The 2nd Battle of Dahme - 6 September 1813

New from Germany is from the once unknown village of Dahme, just south of Berlin which has witnessed a bloody encounter between Marshal Oudinot's French cavalry corps and General Pahlen's Russian Cavalry.  Through the course of the battle the French received reinforcements from General Bertrand's corps and the Russians were reinforced by Austrian's from General Meerveldt's corps.

The full battle report is below

The battlefield just after midday.  The Russian cavalry are on the right, the French on the left, with Dahme in the centre.  The Allies have to win the battle to reopen their supply lines which is the road going off table centre right.  French reinforcements will be arriving on the road left centre.



Russian Dragoon division sharpening their swords for the coming clash.

The Cossacks screen off the heavies, giving them a chance to deploy.  Don't misatake the quality painting for quality fighting abilities.  The Cossacks will effectively avoid conflict all battle.

Reinforcements start to arrive - French heavy cavalry division arriving on the left - Carabiniers & Cuirassiers

And the Advance Guard of the Austrian corps hits the field, minus a brigade of grenzers who heard there was fighting up ahead and "accidentally" took a wrong turn.

The cavalry corps swiflty close, supported by their horse artillery.  A brigade of French dragoons is at risk of becoming isolated.

Bertrand's 1st Division arrives (minus the artillery who got left behind in the rush to the battlefield).  They march swiftly up the road to grab Dahme before the ponderously moving Austrian infantry can get there.



The cavalry charge!  The Russians manage to get more supports up though , with French reserve brigades too far away to make a difference.  This pic shows two of the 3 fights that occur simultaneously.



The 3rd cavalry clash - Russian lighs into French heavies, but the Russians do have some Cossacks up in support.  The Russians also are superior with an attached general while the French cavalry are without any encouragement and are still relatively green.

On the far side of Dahme, French and Russian light cavalry are a little less keen to close and advance more cautiously.

The 3 cavalry fights end badly for the French.  The central French heavies win the fight and rout their opponents but they are left wavering from the fight and vulnerable to the swarms of fresh allied cavalry nearby.  The other two French units are routed leaving a gap in the French line.

The full battlefield showing the thin remnants of the French right.  In the middle background Bertand's corps has occupied Dahme, while the light cavalry brigades have finally clashed in the far distance.

On the left, the French hussars defeat their Russian counterparts but become disordered in the process.  Nevertheless they pursue and hit a fresh brigade of Russian Uhlans.  Things are going to turn out badly for this over enthusiastic French brigade.

Within half an hour things are looking even worse for Marshal Oudinot.  His corps has almost ceased to exist.  The wavering dragoons have routed in response to a combined Austro-Russian charge, and on the left in the distance, the wing of Hussars & Chasseurs are in flight or close to it.  In the centre Bertrand's infantry have been gradually arriving (though with a lot of stragglers failing to arrive).  However, with Oudinot's cavalry in flight, the situation is not looking good for them.  They begin to take up defensive positions and attempt to old out until nightfall, about 90 mins away.

The final view of the battlefield.  The Russo-Austrian cavalry have taken a lot of casualties but hold the field.  The Austrian infantry and artillery are marching up to pound the French foot, but nightfall will intervene before they can cause too much damage, leaving the French to slink away northwards.  The Allies have reopened their supply lines (at the cost of a lot of horse flesh) but the precious French cavalry have been decimated.

 And so ends the 2nd Battle of Dahme.  The strategic situation is not significantly changed (which it would have been if the French had won), but the Allied army remains intact and the French have taken more losses that they can ill afford, especially not in cavalry.  The French have lost a valuable opportunity to redress the numerical advantage the Allies have.