The fall of Warsaw
Hello everyone I’m Caboose and today I will be sharing with you a very interesting battle from my Prussian campaign in Napoleon total war. So let’s begin.
Background Information
In the year 1813 a massive war broke out in Europe between Prussia, Austria and Russia. The Reason for the war was that Austria and Russia were attacking Prussian allies and Client states since 1811 and Prussia was finally going to take action. The Prussian government said that if the Austrians attack one more Prussian ally then they would declare war on Austria and this did happen. In late February Austrian forces attacked the Prussian ally of Hessen so in response Prussia declared war on Austria and Russia joined on the side of the Austrians. Early on in the war part Italy Prussia had large amounts success and was talking land in the Low Countries and the former German states and defeated the Russians on the border. But then summer came and the Austrians started and offensive which crushed Prussian forces in Bavaria and the Russians invaded East Prussia and Poland. And by June Konigsberg had already fallen and Warsaw was now the last Prussian stronghold in the east.
The battle
In July Major General Heinrich who was once the Commander of all Prussian forces in the east began to dig in with his army which had very little troops left from previous battles but he had hundreds of militia from the city. Heinrich knew he stood no chance against the Russians all he and his staff wanted is to hold the Russians off long enough so the Berlin could prepare. The Russian army was commanded by Andrei Andreevich Zass and his brother Andrei Pavlovich Zass with an army of 3500 men, the Prussians could only muster 1500 men. Heinrich knew that the star forts outside the city would be easier to defend because he could use the cannon on the walls. As the Russian army advanced to the fort the defenders began to become fearful and wanted to surrender as they knew their death was upon them but not General Heinrich he told his men to stay their ground and fight to the death to protect their great nation and so they did. The Prussians manned as many cannons as possible and began to bombard the Russian Army inflicting heavy casualties. While Russian infantry marched foward their cavarly engaged with Prussian horsemen before they could get inside the fort the Russians followed the Prussians into the fort and killed the artillery men before they could be beaten back. At the same time the Russian infantry were at the walls but did not scale but instead fired back at the Prussians this cost the Russians many men but then they stormed the walls they were meet by determined Prussians troops and engaged in brutal hand-to-hand combant. Else where the Russian cannon had destroyed part of the wall and stormed in, milita went to fight them but they were brushed aside. The remainder Prussian cavarly and even General Heinrich went to the breach but they could not stop the Russians either and it cost Heinrich his life. Then the remaining 264 Prussians ran for the command HQ for a final stand the Russians stormed the building and killed the remaining Prussian troops.
Aftermath
At the end of the battle all 1500 defenders including Heinrich were killed. Even though the Russians were victorious the had suffered dearly, they had lost 1300 men more than a third of their army among the dead was Andrei Pavlovich Zass their second in command. Within a week news arrived in Berlin that Warsaw had fallen to the Russians this sparked fear and lost of hope for the Prussians the Austrians had already taken Dresden and several other cities and there was only one army in the Berlin military distract and now the Russians were in range of Berlin. But this was not the end of Prussia and three years later the Prussian army would finally retake Warsaw and even go on to take Mosscow.