Battle of Turin - Epilogue

Epilogue

On September 2 the two Savoyards analyzed the tactical situation from the hill of Superga, which commands Turin and the neighbouring area. While the defenders pushed back the last attack fuelled only by desperation, they decided to outflank the besiegers with the bulk of the Austrian army, including part of the cavalry, in the north-western part of the city, which was deemed the most vulnerable part of the Allied front. The manoeuvre succeeded and the Austrians managed to set up camp between the Dora Riparia and the Stura di Lanzo rivers. Eugene declared:

These men are already half defeated.

The final clash began at 10 AM on September 7 with an attack against the entire front of the besiegers. The Prussian infantry led by prince Leopold von Anhalt Dessau, after three failed attacks, was able to break the French right. The regiment La Marine ran out of ammunition and was no longer able to stop the Prussian infantry. Two attempts to relieve the pocket formed in this way were driven back and the Allied army began to collapse the French position. When Daun ordered the city's garrison to break out against the left wing of the French-Spanish army, it started to break up, with hundreds of soldiers drowning in the Dora Riparia in an extreme attempt to save their lives. The advance of the Allied army towards Pinerolo started in the early afternoon of the same day. The Duke of Marlborough wrote of the relief of Turin:

It is impossible to express the joy it has given me; for I not only esteem, but I really love that Prince . This glorious action must bring France so low, that if our friends could but be persuaded to carry on the war with vigour one year longer, we cannot fail, with the blessing of God, to have such a peace as will give us quiet for all our days.

Victor Amadeus and Eugene entered the liberated city and assisted a Te Deum issued to celebrate the victory. On the Superga Hill the Savoyard dynasty built a Basilica where, every September 7, a Te Deum is still held.

To the east, a French victory over a Hessian corps at Castiglione was not enough to regain initiative or to check the allied advance, and the French retreat from Turin effectively left the allies free to invade southern France. After the failed Siege of Toulon in the following year, no relevant military event took place on the Italian front until the peace of Utrecht.