| 翻訳と辞書 |
| Battle of Melle ： ウィキペディア英語版 |
Battle of Melle
The Battle of Melle was a small meeting engagement fought on 9 July 1745, during the War of the Austrian Succession, between forces of the Pragmatic Allies and the French following the battle of Fontenoy that would have serious consequences for the Pragmatic Army of the allies and Flanders. The allies, under Lieutenant General Moltke, were attempting to send more troops to defend the city Ghent, one of their major supply depots.〔''The Gentleman's Magazine'', Vol. XV, July, 1745, London, pp. 390-391〕 The French, commanded by Lieutenant General Du Chayla, had sent their force to establish a crossing and a post south of the river Scheldt around the town of Melle to begin isolating Ghent. The allied force was driven off with significant losses, allowing the French to capture Ghent.
==Preliminary maneuvers==
After the French victory at the battle of Fontenoy and the capture of the city of Tournai, Marshal Saxe began to exploit the weakness of the allies and maneuvered so as to threaten Brussels and Brabant, Ghent and Flanders forcing Duke of Cumberland, over-all commander of the allies, to choose which places to defend.〔Skrine, Francis Henry. ''Fontenoy and Great Britain's Share in the War of the Austrian Succession 1741-48''. London, Edinburgh, 1906, p. 226.〕 Of the allies' two major magazines, Ghent and Brussels, Ghent was of more value as the supplies there had been reserved while those in Brussels had been used. However, Cumberland decided to defend Brabant and Brussels with the field army while sending some troops to increase the garrison of Ghent and issuing orders to transport the supplies out of Ghent.〔Fortescue, J. W. ''A History of the British Army'', MacMillan, London, 1899, Vol. II, p. 122.〕
Saxe sent Du Chayla on a reconnaissance in force to Melle, a small town between Ghent and the town of Aalst. His command consisted of two infantry brigades, Normandie and Crillon, each consisting of four battalions; a detachment of Grassins, light infantry, and three brigades of cavalry: Berry, Royal Étranger and Du Roy, some twenty four squadrons.〔Screen, J.O.E., ''The Action at Melle 9 July 1745'', Society for Army Historical Research. ''Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research..., Volume 77, Issues 309-312'', London, 1999, p. 89.〕 There were about twenty small battalion guns and twenty pontoons in a camp being established on and around the road that ran between the town of Aalst and Ghent. Parts of the Normandie brigade, some two battalions, were dispersed in various posts along the Scheldt and the road to Ghent as was the some of Crillon. Du Chayla sent his light troops, the Grassins, towards Aalst to reconnoitre.
Moltke had orders from Cumberland to throw as many troops as possible from Aalst into Ghent to reinforce the garrison. Moltke's force was made up of a brigade commanded by Brigadier Thomas Bligh〔Screen, J.O.E., ''The Action at Melle 9 July 1745'', Society for Army Historical Research. ''Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research..., Volume 77, Issues 309-312'', London, 1999, p. 89.〕 of three British infantry regiments:〔Townshend, Charles, Townshend, Sir Charles Vere Ferrers. ''The military life of Field-Marshal George first marquess Townshend ...'' p.74, seems to indicate that there were four British regiments and includes the Welsh Fusiliers 23rd Foot. Skrine puts the 23rd already in Ghent. Most sources of the time show only 3 British regiments.〕 the Royal Scots, or 1st Foot; Bligh's 20th Foot and Handasyde's 16th Foot;〔There has been some confusion as to which regiment this is as there were two Handasyde's: the 16th - Roger Handasyde and the 31st - William Handasyde; most cite it as the 16th.〕 three squadrons of a British cavalry regiment, Rich's 4th Dragoons; two squadrons of Hanoverian cavalry: one of the Leib-Regiment and one of Adelebsen's Dragoons; five or six squadrons of Dutch cavalry from Slippenbach's Dragoons; and two or three squadrons of Austrian cavalry: de Ligne's and Styrum's Dragoons〔''The Gentleman's Magazine'', Vol. XV, July, 1745, London, pp. 362-363〕 and some 300 Austrian Hussars.〔Screen, J.O.E., ''The Action at Melle 9 July 1745'', Society for Army Historical Research. ''Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research..., Volume 77, Issues 309-312'', London, 1999, p.88. Screen gets Cumberland's 10 squadrons by not counting any of the Austrians, which are a minimum of 4 (2 Dragoon, 2 Hussar) for a total of 14 squadrons, however, Bligh's letters give 7 to Moltke and, at least 7 or 8 ("five or six squadrons of the Dutch..") to his force in his letter from Dendermonde and 5 squadrons to Styrum and Ligne in his letter from Aalst. Furthermore, Bligh's Dendermonde letter states: "... with the Hanoverian squadrons that joined us that day (the 9th)...". 16 or 17 squadrons would seem the most likely total.〕
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Melle」の詳細全文を読む
スポンサード リンク
| 翻訳と辞書 : 翻訳のためのインターネットリソース |
Copyright(C) kotoba.ne.jp 1997-2016. All Rights Reserved.
|
|