The French civilians Ernst had claimed had not surrendered were now lowering Wissembourg's drawbridge, joyfully welcoming the Third Prussian Army Corps as the "righteous royal army."
Though they supported France in spirit, Prussian artillery was destroying the homes of Wissembourg residents. The French army, needing to defend the city, often climbed onto rooftops and crushed the tiles beneath their feet, making the townspeople's hearts ache. So: "Stop fighting already!"
Naturally, the French army did not listen to the civilians. When the French troops were squeezed by the Prussians into Wissembourg's cramped urban district, the residents personally raised white flags and welcomed the Prussian Army into the city.
This sight nearly enraged Leo, commander of the 2nd Battalion of the French 74th Regiment, to death, but there was nothing he could do.
Of course, this could only represent the personal actions of Wissembourg's residents, not France as a whole. After all, this was the Alsace and Lorraine regions.
France had made a spectacle of itself in the Battle of Wissembourg, but the French soldiers had fought with their own valor. After the German Allied Forces entered the city, they engaged the French army in fierce street fighting.
The French army still lost in the end, because there were simply too many enemies to finish fighting. They drove back the Bavarians, only for Prussia and other German states to take the field, even including a Seventh Brigade made up of Poles.
At the same time, faced with Prussia's advanced Krupp artillery, France had no effective countermeasures. Artillery suppression and numerical inferiority left no suspense in this battle.
Eight French battalions faced the attack of twenty-nine German battalions. There was no suspense in the German victory, yet German casualties exceeded those of the French, with Bavaria's record especially dismal.
Before the battle, the