Somosierra

Polish tourists travelling by car to visit Spain and its capital usually choose the convenient A-1 motorway. It runs from Bayonne in France through the Pyrenees, then through Vitoria and Burgos. Some make a special stop on the way, about 100 km north of Madrid, in the village of Somosierra. Here lies a distinctive mountain pass in the Sierra de Guadarrama. This is the site of a victorious charge by one of the Polish cavalry regiments of the Napoleonic era . This extraordinary event took place 225 years ago, on 30 November 1808, at the start of the so-called Peninsular War. It was fought between an offensive France and a defending Spain. France’s military intervention was linked to its intention to subjugate the states on the Iberian Peninsula in order to maintain the Continental Blockade, which was primarily aimed at undermining Britain’s vital interests.

Napoleon’s forces at Somosierra

Corps of the Imperial Army entered Spain as early as the turn of 1807/1808; however, in the face of resistance from Spanish forces and as a result of their own tactical errors, they suffered severe defeats. As a result, almost all of them were forced to retreat all the way back to the French border. In this situation, in October 1808, Napoleon arrived in Spain , consolidated his own corps numbering around 280,000 soldiers, of whom he personally led over 35,000 straight towards Madrid. His force included the four-squadron Polish 1st Regiment of Light Cavalry of the Imperial Guard, formed in the second half of 1807 in Warsaw, comprising 950 cavalrymen.

On 29 November 1808, Napoleon’s force came to a halt at the foot of the Sierra de Guadarrama mountain range, near the pass by the village of Somosierra. The imperial staff were aware that a the approximately 2.5-kilometre-long pass at an altitude of 1,444 metres above sea level was manned by 8,000–12,000 enemy irregular infantrymen with a dozen or so guns. It was also established that, at the entrance to the pass, the Spanish had dug a deep trench preventing the attackers from bringing their horse-drawn artillery into action whilst on the move.

The Battle of Somosierra

On the morning of 30 November 1808, the area where the battle was expected to take place was shrouded in exceptionally thick fog. Under its cover, French sappers set about filling in the trench, but came under fire and were unable to complete the task. Nevertheless, the commanders of the three infantry regiments were ordered to attack the Spanish positions without the support of their own artillery, to launch an assault through the gorge of the pass and to reach its summit as quickly as possible. The assault was led by the voltigeur companies. Whilst they were engaged, the fog suddenly lifted, revealing to the attackers a wide, stony valley with a single winding, narrow road running through its centre, bordered on both sides by stone walls. On the mountain slopes, resembling scree-covered crags full of crevices and overgrown with lush vegetation, thousands of riflemen were spotted. On the road, meanwhile, there were at least four batteries of guns positioned in cascade formation, one behind the other, capable of providing mutual cover and with an excellent field of fire.

It was obvious that, under Spanish fire , the assault by the voltigeurs, followed by the tightly packed battalions of fusiliers, had ground to a halt. Napoleon therefore decided to commit the cavalry to the attack. The idea seemed mad and caused consternation amongst the staff officers. One of the generals even remarked that ‘one must be drunk to issue such an order, and one must be drunk to carry it out’, but the decision had been made. A squadron of Polish light cavalry was to charge along the road, attack the first battery and silence it. In accordance with the order, the Polish squadron moved into its starting position. However, in the face of relentless heavy fire, the commander of the advance guard withdrew his men and reported that a charge in such terrain and under such fire was impossible. Historians have noted that Napoleon, irritated by the report, is said to have shouted:

‘Impossible? I do not know such a word! Nothing is impossible for the Poles! I order the Poles to attack! Let them take the guns; let them bring me prisoners.’

The victorious attack by the Polish squadron

On that day, around 200 light cavalrymen from the 3rd and 7th companies, commanded by Captains Jan Dziewanowski and Piotr Krasiński, were on combat duty with the Emperor, under the overall command of squadron leader Jan Kozietulski. The light cavalry set off on the charge and carried it out in a flash, in an extended column, as galloping off the narrow road had, in fact, proved impossible. The ferocity of the attack meant that each successive Spanish battery managed to fire only once , yet each inflicted casualties – there were no missed shots. The front of the squadron, struck four times and mowed down, would occasionally slow the onrushing troops, but the main body of the column always reached the gun emplacements and, leaping over the cannons, cut down the gunners with sabres. Any of the fleeing gunners who were not cut down immediately were trampled under the hooves of the horses. The riflemen, taken by surprise by the speed of the charge and the determination of the attackers, fled off the road towards the mountains.

The Spanish position was captured by the Poles in a mere 8 minutes, although only a dozen or so daredevils reached the summit of the pass. The rest were left behind along the way, having lost their mounts or been knocked from their saddles. Napoleon sent another squadron to assist the first wave of attackers, which helped to secure the ground and ultimately open the route to Madrid (the Spanish capital capitulated on 3 December). On this short stretch of mountain road, the two Polish units lost 22 men, either killed in action or dying of their wounds, whilst 35 soldiers sustained minor wounds and injuries. On the scale of the entire front, the losses were minor, and given the circumstances of the attack, the terrain and the strength of the enemy, they were virtually negligible. An assault on the pass would have cost the French infantry hundreds of killed and wounded, and above all, many hours of combat effort. The victors captured 16 guns, over 3,000 prisoners of war, banners and a large number of supply wagons laden with all manner of military equipment.

The consequences of the Polish squadrons’ capture of the Somosierra Pass

The feat of the light cavalry astonished the Napoleonic soldiers of all nations, including the very man who had conceived the idea of attacking artillery at a mountain pass with cavalry. The Emperor, in ordering the capture of the first battery, certainly did not expect that, in the heat of battle, the Polish officers would cleverly exploit the element of surprise and launch an attack on all four gun emplacements. No one, not even the Spaniards—who were well prepared to repel attacks by infantry alone—could have foreseen such an extraordinary outcome to the charge, even in their wildest imaginings. The destruction of the guns and the sudden appearance of cavalry behind their own lines sent shockwaves through their ranks, triggering a panicked retreat from the battlefield.

The light cavalry charge sent shockwaves throughout Europe , and for years it was held up as an example of how to utilise the combat capabilities of cavalry at many military academies. Admittedly, there were occasionally those who attempted to discredit the light cavalry’s feat, even within the country itself. For Poles, however, the charge has always been, is, and will remain a symbol of the national valour of this mounted formation – one that must not be forgotten.

Commemorations of the Polish charge at Somosierra

When taking a road trip to Madrid , it is always worth stopping off at the village of Somosierra. Today , commemorations of the charge from over two centuries ago can be found both here and on the pass itself. In Somosierra, on one of the walls of the Church of Our Lady of the Snows ( Nuestra Señora de las Nieves), a metal commemorative plaque was installed in 1998. In its upper part, a crucifix is depicted between the symbolic flags of Spain and Poland. The inscription in Spanish reads: “In memory of / the Spaniards and Poles / who gave their lives / in the Battle of Somosierra / 1808–1998”.

Meanwhile, on the pass there is a small chapel (hermitage) dedicated to Nuestra Señora de la Soledad . Thanks to the efforts of the Polish authorities on the 185th anniversary of the charge, a metal plaque with a bilingual inscription was affixed to the wall of the hermitage (to the left of the entrance), the text of which reads ( in the Polish version): “To the Polish Heroes of Somosierra, 30 November 1808 – Republic of Poland, 1993”. Meanwhile, in 2008, two hundred years after the events, thanks to the efforts of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Madrid, a stained-glass window commemorating those who took part in the battle was installed in the chapel’s window. In the central panel of the stained-glass window is an image of Our Lady of Częstochowa; on the right – a figure of a Polish light cavalryman on horseback with his sabre drawn; and, mirroring this on the left – a Spanish artilleryman leaning on an artillery ramrod (with the cleaning rod visible). The stained-glass composition was created by the Polish artists Ewelina and Robert Kędzielewski.

Even just looking down from the summit of the pass towards the former starting positions for the attack gives an idea of the scale of the Poles’ combat effort.