Battle of Wertingen

Overview

In the Battle of Wertingen Imperial French forces led by Marshals Joachim Murat and Jean Lannes attacked a small Austrian corps commanded by Feldmarschall-Leutnant Franz Xaver von Auffenberg. This action, the first battle of the Ulm Campaign, resulted in a clear French victory. Wertingen lies 28 kilometres (17 mi) northwest of Augsburg. The combat was fought during the War of the Third Coalition, part of the Napoleonic Wars.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The Battle of Wertingen was the opening engagement of the Ulm Campaign, giving French forces an immediate tactical success at the outset of operations against the Austrian army. Marshals Murat and Lannes brought roughly 12,000 troops to bear against Feldmarschall-Leutnant von Auffenberg's corps of approximately 5,500, inflicting around 2,900 Austrian casualties. As the first action of a campaign that would culminate in the encirclement and surrender of the main Austrian force at Ulm, Wertingen established French operational momentum and demonstrated the vulnerability of isolated Austrian detachments to the converging French corps. The lopsided outcome foreshadowed the broader collapse of Austrian resistance in southern Germany during this phase of the War of the Third Coalition.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (3)