with the first line. These lines were a melange of strong points, artillery
positions, trenches, redoubts, ditches and palisades. The ground in front
of the lines was cleared of all cover and a set of redoubts at the end of the
second line gave crossfire with Admiral Berkeley's gunboats on the river.
There was even a third line of fortifications at the mouth of the Tagus,
designed to enable the Army to embark safely in the event of a disaster.
In September I8Io Massena struck into Portugal and gained some
initial success. At first Wellington retreated, then stood his ground at
Busaco near Coimbra on 25 September. Bringing his strength up to
so,ooo by herculean efforts, he posted them on a ridge, then lured
Massena to attack by disguising his numbers. In a frontal assault on the
ridge lasting three hours the French were badly beaten, taking 4,6oo
casualties (I,ooo dead) against Wellington's I,200 (200 dead). In October
Wellington withdrew behind the lines of Torres Vedras. Massena,
coming up behind him, probed and concluded that an attack on the lines
would be suicidal.
The resulting stalemate until March I 8 I I saw Massena's army wasting
away through sickness and starvation. Foraging was impossible because
the British had implemented a 'scorched earth' policy and any attempt to
revictual the army had to run the gauntlet of Spanish and Portuguese
guerrillas. In desperation Massena finally pulled out of Portugal
altogether, leaving behind thousands of non-battle casualties (some say
the toll from disease and famine ran as high as 25,000). He made a vain
attempt to reenter Portugal, which aborted because of opposition from
two subsidiary marshals. Soult, who hated him, was supposed to
coordinate a pincer movement from Seville and Badajoz but failed to do
so; then Massena quarrelled violently with Ney (who refused a direct
order to take his corps into Portugal without supplies) and sent him back
to France in disgrace. While Massena was thus preoccupied around
Salamanca, Wellington emerged to besiege Almeida.
Factionalism among the marshals, some of whom had been effectively
turned into independent warlords by Napoleon's I8Io decree, was
proving to be almost as much a headache for the French as the guerrillas.
Despairing of cooperation from Soult, Massena approached Bessieres,
now commanding the Army of the North, for reinforcements with which
to relieve Almeida; the cynical Bessieres sent him just I$00 men. Pressing
on nonetheless, the intrepid Massena was surprised by Wellington at
Fuentes de Ofioro but nearly managed to turn the tables on him.
Wellington won a hard-fought battle but admitted: 'If Boney had been
there, we would have been damnably licked.' Massena withdrew to
Ciudad Rodrigo and claimed a victory; Napoleon, however, was not
marcin
(Marcin)
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