This "superiority" caused the French to advance from the wood of Elsaszhausen against the skirmishers of the XIth Army Corps appearing at the northern edge of the Niederwald. The success they met with at the start induced the French to continue their advance, and when a reverse occurred subsequently, the wood of Elsaszhausen was taken by the Hessians without difficulty.[1]
Although such counter-attacks, directed against the strong
firing line of the attacker and unsupported by the defender's
fire, were frequently successful in war, this was due to the
moral effect produced on the attacker by the sudden and
unexpected onset of a long line of infantry. Troops thus
unexpectedly attacked, and, in addition, deprived of the support
of their own artillery, almost invariably lost their heads.
However, if the attacker is prepared for such an event,
remains cool, meets the counter-attack of the defender with a
powerful fire at short ranges, and brings up his supports, in
order to follow up the effect of his fire with an offensive
movement, there can be no doubt as to the result.[2]
Such a counter-attack, however, is only possible when the defender still has strong, intact reserves at his disposal, which he has kept in readiness in the closest proximity to the firing line until the decisive moment. An organization acting as part of a larger force, and whose flanks are secure, as a rule has no choice but to make a frontal counter-attack, unless offensive action is to be dispensed with altogether.
Short frontal counter-attacks from a position were made successfully
by the British in the battles at the opening of the 19th Century. (In these
counter-attacks, the British fired a volley and then advanced to the
assault). Such successful counter-attacks were made during the battles
of Vimiero, Maida, Busaco, and especially Waterloo.[3]
At Beaumont, the 66th Infantry made a counter-attack when the French had approached within 40 m. The 66th had already begun to
- ↑ Kunz, Kriegsgeschichtliche Beispiele, XIII, p. 121, et seq.
- ↑ The battles of Soor and Kesselsdorf are interesting examples of this. (Kriege Friedrichs des Groszen, II, pp. 75 and 234). In both cases the defender's frontal counter-attack forced the assailant to face about; but at Soor a second line of infantry, and at Kesselsdorf a charge made by the Bonin Dragoons finally turned the scale in favor of the assailant.
- ↑ At Waterloo, the counter-attack made by Picton's Division and the British Guards repulsed the French attack. von Ollech, Feldzug von 1815 pp. 230 and 247. See also note p. 151 supra.
