Tango01  | 30 Jul 2020 9:08 p.m. PST |
"Napoleon Bonaparte is one of the greatest military commanders of all time. He brought Revolutionary France back from the brink of destruction with his Italian campaign in 1796 and 1797. He made a fool of Czar Alexander I at the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805. He encircled an entire Austrian army and forced them to capitulate at the Battle of Ulm in 1805. And these are just a few of his exploits. But he was also a student of history, and repeatedly instructed his subordinates to pore over the campaigns of seven specific commanders that came before him, arguing that it was the only way to learn the art of war and become a great captain…"
Main page
link Amicalement
Armand |
| ConnaughtRanger | 31 Jul 2020 1:54 a.m. PST |
|
| Brechtel198 | 31 Jul 2020 4:14 a.m. PST |
'The principles of warfare are those which guided the great captains [Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, Gustavus, Turenne, Eugene, and Frederick] whose great deeds history has transmitted to us.'-Napoleon. |
| Handlebarbleep | 31 Jul 2020 5:08 a.m. PST |
@Brechtel198 I agree with Napoleon on this one. Some of them came to an inauspicious end, but I can't remember any of them dying imprisoned on a rock in the Atlantic after a catastrophic defeat and whiling away their last years blaming everyone but himself. I can only summise that he might have taken a wrong turn or two and not applied his historical study as well as he might? |
 4th Cuirassier | 31 Jul 2020 6:30 a.m. PST |
Of course, Scipio Africanus, a mere employee of the Roman public sector, p155ed emphatically and career-endingly all over Hannibal at Zama, and even made him wipe it all up afterwards with his own handkerchief, yet doesn't rate a mention in Napoleon's list. Whatever could be going on there? |
| arthur1815 | 01 Aug 2020 9:52 a.m. PST |
And hadn't Scipio done rather well in Spain before embarking on the Zama campaign? Seems to remind me of someone… |
| Tango01 | 01 Aug 2020 12:11 p.m. PST |
|
| Handlebarbleep | 01 Aug 2020 8:33 p.m. PST |
Thanks for the Scipio reference 4thCuirassier. I'm humming it to myself now! One of the better slow marches,
YouTube link
|
| 4th Cuirassier | 02 Aug 2020 7:19 a.m. PST |
@ arthur1815 Nah. Spain was a secondary theatre, including when it was the only theatre. :-) |
| Gazzola | 02 Aug 2020 8:27 a.m. PST |
Scipio was indeed a great general and did very well in Spain against the Carthaginians. However, Hannibal was that good a general he was allowed to basically walk all over Italy for years? And no one dared to tackle Hannibal in Italy? I don't recall Scipio taking him on in Italy either? |
| Brechtel198 | 02 Aug 2020 8:40 a.m. PST |
How would you describe the war in Spain then? Was it Napoleon's main effort? The answer to that is a resounding 'no' which settles the discussion as far as I'm concerned. |
| Brechtel198 | 03 Aug 2020 10:54 a.m. PST |
I looked up some of Napoleon's Correspondence, and he talked about 8 Great Captains, not 7, the 8th one being the Swedish Warrior-King, Charles XII. |
| Tango01 | 03 Aug 2020 12:59 p.m. PST |
Thanks Kevin.
Amicalement
Armand
|
looks at a multi-period building.
