"Battle of Fuengirola 1810 – the heroic victory of ...." Topic

… Polish soldiers over the forces of Great Britain

"The Peninsular wars of the 19th century were a complicated series of battles and ongoing skirmishes between an expansive Napoleonic France and Portugal, then Spain and later the United Kingdom.

In the autumn of 1810, Major General Lord Blayney of Gibraltar had the bright idea of attacking the then French controlled town of Málaga. In order to do this, it seems he deemed it necessary to first capture the castle at Fuengirola. It also seems he assumed that a quick sail along the Andalucían coast to the poorly defended castle would result in a swift easy victory. How wrong he was, the Fuengirola castle was defended by a small garrison of battle hardened conscripted Polish troops, some 100 men from the 4th Infantry sent there for rest and recuperation by their French military masters…"

Main page
link

Have any fellow member wargame this?…

Amicalement
Armand

An interesting skirmish. Nice find T. Thanks.

A votre service mon ami!. (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

Is it only classed as a skirmish because the British lost? LOL

To me, it reminds me, albeit on a much smaller scale, of the British defeats at Badajoz and Burgos. That it was indeed a defeat.

However, in some ways, although it could be classed as a British defeat, considering the overall commander was British and who was captured during the failed action, it could be considered as more of an allied defeat, since half the allied troops were Spanish and German.

Likewise, we could call it a Polish victory rather than a French one, if we consider that initially there were less than a hundred French Dragoons involved.

It is a very interesting action, since it appears the action may have been intended as a feint to draw the French garrison away from Malaga, the supposed real target for the allies. But the British commander changed his plan and made the capture of Fuengirola the main aim.

You could also class it as a field battle rather than just a siege because the main fighting took place on the beaches and outside the fort.

Small, compared to other actions, but still a British lead allied defeat. It is well worth reading up on the little battle.

Wall assaults make really boring games, unfortunately. It's just a series of fire phases and morale checks until one side breaks. You don't even need the miniatures, just a pad and paper.

4th Cuirassier

The action involved a considerable amount of fighting outside the walls, including both sides advancing against each other. There was also allied artillery charged and captured and turned against the allied troops. There was also gunboats involved, one of which was sunk by the defenders. There were also French dragoons. So really, not just a simple case of wall assaults. A fascinating action in which a highly outnumbered force defeated a British led force of which half were British troops. This, in itself makes it unusual and different to the usual Peninsular victories in which the British and their allies generally won. People just need to do some decent research and reading, use a bit of imagination and have a go. I sure it could make an enjoyable game.

Gazzola is right….not just a wall assault…

Amicalement
Armand

I will definitely get around to doing this one day, when I get some Napoleonic Poles done.

Looks like a really interesting battle with a lot of differensiert types of forces and intermediate objectives. Could Even be a mini-campaign.

I do have all of the Polish, British & Spanish figures, terrain and even ships to recreate the battle of Fuengirola, but I need to set this up on a large table and have not done so yet.

I produced a talk (PowerPoint) on this battle earlier this year, which really helped me to pin down the exact sequence of events.

link

Rod

Thanks!.

Amicalement
Armand