(Campaign) Second Battle of Berlin

Following the failure of the attack on Berlin from the south on the 17th, Emperor Napoleon determined to renew the attempt from a different direction.  Three pontoon bridges were thrown across the Spree - one opposite Charlottenburg palace and two upstream of the city, on either end of the marshes that extend there on the river's left bank.  The crossing point at Cöpnick, ten miles upstream at the outflow of the Müggelsee, was secured (having been held only loosely and intermittently before), and the bridges allowed a veritable flood of French troops to re-deploy to the east and north.

The battlefield, outlined in red, on the campaign map.  People more familiar with the real geography
 will note that I have Charlottenburg, and the Spandau road, on the wrong side of the river. Oops.

With two army corps (I and V), most of the Reserve Cavalry and the Imperial Guard across the Spree, the French threat to the city was much greater than it had been five days earlier.  In preparation against this threat the Duke of Brunswick had poured most of the Prussian army into the area and ordered them to start digging.  Starting at the bridge at the eastern edge of town, a line of trenches ran northward to the Prenzlauerberg, a few hundred yards back from the raised causeway that runs up toward Weissensee.  Branching off it another entrenchment line bent back toward the west, guarding against outflanking movements almost half-way to Charlottenburg.

On the morning of the twenty-second the trenches were lined with infantry, alternating with guns.  Rüchel's column was to the fore, facing east, along with the Stendal Reserve, with Schmettau guarding the north-facing flank and Saxe-Weimar in the city centre.  As in the previous battle the Spree island was abandoned to the enemy, and only the right bank - the city centre proper - garrisoned.

The field from the north...

...and from the east.

Day 1 - 22 November

The battle kicked off at midday with a cannonade by a grand battery of 140 guns on the left bank of the Spree unleashed against the southern suburbs and city centre.  With roundshot and incendiary carcasses tearing through the buildings, before long the southern part of the city was burning, and the Prussian defenders had to pull back a little.  St. Hilaire's division, pushing through the middle of the city, managed to cross the Mühlendamm and get a foothold on the right bank, as well as getting artillery into the cathedral (at the northern end of Fischerinsel) to bombard the flanks of the Prussian supporting formations north of town.

Berlin burns, and those Prussians and Swedes in the burning quarters will soon need to find a new place to shelter.

Simultaneously with the initial bombardment V Corps made an assault on the eastern defences of the city.  Led by the strongest infantry brigades (those of Graindorge and Claparède), and supported by cavalry and artillery, the attack aimed to break the Prussian hold on the trenches and turn their northern flank.  The assault made some headway, but did not manage to get into the defences.

V Corps's initial assault on the Prussian entrenchments

Having beaten off the initial rush, the Prussians counter-attacked.  As the French infantry fell back they left their guns exposed, and the whole of the corps reserve was overrun.  Along with the losses taken in the attack this left corps in a state of wreckage.  A followup attack by the Prussians might have finished them altogether, but their flank was threatened by French dragoons from off-table, so the two sides parted, the Prussians back to their trench lines and the French a mile or so to the east, where they licked their wounds.

V Corps, or what is left of them.  Red dice indicate casualties and other degradation of fighting ability -
recoverable with a time in reserve. Black dice indicate demoralisation of the corps due to losses
- these persist for the duration of the battle.

III Corps, having crossed the Spree by the pontoon bridge at the downstream end of the marsh, are
 forming up to march on the south-eastern corner of the city.

III Corps, having crossed the river in the mid-afternoon by the pontoon bridge at the end of the eastern causeway, made a better job of a second attack, toward dusk, against the defences immediately adjacent to the town.  Gaultier's brigade was on the left, with their advance lit by the burning Rathaus on their flank.  Petit's brigade was to their right, supported by dragoons.  Petit was driven off, with losses, but Gaultier did better.  The Stendal reservists were driven back in confusion, fleeing well to the rear away from the fierce attack.  A foot battery in their support (that of Schaefer, in Rüchel's column) was overrun, and the brigade kept going, angling a little right to smash into the other Stendal brigade, which had been at its ease in a supporting role, behind the main trench line.  It, in turn, was sent fleeing to the rear, but Gaultier's men had done their dash.  They also fell back a few hundred yards to rest, but seeing how exposed they were Marshal Davout recalled them as far as the trench line.  That, though, was now in French hands, and artillery was being man-handled forward into it to support fresh attacks in the morning.  

III Corps goes in for the first time

The Prussians on the eastern island fell back, as the sun sank, behind the last river line.  Marching across the Spandauer Brücke they took up positions in the buildings lining the river bank on both sides of the Spandau road.  They were pressed close behind by Louis-Prix Varé's brigade of infantry,  of St-Hilaire's division, who threatened to cross the bridge into the Spandauer quarter first thing the following morning.

Day 2 - 23 November

At 7:00am on the 23rd the Prussians are holding on to the northern suburbs of Berlin by the skin of their teeth.  The south-eastern part of the city is burning, and the French have taken the southern bank, the Fischer Island, and the city centre as far as the eastern defensive ditch.  I and III Corps, backed by the Imperial Guard, are now poised to renew the assault.  If they can drive the Prussians entirely from the city in the ten hours of daylight on day two of the battle the city will be theirs, and the Prussian strategic position thrown into disarray.  If not, they will be forced to fall back, for French casualties to date have been much higher than those of the defenders.

The second day's activity was intended to start with a co-ordinated attack all along the line against the eastern defences of the city.  Organising such an unwieldy attack was proving too difficult, though, so by 8:00am the plan was scaled back to a renewed attack by III Corps.

The Prussians, meanwhile, taking advantage of French inactivity, were not idle in the north.  The city centre had been abandoned the previous evening to the French, and now the Spandauer Brücke, across which they had marched out, was destroyed.  It had been prepared earlier with inflammables, and by 8:00am it was an impassable wall of flame, then a charred ruin.  As it burned, Prussian and Swedish guns along the river bank to the west, in the grounds of the Monbijou palace, opened fire on the buildings across from them, including the cathedral.  These had previously sheltered nests of French marksmen and artillery, but would do so no longer for they, too, were in flames.  With no means of crossing the river that front turned into a sporadic exchange of fire between Varé's infantry on the south bank and Swedish infantry and artillery on the north.  Varé could not be dislodged, but the Swedes took turns being driven back by his fierce fire into the relative safety of the fields and suburbs behind, only to return an hour or two later to resume their duel.

The French artillery that had menaced the city on the previous day from the southern bank had in the meantime been brought across to the north, again by the pontoon bridge by the eastern causeway.  These, with the Guard Artillery prominent, were now pushed up into and through the trench-line to soften the defenders.  Alas for the attack the Prussians were alert and waiting for it, and a furious crossfire of musketry from the buildings along Alexanderstraße and from the fields to the north-east of there drove much of the artillery back before it could discharge its intended cannister.  The remaining guns, and Gaultier's infantry, managed to impose enough pain on the defending Prussians, though, to cause them to abandon the eastern suburbs all the way up to Alexanderplatz, where the river bends to flow west.

An hour later the Prussians had re-occupied the northern part of this stretch, and consolidated a line running from Alexanderplatz to the Prenzlauerberg trench line.  The Brandenburg Reserve division marched onto the field before the Prenzlauerberg, reinforcing the left flank and enabling a tentative Prussian advance forward of the trenches.  

With Bernadotte's I Corps having been brought up at dusk to within support distance of the front line, GdD Dupont, with Klein's division of dragoons on their flank, marched forward to discourage the Prussian advance.  That might have gone badly, for Prussian infantry, with support from their own dragoons, was able to catch the French cavalry by surprise.  Casualties were not heavy, nor any guns taken, but Klein was embarrassed.  The Prussians chose not to press the point, though, and withdrew again to their start line.

Again and again through the morning Davout's men attacked, now led by Gudin's division, now by Friant's, but were not able to break the Prussian line, even with their left flank no longer threatened by flanking fire from Alexanderstraße.

By 1:00 pm the Emperor was becoming impatient with the lack of progress.  The army was re-ordered in preparation for a final major assault, infantry (of Bernadotte's I Corps, which until now had been held in reserve) and dragoons lining the Weissensee causeway.  At 2:00 a division of cuirassiers under Nansouty and the Imperial Guard infantry, two miles back from the front line, started marching forward.

As it turned out they would not be used.  At 3:00 three attacks went in, with III Corps again prominent.  

On the French right, Petit's brigade attacked a point in the trenches held only by the Brandenburg reserve cavalry.  Flinging them into retreat he pushed further, into and through the second trench line, where von Katte's dragoons were broken in an attempt to stop his advance.  Only when he came up against Prussian infantry of Schimonsky's brigade did the advance falter.  The Prussians pressed back, driving him back over the trench lines back almost to where he had started from.  Both sides rushed forward reinforcements to plug gaps and guard vulnerable points and units.  The attack was a success, but not a breakthrough.

Closer to the city, GdB Gaultier repeated his advance of the night before, attacking northward with Alexanderstraße on his left.  This time he was supported by a brigade of dragoons behind, and GdD Grouchy led his other two brigades up Alexanderstraße inself and into Alexanderplatz, driving out the Prussian fusiliers holding it.  Gaultier, to Grouchy's right, temporarily pushed back the Prussian infantry to his front before himself being driven back, while to his left Varé's musketry drove the Swedish artillery from Monbijou.

Looking south as the French prepare their final assault on the afternoon of the 23rd.

With just one hour of daylight left the only Coalition troops still in the city of Berlin were the Swedish Enkedrottningens regiment - a single battalion facing the six battalions of Varé's brigade.  The river prevented an assault at bayonet's point, but furious musketry was enough to drive them back.  With that there was no remaining obstacle to French occupation of the entire city, and the battle was won.