FEBRUARY 1806 FRENCH TURN
Six months of steady campaigning combined with harsh winter weather slow the Imperial machine. Napoleon advances past Berlin to the Oder where he meets Lannes coming up from Dresden. 120 miles now seperate the Grande Army from the retreating Prussians. In the south, Marmont withdraws his troops from the Tyrol to Munich.
Prussian and Russian armies consolidate their positions behind the Vistula and dig in waiting for the French advance. The Tsar and King Willian hold a council of war in the East Prussian forests. A small English force arrives in Konigsberg while British transports deliver gold to both St. Petersburg and Konigsberg. A force of Russian cossacks engages the garrison of Prague.
On the Bavarian border, Archduke Charles tests Massena's mettle and is repulsed with heavy losses.
| Battle of Munich |
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| Archduke Charles, at the head of 60,000 men, attempts to deprive Napoleon of his Bavarian allies. Opposing him is Massena in command of a polyglot force of Frenchmen, Bavarians and Italians totalling 50,000 men. The freshly minted King of Bavaria, Maximillian I, having just been crowned in January, nervously watches from the city as Massena deploys to defend his kingdom. Charles opts for a frontal attack which fails to break the defenders. Massena's counterattack catches the Austrians at the end of their tether and forces them from the field. Austrian casualties: 15,000. French casualties: 5,000. |