Dettingen 1743 the large battle

The Maison du Roi under the personal command of de Grammont charged into the leading british Brigade under Cumberland. Cumberland fought well but both of his regiments had to retreat. The mousquetaires du Roi had to retreat too but the gendarmes and Chevaulegers de la garde were destroyed and inflicted some damage to the Regiment Berry behind them.

At that Moment Arenberg commands all his troops of the allied Center Forward and outside of the Wood. Surprisingly the good General Howard refuses with the best allied Units, Pulteney's and King's Regiment.  

King George wanted to see his cavalry on his own wing in action and send them forward. My subordinate and myself thought: outch! Our light artillery of Duras' Brigade was still limbered!  

Now everything hapened very fast. First the first unit of Wendt's Brigade was destroyed and brought much of confusion into the ranks of the Schulenburg-Regiment. Next the second Regiment charged into the Clermont-cavalerie and now the French get the upperhand. Perhaps they had to retreat but the allied cavalry had to fall back too. The poor Regiment Schulenburg charged and was shot to pieces, loosing finaly the mellee.

In some minutes his majesty had to see the desaster of most of his right wing.

In the center Neipperg decided to attack. His Grenadiers and the Regiment Wurmbrand (Standing in for the Regiment Geisruck - looking nearly the same) charged and were destroyed, but could destroy one of the gardes-bn.s too. The other bn. of Gardes Francaises were too weak now to stay and were send back behind some advancing line infantry, who had only to save them!

At the left allied wing one of Hammerstein's regiments of horse was drestroyed by our cuirassiers du Roi. Finally additionaly our Navarre brigade crossed the Forchbach to deal with the advancing masses of pragmatic horse and foot.

Another view of the mostly destroyed pragmatic right wing:

Finally Noailles (myself) arrived at the battlefield. I recognized that my subordinate did very well during my absence and even without the moral help of the Maréchal de France!

We decided that I would command now our right wing and right center including the heavy artillery and the Maison-Du-Roi-, Navarre-, du Roi- and Gardes Francaises brigades. There we were still confronted with a large mass of allied cavalry and infantry while the center saw the quiet effective austrian artillery.

The allied masses at our right. Arenberg still made no use of his fresh Brigade of dragoons (Styrum had green cuffs and red coats and was therefore looking just like british cavalry) under Diemar.

I ordered my last bn. of gardes to fall back again and again in front of the advancing british and austrian artillery. Now Howard maybe thought that they lost too much of time during the process of advancing with his typical and much feared pletonfire. Or maybe the French canister did their work too well. Therefore he ordered his regiments to charge in and Pulteney's was beaten and had to fall back while the King's Regiment hold his ground but was done fore after another round of mellee.

A view on the pragmatic center. Note that the Brigade under Salm still is in the woods!

Grammont continued his work at our left wing, advancing with everything he had by his hands. The brigade under Duras was very effective although splitted at the wing and in the center (Grammont always had luck and the isolated bn.s get the orders if it was necessary).

A view on the center. Not much left of Neippergs former glory. His artillery is still in place and Grammont did'nt commanded to charge 3pdr.s (perhaps because the player is an artillerymen). In a distance you may see the last large charge of the pragmatic masses at the Banks of the river Main.

Cumberland ordered a final Charge into the Navarre Brigade. Hammerstein's Leibregiment charged one bn. of Navarre. But now at last! the Maison du Roi entered the battle again charging into the flank of the heaviely supported hanoverian horse. The Queens dragoons charged into another bn. of Navarre but were destroyed too only later.

Now after 4 hours of hot fighting (and several bottles of beer and some portwine - recommended for wargaming with friends!) the pragmatic army declared the defeat. They lost 9 Units - the French lost 2. Although the left wing was still intact and 3 brigades (Diemar's, Salm's and Monroy's) had done nearly nothing, the chance to win was not realistic. We had still 2 brigades intact on our left eager to roll up the rest of the allied flank.

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