Second Battle of Dego

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Second Battle of Dego
partof=the French Revolutionary War
campaign=


caption=
date=14 - 15 April, 1796
place=Dego, present-day Italy
result=French victory
combatant1=flagicon|France First French Republic
combatant2=flagicon|Habsburg Monarchy Habsburg Austria
flagicon|Sardinia|kingdom Kingdom of Sardinia
commander1=Napoleon Bonaparte,
André Masséna
commander2=Count Argenteau
Colonel Vukassovich
strength1=ca 15,000
strength2=ca 5,700
casualties1=ca 2,100 killed or wounded,
317 captured
casualties2=ca 4,700 killed, wounded or captured

The Second Battle of Dego was fought on 14 and 15 April, 1796, during the French Revolutionary Wars, between French forces and Austro-Sardinian forces. The battle was fought near Dego, a hamlet in northwestern Italy, and ended in a French victory.

After successfully defeating the Austrian left wing at the Battle of Montenotte, Napoleon Bonaparte continued with the implementation of his plan to separate the Austrian and Piedmont-Sardinian armies by taking the defences at Dego, which controlled the only road by which the two armies could link with each other. These defences comprised both a castle on a bluff and earthworks on rising ground, and were held by a small mixed force, consisting of units of both the Austrian and Piedmont-Sardinian armies. On 14 April Massena and La Harpe attacked, capturing the defences with little difficulty and only light casualties. However, the French troops then gave themselves over to looting, and during the night they were mostly scattered in the nearby houses. At dawn on 15 April, under cover of fog, the defences were counter-attacked by an Austrian force under Colonel Vukassovich, which had got lost and turned up at Dego fortuitously. Taken by surprise, the French were rapidly driven out of Dego and back to their starting point of the day before. Massena took some time to arrive and take control of the situation again, and organised a counter-attack, which was supported by reinforcements brought up by Bonaparte. Vukassovich's force was heavily outnumbered, and was unable to defend for long before it was driven out, leaving Dego definitively in French hands.

References

*Schels, J. B. 'Die Gefechte in den Apenninen, bei Voltri, Montenotte, Millessimo, Cossaria und Dego, im April 1796.' Oesterreichische Militärische Zeitschrift, Bd. 2 (1822): 123-217
*Boycott-Brown, M. The Road to Rivoli, London, Cassell, 2001
*Chandler, D. "Dictionary of the Napoleonic wars". Wordsworth editions, 1999.
*Smith, D. "The Greenhill Napoleonic Wars Data Book". Greenhill Books, 1998.

External links

* [http://napoleonistyka.atspace.com/italian_campaign.htm Bonaparte's blitzkrieg in Italy 1796, Dego and Lodi]