Over the weekend I did some housecleaning and found some books I thought I'd lost. One of them was a terrific book on military tactics. Most of the people who visit here probably aren't interested in this sort of thing but I can't resist relating one of the stories in the book, dealing with Napoleon's famous Italian Campaign.It seems that Napoleon had a brilliant way of dealing with armies larger than his own. Really big armies usually had two or more commanders. Napoleon would use spies to locate the border that seperated the two commands. He reasoned that this was the area where commanders had the most difficulty in command and control and would offer the least resistance. He would create a breach with artillary then pour a fourth of his force into it. Once in they would quickly dig trenches, effectively splitting the enemy in two.
As soon as the French were dug in they directed all their fire against one of the enemy's halves. Since Napoleon's troops were protected by the ground they could shoot at others without being shot themselves, at least for a while. Sooner or later the enemy's superior numbers would prevail but that's OK. The Frenchmen in the trenches only needed to hold out long enough to pin the enemy down so they couldn't reinforce their friends.
Remember that I said only a fourth of Napoleon's army rushed into the breach and dug trenches? Now the other 3/4 comes into play. They attack the other enemy half. Since Napoleon is directing 3/4 of his troops against an enemy that's only at half strength, he's probably going to win. When he defeats this half he turns his full force on the other half of the enemy that'd been pinned down. Once again he usually prevails because he has his whole force intact and the other side has to make due with half. A nifty tactic, huh?
15 comments:
sounds like divide and conquer. I love military tactics. My favorite is blitzkreig. I think we can probably use these in animation. I always thought it would be cool to unleash a bunch of awesome cartoons at one time, thereby leaving all the other competition in the dust because they simply couldn't compete with the great stuff that was coming out. to bad animating is as expeditious as a discipled fascist german army.
Though they dig trenches, it's a pretty risky move sending only 1/4 of your troops between each half of the enemy. Takes balls!
wow sorry for all the horrible typos. hahahah
You mean the French actually fought under Napoleon?
Didn't they know they were French?
Raise your right hand if you like the French
... raise both hands if you are French.
Maybe instead he should have done some funky dancing in an attempt to get his Latino friend elected president. Or am I thinking of another Napoleon? ;)
Interesting post, Uncle Eddie!
Napoleon was somewhat a revolutionary in war tactics - he changed the way battles were fought during that time.
Kali's correct - Napoleon did have some grapefruits. When the re-established king (Louis 18th) sent guards (who once served under Napoleon) to arrest Napoleon when he escaped Elba, he basically told the guards, "Hey, I'm your Emperor. If you want to shoot your Emperor, go right ahead!" The guards sided with Napoleon!
-- J
Thanks for the story on strategy. It reminds me of Sun Tzu: "attack where there is vacuity."
Napoleon
Went to an all girls school...
How cool is THAT! Good strategy indeed.
James.
This reminds me of the game Stratego. Fun game, but I never got any good at it.
Kali's correct - Napoleon did have some grapefruits.
But only 2 inches of swizzle stick.
David Gemmill is right; Napoleon was not the first to use divide-and-conquer tactics, which go all the way back in recorded history. However, he was among the first to apply the tactics to some of the emerging technology of the era, such as improved cannons, as well as improving cartography. Knowing the ground is almost as important as knowing your enemy. Napoleon, at least up through the Russian campaign, also generally had superior logistics.
Some of Napoleon's enemies, aside from having command-and-control issues, had linguistic problems. The Austrian empire had an army plagued by these (and would continue to be plagued by this down to World War I...see the classic comic novel 'The Good Soldier Svejk' for details). This made the weak spot tactics even better.
Napoleon was not the last to do this. The Germans successfully did it in their spring, 1918 offensives in the West, almost winning the war, and had it done to them at Stalingrad, where the Russians hit the weaker Romanian and Hungarian allied armies surrounding General Paulus.
Thanks, Eddie. This tactic sounds familiar. Hey, I know! It's being used now in the USA with wedge issues that set up battles betweeen the "right" and "left" while giving cover for the corporatocracy to roll over the middle class. (Sorry, I can't think of a way to bring this back 'round to art theories.)
jorge: There was a Krazy Kat cartoon with Krazy in the Napoleon role. He even ends up exiled to Elba at the end.
Such stark realism!
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The name of that cartoon is, "Krazy's Waterloo," BTW.
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