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Napoleon’s decision to invade Russia in the summer of 1812 was his last and greatest effort to secure the French imperium in continental Europe. It resulted in war on a colossal scale and produced results diametrically opposite to those the French emperor wished to attain. This six-month long campaign furnished numerous episodes of triumph and hardship, transcendent courage and wanton depravity, but it offered many military lessons as well. In the grandeur of its conception, its execution, and its abysmal end, this war had no analogy until the German invasion of the USSR in 1941. The campaign had a profound impact on political situation in Europe. Its direct result was the general uprising against Napoleon in northern Germany and the complete overthrow within one year of the French imperium in Central Europe.
In the summer of 1789, a revolution broke out in France. No previous movement had so profoundly shaken the foundation of society as the one championing ‘liberté, égalité, fraternité’.
This chapter examines the “nuts and bolts” of war, including the formidable problems of movement and supply, transportation and administration. Logistics represent a vital element of warfare, indispensable to the operations of armies ever since the emergence of organized warfare. Broadly defined, this concept involves moving, supplying, and maintaining military forces, as well as transportation of material, food and animals, communications, personnel replacement, quarters, depots, and rear administration. The Napoleonic Wars witnessed important developments in the logistics and one of its lasting effects was creation and successful dissemination of bureaucratic reforms that improved state’s ability to mobilize forces and extract resources
The chapter discusses the events of the War of the Third Coalition that climaxed on the field of Austerlitz in one of the most famous battles in military history. The 1805 Campaign was the first one Napoleon fought as the emperor and it consolidated his martial reputation: a classic example of the general’s logistical and operational brilliance that allowed him to outmarch and outfight his enemy in just three months after the start of the war. Beginning with the bold and rapid advance of the French Army from the Rhine to the Danube, the chapter examines Napoleon’s envelopment of the Austrian army at Ulm, the manoeuvres to Austerlitz and the counter-attack that resulted in the decisive defeat for the Austro-Russian Army.
The Napoleonic Wars saw almost two decades of brutal fighting. Fighting took place on an unprecedented scale, from the frozen wastelands of Russia to the rugged mountains of the Peninsula; from Egypt's Lower Nile to the bloody battlefield of New Orleans. Volume II of The Cambridge History of the Napoleonic Wars provides a comprehensive guide to the Napoleonic Wars and weaves together the four strands – military, naval, economic, and diplomatic - that intertwined to make up one of the greatest conflicts in history. Written by a team of the leading Napoleonic scholars, this volume provides an authoritative and comprehensive analysis of why the nations went to war, the challenges they faced and how the wars were funded and sustained. It sheds new light not only on the key battles and campaigns but also on questions of leadership, strategy, tactics, guerrilla warfare, recruitment, supply, and weaponry.
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