DRESDEN DEFENSES

       

The condition of the Dresden defenses was a matter of utmost concern to Napoleon. Only during the armistice, with the prospect of a new threat from Bohemia, had much attention been paid to the defenses on the left bank. On 12 August he issued orders for the tracing of a ditch around the city and the placement of "chevaux de frise" (a roadblock of sharpened spikes used to obstruct the passage of cavalry). After the fight at Löwenberg, he sent the engineer officer Rogniat to Dresden to inspect the condition of the city defenses and report back. The Altstadt was safe against a coup de main (2:1) but not 3:1. It had 3 lines of defense:

 

(1)   The ring of lunettes (redoubts)—five on the left bank and eight on the right.

(2)   Barricades, palisades, and garden walls of the suburbs.

(3)   The old enceinte.

There were no redoubts beyond the Weisseritz and the existing ones were poorly situated.[1]

Petre tells us:

The old enceinte, of which the outline can still be traced by the alignment of the Ringstrasse and by a mound and pond near the Opera House, was as far as possible reconstructed and armed. Its field of fire was greatly hampered by the circle of suburbs ("schlags," as they were locally termed), which had grown round it to a distance of 600 or 700 yards.

 

Artillery firing shot required a clear field of fire and could not be effectively employed where there was not open ground.

Still, guns on some of the old bastions could sweep the ground beyond these "schlags." The outer edge of the suburbs was put in a state of defence by the loopholing of houses and garden walls, the barricading of doors and windows, the deepening of ditches, and other temporary devices. In front of the main entrances "tambours"[2] were constructed, whilst the smaller entrances to the town were blocked up. Streets were cleared so as to afford free passage for artillery within the suburbs, and the squares and open places were kept free for the posting of reserves.[3]

The Rule
The Dresden walls had been partially demolished beginning in 1809. George Nafziger says the walls were in "rather poor condition," not compatible with the "Walled Towns" rule in other games. Please treat each hex of the Dresden Altstadt (1210, 1310, 1311) as regular chateaux hexes. All places within a red enceinte line are treated as plain Chateaux in Counterstrike.

 

A "chateau" is a large walled farm or another stone structure, usually with a wall, such as a church cemetery. However, we use the term in a wider sense, to avoid the proliferation of many different terrain types and special rules for them. The design intent is to strictly limit the different types of terrain. Smolensk (Napoleon Against Russia) was a true fortress and demanded special rules, given that it was almost impregnable. But these walls on the Counterstrike maps are just plain chateaux in terms of game effect. (The walls around the Dresden Neustadt would be a different story, but there is no possibility of the Coalition attacking those walls—they have no units on that side of the Elbe.)

As for Dresden’s Altstadt, in no playtest did the fighting get into the heart of the city. In the actual event, neither did Schwarzenberg. The Redoubts are one reason why the fighting never really progressed within the old city. These Redoubts were playing the outpost role as at Hougoumont and La Haye Sainte. 

The enceinte walls can be crossed by units anywhere. The gates shown on the game map have no special significance in play. There is no rule requiring the use of gates, as the walls had many gaps, not comparable with the walls of Smolensk. 

Bunzlau, Haynau and Liegnitz

City walls were also torn down, by Napoleon's order, in Bunzlau, Haynau, and other places. At Löwenberg and Goldberg, the town walls remained. When it comes to Liegnitz, "the much-heralded fortifications [consisted of] only a few earthworks and palisades ... weak enough to take with cavalry alone.[4] The emperor did not want to fight a war of position. He did not intend to take advantage of the walls, and wanted to deny them to the enemy.

Some of the town fortifications of Bunzlau were demolished by Napoleon’s armies. You can still see the walls in an 1882 map (and in the city emblem). The sketch map  shows where the walls were pulled down. According to this plan, not only the SW but also the NW and NE sides were demolished. The dotted line ........... shows the parts demolished by the time the drawing was made. There is a large gap in the wall to the west (Napoleon's presumed position), though there is still a wall on the East side (the enemy side).

"Marmont's rearguard razed all the fortifications constructed during the armistice, blew the powder magazine, and destroyed every bridge that could be found as far as Eichberg, five miles north of Bunzlau."[5] "Thirty minutes after the French retreated, several explosions rocked the town followed by a thunderous blast that marked the blowing of an enormous powder depot..."[6]

Napoleon Sacrifices the Initiative

Only at the very end of the Armistice did the Emperor order some strengthening of the walls of Dresden, but it appears that these preparations were not completed in sufficient style to render the town impervious to an enemy coup de main. "The works were still incomplete and defective, as is shown by Napoleon's letter of the 25th to General Joseph Rogniat (his engineer officer)[7], saying he would feel reassured about Dresden if he knew that 'the three entrenchments already marked out were ready, if the barricades in the town were finished, and if the Pirna ditch were properly excavated.'"[8] The defenses were in such a state that Rogniat reported back in the negative, which was unfortunate for the Emperor because it caused him to abandon the pursuit of Blücher and give up the initiative. Napoleon felt he had to return to defend his great supply base. 

We don't really know which parts of the walls were still extant, which had been entirely demolished, and which had been removed and then blocked up. The one who would know this would be Jack Gill, and when asked, what he came up with was the status of what are called in the game "roadblocks" at the entrances to the town. All three roadblocks are in the suburbs; the one in 1411 is adjacent to the red enceinte line, so we may infer that that part of the wall next to 1411 was ineffectual. 

Jack Gill wrote: The French and Saxons made urgent and quite diligent efforts to fortify the Altstadt starting in mid-July 1813 when it became likely that Austria would join the Coalition.

• This resulted in the five lunettes as shown on the game map and the three flêches on the far left (1408) and right flanks (1010 and 1110) which Aster terms the "first line" (of defense).[9]

• The "second line" (roadblocks) consisted of fortifying the suburbs with palisades, loopholing walls, barricading streets and walled gardens, constructing firing platforms, blocking up windows with sandbags, wood, furniture, etc.

• This was largely accomplished in hexes 1113–1212 and part of 1411 in game map terms.

• Less had been completed in 1409–1410 and part of 1411, so these were largely open.

• The Friedrichstadt side likewise remained open (other than the two flêches mentioned above).

• The "third line" was improvements to the city's old enceinte—these were also largely successful.

 

 Napoleon did not anticipate the shift of forces to Bohemia at the end of the armistice. Then he had to scramble to make up for his mistake.