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Chapter 6—Business-to-Business (B2B) Marketing
TRUE/FALSE
1. Business marketers advertise primarily to announce new products, to enhance their company image
and presence, and to attract potential customers who would then deal directly with a salesperson.
2. Organizational buyers tend to purchase standardized products, unlike the consumer market where
customization is more prevalent.
3. B2B relationships tend to last longer than those in the consumer market.
4. Due to the complexity of the buying process and potential need for technical assistance, the
distribution channels in the B2B marketplace tend to be longer than those in the consumer market.
5. Personal selling and customer service are more important in business markets than in consumer
markets.
201
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from the U.S. Edition. May not be scanned, copied, duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Business-to-Business (B2B) Marketing
6. Purchasing decisions in the B2B sectors are more complex, take longer to negotiate, and often include
many levels of decision making.
8. The biggest distinction between B2B marketing and consumer marketing is the lack of advertising and
visibility in the marketplace the company services.
9. Personal selling is less important in business markets than in consumer markets because of the longer
distribution channels involved.
10. The primary purchasing need of an organization is meeting the demands of its own customers.
11. An organization’s goals must also be considered in the B2B buying process.
202
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from the U.S. Edition. May not be scanned, copied, duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Business-to-Business (B2B) Marketing
12. The four categories that define the business market are the commercial market, producers, institutions
and government agencies.
13. The commercial market purchases products for use directly and indirectly in the manufacturing of
other products.
14. When Cannondale purchases aluminum for use in its bicycle frames, the company is participating in
the commercial market.
15. The commercial market consists of retailers and wholesalers who purchase goods primarily for resale
to other businesses and to the consumer.
16. Members of the trade industries acquire goods and services primarily for use in production.
17. The term reseller is often used to describe wholesalers and retailers that comprise membership in the
trade industries.
203
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from the U.S. Edition. May not be scanned, copied, duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Business-to-Business (B2B) Marketing
18. The trade industries include manufacturers, wholesalers, and individual consumers.
19. Because of its size, the government represents the largest segment of the B2B marketplace.
20. Organizations such as hospitals, universities and museums comprise the commercial segment of the
business market.
22. The Internet is intended to replace, not just enhance, personal selling and the traditional relationships
between businesses.
23. In general, the consumer has more at stake in purchasing decisions because the money they are
spending is actually theirs. Business customers have less at stake and are less concerned with value
and utility of the materials purchased.
204
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from the U.S. Edition. May not be scanned, copied, duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Business-to-Business (B2B) Marketing
24. Geographic location is considered a demographic basis for segmenting the business market.
25. Organizational size is regarded as a demographic basis for segmenting business customers.
26. Compared to the old SIC system of classification, the NAICS not only standardizes classifications
among nations, but also provides flexibility for each country to measure its own business activity.
27. The NAICS codes provide information about businesses that allows users to compare business sectors
among the member nations of NAFTA.
28. The NAICS classification system provides a useful tool for segmenting B2B markets by customer
type.
29. With the implementation of the NAFTA accord, the SIC system replaced the NAICS system to
subdivide the business marketplace into detailed segments.
205
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from the U.S. Edition. May not be scanned, copied, duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Business-to-Business (B2B) Marketing
30. Some companies segment markets into categories such as small business, large business, consumers,
educational institutions and government. This is an example of end-use segmentation.
31. End-use application segmentation focuses on the precise way in which a business purchaser will use a
product.
32. Geographic concentration of an industry has no effect on the location decisions of the industry's
suppliers.
33. Ford recently established a first-of-its-kind campus for suppliers near its Chicago
assembly plant, which enabled them to reduce costs, control parts inventories, and increase flexibility.
34. The Internet is changing the buying process of many customers, including the federal government,
making it less likely that suppliers will need to be geographically close to their customers.
35. Purchase decision making in B2B is more formal and professional than in the consumer market.
206
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from the U.S. Edition. May not be scanned, copied, duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Business-to-Business (B2B) Marketing
36. Evaluating foreign market opportunities is a complex and somewhat difficult task for businesses.
37. Global sourcing involves contracting to purchase goods and services from suppliers worldwide.
38. If Product A is used primarily to manufacture Product B, then the demand for product A is derived
from the demand for Product B.
39. As demand for personal computers increases the demand for computer microprocessor chips will also
increase. This is an example of derived demand.
40. Companies that sell products affected by derived demand can avoid the negative affects of downturns
by diversifying the markets in which they sell their products.
41. Organizational buyers basically purchase two categories of products: capital items and expense items.
42. Capital purchases are expended quickly, whereas expense items are more expensive and last longer.
207
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from the U.S. Edition. May not be scanned, copied, duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Business-to-Business (B2B) Marketing
43. The difference between capital and expense items is not only the size and length of use, but also the
way the accounting department handles production costs.
44. Volatile demand means that even slight shifts or variations in the market can have an affect on sales.
45. If consumer demand for dishwashers increases, dishwasher manufacturers will buy more raw materials,
components and supplies as a result of the link between the consumer market and the industrial market.
This linkage is called coordinated demand.
46. Business markets tend to have more buyers and suppliers than found in the consumer marketplace.
47. Assume the price of jet fuel rises, but airlines continue to purchase the same amount of fuel in order to
meet operational needs. As a result, the demand for jet fuel is said to be inelastic.
48. JIT II inventory systems may require suppliers to have on-site representatives at their customers’
production facility.
208
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from the U.S. Edition. May not be scanned, copied, duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Business-to-Business (B2B) Marketing
49. When a firm can manufacture the product it needs, it may experience a significant cost savings
because it will not have to pay the overhead costs and profit to an outside supplier.
50. Offshoring and nearshoring refer to the method of acquiring natural resources.
51. India has become a major supplier of customer service labor, while China offers inexpensive
manufacturing labor.
52. Turning to outsiders to provide products or services that were formerly provided in-house is referred to
as external acquisition.
53. If a company wants to concentrate its resources on its core business, it may be wise to outsource
support departments.
209
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from the U.S. Edition. May not be scanned, copied, duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Business-to-Business (B2B) Marketing
55. To understand organizational buying behavior, business marketers require knowledge of influences on
the purchase decision process, the stages in the organizational buying model, types of business buying
situations, and techniques for purchase decision analysis.
56. Successful organizational marketers understand their customers’ organizational structures, policies and
purchasing systems.
57. Personal and interpersonal influences affect consumer purchasing decisions, not B2B decisions.
58. Centralized purchasing units may contract with only a few suppliers to service multiple locations
because they lack interest in long-term relationship building and place greater reliance on immediate
results.
59. A sales representative can waste valuable time creating a sales relationship with decision makers in a
decentralized purchasing office of a Fortune 500 company.
60. When selling to organizational customers, sales representatives need to be able to interact effectively
with employees of the various departments involved in the purchase decision.
210
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from the U.S. Edition. May not be scanned, copied, duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Business-to-Business (B2B) Marketing
61. Organizational purchasing decisions tend to be standardized, resulting in the same procedures being
used for both capital and expense items.
62. Purchase decisions for capital items vary significantly from those of expense items.
63. “Merchandiser” is the common designation for a purchasing agent in wholesale and retail trades.
64. Lockheed Martin wins a contract to produce 14 state-of-the-art helicopters for the U.S. Navy.
Coordination of labor, purchasing, and manufacturing is a tremendous undertaking, so Lockheed
would have the option of streamlining the purchasing process through systems integration.
65. Business purchase decisions begin when the recognition of problems, needs, or opportunities activates
the buying process.
66. A firm deciding to purchase more energy-efficient machines in response to rising fuel prices illustrates
the first step in the business buying process.
211
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from the U.S. Edition. May not be scanned, copied, duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Business-to-Business (B2B) Marketing
67. After determining the characteristics and quantity of needed products, B2B buyers must translate these
ideas into detailed specifications
68. When government agencies seek to acquire proposals from potential suppliers, they participate in a
process called competitive bidding.
69. Once a supplier has been chosen, buyer and vendor must work out the best way to process future
purchases.
70. Although order procedures vary from supplier to supplier, the one constant in all transactions is the
inclusion of the terms of sales including price, quantity, delivery and payment terms.
71. A straight rebuy is to the business market what a routinized purchase is to the consumer market.
72. A company that believes in “quality, service and reliability” will have a better chance of experiencing
straight rebuys from their customers.
212
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from the U.S. Edition. May not be scanned, copied, duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Business-to-Business (B2B) Marketing
73. Straight rebuys resemble limited problem solving in consumer markets.
74. The purchasing decision can move to a modified rebuy status with either the introduction of new
products or poor performance by the original supplier.
75. When a business purchases a new product that requires considerable effort on the decision maker's part,
it is called new-task buying.
76. Marketers who want to encourage modified rebuy behavior by their customers should focus on
providing excellent service and delivery performance.
77. New-task buying for businesses is comparable to the extended problem solving that takes place in
consumer markets.
78. In the B2B market, the practice of buying from suppliers who are also customers is called reverse
reciprocity.
213
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from the U.S. Edition. May not be scanned, copied, duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Business-to-Business (B2B) Marketing
79. Reciprocal arrangements are common in industries where products are homogeneous and prices are
similar, such as the chemical, paint, rubber and steel industries.
80. On an international level, attitudes toward reciprocity vary from country to country.
81. Value analysis is a continuous process of evaluating the cost of doing business with a particular buying
unit. Suppliers must ensure they are receiving adequate benefits from the time invested in a customer.
82. The ongoing evaluation of a supplier's performance on such criteria as price, EDI capability, delivery
times, and attention to special requests is called vendor analysis.
83. A company’s buying center encompasses everyone who is involved in any aspect of its buying
activity.
214
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from the U.S. Edition. May not be scanned, copied, duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Business-to-Business (B2B) Marketing
85. Gatekeepers in the buying center affect the buying decision by determining which individuals within
the organization will be part of the buying process.
86. Influencers in the purchasing decision can be both internal and external to the organization.
87. While many individuals participate in the buying process, it is the buyer’s role to make the final
decision and confirmation of the sale.
88. In the B2B purchasing process, the user, the influencer, and the decider might all be the same
individual.
89. The participants in international buying centers are generally easier to identify than those in domestic
buying centers.
90. The structure of the buying center varies from culture to culture. For example, 50 individuals might be
involved in the purchasing process in some countries.
215
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important, for the moment, of the ports along the coast which the
Emperor had commended to him for destruction.
Meanwhile the Biscayan insurgents collected opposite Bilbao, on
the Eastern side, and Mendizabal brought up Longa’s troops and
some of the smaller bands to threaten it from the West. The idea was
to give Clausel so much trouble about his head-quarters that he
would be unable to march away against Castro. The days slipped by,
and farther East Mina was more active than ever in Navarre. He had
at last become the happy possessor of two siege guns, landed at
Deba on the Biscay coast, and dragged by incredible exertions across
mountain paths to the farthest inland. When they came to hand he
set to work to beleaguer the French garrison of Tafalla, an outlying
place, but less than thirty miles from Pampeluna. This was a
challenge to General Abbé, the Governor of Navarre: a force which
has dug trenches and brought up heavy guns is obviously asking for
a fight, and not intending to abscond. Abbé marched with 3,000
infantry and 150 chasseurs to raise the siege, and found Mina with
four of his battalions and his regiment of cavalry drawn up across the
high road, in a mountain position at Tiebas, ten miles north of Tafalla.
After a hard day’s fighting, Abbé failed to break through, and had to
fall back on Pampeluna[387] (February 9). The news of his repulse
disheartened the garrison, whose walls were crumbling under the fire
of Mina’s heavy guns, and they surrendered on February 11th to the
number of 11 officers and 317 men—the post-commander and many
others had been killed during the siege.
This success of Mina’s meant nothing less than that the whole
open country of Navarre was at his mercy, since Abbé had been
beaten in the field; wherefore Clausel hastened to dispatch the first
reinforcements from the Army of Portugal which reached him—
Barbot’s division—to this quarter. But the affair created less
excitement than an exploit of reckless courage carried out by one of
Mina’s detachments in the following month. The old castle of
Fuenterrabia commands the passage of the Bidassoa, and looks
across its estuary into France: on March 11 it was surprised by
escalade by a handful of guerrilleros, the garrison taken prisoner, the
guns thrown into the water, and the whole building destroyed by fire.
The flames were visible far into France—troops hurried up from Irun
and Hendaye, but of course found the guerrilleros gone[388].
This exploit was rather spectacular than harmful to the French—
quite otherwise was the last event of the month of March. Barbot’s
division, on entering Navarre, was directed to help Abbé to clear the
country between Pampeluna and the Ebro. Having reached Lodosa on
March 30, Barbot sent out two battalions to raise requisitions in the
neighbouring town of Lerin. The place was being sacked, when the
scattered French were suddenly attacked by two of Mina’s battalions,
while two more and 200 Navarrese lancers cut in between the enemy
and Lodosa. The French, thoroughly surprised, lost heavily in the first
shock, but rallied and started to cut their way back to their division,
only eight miles away. In a running fight they were much mauled,
and finally had to form square to receive the cavalry. In this
inconvenient formation they were forced to a long musketry fight
with the Navarrese, which so shook the square that it finally broke
when Mina’s lancers charged. The two battalions were annihilated, 28
officers and 635 men taken prisoners—the rest cut down. Gaudin, the
colonel commanding the detachment, escaped with a few mounted
officers[389]. The extraordinary part of the affair was that its last crisis
took place at only two miles from Lodosa, where Barbot was lying
with his remaining six battalions. The French general never stirred,
but only put himself in a posture of defence, thereby provoking
Mina’s surprise[390], for he could have saved the column by going out
to its help. After the disaster he retired to Pampeluna, with a division
reduced to little over 3,000 men. But not long after Taupin’s division
of the Army of Portugal also entered Navarre, and joined Abbé. This
gave the latter a very heavy force—at least 13,000 men, and when
Clausel had finished his own operations in the direction of Bilbao, and
marched from Biscay to encircle Mina on one side, while Abbé was to
hold him on the other, the great guerrillero was in grave danger. But
this was only in late April and May, and before the chronicle of these
weeks is reached we have to turn back westward for a space.
Napoleon’s orders had told Clausel to attack at all points at once,
and to lose no time in setting to work. But it was quite clear that no
general synchronized move could be made, until the divisions
borrowed from Reille had all arrived. What active operations meant,
before the reinforcements had come up, had been sufficiently proved
by Abbé’s defeat at Tiebas: and Clausel’s own doings in March were
equally discouraging, if not so disastrous. He had resolved to carry
out one of the Emperor’s urgent orders by capturing Castro-Urdiales,
the touching-place of British cruisers and the one fortified port which
the Allies possessed on the Biscay coast. Undervaluing its strength,
he marched out on March 21 with the bulk of Palombini’s Italian
division and a single French battalion, intending to take it by
escalade. For he had been told that its ancient walls had been
indifferently repaired, and were almost without guns. When, however,
he had reached the neighbourhood of Castro on the 22nd, he had to
own on inspection that the enterprise would be hopeless—his
commanding engineer, the historian Vacani[391]—maintained that it
would take 6,000 men and a siege train of at least six heavy guns to
deal with the place. And, as subsequent events showed, this was
quite true. Castro is built on a rocky spit projecting into the sea, with
a stout wall 20 feet high drawn across the isthmus which joins the
headland to the coast. The narrow front of this wall, from water to
water, had been well repaired; there were some 20 guns mounted,
and an old castle on the extreme sea-ward point of the spit served as
a citadel or inner fortification. Mendizabal and his lieutenant,
Campillo, had come down from the interior with three or four
thousand men, and were visible on the flank, ready to fall upon the
Italian column if it should approach the town, through the labyrinth
of vineyards and stone fences which covered its outskirts.
Clausel, always venturesome, was inclined at first to go on with
his enterprise, when news reached him that Bilbao, which he had left
rather weakly garrisoned, was threatened by the guerrillero Jauregui,
and the battalions of the volunteers of Biscay and Guipuzcoa. He
returned hastily to his head-quarters with his French battalion, but
found that the danger had been exaggerated for the moment, so
sent out General Rouget with two battalions to join Palombini, who
had meanwhile on the 24th fought a severe action with Mendizabal.
The Spaniard had tried to surround him in his camp at San Pelayo,
with several outflanking columns—the Italian sallied out and drove
him off with loss—but suffered himself no less[392]. Clausel, on
reaching the front, came to the conclusion that Castro must not be
attacked without heavy guns and a larger field-force. He directed
Palombini to burn the ladders, fascines, &c., prepared for the assault,
and to go off instead to raise the blockade of Santoña, while he
himself returned to Bilbao. The Italian division therefore marched
westward on Colindres, on the other side of the bay on which
Santoña stands, thrusting aside the Spanish blockading forces, and
communicated with the governor, General Lameth. A supply of small
arms and ammunition, money, and food was thrown into the place.
On the other hand, Lameth was ordered to get six heavy guns on
shipboard, and to be prepared to run them down the coast, when
next a French force should appear in front of Castro-Urdiales, along
with a provision of round shot, shells, and entrenching tools. Lameth
got the siege material ready, but was not asked for it till another full
month had gone by, for Clausel had other business pressed upon
him.
Palombini thereupon turned back, and regained Bilbao in three
forced marches, unmolested by the Spaniards, for they had gone off
in the direction of Balmaseda, not expecting him to return so quickly.
He had only been in Bilbao for two days when Clausel sent him out
again, eastward this time and not westward, with two of his
regiments, for a surprise attack on Guernica, the head-quarters of the
Biscayan insurgents and the seat of their Junta. A French column of
two battalions of the 40th Line from Durango was to co-operate and
to assail the enemy in the rear. This expedition was quite in
consonance with Napoleon’s orders to strike at the enemy’s central
dépôts in front and rear by unexpected raids. But it also showed the
difficulty of carrying out such plans. Palombini reached Guernica,
driving before him bands which gave way, but were always growing
stronger: behind Guernica they made a stand—the French flanking
column failed to appear—having found troubles of its own—and
Palombini was repulsed and forced to cut his way back out of the
hills. He reported his loss as only 80 men—but it was probably
somewhat more[393] (April 2). Having picked up the stray French
column, and replenished his ammunition from Bilbao, Palombini, with
a laudable perseverance, attacked the Guernica position again on
April 5, and this time forced it. Thence pushing east, he tried to drive
the enemy before him along the coast road, on which, in the
neighbourhood of St. Sebastian, a brigade from the Bayonne reserve
had been set to block their flight. But the Biscayans and El Pastor
evaded him and slipped south into the hills: the Guipuzcoan
battalions, instinctively falling back on their own province, were in
more danger. But warned in time that the coast road was stopped,
some of them took refuge in the boats of English warships at
Lequeytio and Motrico, and were shipped off to Castro-Urdiales in
safety, while others simply dispersed. No prisoners were taken, but
Palombini captured the petty magazines of the Guipuzcoans at
Aspeytia and Azcoytia, and thinking that the insurrection was
scotched returned to the Bayonne chaussée at Bergara (April 9).
So far was this from ending the campaign, that while Palombini
was devastating Guipuzcoa, the Biscayans and El Pastor had
concerted a new attack on Bilbao with Longa and Mendizabal, who
had been left with no containing force in front of them when the
enemy had retired from before Castro-Urdiales.
Clausel had gone off from Bilbao on March 30, with a large escort,
to join at Vittoria the newly arrived divisions of the Army of Portugal,
those of Taupin and Foy, and was set on organizing a new attack on
Mina. In the absence of both the Commander-in-Chief and of
Palombini, Bilbao was very weakly garrisoned—not more than 2,000
men were left to General Rouget to defend a rather extensive system
of outworks. On April 10th the Spaniards attacked him on both sides
of the Nervion river, and would probably have broken into Bilbao but
for the incapacity of Mendizabal, whose main body did not come up
in time to assist the attack of the Biscayans on the other bank of the
river. Rouget was still holding out when Palombini came to his rescue
from Bergara via Durango, in two forced marches. The Spaniards
thereupon dispersed, after their usual fashion, Mendizabal
disappearing to the east, the Biscayans falling back on their old head-
quarters at Guernica. Palombini was strong at the moment, having
been joined by the brigade from Bayonne, under General Aussenac,
which had been blocking the coast road. He therefore tried to
surround the Biscayans with converging columns—but when he
thought that he had cut them off from the inland, and was about to
drive them into the water, the bulk of them were picked up at
Bermeo by English cruisers, and landed farther down the coast. Only
some baggage and a store of munitions fell into the pursuer’s hands
(April 14).
On this, Palombini, ‘convinced,’ says his admiring chronicler
Vacani, ‘of the uselessness of trying to envelop or destroy local bands
among mountains which they knew too well, when he could only
dispose of columns of a few battalions for the pursuit,’ resolved to
halt at Bilbao, and prepare for the siege of Castro. He put the brigade
from Bayonne in charge of the high road to San Sebastian, and
waited for the arrival of Foy from Vittoria. For he had been informed
that this general, with his division of the Army of Portugal, was to be
detailed to help him in the subjection of Biscay. Meanwhile April was
half over, the insurgents had been often hunted but never caught,
and Wellington might be expected to be on the move any morning: it
was strange that he had not been heard of already.
Leaving Biscay to Palombini and Foy, Clausel had collected at
Vittoria one of his own divisions, hitherto scattered in small
detachments, but relieved by the reinforcements sent him from the
Army of Portugal. For beside the four divisions lent for active service,
he had taken over the whole Province of Burgos, to which Reille had
sent the division of Lamartinière. With his own newly-collected
division, under Vandermaesen, and Taupin’s of the Army of Portugal,
Clausel set out for Navarre on April 11th, to combine his operations
with those of Abbé and to hunt down Mina. As he had already sent
forward to the Governor of Navarre the division of Barbot, there was
now a field-force of 20,000 men available for the chase, without
taking into consideration the troops tied down in garrisons. This was
more than double the strength that Mina could command, and the
next month was one of severe trial for the great guerrillero.
Clausel’s first idea was to catch Mina by a sweeping movement of
all his four divisions, which he collected at Puente la Reyna in the
valley of the Arga (April 24). Mina answered this move by dispersion,
and his battalions escaped through intervals in the cordon with no
great loss, and cut up more than once small detachments of their
pursuers. Clausel perceiving that this system was useless, then tried
another, one of those recommended by the Emperor in his letter of
instruction of March 9, viz. a resolute stroke at the enemy’s
magazines and dépôts. Mina kept his hospitals, some rough munition
factories which he had set up, and his store of provisions, in the
remote Pyrenean valley of Roncal, where Navarre and Aragon meet:
it was most inaccessible and far from any high road. Nevertheless
Clausel marched upon it with the divisions of Abbé, Vandermaesen,
and Barbot, leaving Taupin alone at Estella to contain Western
Navarre. He calculated that Mina would be forced to concentrate and
fight, in order to save his stores and arsenal, and that so he might be
destroyed. He was partly correct in his hypothesis—but only partly.
Mina left four of his battalions in Western Navarre, in the valleys of
the Amescoas, to worry Taupin, and hurried with the remaining five
to cover the Roncal. There was heavy fighting in the passes leading
to it on May 12 and 13, which ended in the Navarrese being beaten
and dispersed with the loss of a thousand men. Clausel captured and
destroyed the factories and magazines, and made prisoners of the
sick in the hospitals, whom he treated with unexpected humanity.
Some of the broken battalions fled south by Sanguesa into lower
Navarre, others eastward into Aragon. Among these last was Mina
himself with a small party of cavalry—he tried to fetch a compass
round the pursuing French and to return to his own country, but he
was twice headed off, and finally forced to fly far into Eastern Aragon,
as far as Barbastro. This region was practically open to him for flight,
for the French garrison of Saragossa was too weak to cover the
whole country, or to stop possible bolt-holes. Mina was therefore able
to rally part of his men there, and called in the help of scattered
partidas. Clausel swept all North-Western Aragon with his three
divisions, making arrests and destroying villages which had
harboured the insurgents. But he did not wish to pursue Mina to the
borders of Catalonia, where he would have been quite out of his own
beat, and inconveniently remote from Pampeluna and Vittoria.
But meanwhile the division which he had left under Taupin in
Navarre was having much trouble with Mina’s four battalions in the
Amescoas, and parties drifting back from the rout in the Roncal vexed
the northern bank of the Ebro, while Longa and Mendizabal,
abandoning their old positions in front of Bilbao, had descended on to
the Bayonne chaussée, and executed many raids upon it, from the
pass of Salinas above Vittoria as far as the Ebro (April 25-May 10).
The communications between Bayonne and Burgos were once more
cut, and the situation grew so bad that Lamartinière’s division of the
Army of Portugal had to be moved eastward, to clear the road from
Burgos to Miranda, Sarrut’s to do the same between Miranda and
Bilbao, while Maucune detached a brigade to relieve Lamartinière at
Burgos. Of the whole Army of Portugal there was left on May 20th
only one single infantry brigade at Palencia which was still at Reille’s
disposition. Five and a half divisions had been lent to Clausel, and
were dispersed in the north. And Wellington was now just about to
move! The worst thing of all for the French cause was that the
communications of the North were as bad in May as they had been in
January: after Clausel had taken off the main field-army to the
Roncal, and had led it from thence far into Aragon, the roads behind
him were absolutely useless. Only on the line Bayonne-Vittoria, where
the new blockhouses were beginning to arise, was any regular
passing to and fro possible. Clausel himself was absolutely lost to
sight, so far as King Joseph was concerned—it took a fortnight or
twenty days to get a dispatch through to him.
Meanwhile, before turning to the great campaign of Wellington on
the Douro, it is necessary to dispose of the chronicle of affairs in
Biscay. Foy and his division, as we have seen, had marched from
Vittoria to Bilbao and reached the latter place on April 21st[394]. On
the way they had nearly caught Mendizabal at Orduña, where he
chanced to be present with a guard of only 200 men; but, warned
just in time, he had the luck to escape, and went back to pick up his
subordinates Longa and Campillo nearer the coast.
Soon after Foy’s arrival at Bilbao he was joined by Sarrut’s division
of the Army of Portugal, which had followed him from Vittoria. He
had therefore, counting Palombini’s Italians, the brigade of Aussenac,
and the regular garrison of Bilbao, at least 16,000 men—ample for
the task that Clausel had commended to him, the capture of Castro-
Urdiales, with its patched-up mediaeval wall. The only thing
presenting any difficulty was getting a siege train to this remote
headland: Lameth, the Governor of Santoña, as it will be
remembered, had been ordered to provide one, and there were four
heavy guns in Bilbao:—the roads on both sides, however, were
impracticable, and the artillery had to come by water, running the
chance of falling in with British cruisers.
On April 25th Foy marched out of Bilbao with his own, Sarrut’s,
and Palombini’s divisions, more than 11,000 men,[395] leaving
Aussenac on the Deba, to guard the road from San Sebastian, and
Rouget in garrison as usual. On the same evening he reached the
environs of Castro, and left Palombini there to shut in the place, while
he went on himself to look for Mendizabal, who was known to be
watching affairs from the hills, and to be blocking the road to
Santoña, as he had so often done before. Foy then moved on to
Cerdigo where he established his head-quarters for the siege, on a
strong position between the sea and the river Agaera. Mendizabal
was reputed to be holding the line of the Ason, ten miles farther on,
but in weak force: he had only the partidas of Campillo and Herrero
with him, Longa being absent in the direction of Vittoria. On the 29th
Foy drove off these bands at Ampuero, and communicated with
Santoña, into which he introduced a drove of 500 oxen and other
victuals. The governor Lameth was ordered to ship the siege train
that he had collected to Islares, under the camp at Cerdigo, on the
first day when he should find the bay clear—for three English sloops,
the Lyra, Royalist, and Sparrow, under Captain Bloye, were lying off
Castro and watching the coast. Foy then established Sarrut’s division
to cover the siege at Trucios, and sent two Italian battalions to
Portugalete to guard the road to Bilbao, keeping his own division and
the three other Italian battalions for the actual trench work. The
heavy guns were the difficulty—those expected from Bilbao were
stopped at the mouth of the Nervion by the English squadron, which
was watching for them—but in the absence of the sloops on this
quest, the governor of Santoña succeeded in running his convoy
across the bay on May 4th. The guns from Bilbao were afterwards
brought up by land, with much toil.
Foy then commenced three batteries on the high slopes which
dominate the town: two were completed on the 6th, despite much
long-distance fire from the British ships, and from a heavy gun which
Captain Bloye had mounted on the rocky islet of Santa Anna outside
the harbour. On the 7th fire was begun from two batteries against the
mediaeval curtain wall, but was ineffective—one battery was silenced
by the British. On the 10th, however, the third battery—much closer
in—was ready, and opened with devastating results on the 11th, two
hours’ fire making a breach 30 feet wide and destroying a large
convent behind it.
The Governor, Pedro Alvarez, one of Longa’s colonels, had a
garrison of no more than 1,000 men—all like himself from Longa’s
regiments of Iberia; he made a resolute defence, kept up a
continuous counter-fire, and prepared to hold the breach. But it was
obvious that the old wall was no protection from modern artillery, and
that Foy could blow down as much of it as he pleased at leisure. On
the afternoon of the 11th part of the civil population went on board
the British ships: the governor made preparations for holding the
castle, on the seaside of the town projecting into the water, as a last
stronghold: but it was only protected by the steepness of the rock on
which it stood—its walls were ruined and worthless. Late in the day
the British took off the heavy gun which they had placed on the islet
—it could not have been removed after the town had fallen, and the
fall was clearly inevitable.
Foy, seeing the curtain-wall continuing to crumble, and a 60-foot
breach established, resolved to storm that night, and sent in at 7.20
three columns composed of eight French and eight Italian flank
companies for the assault—the former to the breach, the latter to try
to escalade a low angle near the Bilbao gate. Both attacks
succeeded, despite a heavy but ill-aimed fire from the defenders, and
the Spaniards were driven through the town and into the castle,
where they maintained themselves. Alvarez had made preparations
for evacuation—while two companies held the steep steps which
were the only way up to the castle, the rest of the garrison embarked
at its back on the boats of the British squadron. Some were killed in
the water by the French fire, some drowned, but the large majority
got off. By three in the morning there were only 100 men left in the
castle: Alvarez had detailed them to throw the guns into the sea, and
to fire the magazines, both of which duties they accomplished, before
the early dawn. When, by means of ladders, the French made their
way into an embrasure of the defences, some of this desperate band
were killed. But it is surprising to hear that most of them got away by
boat from the small jetty at the back of the castle. They probably
owed their escape to the fact that the stormers had spent the night
in riotous atrocities vying with those of Badajoz on a small scale.
Instead of finishing off their job by taking the castle, they had spent
the night in rape and plunder in the town[396].
The Spaniards declared that the total loss of their garrison was
only 100 men, and the statement is borne out by the dispatch of
Captain Bloye of the Lyra. Foy wrote to Clausel that the whole
business had only cost him fifty men. The two statements seem
equally improbable, for the siege had lasted for six days of open
trenches, and both sides had fought with great resolution[397].
But the really important thing to note about this little affair is that
it absorbed three French divisions for sixteen days in the most critical
month of 1813. Eleven thousand men were tied down in a remote
corner of Biscay, before a patched-up mediaeval wall, while Longa
was running riot in Alava and breaking the line of communication
with France—and (what is more important) while Wellington’s
columns were silently gliding into place for the great stroke on the
Douro. Colonel Alvarez could boast that his thousand men had served
a very useful and honourable end during the great campaign. He and
they were landed by Captain Bloye at Bermeo, and went off over the
hills to join Longa: the majority of them must have been present at
the battle of Vittoria, some six weeks after their escape by sea.
Having discharged the first duty set him by Clausel, Foy left the
Italians at Castro, to guard the coast and keep up communications
with Santoña. He sent Sarrut southward to hunt for Longa, by way of
Orduña; but the Spaniard crossed the Ebro and moved into the
province of Burgos, evading pursuit. Then, finding that Lamartinière’s
division was guarding the great road in this direction, he turned off
north-westward, and escaped by Espinosa to the mountains of
Santander. Sarrut, having lost him, turned back to Biscay.
Meanwhile Foy himself, after retiring to Bilbao to give a few days
of rest to his division, started out again on May 27th for a circular
tour in Biscay. His object was to destroy the three Biscayan volunteer
battalions which had given his predecessor so much trouble. Two he
dispersed, but could not destroy, and they ultimately got together
again in somewhat diminished numbers. The third was more unlucky:
caught between three converging columns near Lequeytio, it was
driven against the seashore and nearly annihilated—360 men were
taken, 200 killed, only two companies got off into the hills (May
30th). But to achieve this result Foy had collected three brigades—
5,000 men—who would have been better employed that day on the
Esla, for Wellington was crossing that river at the moment—and
where were the infantry of the Army of Portugal, who should have
stood in his way?
So while the British Army was streaming by tens of thousands into
the undefended plains of Leon, Foy and Sarrut were guerrillero-
hunting in Biscay, and Taupin and Barbot had just failed in the great
chase after Mina in Aragon and Navarre. Such were the results of the
Emperor’s orders for the pacification of the North.
Battle of CASTALLA April 13 1813
SECTION XXXV: CHAPTER VI
AN EPISODE ON THE EAST COAST.
CASTALLA, APRIL 1813