Battle of Arlabán (1811)
| Battle of Arlabán (1811) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Peninsular War | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| French Empire | Spain | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Colonel Laffitte (POW) | Francisco Espoz y Mina | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 1,600[1] | 3,000–4,500[1] | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||
Castile 1811–13
137miles
The Battle of Arlabán, also known as the First Surprise of Arlabán, took place at the heights of Arlabán, the mountain pass that separates the Basque provinces of Guipúzcoa and Álava, on 25 May 1811, during the Peninsular War.
Battle
At eight o'clock in the morning, a Spanish guerrilla force numbering between 3,000 and 4,500 men, led by Francisco Espoz y Mina, ambushed and captured the central part of a convoy made up of 150 wagons and 1,050 prisoners, escorted by 1,600 French troops led by Colonel Laffitte and spread out over 5 km.[2] Seven hours later, the French finally surrendered. The Spanish captured a variety of supplies and weapons (the convoy was valued at 4 million reales), and 1,042 British, Portuguese and Spanish prisoners were released. The convoy became known as the convoy de los Ingleses because most of the prisoners were British.[3]
Aided by local guerrilla groups that knew the terrain well, Espoz y Mina had positioned his guerrilleros on both sides of the pass, on the route to France, some 20 km north of Vitoria, at four o'clock in the morning.[1]
Aftermath
This was the last action that Espoz y Mina led as a guerrilla leader in Navarre. On 5 June, his forces, the División de Navarra, were integrated into the regular Army of Spain, but he would continue to lead his troops into battle against the French, including at the Second Surprise of Arlabán, on 9 April 1812.
Notes
References
- euskomedia (2013). "Francisco Espoz e Ilundain". Archived from the original on 27 September 2013. Retrieved 26 May 2021.
- elcorreo (2013). "La sorpresa de Arlabán" (in Spanish). Retrieved 23 September 2013.
- noticiasdegipuzkoa (2013). "La sorpresa de Arlabán: Noticias de Gipuzkoa" (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 30 January 2013. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
Further reading
- Esdaile, Charles J. (2003). The Peninsular War. Palgrave MacMillan. ISBN 9781403962317. Retrieved 26 May 2021.
- Fraser, Ronald (2008). Napoleon's Cursed War: Spanish Popular Resistance in the Peninsular War 1808-1814. Brooklyn: Verso. ISBN 978-1-84467-082-6.
- Hannay, David McDowall (1911). . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 500–501.
External links
- Media related to Battle of Arlabán (1811) at Wikimedia Commons