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In this third volume John H. Gill brings to a close his magisterial study of the 1809 war between Napoleonic France and Habsburg Austria. This final volume begins with the principal armies of both antagonists recuperating on the Danubes banks. As they prepared for the next encounter, important actions were taking place in distant theaters of war: Eugene brought his army into Hungary and won a crucial victory over Johann on the anniversary of Marengo, Prince Poniatowskis Poles outflanked another Austrian archduke along the Vistula, and future marshal Marmont drove an Austrian force out of Dalmatia to join Napoleon at Vienna. These subsidiary campaigns all set the stage for the clash that ...
The Franco-Austrian War of 1809 was NapoleonÍs last victorious war. He would win many battles in his future campaigns, but never again would one of EuropeÍs great powers lie broken at his feet. In this respect 1809 represents a high point of the First Empire yet at the same time NapoleonÍs armies were declining in quality and he was beginning to display the corrosive flaws that contributed to his downfall five years later. In this volume Gill tackles the political background to the war and the opening battles of Abensberg, EggmÙhl and Regensberg. He explores the motivations that prompted Austria to launch an offensive against France while Napoleon and many of his veterans were distracted...
Even when a history writer would have wanted to celebrate, maybe the greatest European power (on land), namely the Austrian Empire, he certainly would not had chosen the terrible year 1809. What for the military apparatus in Vienna could have been a beginning of a Great Military Reform, the triumph of the Generalissimus Archduke Charles, became one of the worst nightmares of Habsburg history. In short, after a series of unfortunate events and bad military conduct, Austria disappeared from the European scene, losing further important territories but, above all, losing its mighty armies. The author chooses to tell about that period, evaluating the military organization, starting from the recru...
The little known Battle of Znaim (10th-11th July 1809) was the last battle to be fought on the main front of the Franco-Austrian War. Cut short to make way for an armistice it effectively ended hostilities between France and Austria and is now uniquely considered to be an episode both of conflict and simultaneously of diplomacy. The battle began as a result of the Austrian decision to stage a rearguard action near Znaim, prompting the Bavarians to unsuccessfully storm a nearby town. Battle ensued with the village changing hands a number of times over the course of the two days. Jack Gill delves deep into the respective tactics of both sides as the two armies continually changed positions and strategies. His account dissects and investigates the dual aspects of the Battle of Znaim and explains the diplomatic decisions that resulted in the peace treaty which was signed at Schonbrunn Palace on 14th October 1809. Gill’s book is an unrivaled analysis of the Battle of Znaim. Accessible, highly detailed and expertly crafted, it sheds new light on this fascinating moment in Napoleonic history.