Story of a Party - Chapter XX
The Trial of Trier
"
It is well that war is so terrible - otherwise we would grow too fond of it."
- Robert E. Lee
***
From "Political and Military Encyclopaedia of the 19th Century"
Harvard University Press, 1947
"HUNSRÜCK, 1ST BATTLE OF THE: Offensive undertaken by French forces in April 1870, during the First European War. The offensive was undertaken by the French generals Mac-Mahon and Forey, intended to capture Trier and force the Prussians out of their defensive postures and into the harder-to-defend Mosel Valley. It was launched on April 2, initially involving Corps III, V, and VI, but expanding to include Corps II and IV later on. The defending Prussians were divided into the Third Army, under Crown Prince Friedrich, and the Fourth Army, under General von Blumenthal."
***
Outside Hermeskeil
Rhineland Province, Kingdom of Prussia
April 2, 1870
The sun was rising over the town of Hermeskeil, as the French readied themselves to change stations. Sergeant Adrien Delchamps was readying his artillery platoon to man the La Hitte gun [1]; when he looked out across the lines, Delchamps could make out the Prussian trenches across the valley.
We'll get them this time, he thought. Looking over to his men, he called them to attention, and started reading General Forey's proclamation to them.
"Soldiers of France," Delchamps bellowed as only sergeants do, "now is the time for victory! The boche [2] may have kept us at bay through the winter, but they don't have the numbers to keep the soldiers of France away for much longer. By the end of the week, we'll be in Trier, and by Easter [3], the victorious armies of France will be marching through the streets of Koblenz!"
The soldiers went back to preparing the gun, Delchamps directing and watching intently.
Today, he thought,
we'll make history.
***
A French artillery unit on the Mosel front, May 1870
From "Die Wacht am Rhein: A History of German unification, 1815-1916" by Dr. Prof. Heinrich Dorfmann
Translated into English by Roland O'Malley
Harper & Bros. Publishing Company, New York City, 1984
"The French offensive was proving problematic for the Prussians, with the French overrunning the defensive lines in several places; however, Moltke quickly sprang to work on bolstering the 235,000 Prussians facing nearly twice that number of Frenchmen across the Hunsrück. The troops that had invaded Saxony, along with a number of veterans from Austria, were moved over to the west, along with 50,000 new recruits provided by Roon. The Prussians now numbered 340,000; this, while still not equal to the French army, was still a major improvement, and with the new recruits came 300 more of the venerable "Kruppstahl" cannons, the best artillery pieces in the world at the time. This served to aid the Prussians greatly, with numbers being more equal than before (though the French still outnumbered them by a factor of 3:2), and superior Prussian equipment and leadership bridging the difference.
On the night to the 9th, the Prussians began shelling the advancing French positions, and the casualties among the French spiked. For two days and two nights, the shelling went on, and eventually, on the 12th, the Prussians sent in the infantry to counterattack. This proved successful, and by the Good Friday the front had been stabilised, largely at where it was before the offensive."
***
Saarburg
Rhineland Province, Kingdom of Prussia
April 21, 1870
It was an average day - insofar as any day can be average in war. The sun shone, the guns sounded, the shells screeched, the horses whinnied, the sergeants bellowed and the soldiers grumbled. It was bizarre how anything so loud could be described that way, but all was quiet on the Mosel front as the troop train carrying Paul Bäumer and his company rolled into Saarburg's railway station. An officer arrived in the car as the train came to a stop.
"Welcome to the Mosel, gentlemen," the officer said. "Upon leaving the train, you will proceed to the front and report to your regiments. You will receive further orders there."
The soldiers all rose, reaching for their bags. Paul felt slightly nervous at the thought of going into battle at the Mosel. Though the war was still young, the Mosel was proving to be a meat grinder; from what Paul remembered of the official figures as published, about half of the war's dead so far had been here; since the new year, over three-quarters of all killed Prussians had been killed at the Mosel. Still, he thought, no war can go on forever.
A couple of hours later, and Paul was standing in a trench with his Dreyse gun loaded and ready. The lieutenant who he'd reported to earlier had been deeply callous; he wrote Paul's name into the ledgers and gave him his marching orders, in a manner that was cold and distant even for the military [4]. That was all over now, however, as Paul had got his new rifle and gone on duty as per his orders. At least the Mosel has one advantage over Austria, he thought, as the sun shone brightly on him. The weather's better.
"You new here?" a voice said, from behind him. Paul turned around to see a burly man, probably in his early forties, with a large goatee.
"Yeah," he answered. The man extended his hand, and Paul took it. "Paul Bäumer."
"Stanislaw Katczynski," the man said.
"You from the east?" Paul asked, noting the man's Polish-sounding name.
"Yep. Just outside Deutsch Krone. My father's Polish; that's where the name's from. Welcome to Slaughterhouse Three, by the way."
***
From "Die Wacht am Rhein: A History of German unification, 1815-1916" by Dr. Prof. Heinrich Dorfmann
"The Austrian front, while increasingly taking secondary importance to the Mosel during the spring of 1870, was the site of significantly more movement. The Austrians, spurred on by the removal of men from the Prussian lines, attacked in early May across a broad front. Their superior numbers managed to overcome the disparity in equipment and organisation, and they were able to push the Prussians back by over fifty kilometers, ending the direct threat to Vienna, and setting up a new front line running from Dobersberg to Geyen, coming within ten kilometers of Brünn [5], across from where the Prussians had dug a secondary line of trenches during the winter; the defensive works on both sides of this line were improved throughout the summer, as the front settled into bloody stalemate.
Prussian soldiers heading to the front, July 1870.
In mid-June, the Elector of Hessen-Kassel, having had many grievances, personal as well as political, against Prussia over the years, joined the war on Austria's side; the Prussians, fearful of being cut in two, sent two divisions on their way to the Mosel across the border, while striking a deal with the Duchy of Hessen-Darmstadt to the south, to the effect that if they occupied the country for the increasingly overextended Prussians, they would get the southern parts of it, as well as the area around Marburg, at war's end (the rest going to Prussia). Darmstadt accepted, and moved their own troops across the border, taking Hanau and approaching Marburg by the time the Elector surrendered.
Soon after, the Thuringian states nearly all joined on one side or another, only Weimar-Eisenach, Rudolstadt and Reuß Younger Line staying neutral. Of the other duchies, Meiningen and Reuß Older Line declared for Austria, Altenburg, Coburg-Gotha and Sondershausen joining Prussia [6]. Oldenburg declared for Prussia soon after, as did both Lippe states. Only Hannover, Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Bavaria, Baden and the aforementioned Thuringian states stayed neutral through the summer of 1870. It was then that distaster struck…"
***
[1] These guns were designed in 1859, used extensively in Italy, and are still by-and-large used by the French Army ten years after their design; the Prussian Krupp cannons are superior in nearly every way. IOTL, they were superseded by the Reffye guns, the first French field guns that were breech-loaded, in 1870; we can expect that something similar is in the making ITTL.
[2] I couldn't find any dates for this term; if there's a more fitting one to use for the time period, let me know.
[3] Easter Sunday, in 1870, is April 17.
[4] Yes, even for the
Prussian military.
[5] Geyen is called Kyjov in Czech, and Brünn is Brno.
[6] This is the same as OTL during the Austro-Prussian War.