Legio XVII: Battle of the Danube by Thomas A. Timmes Read Free Book Online Page A

their weapons and helmets and lowered into the ground.  Death was an unwelcomed, but familiar companion of the Tribes.
     
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    As soon as the Semnones were initially detected and before the fighting at the western column began, horsemen raced to tell Timur in the center column.  He in turn sent riders to alert the eastern most column and hoped they could reach them before they were attacked.  Timur looked at Donar’s second in command and said, “Send the strike force.  Kill the Chief and bring back our hostage.”  This force was already deployed in deep woods only five miles (8km) from the Chief’s settlement.  When the riders arrived with the attack order, they launched their attack.
     
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    The Semnones’ main attack on the eastern most column was so poorly planned and executed that the attackers were still a day away.  When the weary horsemen arrived with the news, of the Semnones’ attack on the western column, the entire wagon train of 3,700 wagons formed 370 circles of 10 wagons each and the column shrunk to 5 miles.  The Teutons 50,000 infantry and 3,000 archers prepared for imminent battle. Since the prisoners said that the expected attacking force numbered only 20,000 warriors, Donar devised a strategy to totally destroy the Semnones’ Army, but first he had to find out where they were located and from which direction they would attack.
    He dispatched men on foot to find them.  They went both east and west.  Finally, after a full day of walking, the scouts that went east found the Semnones’ camp.  They watched and waited until a single individual separated from the main group and wandered into the woods.  He was quickly captured and sent back to the column for questioning.  The rest of the scouts continued to watch the Semnones.
    Early the next morning, the Semnones broke camp and began walking west to find the Teuton column.  The scouts continued to watch them from a distance.  When the Semnones were about five miles away from the wagons, the Semnones’ Commander stopped his advance and sent out scouts to find the Teuton wagons.  The Teutons watched intently to see if the attackers were going to separate into two groups or attack as one.  When they saw no further movement, the scouts returned to report what they had observed.
    Based on the current Semnones’ location in the woods, Donar guessed that they would continue to advance in a straight line and strike the column anywhere along the entire 5 miles of circled wagons.  He issued orders for the 3,000 archers to disperse evenly among the circles, about eight archers per circle, in order to blunt the attack and allow the Teuton infantry to maneuver into position.  He placed 25,000 troops on the north side of the circles and another 25,000 on the south side.  His intent was to catch the attackers in between these two large infantry formations.
    The Semnones’ scouts saw that the wagons were in defensive circles so they knew they had lost the element of surprise.  The only troops they could see were the archers.  These observations were reported back to the Semnones’ Commander.  He opined that even though the Teutons somehow knew they were about to be attacked and had formed a defensive perimeter, there were no relief troops coming that could reach them in time.   He decided to proceed with the attack.  Despite the fact that it was getting late in the day, he ordered his soldiers forward. The Semnones’ troops did not need a pep talk.  The thought of hundreds of wagons loaded with goods and women for the taking was sufficient motivation.
    About 2 P.M., the warriors reached the wood line and spread out to the left and right for about half a mile.  The men were 20 deep all along the line and faced 46 circles of wagons.  An hour later, 20,000 Semnones broke out of the tree line some 200 yards from the nearest wagons.  They screamed their loudest in hopes of frightening away the lightly armed people.