Austerlitz 1805: The fate of empires (Campaign)

The military, cultural and historical background are both succinct and precise. These details provide an excellent introduction to a battle of truly momentous import that changed the balance of power in Europe for a decade.The information on touring the battlefield today - which I propose to do shortly - is very helpful as well.

In 1990, Osprey published Campaign #2 Austerlitz 1805 by the renowned Napoleonic expert Dr. David Chandler. Now twelve years later, Osprey Campaign #101 by Ian Castle returns to the scene of Napoleon's greatest battlefield triumph. Inevitably, the two volumes will be compared and so far they are the only Osprey campaign series titles to cover the same subject. Naturally, the question arises on whether this new volume is, in fact an improvement. The short answer is...a qualified yes. This review will attempt to examine Austerlitz 1805 both on its on merits and in comparison to Chandler's earlier volume. Austerlitz 1805 begins in standard Osprey format with short sections on the road to war, opposing plans, campaign chronology, opposing commanders and opposing armies - a total of 18 pages. Unfortunately, these opening sections are rather weak even by summary standards. In the plans section, Castle makes virtually no mention of French dispositions for war (e.g. Marshal Massena in Italy), the near-simultaneous Trafalgar campaign or why Napoleon chose to make his main effort in Bavaria instead of Italy, as the Austrians expected. The section on leaders is absurdly top-heavy, covering only Napoleon, Tsar Alexander I, Emperor Francis I and Kutuzov; Napoleon's key subordinates like Soult, Lannes and Murat are only mentioned in the battle narrative. Now in comparison to Chandler's earlier volume, Castle's volume virtually apes the master in these opening sections, sometimes paragraph by paragraph. Indeed, Castle's volume is clearly inferior to Chandler's in terms of background material. However this disparity begins to shift once the campaign narrative begins, because this is where Castle has put virtually all of his new material. Castle covers the preliminary Ulm campaign and the approach to Austerlitz in 17 pages, one page more than Chandler. The battle narrative itself is 42 pages, compared to 34 pages by Chandler. There are also a total of five 2-D maps (strategic plans of the 3rd Coalition, French advance to the Danube, Ulm encirclement, Austerlitz pre-battle dispositions, and the Treaty of Pressburg) and four 3-D "Birds Eye View" maps (Soult's assault on the Pratzen Heights, Lannes and Murat versus Bagration's advance guard, the attack of the Russian Imperial Guard and the retreat across the frozen ponds). There are also three excellent battle scenes: the fighting at Telnitz, charge of the Russian Guard cavalry and the Allied retreat across the frozen ponds. There is little doubt that the maps and artwork are of far higher quality than in Chandler's earlier volume, but of course Osprey has evolved over twelve years. The main value of Castle's revised Austerlitz 1805 lies in the greater detail provided on the four main aspects of the battle: Soult's seizure of the Pratzen Heights, the cavalry-infantry actions in the north, the Russian Imperial Guard counterattack and the Allied retreat. Castle knows the battlefield terrain well and his research into Austrian archives has yielded useful details that were lacking earlier. For example, Chandler did not mention that the French 4th Line Infantry lost their eagle to the Russian Guard cavalry - the only Allied triumph that day. The struggle for the Pratzen also appears to have wavered back and forth for some time, until superior French training and discipline carried the day; other accounts tend to make this key attack seem like a foregone conclusion. Finally, the Allied retreat across the frozen ponds is presented with more balance, showing that Austrian cavalry fought a successful rearguard that saved many troops, rather than the usual massacre-style portrayal of this rout. In the regards of providing greater detail on this key Napoleonic battle, there is little doubt that the author's research has provided a good overall summary and one that exceeds the detail of Chandler's earlier volume. However, Castle's take on Austerlitz suffers from the same problem evident in many other Osprey campaign titles - failure to analyze. In terms of the principle of war, while the French demonstrated amazing prowess in economy of force (Legrand's division held off the main Allied attack for two crucial hours), maneuver, surprise and unity of command, they and the Allies both failed to employ mass. The main Allied attack was intended to achieve 4-1 local superiority on the French right in order to crumple Napoleon's flank but as Castle notes, clumsy tactical movements reduced this initial attack to a series of 2-1 odds attacks into built-up areas. Result: delay, stalemate and indecision. Yet Castle fails to note that Soult's attack on the Pratzen Heights - the French main effort - was only a 1-1 odds attack up a hill mass and even if reinforced by Bernadotte, the odds only increased to 3:2. Without a decisive local superiority in mass, the French main effort hung in the balance until superior training tipped the balance. Castle notes this seesaw fighting, but fails to address why it occurred. Both the French and the Allies over-committed troops in the less critical northern sector and maintained their small guard corps as reserves. Neither side was prepared to deal with the eventuality of their main attack stalling and had only limited reserves to redress such an event. Nor does Castle address other important tactical issues, such as the effect of the early morning mist on Allied artillery, which had a 2-1 superiority over the French. Austerlitz is rightly regarded as a great French military triumph, but an analysis of this triumph should go beyond merely assessing the Allies as clumsy and la Grande Armée as invincible. In fact, even a cursory analysis should indicate that Napoleon won this battle by a fairly slim margin and that it could have gone the other way or been an indecisive draw.

Hello - and welcome to another JBP review!This is the fourth Osprey (Napoleonic) Campaign book that I have read, and probably the best of the lot to date. This volume covers the 1805 campaign by Napoleon Bonaparte against the Austrians and Russians.It covers the political situation prior to the campaign and the "raison d'guerre" nicely and gives a good picture of the how's and why's. The summary of the faction's leaders and generals, their personalities and their individual strengths and weaknesses is also well done.The meat of the book is naturally the battle of Austerlitz on December 2, 1805, but the book also covers (albeight briefly) the prior battles and encirclement of the Austrian army at Ulm. Austerlitz is covered in good detail (and I knew next to nothing about the battle before reading this book), and I feel enlightened by it's content. The pictures are good, though I would have preferred more to be in colour, so that the book could be used as a reference guide for a wargamer painting armies of that era.All in all, this is a worthy addition to the Osprey Campaign Series line, and for anyone interested in the earlier battles of the Napoleonic Wars, I would certainly recommend picking this one up. Reading it is time well spent.BestJBP

Bücher in dt.Sprache über die Schlacht bei Austerlitz 1805 gibt es viele und für meinen Geschmack meist zu umfangreich und Detail versessen. Wer Osprey Bücher kennt dem erzähle ich nix Neues und für die, die sie noch nicht kennen - in ausschließlich englischer Sprache - wird auf prägnante und sehr anschauliche Weise das geschildert was auf dem Umschlag steht - die Gründe für die Schlacht, die Kurzbeschreibung der Kommandeure und Regenten der teilnehmenden Staaten und Bündnisse, die Schlacht und die Auswirkungen. Speziell die Details der Schlacht (mehrere 3-D Karten zu den entsprechenden Uhrzeiten mit den Stellungen der Truppen) sowie die Aufstellung und Truppenkontingente der Armeen selbst, bis hinunter zur Brigade. Schön auch, daß die Ortschaften die heute alle in Tschechien liegen mit beiden Namen (dt. und tschechisch) aufgeführt sind - einziges Manko für mich ist das Fehlen einer aktuellen Landkarte zum Vergleich mit den damaligen Begebenheiten. Aber ansonsten wie immer - wo Osprey drauf steht ist zu 95% Qualität drin und für jeden Hobby-Militär-Historiker sind die Bücher dieser Reihe nahezu unumgänglich, da sie auf relativ wenig Seiten (hier: knapp 90) viele Karten, Bilder und Informationen enthalten

Very useful reference book for the battle.

thank you gave the British side of account OF THE WAR