After Ulm
Napoleon has destroyed the Austrian army in Germany, but Russian forces are arriving and the Grande Armée is stretched around Vienna.
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Battle
Austerlitz
2 December 1805
The deliberately weak right wing draws the Allied columns south; Soult strikes across Pratzen.
Military history
How does the deliberate weakness of the French right draw the Allies away from Pratzen and expose their centre?
Austerlitz cannot be reduced to an abstract trap. Napoleon lets his right wing appear vulnerable; the Allied plan then commits several columns from Pratzen towards Telnitz and Sokolnitz. While Davout contains this thrust in the south, Soult attacks from west to east across the denuded heights and cuts the Allied formation in two.
An uneven coalition
The Russians and Austrians have plans and chains of command that are not fully integrated.
The choice of terrain
The coalition occupies Pratzen before the battle, then sends its southern columns down towards the Goldbach. Soult’s attack targets the heights thus stripped of troops and the connection between the wings.
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Chronological dossier
WaterlooA battle of coordination, attrition and time before the Prussians arrive.Jena–AuerstedtNapoleon defeats a Prussian force at Jena while Davout, badly outnumbered, repels the main army at Auerstedt.MarengoHow was an almost-lost battle reversed by the arrival of reserves and a concentrated counterattack?TrafalgarHow did two British columns accept fire on the approach to break the opposing line and impose local engagements?EylauHow did snow, visibility and staggered arrivals turn a search for decision into an inconclusive and exceptionally costly battle?WagramThe crossing from Lobau deploys the army along an immense arc; on the 6th, the unsynchronised Austrian offensive threatens Aspern, but the battery covers Masséna, Davout turns Markgrafneusiedl and the general assault compels an orderly withdrawal.BorodinoWhy did the successive capture of Russian positions destroy neither the opposing army nor its ability to retreat?LeipzigHow did a coalition coordinate several armies around Leipzig while avoiding defeat in detail?
Military history
Sources
Military atlasWest Point Digital History Center, Campaign Atlas to the Napoleonic Wars
Cartes 234 à 236 : Austerlitz, 1er et 2 décembre 1805
Battlefield orientation, positions on the eve of battle, and movements at 9 a.m. and 2 p.m.
View ↗Historical studyFondation Napoléon, The Battle of Austerlitz and the Principles of War
Sections consacrées au terrain et à la manœuvre du 2 décembre
Corps deployment, descent of the Allied columns, and Soult’s attack across Pratzen.
View ↗Historical cartographyBodleian Map Room, Austerlitz, 2nd Dec 1805
Carte et commentaire historique publiés par les bibliothèques Bodléiennes
Reading of the terrain, Goldbach and Pratzen, and a warning against a simplified representation of the manoeuvre.
View ↗Contemporary primary source30e Bulletin de la Grande Armée, 3 décembre 1805
30e Bulletin, publié au lendemain d’Austerlitz
The immediate French account of the tactical sequence, checked against modern studies for its exaggerations, especially concerning the frozen ponds.
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