Battle of Melle
1745 CE.
Shown on the map at 51.000°, 3.808°.
The Battle of Melle was an encounter battle fought on 9 July 1745, during the War of the Austrian Succession, between forces of the Pragmatic Allies and the French. After their defeat at Fontenoy in May, the Duke of Cumberland, Allied commander in Flanders, was under pressure from the Austrians to defend Brussels. He also wanted to protect the key port of Ghent, a major supply depot threatened by the French advance into West Flanders. Cumberland compromised by employing his main force to cover Brussels, while sending 4,000 men under Austrian general Freiherr Philipp Ludwig von Moltke to reinforce Ghent. On the way, it ran into a French detachment under General Nicolas Joseph Balthazar de l'Anglade, vicomte du Chayla, positioned near the town of Melle to prevent such an attempt; the Allies were driven off with heavy losses and Ghent surrendered on 13 July.
Text from the Wikipedia article Battle of Melle, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.