Austerlitz 1805: The fate of empires (Campaign) [Paperback]

Ian Castle (Author), Christa Hook (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 25, 2002 | Series: Campaign (Book 101)

This all-new volume chronicles the events that climaxed on the field of Austerlitz in one of the most famous battles of the Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815). Not only was it the first campaign that Napoleon waged as Emperor of France, but also the first great test for his Grande Armée. The Emperor himself regarded it as his greatest victory and it undoubtedly won him a mastery of Europe that would remain unbroken for almost a decade. Most accounts of the campaign have until now been based almost exclusively on French sources, but following extensive research in the Austrian archives Ian Castle is now able to provide a far more balanced account of Austerlitz.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Highly visual guides to history's greatest conflicts, detailing the command strategies, tactics, and experiences of the opposing forces throughout each campaign, and concluding with a guide to the battlefields today.

About the Author

Ian Castle was a founder member of the Napoleonic Association in 1975. Since then he has made an extensive study of the Austrian Army of the Napoleonic Wars period and is recognized as a leading English-language authority on the subject. He has written several books and numerous articles on the subject, including Campaign 33 Aspern & Wagram 1809 and Campaign 56 Eggmühl 1809.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Osprey Publishing; 2nd edition (March 25, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1841761362
• ISBN-13: 978-1841761367
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 0.3 x 9.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,336,236 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Qualified Improvement, May 4, 2002

By 

R. A Forczyk (MD, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Austerlitz 1805: The fate of empires (Campaign) (Paperback)

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.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid brief discussion of one of Napoleon's masterpieces, July 20, 2008

By 

Steven A. Peterson (Hershey, PA (Born in Kewanee, IL)) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Austerlitz 1805: The fate of empires (Campaign) (Paperback)

Now, conjure this image. A commander looks into the future and guesses at his enemies' moves. He leaves high ground for the enemy to move onto and hold. He places a weak force on his right flank to lure the enemy off the heights to attack this enticing sacrificial lamb. Then, with his forces hidden behind another rise, he attacks the heights abandoned by the enemy to pierce their center and "roll up" both flanks. Key question: How could anyone be so stupid as to do what this prescient commander foresaw? The Allied forces at Austerlitz, lured into a pretty transparent trap by Napoleon, the commander who "foresaw."

Austerlitz was one of Napoleon's masterpieces. This Osprey Publishing volume provides a nice, brief, well illustrated view of this battle. Want more detail? Consider something like Robert Goetz' "1805: Austerlitz."

This battle marks the sad end of a Coalition designed to defeat Napoleon. Through a series of bad choices, such as appointing the flawed Field Marshal Mack as head of the allied forces, there was already a record of defeat (at Ulm) before Austerlitz. However, the allies--primarily the Russians and the Austrians--did not wish to give up and regrouped for battled.

This book, using information from both the allied side and from French sources, addresses how Napoleon's vision of the battle came about and how it unfolded. There are a series of key points in the battle: the dramatic and timely arrival of a portion of Davout's corps; Bagratian's stern defense of the Allied right flank; the perhaps undermanned assault on the Pratzen Plateau by the French (they had additional forces available); etc.

There are many quite helpful maps, to show the movement of forces by both sides. There are attractive paintings of the battle and a few photographs of key features of the landscape (e.g., the Pratzen Plateau).

At any rate, if you want a brief overview of Austerlitz, this does nicely. If you want a detailed analysis, this is not the place to go. Consider other works such as Goetz' (already mentioned).

5.0 out of 5 stars BATTLE OF THE THREE EMPERORS, January 26, 2012

By 

Vincenzo L. Falcone - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Austerlitz 1805: Battle of the Three Emperors (Campaign) (Paperback)

I will not waste our time debating the accepted excellence of the near god-like credibility of David G. Chandler "THE" leading authority on Napoleonic Warfare in our lifetime. That has all been covered by far more intelligent people than myself, and in truth, what are we reviewing; the authors or their material? What I will discuss is the book itself, and what I thought of it. More learned men than I will debate its accuracy long after my bones are dust.

Osprey Military Books has been putting out an amazing, reliable, and entertaining line of material for more years than I can remember. The books are well-researched and written, with wonderful coloured templates, original etchings, and pictures of relics and historical sites and places of import.

Austerlitz 1805 is one of the CAMPAIGN Series in the Osprey collection, and it is in a word - Amazing! There are 96 pages covering everything from: The Origins of the Campaign, The Opposing Commanders & their forces, their battle plans, and then coverage of the Campaign itself. It goes on to discuss the Aftermath of the battle and, as well as what the battlefield looks like today. It provides information for 'Further Reading', and for the die-hards out there, it also furnishes how to Play Austerlitz as a War-Game. It even recaps with a list of the Chronology of the battle in bold, crisp print.

The text is well written, easy and enjoyable to follow. The book is ripe with illustrations, both historical and contemporary, as well as maps, three dimensional diagrams of the battlefields, and illustrations all throughout.

There are contemporary templates of the soldiers uniforms, as well as colored maps and charts with troop movement and battle locales.

This book is perfect for both the experienced and well-versed, and the interested first timer approaching the subject. Austerlitz 1805: BATTLE OF THE THREE EMPERORS is just one more superior piece of military literature that Osprey can claim as their own - and should - with pride.

A side note: as a Painter of Napoleonic Miniatures, and interested historian, this book is an excellent source of information that can be used in tandem with many of the OSPREY Men-At-Arms books on the Napoleon uniforms.