230 years ago, on August 1, 1789, the Russian-Austrian troops under the command of Suvorov defeated the Turkish army near Focsani. As a result, the allies thwarted the plan of the Ottoman command to defeat the Austrian and Russian troops separately.
Campaign of 1789
During the 1789 campaign, the Austrian army was to enter Serbia. The Russian forces were divided into de armies. The army under the command of Rumyantsev was to go to the Lower Danube, where the main forces of the Turks were located, led by the vizier. The main forces of the Russians, led by Potemkin, were to take Bender.
The Turkish troops were the first to go on the offensive. In April 1789, three Turkish detachments entered Moldova - Kara-Megmet, Yakub-agi and Ibrahim. The Austrian corps, under the command of the Saxon prince Friedrich Coburg, who was supposed to act in connection with the Russian troops, hastily retreated. Rumyantsev moved a division under the command of Derfelden to the aid of the Austrians. The Russian commander defeated the superior forces of the enemy in parts in three battles near Byrlad, at Maksimen and Galats (Derfelden's division defeated the Turkish army three times).
Potemkin's intrigues led to the fact that Rumyantsev was replaced by Prince Repnin, and both Russian armies were united into one South under the command of Potemkin. The Most Serene Prince appointed Suvorov to the most important sector - the head of the advanced 3rd division, stationed at Byrlad (Derfelden, who had previously commanded the division, was subordinate to Suvorov). The commander-in-chief arrived in the army in June and only began the campaign in July, launching a slow advance on Bender. Meanwhile, the vizier again launched an offensive in Moldova, where he moved 30 thousand troops under the command of Osman Pasha. The Turks planned to break up the Austrian and Russian units separately, before the arrival of Potemkin's army.
General-forward
At the beginning of Suvorov, there were about 10 thousand soldiers. It seemed that such forces could not resist the Turkish army. The Austrian corps of the Prince of Coburg, which stood along the Seret River, was stronger - 18 thousand people. The Austrian prince, having learned about the enemy's movement towards Focsani, immediately notified Suvorov and asked for help. The Russian commander immediately guessed the enemy's plan and on July 16 (27) immediately came to the aid of the allies.
Suvorov took 7 thousand people with him (the rest were left at Byrlad), and managed to come to the aid of the Austrians. His division covered about 50 miles in 26 hours and joined the Austrians on the evening of July 17 (28), 1789. The march was difficult: bad roads, numerous rivers and streams, ravines and hills. Russian soldiers had to walk on such roads for four days, no less. But it was not for nothing that Suvorov was called "General-forward". During the march, he ordered not to wait for the stragglers. He said: “They will be in time for battle. The head of the tail does not wait! " And he was right, the soldiers lagging behind on the way tried their best to catch up with the comrades who had gone ahead. Gradually they caught up with their own.
The Austrians feared a decisive battle with the enemy. There were more Ottomans. In such a situation, it was supposed to retreat, go on the defensive. The Russian commander preferred decisive actions: "by sight, speed and onslaught." He knew that the superior enemy must be stunned, not allowed to come to his senses. Therefore, Alexander Vasilyevich convinced the Prince of Coburg himself to go on the offensive. To prevent the enemy from knowing ahead of time that the Russians had come to the aid of the Austrians, the Austrian vanguard marched ahead under the command of Colonel Karachai. Russian troops marched in the left column, the Austrians in the right.
After a day's rest at 3 o'clock in the morning on July 19 (30), the united Russian-Austrian corps set out on a march that lasted all day (the soldiers walked over 60 km), and stopped at Marinesti (Mareshesti) for the night. The forward detachment sent by Suvorov in the area of the Putna River collided with the Turkish vanguard. The Ottoman detachment was defeated and suffered heavy losses. The meeting with the enemy came as a complete surprise to the Turks, who believed that they were opposed only by the Austrians.
Battle of Focsani
Building bridges, on the night of July 20 (31) to July 21 (August 1), the allies crossed the Putna and launched an offensive on Focsani, 15 kilometers away. After the crossing, the troops lined up in battle formation: six regimental squares to repel the onslaught of the numerous enemy cavalry. In the first line were grenadiers and huntsmen under Derfelden, in the second - the Apsheronsky, Smolensk and Rostov infantry regiments of Prince Shakhovsky. There was cavalry in the third line. The guns were placed between the squares. The Austrians followed the same squares on the right flank. A detachment of Karachai marched between the main Russian and Austrian forces.
The Turks attacked with cavalry detachments several times. Our troops threw back the enemy with buckshot and rifle fire. In some places they fought with melee weapons. The Ottoman cavalry kept trying to break the square, suffered heavy losses from rifle and artillery fire. Unsuccessful, the Turks retreated. On the way there was a forest, the allied troops did not break up the formation and went around on both sides. The Ottomans who had settled in the forest fled to Focsani. The last few miles were the most difficult: behind the forest thick thickets of thorns stretched, we had to wade through it.
At Focsani, the Ottomans managed to prepare small field fortifications and ditches. The Turkish battery opened fire, and the cavalry waited for the signal to attack on the flanks. The Russian-Austrian troops leveled the formation and went to storm the enemy positions. The Turkish troops could not withstand the friendly onslaught of the allies, wavered and fled. Our troops captured an enemy artillery battery. Several hundred janissaries settled outside the walls of the monasteries of St. Samuel and St. John. Russian soldiers stormed the monastery of St. Samuel. The remaining Turks blew up the powder magazine, but this did not lead to large losses. At that time, the Austrians took the monastery of S. John, capturing several dozen people.
By 13 o'clock, the battle ended in complete victory for the allied army. The Russian-Austrian troops lost about 400 people killed, the Turks - 1600 killed and 12 guns. Our troops captured a lot of booty: a Turkish camp with hundreds of carts, herds of horses and camels. Ottoman troops fled to the Bezo and Rymnik rivers. Allied light cavalry pursued them. Thus, the enemy's plans to defeat the Austrian corps and the Russian division separately were destroyed.
