Generalship

• What was Napoleons strategy?

  To defeat the enemy as quickly as possible by smashing their army
• Battle of Ulm 1805

  • able to get the element of surprise by faking an announcement that he was returning to Paris, whilst he quickly advanced to Rhine
  • surprise shows eg- in one part 4600 men were captured to only 16 causalities
  • he manoeuvred his troops quickly- encircling 72,000 Austrian troops with 200,000 of his French
  • captured, killed, wounded 50,000, 27,000 escape but he forces them to surrender
  • SPEED + TACTICS = WIN
  • his commanders were experienced compared to the Austrian officers
  • 60,000 prisoners to only 4000 killed/wounded
• Battle of Austerlitz, Dec 1805

  • 67,000 French against 85,000 allies
  • he deliberately weakens his right flank so the Allies push his flank back and their centre would weaken to support the push
  • he feigns retreat, giving up the strong tactical ridge of Pratzen Heights
  • he counter attacks, but it takes 2 charges, before he forced the Russian centre back causing the whole army to panic and retreat
  • lost 9000 to 36,000 Allied casualties
• What was a key part of Napoleons tactics?

  He always focused on his artillery firepower to smash through enemy lines
• Defeats of Napoleon

  • 1812 Russian Campaign, Leipzig 1813 and Waterloo 1815
  • He lost because most of his skilled soldiers had died and were replaced by inexperienced soldiers and conscripts- despite this he refused to change his tactics