Battle of Landshut (1809)

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  The Battle of Landshut on the 21st of April 1809 was not supposed to happen where it did. Napoleon had chased what he believed was the main Austrian army to this Bavarian river town, committing around 60,000 French, Württemberger, and Bavarian troops to run down roughly 40,000 men under General Johann von Hiller. He was wrong about whose army he was pursuing. But the battle happened anyway, and it turned the fate of an entire Austrian wing in the war known as the War of the Fifth Coalition.

  Landshut sits astride the Isar river, and in April 1809 that river was the only thing standing between Hiller and escape. The questions this story asks are simple but urgent: could a defending force hold a smoldering bridge against an army four times its size? And what happens when a general gambles that rain will save him from fire?

• 2. Two Engagements, Five Days Apart

  ›

  Landshut had already seen fighting five days before Napoleon arrived. On the 16th of April 1809, the Austrian vanguard under Joseph Radetzky, drawn from Archduke Louis's V Corps, pushed a Bavarian division out of the town and off the river defensive line by outflanking it. Louis's large-calibre artillery and the availability of his entire corps as a reserve made the maneuver possible. Both sides suffered little loss, and the Bavarians retreated without the engagement deciding much.

  What changed everything was the French victory at Abensberg, which forced the left wing of the Austrian army, some 36,000 men, to fall back toward Landshut. Hiller led this withdrawal. Napoleon, watching the movement, concluded he was looking at the main Austrian force and ordered Marshal Lannes to pursue. Lannes caught up with Hiller on the twenty-first, setting up the far larger second engagement at the same town.

• 3. The Trap Tightens

  ›

  Hiller chose to stand at Landshut for a specific reason: he needed time to pull his baggage train out. The Isar river at that point was spanned by two bridges, with a small island sitting in the center between them. He placed cavalry outposts to the north of town and deployed his main force inside Landshut and on higher ground to the south, trying to hold both crossings.

  Early that morning, word reached Hiller that a French force of 57,000 men under Masséna had already crossed the Isar upstream at Moosburg. Masséna was not pursuing him head-on; Masséna was moving to cut off his retreat entirely. Hiller now faced pressure from two directions: Lannes driving from the north, Masséna curling around from the west.

• 4. The Smoldering Bridge

  ›

  Lannes's troops pushed the Austrian cavalry back first, forcing the rearguard into Landshut itself. French forces seized the northern bridge quickly. The Austrians fell back to defend the southern crossing and tried to burn it behind them. Days of rainfall had soaked the timbers enough to frustrate the attempt; the fire caught only partially. The Austrians did manage to close the gates at the bridge's end, giving them at least a moment's barrier.

  Napoleon ordered his aide, General Georges Mouton, later known as the comte de Lobau, to take command of the grenadiers of the 17th Line and lead them across the smoldering span. Mouton gave his men a striking instruction: attack without firing their muskets. Crossing under heavy Austrian fire from all sides, the grenadiers reached the gateway and broke it down. Bavarian troops moved quickly through the breach to reinforce the crossing, and the southern bridge was lost to Hiller.

• 5. Collapse and Pursuit

  ›

  Street fighting carried into Landshut itself after the bridge fell. While that close-quarters struggle continued, a second French column had already crossed a bridge to the west of the town and was entering Landshut from the south, completing the encirclement of the defenders inside.

  Hiller managed to pull the bulk of his force out toward Neumarkt am Wallersee, but the cost was severe. The town fell to the French just after noon. Austrian casualties reached around 10,000, and 30 cannons were lost. Beyond the human toll, the Austrians forfeited many caissons, an entire pontoon train, and thousands of supply wagons. The victorious French spent much of that afternoon going through the captured stores. The other part of the Austrian army, meanwhile, was struck at the Battle of Eckmühl, making the double blow of that April campaign one from which the Austrian position in Bavaria would not recover.