After a bitter all-day struggle, Coalition troops recaptured a few key positions including Pont-à-Chin, forcing the French to retreat.

The Flanders Campaign battle was fought near Tournai in modern Belgium on the Schelde River, located about 80 km (50 mi) southwest of Brussels.

In a bid to drive the Allies from Tournai, Pichegru launched a frontal attack on their positions west of the city.

Though the French were repulsed, the severe fighting in April and May 1794 convinced many Coalition leaders that defending the Austrian Netherlands was a lost cause.

Franz Wenzel, Graf von Kaunitz-Rietberg commanded 27,000 Austrian and Dutch troops of the left wing at Bettignies watching French-held Maubeuge.

[8] The next day, Souham concentrated 24,000 men against Clerfayt and defeated him in the Battle of Mouscron, capturing 3,000 Coalition troops and 33 guns.

On 5 May, the Duke of York with 18,000 troops arrived at Tournai, joining Clerfayt with 19,000 and Johann von Wallmoden-Gimborn with 4,000–6,000 Germans.

On 10 May in the Battle of Courtrai, 23,000 French troops under Bonnaud and Osten attacked York but were beaten mostly by British cavalry.

[11] In the Battle of Tourcoing on 17–18 May, the Coalition army under Coburg concentrated 74,000 soldiers in a major effort to crush the 82,000-strong French forces led temporarily by Souham.

York's adjutant general, James Henry Craig wrote to the British War Office in disgust, "It is impossible to bring the Austrians to act except in small corps.

From south to north, the outpost line ran through the villages of Camphin-en-Pévèle, Baisieux, Willems, Néchin, Leers, Estaimpuis, Saint-Léger, and Spiere (Espierres) on the Scheldt River.

Pichegru detailed Moreau's division to hold Courtrai and the line of the Lys River with the brigades of Dominique Vandamme and Philippe Joseph Malbrancq.

Jan Willem de Winter's brigade from Souham's division would hold Helkijn (Helchin) and maintain the connection with Moreau.

[18][note 1] From left to right, Souham directed the brigades of Herman Willem Daendels, Macdonald, Henri-Antoine Jardon, Jean François Thierry, and Louis Fursy Henri Compère.

[17] On the north flank, Daendels' soldiers struck Georg Wilhelm von dem Bussche's Hanoverians at Spiere and forced them back.

Supported on his right by Thierry and Compère, Macdonald sent his infantry to assault Pont-à-Chin which became the focus of the most intense fighting of the day.

Bonnaud sent the brigade of Jean-Baptiste Salme to assault an artillery position at Blandain while Osten moved from Willems against the Coalition's southern flank.

[23] The demonstration against the Coalition left flank was executed so weakly that the Allies were able to send troops from there to areas more directly threatened.

[18] If the French solidified their hold on these places, it would severely limit Allied freedom of manoeuvre and communications towards the north while also threatening penetration of the area they were meant to protect, east of the Scheldt.

As the British infantry passed to the attack, their gallant bearing was so impressive that they were cheered by nearby Austrian units.

[27] Fortescue noted that French losses numbered 6,000 men and 7 guns, and that Fox's brigade lost 120 casualties out of the fewer than 600 that it took into action.

Robert Wilson reported that he counted 280 headless French corpses in an orchard where they were killed by the fire from an Austrian artillery battery.

Mack's replacement was Christian August, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont who already favored the abandonment of the Austrian Netherlands.

On 24 May, a council of war was held by Francis in which he presented the situation in a bad light, with only York urging a new attack on the French.