven battalions of the first and four battalions of the second line) under Dohna, kept back to the east of the Galgengrund, were to cover the right flank; Seydlitz with 36 squadrons on the left, Schorlemer with 20 squadrons on the right were to secure the advance march and take part in the combat, if necessary, while 20 squadrons of dragoons followed as reserve. Sixty heavy guns opened the battle. Their effect on the close and deep formation of the 16 Russian battalions on the right wing was annihilating. After two hours, the attack seemed sufficiently prepared to allow the advance of the vanguard. The Russian artillery, however, was not yet dead. Their canister fire was likewise murderous. The thinned battalions of Manteuffel closed and relinquished the position on the Zaberngrund. There were no reserves to fill the gaps in their ranks, Kanitz, accustomed to maintain touch and communication with the lines, before all things, moved up to Dohna on the right and advanced, east of the Galgengrund, against the Russian center which was still unshaken and 24 battalions strong. When he and Manteuffel approached the enemy, they saw themselves enveloped on both sides by the hostile line. The advance of the 14 battalions of the Russian left wing against Kanitz, stopped Dohna's energetically firing artillery which had been kept behind. The right wing rushed with 16 battalions and 14 squadrons against the left flank and the front of Manteuffel. The Prussians were thrown back with great losses. The pursuing Russians, however, left their flank uncovered and Seydlitz succeeded in crossing in three places the Zaberngrund which until then was deemed unpassable. At the same time, the dragoons of the reserve advanced. Twenty squadrons attacked the front, and the flank and rear were attacked by 18 squadrons each. The Russians, shaken by the artillery fire, and scattered during the heat of pursuit, defended themselves obstinately. After a long and bloody hand to hand fight, the remaining men fled over the Galgengrund to Quartschen or to the Drewitzer Heide. In spite of the initial victory, the Russian right wing, attacked on three sides was entirely annihilated. It was, however, impossible for Seydlitz to follow up his victory, to advance over the Galgengrund, support the frontal attack of the infantry by a flanking attack. The attack of Kanitz was repulsed by superior numbers and the Russian center was well able to hinder any movement over the Galgengrund.

The entire army had to be assembled again near Zorndorf for a second battle{10}. The advance guard, however, was unfit for further use. It was, consequently, withdrawn. Of the remaining 30 battalions, 15 battalions of the right wing, under Dohna, were to advance along the Langengrund and, with the aid of Schorlemer, rout the Russian left wing, if possible, after which they were to turn left to attack the center which was to be simultaneously pressed by Kanitz from the south and Seydlitz from the west. The plan seemed doomed. While ninety-seven guns were preparing the combat and Dohna advanced to the half right towards the Langengrund, Demiku rushed unexpectedly with his cavalry against the great battery of the right wing, against the right flank of the infantry and against Schorlemer's cavalry. The battery was lost, one battalion was surrounded and put down its arms, others were confused for the moment, but the Russian cavalry was finally repulsed by the fire of the infantry and retreated before Schorlemer's cavalry towards Zither. This enemy was eliminated. In spite of his defeat he succeeded in gaining considerable advantages. The Prussian left flank, though not touched by Demiku's attack, was so shaken by the previous unfortunate combat and so discouraged by the expectancy of a new catastrophe, that it was seized with panic and fled, being arrested only at Wilkersdorf in its flight and brought to a standstill. Seydlitz marched with his 56 squadrons to the evacuated place and advanced principally left of the Steinbusch, while Dohna advanced with his right wing, along the Langengrund, against the closely massed 38 Russian battalions. After a hot hand to hand fight, the Russian left flank retreated first. In order to avoid being pushed into the Hofebruch, it attempted to escape towards Quartschen{11}. This left the left wing of the Russian center unprotected. Dohna turned to the left. Attacked on two sides, hemmed in on the third by an insurmountable obstacle, the center was gradually pushed back over the Galgengrund. It took up position on the hills on the other side.

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