« em: Dezembro 20, 2006, 02:18:56 pm »
Não foi inventada pelo yupi yupi caiehh motha*** Bruce Willis...
The 57th, Die Hard (West Middlesex) Regiment of Foot Battle of Albuera, 16th May 1811 Marshall Beresford, in command of a mixed Anglo-Portuguese-Spanish army, had been laying siege to the French garrison City of Badajos.
In an attempt to raise this siege, Marshall Soult, with 24,000 veteran French troops, marched against Beresford in early May. Although Beresford had a total of 35,000 men under his command, only some 10,400 were British, the remainder being 10,200 largely untried Portuguese and 14,600 Spanish soldiers under General Joachim Blake. Learning of Soult's approach, Beresford concentrated his army behind the village of Albuera, which straddled the Albuera River, just a few miles from Badajoz. Beresford's army was deployed along the gentle hills rising behind Albuera where any French assault over the bridge and through the village could be channeled into an effective killing ground. He deployed the British and Hanoverian troops to hold the center with the Portuguese on the left and the Spanish on the right flank, which Beresford considered relatively secure since it was on higher ground. On the morning of May 16th, Soult surprised the Allied army by staging a diversionary action before the village and launching a major attack with the bulk of his forces of some 20,000 men on the relatively weak right flank. Beresford began a frantic process of re-deploying his troops to confront Soult's advance. To begin with, the right flank was held by some 4,000 Spanish troops of General Zaya's Division composed of the 2nd and 4th Spanish Guards, and the Regiment Irlanda which was the first to confront the French column of General Girard's Division of 5,000 men. Zaya's men bravely stood their ground. They held the heights and traded volleys with the head of Girard's column. This allowed time for the first British troops to arrive in the area, the Brigade of General Colborne (1/3rd, 2/31st, 2/48th, 2/66th), to come up on the left flank of the French and hold their advance.
While the British troops were deploying, a brief passing hailstorm hid the approach of the French 2nd Hussars and the Polish 1st Vistula Lancers with some 800 men, who fell upon and annihilated the bulk of Colborne's Brigade. About 1,400 out of 2,000 men lay dead or wounded. Only the 2/31st Regiment was able to form a square and survived. Two squadrons of the British 4th Dragoons made a counter-charge but were smashed by the French 10th Hussars. General Girard's Division, now joined by General Gazan's fresh division of about 3,000 men, moved forward as Zaya's battered division moved back. Two British brigades, Houghton's and Abercrombie's, then arrived to confront this combined attack of the entire French 5th Corps. While a French skirmish line engaged the attention of Abercrombie's men, the full weight of Girard's 8,000 strong 5th Corps fell upon Houghton's Brigade (29th, 1/48th, 1/57th), which, together with elements from the 2/31st Foot, had a combined total of only 1,900. The stage was set for a desperate confrontation between Houghton's two deep line of red-coats which was supported by the 6pr and 9pr artillery batteries of Captains Cleeves and Hawker versus the twelve deep column of Girard's Corps which was supported by four 6pr batteries of horse-artillery deployed on either side of the column. For over thirty minutes, both sides traded volleys at ranges closing from 80 to less than 50 yards. During this terrible ordeal, the four British regiments under Houghton were reduced to a strength of less than 700 men, the survivors closing all the time to the center to fill the gaps left by the fallen.
It was during this epic action that the commander of the 57th, Lieutenant-Colonel William Inglis, was seriously wounded while standing at the center of his battalion with the regimental colours. Despite his wounds, he refused to be carried to the rear. Lying prostrate before his men, he exalted them,
"Die Hard, 57th, Die Hard".
Meanwhile, despite Beresford's desperate pleas, the remaining Spanish troops refused to reinforce the British. Fortunately, General Cole commanding the 4th Division, though lacking any specific orders, brought up General Myer's Fusilier Brigade (1/7th, 2/7th, 1/23rd) of some 2,000 men as well as General Harvey's Portuguese Brigade of 600 men. With bayonets fixed, the British advanced in a mile long line to Houghton's right. The French cavalry, consisting of four Dragoon Regiments under General Latour-Maubourg, then attacked the right of the British, which was made-up of Harvey's Portuguese troops. But blasts of musketry from the Portuguese sent the dragoons reeling back. By this time, smashed by the sheer volume of fire from Houghton's Brigade, Girard's column began to give ground.
A fresh French column then approached, that of General Werle's powerful brigade of over 5,600 men. Here, another classic line versus column confrontation took place. Supported by Captain Sympher's battery of 6pr's, Myer's 2,000 Fusiliers and the 600 strong Loyal Lusitanian Legion were deployed in line two deep. They were confronted by Werle's eighteen deep column as it tried to swing past Girard's stalled troops. Volleys were exchanged for just less than thirty minutes. Then Werle's troops broke and fled, leaving 1,045 of Myer's men as casualties. Almost at the same time, Abercrombie's Brigade swung in on Girard's right flank, sending the shattered 5th Corps fleeing to the rear mixed with Werle's men.
http://www.pwrr-army.co.uk/pwrr_middlesex.htm
