Battle of Austerlitz
Napoleon destroyed a Russian and Austrian army at Austerlitz on 2 December 1805, on the first anniversary of his coronation. He had marched the Grande Armée from the Channel coast in five weeks, taken an Austrian army at Ulm without a battle, and occupied Vienna, and was at the end of a very long supply line with the Prussians considering whether to join the coalition against him. He needed a decisive battle quickly and had to make the enemy want one. The whole plan was a piece of theatre. He abandoned the Pratzen Heights, the dominant ground in the centre, and deliberately weakened his right flank; he sent an envoy to sue for an armistice in terms calculated to suggest anxiety; and he let his outposts look demoralised. The allies read it exactly as intended and marched a third of their army off the heights to turn the weak right and cut him from Vienna. At about nine in the morning, with the fog clearing on the slopes, Soult's corps went up the emptied Pratzen and split the allied army in two. The southern wing was then rolled up against frozen lakes and marshes. Some 27,000 allied casualties against 9,000 French. The Austrians made peace within weeks, the Third Coalition ended, and the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved the following August. Pitt is said to have told a servant to roll up the map of Europe, since it would not be wanted for ten years. It is the battle Napoleon himself regarded as his best and the one staff colleges still teach as the model of a plan that shapes what the enemy chooses to do. The other name for it is the battle of the three emperors, since Francis and Alexander were both on the field.
- Year: 1805 CE
- Category: Military
