The Trachenberg Plan was the Allied strategy agreed at Trachenberg in July 1813 for the autumn campaign against Napoleon. It forbade individual armies to fight Napoleon in person, instead ordering them to avoid his main force while attacking his marshals and threatening his lines of communication. The three Allied armies were to advance in echelon, keeping Napoleon off‑balance and wearing down his forces. By concentrating numerical superiority only at the decisive moment, the plan ultimately enabled the Allies to defeat Napoleon at Leipzig in October 1813.
Formerly a Marshal of the Empire in Napoleon’s army, Jean‑Baptiste Bernadotte(who by then was Crown Prince of Sweden) is considered to be the chief architect of the plan, along with the Russian general Karl Toll, Austrian general Radetzky and General Moreau(who was a former French General and by then Tsar Alexander’s military advisor)
DrHolmes52 on
I think we did this yesterday.
Neil118781 on
General Moreau explained it well to Tsar Alexander
‘Expect defeat whenever the Emperor attacks in person. Attack and defeat his Generals wherever you can.’
Successful_Gas_5122 on
“Don’t fight if you don’t have to” is a shockingly overlooked strategy in the history of warfare. I guess the Russians were more willing to adopt it because they got shit-mixed by its ultimate practitioners the Mongols.
raitaisrandom on
I can’t remember where I read it, but there was an occasion where Blucher was having some success against his local opposite number for the day. Then, the day after, the French counterattacked with a lot of verve and his thought process was essentially:
>”1. They’re attacking me when yesterday I had them on their heels.
>2. They don’t seem the least bit hesitant and seem very, very confident.
>3. Which must mean Napoleon’s either somewhere nearby or in direct command, so I’m getting tf out of dodge.”
SAMU0L0 on
And they totally beat his ass 2 tines and send him to a shit pile (the island we’re he was send was used to extract guano several year’s later).
Riothegod1 on
Can’t beat good old Fabian Tactics.
thunderdragonite on
Tsar Alexander was a moron for this whole outcome. Yes, he ended up winning but at the cost of destroying his country as per Russian tradition. He scorched his own lands, burned Moscow, allowed his land to be pillaged and devastated. All of this knowing he would be on the defensive against one of the greatest military leaders of all time.
Tsar Alexander crippled his own nation and France, handing Great Britain global hegemony for over 100 years on a silver platter.
8 Comments
The Trachenberg Plan was the Allied strategy agreed at Trachenberg in July 1813 for the autumn campaign against Napoleon. It forbade individual armies to fight Napoleon in person, instead ordering them to avoid his main force while attacking his marshals and threatening his lines of communication. The three Allied armies were to advance in echelon, keeping Napoleon off‑balance and wearing down his forces. By concentrating numerical superiority only at the decisive moment, the plan ultimately enabled the Allies to defeat Napoleon at Leipzig in October 1813.
Formerly a Marshal of the Empire in Napoleon’s army, Jean‑Baptiste Bernadotte(who by then was Crown Prince of Sweden) is considered to be the chief architect of the plan, along with the Russian general Karl Toll, Austrian general Radetzky and General Moreau(who was a former French General and by then Tsar Alexander’s military advisor)
I think we did this yesterday.
General Moreau explained it well to Tsar Alexander
‘Expect defeat whenever the Emperor attacks in person. Attack and defeat his Generals wherever you can.’
“Don’t fight if you don’t have to” is a shockingly overlooked strategy in the history of warfare. I guess the Russians were more willing to adopt it because they got shit-mixed by its ultimate practitioners the Mongols.
I can’t remember where I read it, but there was an occasion where Blucher was having some success against his local opposite number for the day. Then, the day after, the French counterattacked with a lot of verve and his thought process was essentially:
>”1. They’re attacking me when yesterday I had them on their heels.
>2. They don’t seem the least bit hesitant and seem very, very confident.
>3. Which must mean Napoleon’s either somewhere nearby or in direct command, so I’m getting tf out of dodge.”
And they totally beat his ass 2 tines and send him to a shit pile (the island we’re he was send was used to extract guano several year’s later).
Can’t beat good old Fabian Tactics.
Tsar Alexander was a moron for this whole outcome. Yes, he ended up winning but at the cost of destroying his country as per Russian tradition. He scorched his own lands, burned Moscow, allowed his land to be pillaged and devastated. All of this knowing he would be on the defensive against one of the greatest military leaders of all time.
Tsar Alexander crippled his own nation and France, handing Great Britain global hegemony for over 100 years on a silver platter.