A History of Prussia by H.W. Koch

Author:H.W. Koch [Koch, H.W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Europe, General
ISBN: 9781317873082
Google: GGOuBAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2014-10-13T03:37:41+00:00

Up, up, comrades to horse, to horse

towards the battlefield and liberty

only on the battlefield can a man show his worth

then his heart will be put on the scales …

the entire audience joined in. Under that pressure and finally recognizing that no step short of subjugation would satisfy Napoleon, Frederick William III refused to withdraw his mobilization orders and war with France ensued. He could not have chosen a worse moment. Prussia’s policy of neutrality in the preceding years had alienated many of those who were Prussia’s potential allies. Austria had been beaten and was not in a position to assist, a state of war existed with Great Britain, Russian forces were too far removed to intervene in the decisive early stage of the war. In effect Prussia was alone. If her policy shows one redeeming feature it is that she had refused to humble herself in the manner of the princes of the Confederation of the Rhine, for even if the difference is one of degree, yet there is still a difference.

The Prussian army expected to meet Napoleon west of the Thuringian forest. Totally underestimating the rapidity with which Napoleon could move his forces the Prussian army approached that region. But already on 10 October 1806 the Prussian vanguard was defeated by the French at Saalfeld, an engagement in which Prince Louis Ferdinand was killed.1 In their rapid advance the French forces bypassed the Prussians on their flank, penetrating to their rear. On 14 October 1806 the battles of Jena and Auerstadt were fought, which for Prussia were absolutely disastrous. At Jena a Prussian army under the command of Prince Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen confronted a force three times its own size; a few miles to the north of it stood the bulk of the Prussian army near the village of Auerstädt, where it had the numerical superiority over the French. The army’s commander, the Duke of Brunswick was wounded early in the battle. This put the King, who nominally held supreme command, directly in charge of operations, but whilst not lacking in personal bravery he lacked the gift of generalship, the capacity and vision necessary for quick, momentous decisions. At Auerstädt the Prussian army was beaten as soundly as at Jena. The linear tactics of the eighteenth century proved of little use against Napoleon’s tirailleurs, for whom the solid Prussian lines proved an easy target. The fact that the Prussian forces had been bypassed and were taken from the rear meant that the French fought with their backs to Berlin and the river Oder, while the Prussians faced east. Their communications cut, they lacked any base to withdraw to, and thus after having been defeated they were also routed, the army being in complete disarray. Unit after unit capitulated, fortress after fortress surrendered.

Frederick William III immediately attempted to enter into negotiations with Napoleon but these were rejected outright; Rossbach was to be avenged to the full. On 27 October 1806 the Corsican entered Berlin. One of his first visits was to the tomb of Frederick the Great at Potsdam.

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