"Napoleon's Worst Battle was..." Topic

You were asked – TMP link

Which battle is the worst example of Napoleon's generalship?

53% said "Waterloo"
14% said "Borodino"
10% said "Aspern-Essling"

"Napoleon's Worst Battle was…" his last. For rather obvious reasons.

It could be argued his battle with health contributed to his debacle at Waterloo.

vs. the rabbit horde in 1808.

Eylau. Comment dit-on "sh—show" en francais?

Either bordel or chiasse.

I always thought his worst battle was Aspern-Essling.

I actually think he handled Wagram worse than Aspern-Essling. At Aspern-Essling, he was outnumbered and caught unawares – virtually an army sized ambush by EHK. Then the Austrians made life difficult for him by the unorthodox stratagem of continually breaking the pontoon bridges. OK, so partly, the failure was due to poor decisions on his part, but not entirely. Some of it was down to good decisions and execution by the Austrians. Both armies were improvising as they figured out what was actually going on. In that regard, I don't think Napoleon did a particularly bad job. He just didn't have the resources he needed on the right side of the Danube.

At Wagram, he had a significant advantage in numbers, yet his plans were based virtually entirely on a sledge hammer approach of throwing more troops head on into the face of an enemy that had proved itself tough and resilient. The huge infantry attack by MacDonald's infantry has to be one of the least imaginative measures he had employed to date.

Had EHK had as many troops as Napoleon, the result could have been quite embarrassing for the French. As it was, while Wagram was strategically decisive, tactically it was not. The Austrian army withdrew in good order and the French were too exhausted to engage in an effective pursuit.

Cheers,
John

At one point at Wagram the Austrians came close to pulling off a Cannae.

I wonder what we'd think of Emperor Bokassaparte today if that one had come off!?

Only that Waterloo had come six years early, was spelled "Wagram," and that the second-greatest general of the era was Archduke Charles.

Comment dit-on "sh—show" en francais?

"connerie"- peut-ętre?

There are premonitory signs of the errors and failings that caused Waterloo in Eylau, but his opponent was a less resourceful commander, and the reinforcing allies came in insufficient strength and from the wrong decision to be decisive. The morning after Eylau found the Grand Army in probably a worse state than any other battle to date, or any other battle it would see until the Beresina.

Nobody mentioned Leipzig or Malo-Yaroslavets; the latter meant the army retreated back through already stripped conutryside.

Leipzig wasn't really Napoleon's embarassment, he was massively outgunned (though he didn't properly mind the bridge). Malo-Yaro I can see, Eylau although weather played a big role there. Maybe Ligne, the victory that he didn't exploit properly.

He lost to Josephine the temptress big time_____
juz sayin' ____
d

Although Josephine had black teeth from chewing sugar cane as a child in the French West Indies, which would put me off.

Battles were often the result of, and the culminating end point of, a campaign. I always thought Leipzig was his worst because he allowed himself to get into that situation. That was the battle that lost him his empire.

But I think Borodino was his worst battle from a perspective of his generalship. Waterloo was just as bad, but if the Prussians hadn't shown up the battle would probably have ended in a bloody draw. With the decision to fight there on a compressed battlefield against an equally-sized army, he had few options. But at Borodino he had some options and still committed his army to a brutal frontal attack.