Napoleon by Colson Bruno

Author:Colson, Bruno [Colson, Bruno]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780199685561
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2015-02-21T00:00:00+00:00

Would supply by means of depots—the fourth mode of supply according to Clausewitz—return once more? Clearly perceiving the advantage of the requisitioning system and living off the land, he nevertheless recognized that this was not enough for Napoleon, who also had to organize a system of depots, with the construction of ovens in the vicinity of his armies.

The need to have wheat ground and bread baked for his troops was a major headache for Napoleon in his campaign plans and major expeditions,9 to the extent that he imagined the soldiers grinding their own wheat and baking their own bread:

The great improvement to be made in war, the only important one that remains to be made, which will confer a great advantage on the first to do it, who will inevitably be followed by others, is to accustom the soldier to carry his food, to make his flour and bread, so that he is sure of having bread without recourse to the administration and always has his food provisions on him. We find wheat everywhere, but cannot grind it. The Romans distributed wheat, not flour. The soldier saw to things back then. If the government would only give the army wheat, then it would no longer have any administration. The outcome would be tremendous.

I had mills made for the Russian campaign, but they were too heavy. Since then some simple but excellent ones weighing eight pounds have been made. This is a major development.10

Modern troops have no more need of bread and biscuit than the Romans: give them flour or rice or vegetables during marches and they will not suffer. It is a mistake to assume that generals in antiquity did not pay great attention to their depots. In Caesar’s commentaries, we can see the extent to which this important concern preoccupied him in several of his campaigns. They had only discovered the art of not becoming slaves to it and not depending on their purveyors. This art was that of all the great commanders.11

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