The Battle of Eylau, in February 1807, had been a wintry bloodbath, proving to be little more than a Pyrrhic victory at best for the French. French casualties were as high as 25,000, and when compared to the enemy’s 15,000 and their withdrawal from the field, Napoleon Bonaparte had been denied the most central tenet of his military maxims: a decisive battle. He had failed to knock the Russians out of the war by forcing them to the negotiating table, and would seek to remedy that before the end of the year.
Napoleon had one overriding objective after Eylau: the complete annihilation of General Levin August Bennigsen and his Russian army. To achieve this, he had to make the most of the winter months. Having taken up residence during this time at Finkenstein Palace just south of modern-day Susz, Poland, Napoleon set about creating a new army seemingly out of thin air to protect against potential incursion and refitting and reorganising his field forces for the coming campaign.
Looking to safeguard the heart of French territories and its holdings in Europe, Napoleon created the Army of Observation. This new army sprang to life by the stripping of French garrisons, which were backfilled with Allied troops, mass drafts from the Army of Italy and the strong-arming of Spain to provide over 18,000 troops to the new army. Even the French conscripts were ordered to French training depots a year-and-a-half early to fill its ranks. General Guillaume Brune was given the most important command, that of the 60,000-strong centre in Germany, with the emperor’s brother Jerome Bonaparte commanding the army’s right flank in Silesia and Marshal Edouard Mortier commanding the left based in Pomerania – this constituted the newly created 100,000-strong Army of Observation.
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Denne historien er fra Issue 119-utgaven av History of War.
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COUPS & CHAOS
How the French armed forces lost the war in Algeria and almost destroyed French democracy in the process
BATTLE OF ALGIERS
When the Front de libération nationale FLN) took its war to the streets of the capital, France’s military responded with merciless wrath
THE RISE OF ALGERIAN RESISTANCE
How the anti-colonialist struggle around the globe helped inspire Algeria’s liberation movement to organise and fight back
ROOTS OF REVOLUTION
A century of French occupation led to a genocide in Algeria that provoked one of the bloodiest showdowns of the modern age
DWIGHT W BIRDWELL
In the opening hours of the North Vietnamese Tet Offensive, this Specialist Five led his armoured cavalry detachment in repulsing a fierce communist assault against Tan Son Nhut Air Base near Saigon
THE FIVE STRATEGY AND LEADERSHIP
Phillips O’Brien discusses how this quintet of national leaders impacted the course of the Second World War
Great Battles FLODDEN
On the morning of 9 September 1513, King James lV of Scotland stood atop Flodden Hill with what seemed an insurmountable advantage over the English. Yet by the day's end he would lay slain and his army shattered
FERDINAND 'THE BLOODY'
Known for his brutal martial punishment and execution of his own men, Ferdinand Schérner’s ruthlessness was matched only by his devotion to Nazi ideology
AIRBORNE UNDER SIEGE ARNHEM
For nine days the heroic 1st Airborne fought desperately, waiting vainly for relief that never came
SCANDINAVIA UNDER ATTACK
Hitler’s forces smash through Denmark and Norway ina grim foretaste of the terrible fate awaiting the rest of Western Europe
