In the first of two episodes on the topic, I speak to four specialists of the period to discuss what was Napoleon's greatest victory. My guests were Rachel Stark, Josh Provan, Jimmy Chen, and Geraint Thatcher, who chose to champion Austerlitz, Rivoli, Marengo, and Berezina.
We discuss whether Napoleon was a gambler, why the Pratzen heights are like cheese, and why fighting morons in matters in war! You can also have your say, below, and your comments will be counted as votes, with the winner of this round, and those from Part 2 will run in a final vote in the last week of November.
Interesting as usual and worthwhile to discuss.
It is very unfair to blame Tchitchgov about the failure to finish off the left overs of the Grande Armée at the Berezina.
Mikaberidze discusses this very well in his book about that topic and it is a must read in my view to obtain a basic knowledge about this "battle".
Both Wittgenstein and Kutusov are to be blamed not to have finished off Nabulieone - Kutusov deliberately misinformed Tchitchagov - directing him more to the South and Wittgenstein just did not help as requested and did use his forces too late.
Wittgenstein, who was a raising star due to his much over hyped successes in defending the "Petersburg" approach - failed very badly when he took over command in 1813 and did not last long in this position.
The Armée d'Italie was not an unprofessional rabble revolutionary army as depicted - it merged into a very hard fighting force especially in 1795 when they were reinforced from units from the Armée de Pyrénnées - and showed its sting at Loano in 1795 already.
Another must read would be - Candela, Gilles : L'Armée d'Italie - Des missionnaires armés à la naissance de la guerre napoléonienne, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2011.
Neither was the Austrian Army in such good fighting condition, Nicholas Murray and Christopher Pringle hint that in their edited Carl von Clausewitz Napoleon's 1796 Italian campaign.
I am surprised that the already well proven legend about the ponds at Austerlitz comes up again, the Bulletin of Nabulieone was just a deliberate and calculated lie (part of his stlye of war) - again ready available to read books such as Goetz : Austerlitz 1805 discusses this well on page 268 / 269.
When the ponds were drained after the battle - three human corpses as well as 30 cannons and the corpses of about 130 horses were found.
I would agree - that though one of his worst battle - apart from Belle Alliance - his greatest battle was Marengo, there his rule was cemented and it paved the way to become emperor of the French Republic.
This reflects that he wished to have a propaganda work written about it by Berthier later on to wipe out all his serious blunders and create the myth of a clairvoyant Nabulieone.
Strange that nobody mentions Bautzen (even only for his pure military aspect).