War of Austrian Succession (1740-48)
Dettingen
(Honour awarded in 1882)
Queen Anne died in 1714 and was succeeded by the Elector of Hanover George1. This brought Britain into all the dynastic quarrels of Western Europe. GeorgeII ascended to the throne in 1727, and was anxious to support his German subjects in times of danger with British regiments. The death of Emperor CharlesVI, the Hapsburg ruler of Austria in 1740, left his Empress the youthful and inexperienced Maria Theresa alone amongst a sea of enemies. King Frederick of Prussia lost no time in overrunning the province of Silesia. In England there was much sympathy for the Empress and in May 1741 King George set off for Hanover to lead the force of British, Hanoverians, Dutch, Danes and Hessians. Frederick was compelled to divert reinforcements in order to observe Hanover and Saxony.
By the middle of summer 16,000 British troops had been concentrated in Belgium under Lord Stair, a Marlborough veteran. The army saw no fighting until 1743 when on the 4th of June the whole army British and Hanoverian, was united at Hochst on the river Main, and there it was joined by a body of Austrians under Marshals Aremburg and Nieuberg. Louis XIV, hoping to prevent the junction of the British with the Austrians, had despatched a force of 60,000 under Marshal Noailles to move against Lord Stair, and another army to oppose the Austrians under Marshal Coigny. Stair marched to Aschaffenburg, where on the on 19th June King GeorgeII and the Duke of Cumberland joined him, the King taking over command of the army.
Noailles managed to cut the British communications with Frankfort and to block the passage of the Main. Stair wrote:
It will be impossible for us to now find forage. The French being masters of one side of the river, forage cannot be brought down to us by water so we must move upwards.
King George, unwilling to retreat, lingered in camp until he found himself in command of a starving army. When news came that some Hanoverian and Hessian reinforcements had reached Hanau it was decided to retire there. Noailles, however had not been idle, and as soon as he heard that the British were on the move, he sent Count Grammont with 28,000 men across the Main to take up a blocking position at Dettingen. As the British line of retreat was confined to the banks of the Main because of the dense woods covering the hills running down to the river, Noailles had placed a number of batteries on his side of the main to pound the marching troops.
At 4a.m. on 26 June The King’s Horse and the Life Guards led the rest of the British cavalry, followed by the Austrian cavalry, in advance of the British and Austrian infantry, with the Guards and Hanoverian cavalry acting as rearguard. As the army marched they could see the French crossing the Main behind them. Noailles was closing the trap. As the King’s Horse reached the village of Klein Ostheim at 8 a.m., it was ordered to wheel and face the river to cover the passage of the army through a single the single road that wound through the village. The French batteries were positioned across the Main for this very purpose and for 4 hours the King’s Horse had to endure their galling fire (read Captain Browne’s account of this on the history link).
At about midday the cavalry were moved forward between the villages of Klien Ostheim and Dettingen to form the right wing alongside the Austrian infantry. The King’s Horse was brigaded in the second line of cavalry, together with Ligonier’s (7DG), Cambells (Greys), Blands (3rd Hussars) and Rich’s (4th Hussars). The French Gen d’Armes and Maison du Roi started to parade in front of the armies they then advanced to attack in great numbers before the British left flank had been formed. Blands Dragoons were moved across to fill a gap in the line, and these two weak squadrons gallantly met the French assault.
The King’s Horse and Ligoniers, having been summoned up from the right, came galloping up and fell on the Gen d’Armes but were repulsed, partly because the charge was delivered with more dash than order, and partly because of the weight of the opposing numbers. George II had an unfortunate, for his horse ran away with him to the rear, indifferent to a flow of Germanic oaths; but then the King returned on foot to encourage his troops. The French cavalry drove back the King’s Horse and Ligoniers, and as the King’s Horse wheeled away to the right it crashed into, and disordered, the Blues coming up to its assistance. Both regiments had to retire and reform. The French cavalry, meanwhile, succeeded in breaking the through the British Foot, but the 21st (Royal Scots Fusiliers) and the 23rd (Royal Welch Fusiliers), recovering themselves, turned inward and shot down the French horsemen. At the same time Rich’s (4H), Stairs (6 Dragoons) and two regiments of Austrian dragoons arrived, and together with the now rallied remnants of the Blues, King’s Horse and Ligoniers, charged the French horse and managed to drive them back.
The French attacks on the British centre and right had not been pressed and were easily repulsed, so that once the French cavalry had been defeated; George II gave the order for a general advance. The British and Hanoverian infantry gave a loud cheer and swept forward, pausing from time to time to deliver their volleys of fire into the French ranks. The French made headlong for the fords and bridges crossing the Main, many soldiers in their haste plunging into the river and drowning. In spite of Stair’s strong advice the pursuit was not pressed, for King George was too thankful to have escaped Noailles trap, conscious that it was ‘a victory won not by the generals but by regimental discipline, valour and a half-perfected musketry skill’.
The King’s Horse lost Captain Meriden, Lieutenant Draper and Cornet Aldcroft, with eight men and twenty horses killed. Major Carr, Captains Saurin and Smith, Lieutenant Wallis, two Quartermasters and twenty-eight troopers wounded as well as twenty-four horses. The dispatch after the battle said:
The King’s Horse supported for over eight or nine hours the most severe cannonade that was ever known and then attacked the French household troops, who to do them justice, supported the ancient reputation of their corps with great bravery.
