Napoleon Against Russia
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, i 7 b g 5 5 N APO LE O N AG AI N T R I S U S S A. TH E P F — G O 1 806 1 8 0 D C B TO U . CAM AI N 7 , E EM ER J N E B " T G L D U L . M ILLER M A I RE , . i T HE fact that th e Russians n spite of thei r desperate tenacity, Ab ave succumbe d for a period to the organ ising energy an d superior skill and scienti fic accuracy in details of the Japanese may be the - reason why the authorities have selected the Campaign of 1 806 8 N - E G S 1 07 in Poland, and in the orth ast of ermany for the taff College Entrance E xaminations . Th e soldiers of B e nni ngse n set an example of dogged an d " K N desperate resolution to the soldiers of uropatkin , an d apoleon was even more amazed that the sem i - savages of S armatia should f dare to resist all his most strenuous e forts for six months, and to gplace his vast armies in situations of the utmost peril than were th e Russians themselves when K urok i and Oku and No dsu “ threatened their commun ications bet ween the " alu an d M ukden . N apoleon after Eylau was almost in as serious a positio n as was K h a H o S . uropatkin after the A E But there are other lessons . fter ylau the British system - o f Party Govern ment was fatal not only to the interests of ou r A R w as nation but also to the hopes of ou r llies . ussia ind uced by offers of effective British aid to attack Napoleon after his victories Au e rs tadt 1 806 of Jena and and his occupation of Berlin , , and , had f the British made e ficient use of their Fleet, with absolute mastery S A of the eas, and the very fine rmy which was idling at home or - S A E wasted on petty expeditions to outh merica and gypt, they - E would have turned the ylau reverse into a ruinous catastrophe . ‘ ' They could easily have go t astride Napoleon s line of co m m un ica tions with the Rhine by landing at the Mouth of the Elbe or No helping the Swedes in Pomeran ia . wonder the Czar Alex I ander . , after the defeat of Friedland compelled the evacuation of K o r nigsberg and an armistice , bitterly complained of the pe versity a n d A Th e folly of h is ll ies . youngest students of the elements - o f ca A strategy n see for themselves that, had ustria moved from B th e O th e E ohemia to der after battle of ylau, the fortre sses of 55558 4 “ R 6 1 . l V/TH TH E fl/OS Q UJTO FLE E T I N IVA . 9 th e ar cr fl th e th , bo a d s w s stop while st r e , ying till , brings ship over wi a heavy l ist . w But she has circled as rapidly as the destroyers , hich now are racing on the starboard side . G reat shafts of l um i n e nce leap across the water as the opponents T direct their searchlights on each other . here is the roar of guns , w the shriek of projectil es, a splash of flame here one of ours has struck the foredeck of a destroyer. rri But it is not for this they ca e, and now they are off with a last defiant , futile shot . S S l H as n ot th e hall we follow carce y . third destroyer which disappeared so mysteriously gone off to give the alarm A re not these two trying to draw us'to our doom H o wskilful was their " ah e ad o f ou ' effort to force us , our charge, and then , relying superior to circle an d destroy the sheltering " A craft way t o the filmy smoke, from which once n o w more leap out t that grow smaller and smaller, until at length Th e w hole ken place so rapidly you hardly realise how it For the first ti me, however, you understan d how margin between triumph and disaster how absolutely wit and steady nerve rests the whole structure It is something to have witnessed such a sight as to have felt, even in a small degree, the strain tha by a singl e mind , watching the move n ments of g to read aright their purport, and to an swe counter - moves requiring th e instant control of io n e d T ' scores of men s in different parts of the ship . his in play i s perilous thin what now it means in w ar A " D G H - S PSO LE AN ER RA AM IM N . c n n u d (T0 be o ti e . " A 2 1 NAPOLE ON A GAI N S T R U S S I . 6 S N ’ ilesia would have been saved , and hence apoleon s l ine t o Berlin ' be e n re n dere d e across the V istula and O der would have insecur , and i f the British had seized the northern l in e he would ' have l V b een a most in as bad a case as was Joseph at ittoria, especially with clouds of Cossacks hovering around h is defeated army. Perchance the B e re s in a would have been anticipated at Frankfort o n K that river or at ustrin . ' When making terms the Czar justified himself on the ground E wh o that h e had been betrayed by the nglish, were only ready to V OL c m v . 4 3 6 2 2 TH E UN I TE D S E R VI CE MA GAZ I N E . w as s end out an army when the success of Napoleo n complete , an d he had more than compensated by Friedland for the repulse o f E ylau . I S Any student of Brit ish mperial trategy, and of the possibility o f effective interposition by our navy and m ilitary forces , i f wel l o rganised at decisive moments, should study this campaign care 80 fully. I n 1 7 our Cabinet m in isters declared that they could E n ever interfere effectively in uropean struggles , yet they sen t M oore an d Wellesley to the Pen insula the next year, and M arl D 1 0 L borough had been on the anube , 7 4 , and igon ier had D 1 . charged at ettingen , on the Maine , in 7 4 3 D - But the modern arius, in h is invasion of the north east of E S urope, defended by the fierce soldiery of cythia, led his guards a n d his horsemen an d long lines of splen didly served artillery i nto very di fferent scenes from those rich and fertile and well populated valleys and h ills of I taly and South Germany an d S axony, which were the scenes of his brill iant campaigns of Jun e , 1 00 1 8 0 O 1 806 . 8 and 5, an d of ctober, No wonder that Lannes wished to sacrifice to fortune by w moderation , an d to arrest the tide of victory which had flo ed A without check from Boulogne to usterlitz, and thence to Berli n , L an d S O . ubeck, tettin , on the banks of the der Th e heroic D uke of Montebello woul d not advise the invasion o f the realms of the Poles an d of the Cossacks , or disturb ing the Masuri e n gloom of the , or quartering the gay soldiers of Tourain e a nd Provence in the midst of the cold and dreary marshes an d H woodlands of that terrible yrcan ian forest , which appalled the l a Th e egionaries of the ablest C esars . corps of Napoleon were a lmost as dismayed in the territory between the Oder and the V istula a s A Em s E were the legions of ugustus between the and the lbe . To the intox icatio n subsequent on the victories of Jena s ucceeded a m ental disquietude, when , instead of the cantonments a n d repose which they expected , they foun d themselves dragged i n the depths of winter to begin a new campaign amidst pathless s nows , and gloomy and miserable and u npopulated d istricts , skies ever gloomy, and with the dread Baltic on their left flank, afford i ng easy supplies to the enemy by numerous ports and rive r mouths, while all their requ isitions , gathered at the expense of the inhabitants, might at any moment be cut o ff by a British e xpedition . S trange to say, this campaign was really directed against the E ’ British , as was proved by the mperor s establishment of that c w ‘ ontinental blockade against our commerce hich, embodied fi rst i n De 1 8 06 the Berlin cree of , was definitely o established as , part f N AP OLE ON A GAI N S T R S I A U S .