Exactly right, mashrewba.
"… Of course as we well know the high command constantly allowed their men to be outflanked, surrounded and shelled into oblivion and nobody is going to stand up to too much of that!!"
Three regiments of Zouaves and three regiments of Algerian Tirailleurs held their ground against superior firepower and numbers at Wörth/Froeschwiller. These elite regiments fought like lions that day.
The Zouaves and Algerian Tirailleurs pushed back many German attacks. The Algerian Tirailleurs counter-attacked the enemy with the bayonet at least three times, pushing them back each time. This came at a high price…
In the afternoon, the Prussians had to repel repeated battalion-strength French counter-attacks. Captain Gebhard von Bismarck of the Prussian 21st Division called these bayonet charges "nightmarish". Already terrified by the volume of fire, the Prussians quailed at the ululations of the Algerian troops, who trilled and sang as they fired low into the floundering Prussians.
With the French right flank turned, the infantry divisions of Raoult and Ducrot were now hit in the flank and rear by accurate Prussian shelling and rifle fire. Some green French recruits panicked and fled. French veterans stood their ground.
Some elite French units, like the Zouave and Algerian Tirailleurs regiments, continued to fight valiantly, including the survivors of the 2nd Algerian Tirailleurs, who earned a record number of crosses of the Légion d'honneur (France's highest award) for conspicuous valor, multiple wounds, tenacious defense and the heroic rescue of comrades under fire. They kept a line of retreat open for other French units.
The 1st Zouaves was the last French regiment to leave the field, withdrawing under heavy fire as though on parade. Zouave and Algerian Tirailleur regiments suffered appalling casualties. The 3rd Zouaves lost 80% casualties. The 2nd Algerian Tirailleurs (aka Turcos) suffered 93% casualties!
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The 1st Algerian Tirailleurs lost 18 officers and 800 men at Wörth.
Clairon de Turcos blessé by Jules Monge
This painting depicts one of the counter-attacks made by the 1st Algerian Tirailleurs at Wöerth/Froeschwiller. The title is "Wounded bugler of Turcos".
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The 2nd Algerian Tirailleurs was virtually destroyed at Wöerth. Few soldiers in history ever fought with such courage and tenacity. All regiments of Zouaves and Algerian Tirailleurs fought with great courage at Wöerth, but the 2nd Algerian Tirailleurs was almost possessed!
The regiments of Algerian Tirailleurs and Zouaves didn't give up an inch of ground, even under the murderous artillery fire of the Krupp guns. They repulsed all infantry attacks made by the enemy and counter-attacked many times with the bayonet.
The regiment lost 2,650 officers and men out of 2,900!
At Wörth/Froeschwiller, the 2nd Tirailleurs Algeriens suffered 93% casualties! The Bavarians were expressing frustration in their own brutal way at the stiff resistance of Colonel Pierre Suzzoni's 2nd Algerian Tirailleur regiment. Holding the wooden salient below Froeschwiller against the best efforts of two German Corps, the Algerians simply would not yield. "We will all die here, if need be", Colonel Suzzoni had told his men in the morning, and most of them did. With 2,900 troops in the morning, the Algerians were reduced to a rump of 250 by the afternoon, enclosed, as one tirailleur put it, "in a circle of iron and fire." Suzzoni himself was killed by a shell splinter at 2:30 in the afternoon as were most of his officers. (The Franco-Prussian War – The German conquest of France in 1870-1871 by Geoffrey Wawro, page 131)
Captain Viénot (see below) was the highest ranking officer of the 2nd Tirailleurs left standing at the end of the battle. He organized the retreat of the regiment with only 250 officers and men.
Monument dedicated to the 2nd Algerian Tirailleurs (located near the site of the Battle of Wöerth)
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The 3rd Algerian Tirailleurs also fought very hard at Wörth/Froeschwiller.
Captain Deschamps was killed during the battle… When he was hit by a German bullet, a Sergeant was begging him to dismount from his horse, but Deschamps answered in Arabic: "The children of the desert do not obey a leader who dismounts before the enemy!"
Colonel Gandil (see below), the commanding officer of the 3rd Algerian Tirailleurs, lost 33 officers and 872 men at the Battle of Wörth.
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The 1st Zouaves at Wörth
Captain Minary of the 1st Zouaves
Veteran of the Crimean War (wounded at Malakoff), Franco-Austrian War (wounded at Solferino) and Mexican Intervention, Minary was promoted to Chef de Bataillon after the fight at Wörth. Unfortunately, he was killed two weeks after at Sedan
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Colonel Détrie (commander of the 2nd Zouaves in 1870)
Détrie was seriously wounded and captured by the enemy at Wörth. The 2nd Zouaves lost 47 officers and 1,088 men at this bloody battle.
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The 3rd Zouaves began the battle with 65 officers and 2,200 men. Only 24 officers and 415 men answered the roll call by nightfall.
Bellow… Ceremony that took place at Les Invalides (Paris) in 1911.
The standard-bearer is an officer of the 3rd French Zouaves and he's carrying the old standard/eagle of the regiment (what was left of it anyway). This standard saw battle at Wörth/Froeschwiller in 1870 and was regarded as a treasured relic by the French army.
