Authors: Edward Marston
Against
this array of Allied power, Villeroi had marshalled his men along a concave
line. On his extreme right were five battalions in Taviers and Franquenee. The
main right wing of the Franco-Bavarian army consisted of 82 squadrons,
interlined with brigades of infantry, facing the open plain. In the centre were
20 battalions and a dozen of the lethal triple-barrelled cannon were placed
around Ramillies with additional foot in the rear. Overlooking the Little
Gheete further north were more battalions and guns. As a final part of his
deployment, Villeroi had put 50 squadrons of horse around the village of Autre-
Eglise which, with Offus, was intended to anchor the left flank. There was one
serious oversight. Because he deemed the marshes around the rivers impassable,
the French commander had sent no troops to defend them.
Daniel
was tingling with anticipatory delight as he scanned the battlefield. He felt
certain that a momentous victory could be achieved. Of the two armies, neither had
a marked numerical advantage but he knew that the Allied artillery was far
superior. Marlborough had deployed his men in a more compact formation. While
Daniel had been impressed by this, he didn't underestimate the enemy. Marshal
Villeroi was an experienced and able commander, determined not to repeat the
mistakes made by Marshal Tallard at Blenheim. His army was strongly posted but,
as Daniel was quick to observe, in deciding to stand on the defensive, he'd
surrendered the initiative. It was left to Marlborough to make the opening
moves.
Early
in the afternoon, the guns fired and the battle began. The extremities of the
Allied line were called into play first. Attacking in the south, the Dutch
Guards used their two cannon to smash a way through houses and walls. Within a
couple of hours, they'd overrun both Taviers and Franquenee. Alarmed by this
development, Villeroi launched a counter-attack, sending squadrons of dragoons
and battalions of Swiss troops, supported by a Bavarian brigade. It was a calamitous
exercise. When the dragoons dismounted among the marshes, they were at the
mercy of an advancing Danish cavalry that swept quickly through them. The Swiss
took to their heels in panic and most of the Bavarians joined in the retreat.
There was now a serious threat to the French on their right wing.
Meanwhile,
Marlborough was also probing on the other flank. Under the command of General
Lord Orkney, a redoubtable Scot, the massed British battalions were dispatched
in the direction of Offus, near which the enemy command post had been set up.
Villeroi's judgement had failed him. Having believed the marshes on that flank
to be impassable, he now watched with growing consternation as waves of British
soldiers trudged through them over fascines. Every time the smoke of gunfire
cleared, the lines could be seen getting ever closer, marching to the beat of
the drums. With each new burst of cannon or musketry fire from the French,
scores of redcoats toppled to the ground with fatal wounds or gruesome
injuries. They were immediately used as stepping stones through the quagmire,
dead bodies or stray limbs being gathered up indiscriminately and pressed into
service as auxiliary fascines. French gunfire was unrelenting but the
battalions kept surging on and the drums never faltered. Tom Hillier, Hugh
Dobbs and the others kept their nerve in the hail of musket balls and
maintained their line. In spite of the pounding it took, the advance continued
with a sense of inevitability, climbing the slope to the ridgeline until it
passed the outlying farms. It reached the very walls of Offus and Autre-Eglise,
dispersing the garrisons in each village and hunting them from building to
building.
Observing
it all from a vantage point, Daniel was thrilled by the apparent success of the
thrust on the right. He was therefore amazed when Marlborough handed him a
dispatch for Orkney.
'They
must withdraw immediately,' said Marlborough.
Daniel
gaped. 'Withdraw?' he said. 'When they clearly have the advantage?'
'Deliver
my orders, Daniel.'
'At
once, Your Grace.'
'And
please don't question them again.'
'No,
Your Grace.'
Daniel
spurred his horse into a gallop down the slope. Though he preferred to be in
the thick of the fighting, he was given a taste of its ferocity as he sped
across the plain. Cannon were still booming and muskets still popping. Smoke
was everywhere. Wounded horses neighed in agony as they threshed about on the
ground. Despairing cries of dying soldiers swelled the pandemonium. When he
rode up the slope towards the main action, Daniel had to evade mounds of
corpses. Lord Orkney's troops were outnumbered yet they still continued to
advance, engaging in fierce hand-to-hand fighting against French and Walloon
infantry. Locating the commander amid the fray, Daniel handed him the dispatch
and waited for him to read it.
Orkney
was outraged. 'Pray, what's this?' he yelled. 'His Grace wishes us to retire
across the Gheete? I've no mind to give ground while we're giving no quarter.'
'Those
are your orders, my lord,' said Daniel.
'And
damn vexatious orders they are! We're on the point of occupying Offus. We
fought our way here through a blizzard of bullets and round shot. Are we to
abandon what we've gained?'
'I'm
sure the decision has great merit.'
Daniel
left him fuming and galloped off in the opposite direction. On his way back,
deafened by the noise of battle, he recognised another of Marlborough's ADCs
riding towards the right flank and he wondered if the orders he'd just
delivered had been countermanded. In fact, they were being reinforced. To make
sure that his commands were obeyed, Marlborough sent no fewer than ten
consecutive dispatches to Orkney. He even sent Cadogan, to make sure that the
withdrawal was swift and orderly. The attack was called off. Angry, bewildered
and feeling let down, Orkney retired with exemplary skill, sustaining losses in
doing so but beating off any attempts by the French to pursue them. In
obedience to Marlborough's orders, the battalions drew up on the other side of
the Gheete, wholly at a loss to understand why their incisive strike had been
suddenly halted.
Villeroi,
meanwhile, was congratulating himself on having repulsed a dangerous attack
but, as a result, he'd had to withdraw substantial forces from the centre of
his line. Rather than send them back, he kept them on his left flank to counter
the menace of the British battalions lined up beyond the Gheete. Marlborough's
bluff had worked. Because Orkney's attack was clearly not a feint, Villeroi had
unbalanced his dispositions. In strengthening the left flank, he'd seriously
weakened the centre. Solid lines of infantry and cavalry had been drastically
thinned down across two miles of open plain between Taviers and Ramillies.
From
their position on high ground between the two villages, Marlborough had an excellent
view of the entire battlefield. When Daniel realised what their
commander-in-chief had done, he regretted his temerity in questioning the
decision. It was a brilliant strategy.
Ramillies
itself now came under attack. A dozen battalions under the command of General
Schultz advanced against heavy resistance until they reached the village
itself, forcing the garrison to look to its own defence rather than being able
to offer support elsewhere. The grand attack on the French centre was led by
General Overkirk with Allied cavalry supported by Dutch, German and Swiss
infantry in the pay of the Dutch. They moved inexorably forward in four dense
ranks along a line that extended from Ramillies to the Mehaigne. The real test
was now coming.
Daniel
was able to look down on four miles of unremitting warfare. Smoke billowed,
cannon roared, cavalry charged, sabres clashed, foot soldiers traded fire,
drummers beat out their calls and all the unstinting savagery of battle was
released amid the tumult. Longing to be involved in it all, Daniel was forced
to be an onlooker, trying to decide at which point the fighting was most
intense and where the Allies were gaining the upper hand. Hurling themselves
against the French centre, the Allied cavalry crashed easily through the first
line of enemy horse. When they tried to penetrate even further, however, the
infantry which interleaved Villeroi's cavalry responded with such a sustained
volley that they were stopped in their tracks.
Of
more significance was a counter-charge by the Maison du Roi, the French
household cavalry, 13 squadrons in all. It was so swift, controlled and
powerful that Overkirk's cavalry wilted before it. Patently, the Allied centre
needed much more support. Marlborough supplied it in person.
Are
you ready for action, Daniel?' he said, taking out his sabre.
'Yes,
Your Grace.'
'Then
let's not miss the fun.'
'I'm
with you,' shouted Daniel above the hullabaloo.
With
the rest of his staff at his heels, Marlborough led the way. Having already
anticipated heavy resistance in the centre, he had withdrawn some of the
squadrons from the right flank to act as reinforcements to Overkirk. Because of
the undulations in the terrain, the additional horse had departed from Orkney's
force without being seen by Villeroi. Thinking he was still threatened by a
sizeable army on his left flank, he kept several battalions away from the
centre where they would have been far more use. Once again, Villeroi had been
tricked by Marlborough, leaving a sector of his line vulnerable.
The
arrival of their commander-in-chief at the head of fresh squadrons rallied the
troops and horse in the centre. In his long scarlet coat with the sky-blue sash
of the Garter, he was recognised at once by his men. Unfortunately, in making
himself so visible, he also became a target for the French. Rejoicing at the
chance to kill the one man who could contrive their defeat, they tried to run
him down. Before Marlborough went very far, his horse stumbled at a ditch and
threw its rider, leaving him defenceless on the ground. The French cavalry
tried to hack their way towards him. It was a critical moment and Daniel was
acutely aware of it. To lose Marlborough would be to lose the presiding genius
of the Allied army. Leaping from his horse in the middle of the melee, Daniel
held its bridle and stirrup while Marlborough heaved himself up into the
saddle.
There
was more help at hand. Seeing their captain-general in difficulties, Major
General Murray marched up rapidly with two Swiss battalions to cover his escape.
Some of the pursuing French cavalry were unable to check their galloping horses
and rode straight on to the gleaming bayonets of the Swiss infantry. Daniel was
a grateful beneficiary While many of the horses were impaled, it was the riders
who mostly felt the thrust of cold steel and writhed in agony on the ground.
Loose horses were everywhere, neighing in fear, kicking out, bumping into each
other and trying to escape the burning cauldron of battle. Seizing a passing
bridle, Daniel steadied the prancing stallion enough to mount it. He was now
able to wield his sabre to cut a swathe through the enemy. The action was hot
and he revelled in it.
Everything
turned on the cavalry engagement at the heart of the battle. The elite French
squadrons held the early advantage. As the battle raged on, however, and as
Marlborough fed more squadrons from the right flank into the action, the
balance tilted in favour of the Allies. By late afternoon, when the plain was
red with blood and littered with corpses, they had built up a superiority of
eight to five. There was marked progress elsewhere as well. On the extreme left
of Marlborough, the Danish cavalry beyond Taviers cut through the French
anchoring force on the Mehaigne and swung north to threaten Villeroi's flank.
At
4 p.m. Marlborough deemed it the moment to order his final charge. Massing his
cavalry, he sent them off at a trot to gain impetus as they went along. The
Maison du Roi re-gathered and formed a line to meet them. Two large, proud,
urgent, tiring, bloodstained, sweat-covered bands of horsemen charged forward
with murderous intent. When they met once again, there was an ear-shattering
clang of sabres as they tried to cut down each other like so much human timber.
Neither side gave ground. In the mounting frenzy of battle, gaping wounds were
opened up, eyes gouged out, hands and arms severed, horses slashed to death
and, in one case, a Dutch head cut clean from its shoulders. The French held
the charge at first but the numbers told steadily against them. Bursting
through the gaps in the enemy squadrons, the Allied cavalry was able to attack
from the rear. The end was at last in sight.
Responding
to orders, Orkney marched his men forward over the crest of a hill, deploying
his forces in such a way as to give the appearance of a sizeable army. In fact,
it had been seriously depleted but Villeroi was unaware of that. What
preoccupied him was the threat of a second attack on his left flank. The French
commander was so fearful of the phantom army beyond the marshes that he did not
realise what was happening on his extreme right. The Danish cavalry had
encircled the French flank from the south. At the same time, with an
irresistible surge, the Allied infantry finally captured Ramillies and drove
its garrison out. When the French line broke, its nerve broke with it. The
panic-stricken cry of
sauve qui
peut
swept
through the whole army and entire brigades ran for their lives.