Draft:First Battle of Landshut

For the second battle, see Battle of Landshut (1809).

First Battle of Landshut
Part of the War of the Fifth Coalition
The bridge over the Isar at Landshut
Date 16 April 1809 Location Landshut, Bavaria 48°32′23″N 12°09′03″E Result Austrian victory
Belligerents
Austrian Empire	Kingdom of Bavaria
Commanders and leaders
Joseph Radetzky Archduke Charles Archduke Louis	Bernhard Deroy François Lefebvre
Units involved
5th Corps	3rd Division
Casualties and losses
96 killed, wounded and missing	168 (including 40 deserters)
Location within Europe

The First Battle of Landshut, or the engagement at Landshut on 16 April 1809, was a minor encounter between Austrian and Bavarian armed forced within the War of the Fifth Coalition, which ended in Austrian victory.

Engagement

After the Austrian declaration of war, Divisional general Deroy received orders to occupy the Isar crossings of Moosburg and Landshut with his Bavarian 3rd Division in order to delay the Austrian advance there as long as possible and to give the French army (including the contingents of the Confederation of the Rhine) sufficient time to gather between Augsburg, Ingolstadt and Neustadt. For this purpose, Deroy had numerous houses in Landshut near the bridge on the left (northern) bank of the Isar and fortified them in a field style. Subsequently, he also brought in his troops from Moosburg, after they had broken off the bridge there.

When the vanguard of the 5th Austrian Corps under General Radetzky arrived in Landshut in the early morning of April 16, it found the actual city of Landshut abandoned by the enemy, but the bridges over the river had been completely broken off and the houses on the north bank of the Isar in the suburb of Seligenthal were occupied by Bavarian troops. On the heights behind it, the Deroy division had marched up (roughly between Altdorf and Ergolding). Therefore, the Austrians could not make a serious attempt to cross the river until the entire 5th Corps of Archduke Louis with his heavy artillery.

Attack

Under their protection, the Austrians made the first attempt to cross the river shortly after 10 o'clock, which was only successful when several houses caught fire in the suburb on the north side of the river, which forced the Bavarian soldiers to retreat there. However, due to the continued resistance of parts of the Bavarian infantry, it was not until about 14 o'clock that one of the bridges was made so far that the Austrian vanguard under Radetzky could cross the river and slowly advance north. Army commander Archduke Charles personally contributed to this. A short time later, General Deroy received the news that Austrian troops had already crossed the Isar at both Dingolfing and Moosburg an der Isar. Seeing his position threatened by this and fearing to be cut off from the retreat, he ordered the retreat of his division to Abensberg. This had already been previously designated as a gathering point for Marshal Lefebvre's army corps, which included the Bavarian troops.

After the engagement

Napoleon would carry out his counterattack on 20-21 April from Abensberg to Landshut itself.

Category:Battles of the War of the Fifth Coalition involving Austria Category:Battles of the Napoleonic Wars involving Bavaria Category:1809 in Bavaria Category:1809 in the Confederation of the Rhine Category:Landshut Category:April 1809 Category:Attacks on buildings and structures in Germany Category:Attacks on bridges

References

• Höfler, Edmund (1858). Der Feldzug vom Jahre 1809 in Deutschland und Tyrol. Augsburg: Rieger. pp. 21–28, 96–99.
• Baker, Ralph (2006). Gregory Fremont-Barnes (ed.). The Encyclopedia of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO.
• Rickard, J (18 October 2010), Engagement at Landshut, 16 April 1809 , https://www.historyofwar.org/articles/engagement_landshut.html
• 1809 - Thunder on the Danube - Napoleon's defeat of the Habsburgs. By Gill, John H. 2008. pp. 162-168