Okay, I wasn't going to, but I can't resist some tactical notes for myself. I worked hard for this, and if I don't write it down and put it in rheinsberg for future reference, I'm going to lose it all within a month.
The map again:
The French line stretched from a forest to a forest because you wanted a natural defense on your flanks, to prevent a flanking attack. This limited the number of available battlefields in Europe, because there aren't that many flat plains that have natural obstacles like rivers, swamps, forests, or fortified villages just the right distance apart.
So Villars, concluding that the Allies will have to march between the forests if they want to get past him and his army, fortifies the center of his line extremely strongly.
Marlborough and Eugene decide to begin with a dual flank attack, creating local numerical superiority, to force Villars to pull troops away from his center to defend the positions in the forest.
But they don't have enough troops to attack both forests with numerical superiority. So politics come into play: the nationalities that have the least ability to throw a fit later over high casualties, get sent to attack Boufflers on the right of the French line (Allied left), in the wood of Lainieres, badly outnumbered. Their purpose is not to take the fortified French position, but to create enough of a diversion that Boufflers can't send troops to help Villars on the right, in the wood of Sars.
So the Dutch and the Scots, who have little political clout, have insanely high casualties. This is made worse by the Dutch Prince of Orange, who was denied the chance to inherit William's III title as Stadtholder in the Netherlands, and (according to Horowski) feels extra compelled to prove himself in battle. So he leads a charge against a French fortified position with superior numbers, loses 5,000 of his men in the first 30 minutes, falls back, regroups, attacks again, has horses shot under him, but keeps going.
He has to fall back again, and he's preparing a third attack when some panicked messenger informs Marlborough that the Prince of Orange is getting his entire troops slaughtered. Marlborough and Eugene have to ride over to the Wood of Lainieres, give orders that the Dutch are not to budge until they give the word, no matter what the Prince of Orange says, and then return to what they were doing.
Which was attacking the French in the Wood of Sars, this time with superior numbers. This is where the Prussians (among others) are. We end up with the fierce hand-to-hand infantry combat that is so unusual in this period, and Grumbkow reports having saved a Frenchman's life, which means he's now acquired a French informer for his mission to work out a separate peace with France. (As Horowski says, if Grumbkow's motives were partially humane, because he was shocked by all the slaughter, he wasn't about to report it in a letter to his paymasters. But it may have been some of both.)
Marlborough and Eugene have success on the right, in the Wood of Sars, where their superior numbers begin to tell (but not without enormous casualties, due to the forest + fortification + aggressive commanders = hand-to-hand combat I talked about). Villars and Eugene are both wounded. Villars tries to carry on, but faints from pain and is hors de combat. Boufflers has to take over. Unfortunately, Bouffler can't be sure the Dutch aren't going to attack again (Malborough didn't tell *him* he'd told the Dutch not to attack until he gave the word, after all!), and even though he's got numerical superiority, he's reluctant to leave the safety of the fortifications. So though he does a good job managing the battle as a whole, he misses an opportunity to crush the Dutch, and also is pinned in place in the Wood of Lainieres.
Which means, in order to defend the assaulted French left in the Wood of Sars, the French (Boufflers, I think; I forget exactly what time Villars was carried off the field) have to divert troops from the center, just as Marlborough planned.
Now the French fortifications in the center are abandoned by the infantry. The Allied cavalry goes charging in. It's the biggest cavalry fight of the century.
The battle's been raging for about 5 hours at this point. The Allied cavalry have been sitting tight and waiting. The French cavalry have been being bombarded by the Allied artillery for 5 hours, and are a mess.
Yet every time the Allied cavalry advance, the French cavalry force them back. The battle rages back and forth, each side charging past the fortifications and then being driven back. Neither side can advance, because every time the French are beating the Allied cavalry and driving them back, the Allied infantry, stationed in the middle, come up to support their mounted troops and drive the French cavalry back. Marlborough was a big fan of mixed troops reinforcing each other in the center; this wasn't usual practice but was one of his hallmarks.
In the end, the success of the French cavalry is that they keep the Allies from breaking through the center and chasing the retreating French troops. This allows the French troops to retreat in good order, keeping 66 of their 80 cannon. Which is a miracle by 18th century standards. Cannon were very heavy and almost immobile once the battle started, and in a retreat, nobody fleeing for their lives stops to drag the heavy guns away. But because the French cavalry were preventing the Allied cavalry from running down the retreating French infantry, the French managed to save their guns.
The success of the Allied cavalry + infantry is that they hold their line. Without the infantry support that Marlborough had so cleverly positioned, contemporaries and historians alike agree that the French cavalry would likely have broken through the Allied center, thus possibly turning the tide of the whole battle.
The Malplaquet volume in the Osprey Campaign series actually has better maps, but I'm going to respect the copyright there, because that book is so much about the detailed, colorful visuals that I feel like they're why you're paying $10 for some 100 pages. It's also extremely recent (October 2020) and about this particular battle, hence all the detail.
I'm also disgruntled that it had me believing in Eugene's memoirs for a few minutes there, and halfway to posting them in the library to get a second opinion from Selena. :P
Re: War of the Spanish Succession - Malplaquet tactics
The map again:
The French line stretched from a forest to a forest because you wanted a natural defense on your flanks, to prevent a flanking attack. This limited the number of available battlefields in Europe, because there aren't that many flat plains that have natural obstacles like rivers, swamps, forests, or fortified villages just the right distance apart.
So Villars, concluding that the Allies will have to march between the forests if they want to get past him and his army, fortifies the center of his line extremely strongly.
Marlborough and Eugene decide to begin with a dual flank attack, creating local numerical superiority, to force Villars to pull troops away from his center to defend the positions in the forest.
But they don't have enough troops to attack both forests with numerical superiority. So politics come into play: the nationalities that have the least ability to throw a fit later over high casualties, get sent to attack Boufflers on the right of the French line (Allied left), in the wood of Lainieres, badly outnumbered. Their purpose is not to take the fortified French position, but to create enough of a diversion that Boufflers can't send troops to help Villars on the right, in the wood of Sars.
So the Dutch and the Scots, who have little political clout, have insanely high casualties. This is made worse by the Dutch Prince of Orange, who was denied the chance to inherit William's III title as Stadtholder in the Netherlands, and (according to Horowski) feels extra compelled to prove himself in battle. So he leads a charge against a French fortified position with superior numbers, loses 5,000 of his men in the first 30 minutes, falls back, regroups, attacks again, has horses shot under him, but keeps going.
He has to fall back again, and he's preparing a third attack when some panicked messenger informs Marlborough that the Prince of Orange is getting his entire troops slaughtered. Marlborough and Eugene have to ride over to the Wood of Lainieres, give orders that the Dutch are not to budge until they give the word, no matter what the Prince of Orange says, and then return to what they were doing.
Which was attacking the French in the Wood of Sars, this time with superior numbers. This is where the Prussians (among others) are. We end up with the fierce hand-to-hand infantry combat that is so unusual in this period, and Grumbkow reports having saved a Frenchman's life, which means he's now acquired a French informer for his mission to work out a separate peace with France. (As Horowski says, if Grumbkow's motives were partially humane, because he was shocked by all the slaughter, he wasn't about to report it in a letter to his paymasters. But it may have been some of both.)
Marlborough and Eugene have success on the right, in the Wood of Sars, where their superior numbers begin to tell (but not without enormous casualties, due to the forest + fortification + aggressive commanders = hand-to-hand combat I talked about). Villars and Eugene are both wounded. Villars tries to carry on, but faints from pain and is hors de combat. Boufflers has to take over. Unfortunately, Bouffler can't be sure the Dutch aren't going to attack again (Malborough didn't tell *him* he'd told the Dutch not to attack until he gave the word, after all!), and even though he's got numerical superiority, he's reluctant to leave the safety of the fortifications. So though he does a good job managing the battle as a whole, he misses an opportunity to crush the Dutch, and also is pinned in place in the Wood of Lainieres.
Which means, in order to defend the assaulted French left in the Wood of Sars, the French (Boufflers, I think; I forget exactly what time Villars was carried off the field) have to divert troops from the center, just as Marlborough planned.
Now the French fortifications in the center are abandoned by the infantry. The Allied cavalry goes charging in. It's the biggest cavalry fight of the century.
The battle's been raging for about 5 hours at this point. The Allied cavalry have been sitting tight and waiting. The French cavalry have been being bombarded by the Allied artillery for 5 hours, and are a mess.
Yet every time the Allied cavalry advance, the French cavalry force them back. The battle rages back and forth, each side charging past the fortifications and then being driven back. Neither side can advance, because every time the French are beating the Allied cavalry and driving them back, the Allied infantry, stationed in the middle, come up to support their mounted troops and drive the French cavalry back. Marlborough was a big fan of mixed troops reinforcing each other in the center; this wasn't usual practice but was one of his hallmarks.
In the end, the success of the French cavalry is that they keep the Allies from breaking through the center and chasing the retreating French troops. This allows the French troops to retreat in good order, keeping 66 of their 80 cannon. Which is a miracle by 18th century standards. Cannon were very heavy and almost immobile once the battle started, and in a retreat, nobody fleeing for their lives stops to drag the heavy guns away. But because the French cavalry were preventing the Allied cavalry from running down the retreating French infantry, the French managed to save their guns.
The success of the Allied cavalry + infantry is that they hold their line. Without the infantry support that Marlborough had so cleverly positioned, contemporaries and historians alike agree that the French cavalry would likely have broken through the Allied center, thus possibly turning the tide of the whole battle.
The Malplaquet volume in the Osprey Campaign series actually has better maps, but I'm going to respect the copyright there, because that book is so much about the detailed, colorful visuals that I feel like they're why you're paying $10 for some 100 pages. It's also extremely recent (October 2020) and about this particular battle, hence all the detail.
I'm also disgruntled that it had me believing in Eugene's memoirs for a few minutes there, and halfway to posting them in the library to get a second opinion from Selena. :P