La Bataille de Berlin 1813

in 1812 and 1813 (France had just lost the Battle of Vittoria in Spain). Unless Napoleon was directly involved, the chances for French success were greatly reduced.

Thus, avoidance of Napoleon became the guiding principle of the Trachenberg conference. Now set in stone, for the first time in 20 years the Coalition had s strategy that had some meaning. Other than the specific failure of the Dresden battle plan, the Coalition would never seriously be in danger of losing to Napoleon again. The gist of the Radetzky/Charles John plan was to avoid meeting Napoleon directly in battle. Rather the Coalition would chip away and defeat Napoleonic subordinates in detail before gathering enough strength to take on Napoleon. The one time, Napoleon was able to directly meet the Coalition in battle, he prevailed at Dresden, proving the worth of the Trachenberg Plan. The Trachenberg Plan led to major Coalition victories in August and September at Gross Beeren; Hagelberg; Kulm; Katzenbach; and Dennewitz. This led to the noose around Napoleon’s army being tightened. Napoleon would be forced to fight at a significant numerical disadvantage at Leipzig in October. The detailed discussions shaped by Radetzky and Charles John at Trachenberg in July laid the groundwork for the late-summer and fall victories. There would be relatively minor disputes among the Coalition leaders and their generals for the next several months. The beauty of the Trachenberg Plan was that it worked out the problems in the Coalition dynamics before those problems could unravel a delicate set of relationships in the midst of the largest war in the history of the world till the 20 th Century.

The Battle of Leipzig 1813

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