"Battle for Znaim" Topic

"This battle, the last fought during the War of the Fifth Coalition, occurred as a result of the French pursuit of the defeated Austrians after the Battle of Wagram (5-6 July 1809). Marshal Auguste de Marmont began the action on the tenth and was soon in difficulty. Early on the eleventh, however, Napoleon and Marshal André Masséna arrived to shift the balance. The fighting was ended by the announcement of a cease-fire toward the end of the day.

The immediate cause of the two-day Battle of Znaim was the decision of the Austrian commander in chief, Archduke Charles, to stage a rearguard action near the town of Znaim (now Znojmo, in the Czech Republic), about 80 kilometers north of Vienna, in order to give his army time to withdraw its baggage train in safety toward Moravia. Marmont's two combined French and Bavarian corps were the first of Napoleon's troops to arrive on the field following the course of the river Thaya. Believing that he faced only a rear guard, Marmont ordered his Bavarian troops to take the village of Tesswitz south of Znaim, while the rest of his troops attacked the village of Zuckerhandel.

The Bavarians succeeded in storming Tesswitz but were then thrown out by Austrian reinforcements. Marmont renewed the Bavarian attack, and Tesswitz was retaken, only to be lost soon after. The village changed hands a number of times during the day, this contest constituting the heaviest fighting the Bavarians saw in the whole campaign. Marmont had hoped to swing his cavalry in behind the Austrian rear guard, but on reaching high ground above Tesswitz, they were faced with five enemy corps. The French cavalry was forced to withdraw in the face of a large body of Austrian cuirassiers…"

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Armand

Great post Armand. It makes me want to get stuck into reading John Gill's latest title The Battle of Znaim. But I tend to read books in the order I buy them and I did buy other titles before Gill's book. However, it might just jump the list of what to read next.

Great book, great battle great post.

Happy you enjoyed it my good friend! (smile)

Armand