Siege of Metz (1870)

Lore & Background

The French Army of the Rhine under François Bazaine retreated into the Metz fortress after its defeat by the Germans at the Battle of Gravelotte on 18 August 1870. The fortress was promptly surrounded by German forces under Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia. The French Army of Châlons was sent to relieve the Army of the Rhine but was itself encircled and annihilated by the German armies at the Battle of Sedan on 1–2 September. Unable to capture the fortress by bombardment or storm, the besieging Germans resorted to starving the French to submission. French attempts to break out ended in defeat at the battles of Noisseville on 31 August – 1 September and Bellevue on 7 October. French food supplies ran out on 20 October and François Achille Bazaine surrendered the fortress and the entire Army of the Rhine, some 193,000 men, into German hands on 27 October. The annihilation of the French Army of the Rhine freed Prince Friedrich Karl's armies for operations against French forces in the Loire river valley for the rest of the war. Metz was annexed into the German Empire after the signing of the Treaty of Frankfurt on 10 May 1871.

Reader's Guide

The French calculated they had enough food for 70,000 civilians for three and a half months and five months worth of provisions for a regular garrison. Because the entire Army of the Rhine was trapped in the fortress, the provisions only lasted for 41 days and the oats for 25. The Germans brought up 50 heavy siege guns from Germany to bombard Metz, but the fortress was too heavily stocked with artillery and well-built for it to be taken with the means available to the Germans. Unable to silence the fortress guns sufficiently to conduct siege operations, the besiegers opted to starve out the trapped French army. By September, about 25% of the 197,326-strong German siege force still lacked proper accommodations and the sick list in military hospitals grew to 40,000 men. The Germans supplemented their meat rations with tinned food. The French situation was much worse, with riots breaking out among the starving army and city residents. The French attempted to break the siege first at Noisseville on 31 August – 1 September and again at Bellevue on 7 October but were repulsed each time. Each side lost about 5,000 total men killed and wounded in these two attempts. On 20 October, the food provisions of the fortress ran out and the French Army of the Rhine subsisted afterward on the flesh of 20,000 horses, which were consumed at a rate of 1,000 per day. Bazaine was forced to surrender his entire army on 27 October because of starvation. The Prussians offered the honors of war to the defeated French army, but, contrary to usual practice, Bazaine refused. On 29 October, Prussian flags were raised on Metz's outworks and the French Army of the Rhine marched out silently and in good order. They were taken prisoner by a Prussian Corps at each gate, put into bivouacs and supplied with food. The Germans allowed the French officers to keep their swords and remain in Metz, which was largely unharmed by the siege. The Germans immediately sent a train of food and live cattle to the city they had just conquered. The French prisoners were sent by way of Saarbrücken and Trier to prisoners of war camps, guarded by Landwehr battalions. Bazaine was sent as a captive to Kassel. The German 26th Brigade was stationed in Metz as garrison, with General von Kummer as commandant. Dead horses, unburied corpses and burnt or putrefying refuse greeted the German conquerors on their entry, a tes

Did You Know?

• The French lost 167,000 enlisted men and 6,000 officers taken to prisoner-of-war camps on 27 October, as well as 20,000 sick who temporarily stayed behind in Metz.
• Material losses included 622 field guns, 2,876 fortress guns, 72 mitrailleuses, 137,000 chassepots, 123,000 other small arms, vast stores of ammunition and 56 French Imperial Eagles, all captured by the Germans.
• The Germans lost 5,500 enlisted men and 240 officers killed and wounded, as well as large numbers of sick.