The small Bavarian village of Austerlitz was destined to go down in world history, as a battle took place next to it on December 2, 1805, which is rightfully considered the soma grandiose battle of the Napoleonic wars. In it, the 73,000-strong French army inflicted a crushing defeat on the anti-Napoleonic coalition that outnumbered it. The Battle of Austerlitz is considered a triumph of Napoleon's diplomatic and military genius.
Dispute of the three emperors
Sometimes it is called "the battle of the three emperors at Austerlitz". And this is quite fair, because in addition to Napoleon on this fateful day, two more august persons were present on the battlefield - the Russian Emperor Alexander I and the Austrian Franz II. To understand the reasons that plunged their powers into a bloody slaughter, one should go back two years earlier, when France concluded the so-called Peace of Amiens with England.
Plans to conquer England
Signed on paper, it really only gave the ambitious French Emperor time to prepare for an invasion of the Britishislands and the subsequent capture of London. The British understood this very well and with good reason saw their salvation only in the creation on the continent of the next, third in a row, international coalition against Napoleon. It was created and existed until the day when the battle of Austerlitz, fatal for it, 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, troops were in full combat readiness in Boulogne, not far from Paris, whose task it was, having crossed the English Channel, to move towards the English capital. Only the French Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve prevented the implementation of the plan, due to which Napoleon did not wait for the squadron intended to transfer troops across the strait.
Building a coalition
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 a direct part in the hostilities at all, but took upon itself only the financing of military expenditures. Austria fought, but in the decisive battle brought 25 thousand soldiers to the battlefield, while there were 60 thousand Russians there. Thus, the battle of Austerlitz fell with all its weight on the shoulders of Russian soldiers, which, however, was repeated many times in history.
Initial plans of coalition countries
Needpay tribute to European strategists. They developed a very ambitious plan to curb Napoleon, and the battle of Austerlitz took place as a result of the fact that he remained only on paper. According to their developments, much larger manpower reserves were to be involved in hostilities than it turned out to be in reality. So, for example, in the northern part of Europe against the Napoleonic ally - Denmark - it was supposed to put up almost 100,000 Russian-English corps.
Another ally of France - Bavaria - was to be attacked by the forces of the 85,000th Austrian corps under the command of General K. Mack, who was famous in those days. The army of M. I. Kutuzov advanced to help him from Russia. To top it all off, the Austrian archduke was instructed, having driven the French out of northern Italy, to start a victorious march through French territory. If it had been possible to realize at least half of what was planned, then in the ill-fated 1805 the battle of Austerlitz simply would not have taken place. But fate was pleased to dispose of it in its own way.
Ambitions of the Russian Emperor
To a large extent, the reason for the defeat was the excessive arrogance of the then young and thirsty military laurels of Alexander I. 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 disastrous 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 arrivalreinforcements, strike them with 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, also insisted on a speedy battle, since Vienna was captured by the French at that moment, and they made every effort to free it as soon as possible.
Napoleon's tactical plans
If for the allied troops the battle of Austerlitz in 1805 was premature, unprepared and therefore disastrous, then for Napoleon it was the only correct tactical decision in the current situation at that time. Having perfectly assessed the situation, he set himself the goal of preventing the enemy from retreating and thus protracting hostilities. The French emperor was aware that the allies were waiting for the arrival of significant reinforcements from Prussia, ready to join the anti-Napoleonic coalition.
Studying in detail the actions of Napoleon aimed at achieving his goal, one can only marvel at the cunning with which he set up his nets. With deeply 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 exactly those positions that were beneficial to him by the beginning of the battle.
Peaceful town of Slovaks
The area where the Battle of Austerlitz took place in 1805 belongs to the Czech Republic today, and where there was once a Bavarian village that gave its name to one of the greatest battles in history, today the small town of Slovakov lives a peaceful life. It is difficult for a tourist who got there to imagine that 210 years ago, three of the strongest armies of Europe converged on these green fields and hills.
Without going into the details of the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805, which are of interest exclusively to military specialists, we will only note the main stages of the battle. It is not difficult to restore them according to numerous testimonies of eyewitnesses and participants in these events. Moreover, the battle has been the subject of numerous articles and scientific studies for many years.
Battle of Austerlitz: briefly about its key moments
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 Marshal Davout commanded the troops. 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 marshy lowland. As a result, the French managed to significantly weaken the center of the allied forces.
As mentioned earlier, in the battle of Austerlitz, Kutuzov commanded the Russian troops, but he was completely deprived of the initiative by the intervention of Alexander I. An experienced commander understood that the enemy was preparing a trap, but, obeying the emperor, he was forced to give the order to counterattackretreating 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 Allied left flank
Napoleon was not slow to attack the weakened area with the shock forces of his other famous commander - Marshal Soult. What happened is that in the history of the world battles very often precede the defeat of armies. The allied troops were cut in two, and as a result of lightning maneuvers of the enemy, each of the units was surrounded and cut off from a possible approach of reinforcements.
But the most dramatic events were developing at that moment on the left flank of the allies. Continuing the offensive on the positions of the troops under the command of Marshal Davout, they fell into a real bag and died under heavy French fire. They were saved from complete destruction by the cavalry guards who arrived in time under the command of General N. I. Depreradovich. They took on enemy fire and, at the cost of many casu alties, made it possible for the encircled units to get out of the fire.
The retreat that saved the army
It was largely possible to avoid the disastrous panic in such cases thanks to the composure and endurance of one of the most experienced Russian generals, D. S. Dokhturov. He managed to withdraw the already thinned ranks of soldiers from the encirclement and organize a retreat that kept the army in a combat-ready state. Nevertheless, the Allied losses were enormous. According to historians, on that day, 27 thousand people remained on the battlefield, and 21 thousand of them wereRussians.
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 withdrawal. On the left wing of the allied forces there 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 reach of the French shooters, who did not dare to pursue the enemy through the water barrier.
End of the third coalition
The battle of Austerlitz cost the French 12 thousand lives, but military luck in this battle was on their side, and they emerged victorious from it. The crushing defeat of the allies in many ways 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 the defeat, Austria withdrew from the war by signing an extremely disadvantageous peace treaty. The third anti-Napoleonic coalition disintegrated ingloriously.
When the news of the defeat reached Russia, it shocked the entire advanced public. For 100 years that have passed since 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 Empresses Elizabeth Petrovna and Catherine II confirmed the Russians in their faith in the invincibility of their army. However, as contemporaries note, the tragic news did not shake the patriotic spirit either in the army or among the people.
Summing up thismilitary campaign, historians are trying to answer the question: what did Napoleon ultimately win and what did he lose in 1805? The battle of Austerlitz, undoubtedly recognized as a triumph of his military genius, nevertheless did not allow him to achieve his main goal - the complete destruction of the armies that were part of the coalition hostile to him. For a certain period, Napoleon became a European dictator, but nevertheless, every day inevitably brought him closer to Waterloo, where in 1815 the star of this brilliant Corsican was destined to forever set.
