BATTLE OF SOMOSIERRA

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By late November 1808, the French Grande Armée had overwhelmed and destroyed both wings of the Spanish popular army. To complete his reconquest of Spain, Napoleon advanced on Madrid with 40,000 men.

General San Juan mustered an ad hoc army of militia, reservists, and various regular regiments still reeling from earlier defeats; in all about 12,000 men, to defend Madrid. In order to screen the many approaches to the city, San Juan dispersed his already greatly outnumbered forces. Under his orders, 9,000 men were dispatched west to guard the Guadarrama pass while 3,000 occupied an advanced post at Sepulveda, leaving only 9,000 men and 16 guns on the heights of Somosierra.
The nature of the terrain and the tenacity of the Spaniards initially worked in their favour. On the evening of November 29 the brigade at Sepulveda repulsed a French attack, inflicted heavy casualties, and escaped from overwhelming French numbers in the gathering darkness to the west. The following morning, Napoleon advanced his infantry directly toward the pass while small detachments crept up the flanks. Exchanging musket volleys with the defenders, the French made slow but measurable progress toward the enemy guns.
Because the Spanish forces could not easily be outflanked by infantry movement, and Napoleon was impatient to proceed, he ordered his Polish Chevaux-Légers escort squadron of 125 men[2] to charge the Spaniards and their fortified artillery batteries.

[flascinder]

Un gran vídeo histórico. Es impresionante ver el gran esfuerzo hecho por aficionados a la historia para recrear esta batalla.
UN SALUDO

[Gracz]

Super, bardzo brakuje mi polskich filmów dokumentalny o tematyce historycznej na youtube. Przy okazji czy to jest profesjonalny film z telewizji albo dvd, czy to dzieło osoby, która zamieściła film?

[askas]

It wasn't just only those Polish who served in the French Imperial Guard who fought bravely in Spain. Much more feared were the Vistula Lancers. They were not the Imperial Guard (like presented in the video) the 1st Polish Lancer Regiment,   but the regiment of the line. The Spanish were so afraid of them, that the French units which guarded the convoys often would put on the blue and yellow uniforms that wore the Vistula lancers. Whenever the Spanish saw those uniforms they were afraid to attack the convoy. The 1st Lancer regiment of the Imperial guard was famous for the charge at Samosierra. The Vistula Lancers had many victorious charges like that. They conquer towns, won the battles. The French were reluctant to admit that they own many of their victories to the Polish, so eventually those victories battles thanks to the French propaganda become to be recognised as French. Poland also forgot about the heroes - for different reasons. Polish infantry also fought in Spain.

[Hylass]

a czyjez to imie rozlega sie sławo?!!!! kto walczyl za FRANCJE z HISZPANAMI BRAVO!!!! to KONNICA POLSKA SLYNNE ZDOBYWAJA CUDEM WAWÓZ

[granskare]

splendid video! I can always discern which are the Polish troops by the distinctive headgear they wear and that carries thru into the modern era although with some modifications...be nice to see a vid on the origins of that headgear and the changes which came into being...something Poles take for granted but we country bumpkins do not understand :)

[Zolnierz]

Super reportaż. Przypomina mi się inscenizacja w Twierdzy Modlin.

[TequilAndLime]

Interesting... but with subtitles it would work better .. since the title is in english..

[andrzejlasek]

fajni ci Hiszpanie, wódz się nie spisał to go usiekli, następny już nie ucieknie

[PaladinPL]

What I wanted to say is this: being proud of i.e. Battle of Vienna I cannot forget that we (Poles) have also dark pages in our history. If the Vienna Battle makes me proud, I should be ashamed of Somosierra. Although Somosierra was a great victory, we didn't support the right cause.

[szablotukpolski]

Dobry filmik. W temacie najstarszego traktat o fechtunku szablą polską napisanego przez weteranów spod Somosierry więcej tu :

[TequilAndLime]

wybacz nie zauwazylem.... pozdrawiam...

[rickou]

Yeah every folk had bad things do. Actually you're maybe in some thing right, but you must never forget, that you can nothing for what happens in the past like this. So life your live, look back what your fathers did wrong and learn from this.

[Gracz]

Zauważyłem błąd w wersji z angielskimi napisami. Zamiast XIX w. jest tam „18 i komuś kto jest całkowicie na bakier z historią Polski może się wydać że nasz kraj nie istniał już w XVIII wieku.

[rickou]

You and the Polish people today have nothing to do with this fight, so the Spanish can't hate you or others for this.

[druisteen]

@alfaroubeira
cuurieux mais tu parle franncais !

[RegnumFrancorum]

@legio88 lol
In one day, the prussian army leaved definitely her arrogance, hu hu hu

[OlenkaWagner]

I can look at Somosierra as a military achievement, but the cause was wrong. These two aspects should be separated.

[truthseeker]

its right, but polish only did litte part of the invasion work, since all cannon and weaponry were french, as most of the army.and somosierra IS Simbolic, since french could have destroyed easily the defences themselves, doubt it?
Bailen in the other hand, was the very fist defeat of The Grand Armée in the world, even if it wasn´t that of a big battle(still bigger than somosierra) =)
Not to deny the bravery of Polish, but to be honest, it was not their war.but it´s life.

[rickou]

Nobody bask in glory of victories here(I think ), but for what they have not do, they can't take responsible nore they can say sorry.

[PaladinPL]

If I want to bask in glory of my ancestors' victories, I must also take responsibility for their sins.