200th Anniversary of Austerlitz (1 Viewer)

[DMNamiot]

Hi All,

I saw this article in the December edition of Military History Magazine.

Since we have a lot of Napoleonic War fans here I thought I would recommend it. Its a decent article and is worth reading even for those who know a lot about this particular battle. Having a deep interest in the Napoleonic Wars and the Campaigns fought through Central Europe and Germany I was able to veiw a few of the Battlefields when I was stationed there and I will say this, the French Infantry was amazing in the amount of ground it could cover in forced marches especially with the obstacles and logistic problems facing them. I was taught to look at terrain from a mounted warrior perspective and how we can get from point a to point b the quickest and safest inorder to preserve our forces. We dont always use the roads for the obvious reason of air attack so we have to go cross country and deal with many obstacles especially rivers like the Danube. Then I look at it from the dismounted Infantry perspective of 200 years ago and wonder how they managed to move an army as vast as the Grande Army through this country securly with hardly any infrastructure (roads/highways/bridges) and I am amazed. Think about it next time you sit back and read about the Pennisula Campaign or the Campaigns through central Europe. Wellington and Napoleon were masters of logistics as well as fighting commanders.

Well anyway I hope you all enjoy the article and if so maybe we can discuss it here.

Dave

 

[fishead19690]

Don,t forget about the weather conditions they had to deal with and getting cannons and supply trains and wounded straglers and getting over rivers and over mountains and being attacked by cavalry on retreats and all kinds of other problems like forced marches over miles and miles off mud and snow heat and cold and then having to fight a major battle after such marches. More soldiers would die from the elements and diese than would from battle. The biggest killer was not the bullet but the mosquito. The retreat from mosscow in 1812 was the worst the french ever delt with. It was the begining of the end of napoleon. He lost his best troops and even more of a crushing blow he lost his horses. Napoleon had some of his best military stratagies in 1814 and they could have been major victories had he had the cavalry to finish the job. The cavalry he had in 1814 was green on bad untrained horse with untrained riders who could not even ride a horse without both hands (hard to use a sword that way ) but napoleon still was the master of war so munch so that the allies plan was to avoid napoleon all together and to draw him away and do battle with his marshalls instead. (the french would have corps of 30,000 or more within a days march of each other with marshalls in command.The allies would attack these and avoid napoleon by drawing him off and pink ponging with there vast allied armies and keep him busy while another force would attack his less capeable marshalls). Napoleons skill on the battle field was well respected as it should have been.