The Special Campaigns Series

Following the destruction of Napoleon’s huge armies of 1812 in the wintry wastes of European Russia, his hegemony of Europe was teetering on the abyss. He set about re-establishing his dominance with his vast abilities of organisation, combing depots and previous drafts and deserters for further manpower, and juggling his resources from the draining war in Spain, to create a new Grande Armée. His enemies were not idle: the Russians pushed the remaining French units back from successive river lines into Eastern Prussia, freeing that power from the yoke of French dominance. The Prussians in their turn activated reservists and reformed their army from the restrictions of the treaty following the disasters of 1806. The Austrians in the south itched to revenge themselves against the French and stood waiting for an opportune time to intervene. Napoleon carried out his campaigning in the manner of old, attempting to use the superior mobility of the French to bring the main enemy army to battle and destroy them therefore ensuring peace; however, hamstrung by his lack of cavalry, he might beat his opponents but could not destroy them. His sub-ordinate generals, who could not match him for strategy or his ability to get the best out of the raw troops, were beaten when away from their master. As the net closes on Napoleon, he finds himself at Leipzig, at the Battle of Nations, and so to fight the defining battle of his first reign. The Special Campaigns series was written in the early years of the turn of the twentieth century to provide detailed assessments of the historic campaigns of the past for the benefit of the officers of the British Army. They were all written by surviving or recently retired officers of the Army who shared their wealth of experience and insight to a new generation, each officer having had a specialist area of expertise. Colonel Maude was an authority on the campaigns of Napoleon, and wrote three volumes for the series. Author – Colonel Frederic Natusch Maude, C.B., late R.E. (1854–1933)

Prussia had sat on the sidelines in 1805 whilst Napoleon hammered the Austrian and Russian armies in a dazzling series of victories culminating at the battle of Austerlitz. As the court of Frederick William III awaited a favourable moment to intervene, they looked on their army with a misplaced confidence based on the deeds of Frederick the Great, his well-drilled infantry and daring cavalry. However, the army had not kept up with the development of the French: their training suffered the constraints of financial cut-backs, their leaders were divided, vain, egocentric, incompetent or just too plain old. Frederick William was determined to cross swords with Napoleon, using a violation of territory by the French the year before as a pretext he started to mobilise his troops. His opponent was at the height of his military power. Although he did not really want to have another war so soon after crushing Austria, Napoleon was not the sort of man to back down from a challenge from the Prussians. As the troops readied themselves for the upcoming war, the Prussian generals vacilitated, abrogated responsibility, argued and split their forces. Napoleon organised his men into three mutually supporting columns as he invaded Prussian territory, unable to divine the intentions of his opponents. He was ready for all situations. Napoleon with his main army faced a sizeable portion of the Prussian forces at Jena, whilst Davout, perhaps his best subordinate, stood outnumbered but unshaken at Auerstädt. The fighting was brutal, short and bloody and would lead to Prussia being humbled for years to come, seething for revenge. This book formed part of the Special Campaigns series, which was written in the early years at the turn of the twentieth century to provide detailed assessments of the historic campaigns of the past for the benefit of the officers of the British Army. They were all written by current or recently retired officers of the Army who shared their wealth of experience and insight to a new generation, each officer having had a specialist area of expertise. Colonel Maude was an authority on the campaigns of Napoleon, and wrote three volumes for the series, the others focussing on the 1805 and 1813 campaigns. He describes the campaign in brilliant vivid detail, using material from the official archives of both France and Prussia as well as numerous eye-witness details. A fascinating book in an excellent series. Author – Colonel Frederic Natusch Maude, C.B., late R.E. (1854–1933) Illustrations – 5 Maps and Diagrams.

Colonel Maude, wrote a number of works on the Napoleonic period, and although they were published out of the chronological order of the campaigns, Leipzig(1813), Jena (1806) and Ulm (1805), they formed an unbroken stream of commentary as to the methods of the world’s greatest general, Napoleon. In this volume, Colonel Maude follows Napoleon as he sets out with his finest Grande Armée, from the camp of Boulogne where they have been well-drilled and trained, to oppose the Austrians for a further round of hostilities which had only really been suspended briefly between 1800-1805. The basic premise of the series of books was that “Napoleon did in fact possess during his later years a fixed method in strategy, which he invariably followed whenever topographical conditions permitted. This method enabled him to be absolutely certain of accumulating at the decisive point of the battlefield a crushing numerical superiority, no matter what plans his opponents might have formed;” It was the opening of the 1805 campaign that truly showed what Napoleon had learnt since his initial campaigns in Italy on a vast scale, now the corps d’armée he commanded dwarfed the entire armies of previous wars. His articulated, co-ordinated march through and round the Black Forest, stumped the veteran commander of the Austrian forward army, the “unfortunate Mack”, and despite some less than sterling work by some of his subordinates netted an entire army into the “bag”. Some of Napoleon’s troops would found a new way of fighting, that he made “war using our feet”. A fascinating book, in an excellent series.