The small Bavarian village of Austerlitz was destined to go down in world history, since near it a battle took place on December 2, 1805, which is rightly considered a catfish as a grandiose battle of the period of the Napoleonic Wars. In it, the 73,000-strong French army inflicted a crushing defeat on the anti-Napoleonic coalition, which was superior to it in number. The battle of Austerlitz is considered a triumph of the diplomatic and military genius of Napoleon.
The dispute of the three emperors
It is sometimes called the “Battle of the Three Emperors at Austerlitz." And this is quite true, because in addition to Napoleon on this fateful day, there were two more august persons on the battlefield - the Russian emperor Alexander I and the Austrian Franz II. To understand the reasons that plunged their powers into a bloody massacre, one should return two years earlier, when France concluded the so-called Amiens peace with England.
Conquest of England
Signed on paper, it really only gave the ambitious French emperor time to prepare for the invasion of the British Isles and the subsequent capture of London. The British understood this perfectly well and justifiably saw their salvation only in creating on the continent another, third in a row, international coalition against Napoleon. It was created and existed until that day, until the fateful battle for her at Austerlitz broke out.
This year was marked by an abundance of the most ambitious plans of the French emperor, and he was quite seriously obsessed with the intention to capture London. For this purpose, in Boulogne, near Paris, the troops were in full combat readiness, the task of which was, crossing the English Channel, to move to the English capital. Only the French admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve prevented the fulfillment of the plan, due to which Napoleon did not wait for the squadron intended for the transfer of troops across the strait.
Coalition building
Soon, a coalition was created from states interested in curbing Napoleon’s aggressive plans. Its participants were Russia, Austria and England itself. However, their roles were distributed, to put it mildly, unevenly. England did not take direct part in the hostilities at all, but took upon itself only the financing of military expenses. Austria fought, but in the decisive battle brought 25 thousand troops to the battlefield, while the Russians there were 60 thousand. Thus, the battle of Austerlitz with all its weight fell on the shoulders of the Russian soldiers, which, however, was repeated many times in history.
Coalition Initial Plans
We must pay tribute to European strategists. They developed a very ambitious plan to curb Napoleon, and the battle of Austerlitz occurred as a result of the fact that he remained only on paper. According to their developments, significantly larger human reserves were to be involved in hostilities than it actually turned out. So, for example, in the northern part of Europe, against the Napoleonic ally - Denmark - it was supposed to put up almost a 100-thousandth Russian-English corps.
Bavaria, another ally of France, was to be attacked by the forces of the 85,000th Austrian corps under the command of the then-famous General K. Mack. The army of M.I. Kutuzov was advanced to help him from Russia. To crown it all, the Austrian Archduke was instructed, having knocked out the French from Northern Italy, to begin a victorious march across French territory. If it had been possible to realize at least half of what had been conceived, then in the ill-fated 1805 the battle of Austerlitz simply would not have taken place. But fate was pleased to dispose in its own way.
Ambitions of the Russian Emperor
In many ways, the over-arrogance of the then young and thirsty military laurels of Alexander I. served as the reason for the defeat. The commander-in-chief of the troops, M. I. Kutuzov, was categorically against the battle. The battle of Austerlitz, in his opinion, was not only untimely, but also fatal for the Allies. He proposed a deliberate retreat, as a result of which it would be possible to stretch the enemy troops as much as possible and, taking advantage of the arrival of reinforcements, inflict crushing blows from the flanks.
This plan, reasonable, but not promising a quick and brilliant victory, was rejected by the emperor. Historians who subsequently covered these events are unanimous in their opinion that, despite the fact that Kutuzov commanded the Russian troops in the battle of Austerlitz, the decisions were actually made by Alexander. The allies, the Austrians, insisted on a speedy battle, since Vienna was at that moment captured by the French, and they did their best to release it as soon as possible.
Tactical plans of Napoleon
If for the allied forces the battle of Austerlitz in 1805 was premature, unprepared and therefore destructive, then for Napoleon it was the only right tactical decision in the situation at that time. Having perfectly assessed the situation, he set as his goal to prevent the enemy from retreating and thus prolonging military operations. The French emperor was aware that the allies were waiting for a significant reinforcements approach from Prussia, ready to join the anti-Napoleonic coalition.
Studying in detail the actions of Napoleon aimed at achieving his goal, all that remains is to be amazed at how cunning he set up his nets. With well-thought-out actions, he managed to convince the Allied command of his weakness, indecision and intention to retreat. Moreover, he even provoked them to take precisely those positions that were beneficial to him by the beginning of the battle.
Peaceful town of Slovaks
The territory on which the battle of Austerlitz took place in 1805 today belongs to the Czech Republic, and where once there was a Bavarian village, which gave the name to one of the greatest battles in history, today the small town of Slovaks lives a peaceful life. It’s hard for a tourist to get there that 210 strongest armies of Europe came together in these green fields and hills 210 years ago.
Without going into details of the battle of Austerlitz in 1805, which are of interest exclusively to military specialists, we note only the main stages of the battle. They are not difficult to recover from the numerous testimonies of eyewitnesses and participants in these events. Moreover, the battle for many years has become the subject of numerous articles and scientific research.
The Battle of Austerlitz: A Brief Summary of Its Key Points
So, December 2, 1805. The famous battle of Austerlitz began with a blow inflicted by the Allies on the right flank of the enemy, where the troops were commanded by Marshal Dawa. Following a plan developed personally by Napoleon, after a short resistance he began to retreat, provoking parts of the Allies to pursue and pulling them into a swampy lowland. As a result, the French managed to significantly weaken the center of the allied forces.
As mentioned earlier, in the battle of Austerlitz, Russian troops were commanded by Kutuzov, but by the intervention of Alexander I he was completely devoid of initiative. An experienced commander understood that the enemy was preparing a trap, but, obeying the emperor, was forced to give an order to counterattack the retreating marshal. As a result of such actions, the central positions of the allied forces turned out to be easy prey for the enemy.
Surrounding parts of the left flank of the Allies
Napoleon was not slow to attack the weakened area with the shock forces of his other famous military leader - Marshal Sult. It happened that in the world history of battles very often precedes the defeat of armies. The allied forces were split in two, and each of the units as a result of lightning-fast maneuvers of the enemy was surrounded and cut off from the possible approach of reinforcements.
But the most dramatic events developed at that moment on the left flank of the allies. Continuing the attack on the positions of troops under the command of Marshal Davout, they fell into a real bag and died under heavy fire of the French. The cavalry guards under the command of General N.I. Depreradovich rescued them from complete destruction. They took upon themselves the enemy fire and, at the cost of many victims, made it possible to escape the surrounding parts from under the fire.
Retreat that saved the army
In many cases, the panic that was fatal in such cases was avoided thanks to the composure and endurance of one of the most experienced Russian generals D.S. Dokhturov. He managed to withdraw from the encirclement already orderly thinning ranks of soldiers and organize a retreat, which kept the army in a combat-ready state. Nevertheless, the losses of the allies were enormous. According to historians, on this day 27 thousand people remained on the battlefield, and 21 thousand of them were Russians.
However, studying the details of the battle of Austerlitz in 1805, historians agree that even greater losses were avoided due to the correctly chosen direction of retreat. On the left wing of the Allied forces was a whole network of ponds called Sychansky. They were shallow, and it was through them that General Dokhturov sent the retreating troops. When the allies completed the crossing, they were out of the reach of the French riflemen who did not dare to pursue the enemy through a water barrier.
The end of the third coalition
The battle of Austerlitz cost the French 12 thousand lives, but military success in this battle was on their side, and they emerged victorious from it. The crushing defeat of the Allies greatly changed the balance of political forces in Europe. From now on, Napoleon Bonaparte dictated his will to the rulers of the leading powers. Unable to recover from defeat, Austria emerged from the war by signing an extremely unprofitable peace treaty. The third anti-Napoleonic coalition disgracefully disintegrated.
When the news of the defeat reached Russia, it shocked the entire progressive public. For 100 years after the tragic events near Narva, where Peter I knew the bitterness of defeat, the Russian army was considered invincible. The glorious victories of the times of the Empresses Elizabeth Petrovna and Catherine II confirmed the Russians in the belief in the invincibility of their army. However, as contemporaries note, the tragic news did not shake the patriotic spirit in either the army or the people.
To summarize this military campaign, historians are trying to answer the question: what ultimately won and what did Napoleon lose in 1805? The battle of Austerlitz, unconditionally recognized as a triumph of his military genius, nevertheless did not allow him to achieve the main goal - the complete destruction of the armies included in the coalition hostile to him. For a certain period, Napoleon became a European dictator, but nevertheless every day he inevitably brought him closer to Waterloo, where in 1815 he was destined to forever fall into the star of this ingenious Corsican.