"Günzburg was the second of the smallish, opening battles (or "combats") of the Ulm campaign. Most of what I would have to say in this post about the state of the French and Austrian Armies at this stage of the Napoleonic Wars I've said in my three previous posts of this campaign, Wertingen, Haslach-Jungingen, and Durnstein. The interesting military problem posed Günzburg, however, is one of a contested river crossing in the face of strong enemy defenses. This was something the French Army had prided itself on in Napoleon's Italian Campaigns of the previous decade. They were good at it.
Located 29 km (about 18 mi) downstream from Ulm in western Bavaria, Günzburg, currently famous for being the home of Legoland in Germany, was a strategic crossing point over the Danube. (In fact, a Google, Bing, or Yahoo search for "Battle of Günzburg" returns, aside from the usual Wikipedia article, almost 90% images of Legoland, which, for some reason, I think shows a sign of social progress.)
Ney, on the north side of the Danube, had been ordered by Napoleon to seize this bridgehead with his VI Corps, as well as the one further upstream at Elchingen. At the same time, General Mack, with the bulk of the Austrian army holed up in Ulm, sensed the noose tightening around him and sent a column under General d'Aspré to secure the same crossing so the Austrians could use it themselves to make their escape…"
Full article here
link
Amicalement
Armand
takes the plunge!
