In October 1810 Wellington withdrew into the lines of Torres Vedras; after probing the defences Massena decided that they were impregnable although possibly he did not envisage a single man of this field army, his British and Portugese Regulars, fighting behind the protection of the fortifications - around them were at least a dozen Busaca-like defensive positions. The trenches, palisades, scarped hills and masonry citadels were to be manned by secondary troops with the task of delaying any French thrust while Wellington concentrated against it via the lateral communications roads. Throughout the winter the French lived precariously in the area that Wellington had ordered to be denuded of food-stuffs. Outlying provinces had been devastated so that Massena's army blockading the lines subsisted with the greatest difficulty, losing 25,000 men from battle wounds, disease and malnutrition. In early March 1811, the French began to retreat back to Spain with Wellington harassing them by hit and run tactics. During this period there were numerous minor actions with the superiority of British infantry weapons being clearly demonstrated - at Coa on 3rd April, in an attack made abortive by thick fog, it is said that the Light Division did some of the finest fighting of its long and honourable history. Massena reached his base at Salamanca on 11th April 1811 after skillfully extricating his army from half a dozen critical situations. Back to Table of Contents -- Wargamer's Newsletter # 175 To Wargamer's Newsletter List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1976 by Donald Featherstone. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com