Tutorial: One of Napoleon's biggest secrets...the Maneuver to Battle

Napoleon very effectively combined the maneuver and battle stages of warfare into one event. Before him, General Officers had considered these two things to be separate events. Napoleon, however, used his "maneuver to battle" strategy to dictate where and how the battle would progress. The Battle of Austerlitz was a perfect example of this. Napoleon withdrew from a strong position to draw his opponent forward and tempt them into a flank attack (thus weakening their own center). This allowed the French army to split the allied center and gain victory.

Napoleon used two primary strategies for his maneuver to battle. The "Manoeuvre de Derrière" (move onto the rear) was used when he was numerically superior to his enemy. He would place a part of his army across an enemy's lines of communications: thus forcing his opponent to either march into battle with him, or attempt to find an escape route around him. By placing this fraction of his army (called the blocking force) onto their rear, his opponent's supplies and communications would be cut. This had a negative effect on enemy morale, and once joined, the battle would usually be one in which his opponent could not afford a defeat.

This allowed Napoleon to select multiple march routes into a battle site, and initially, the lack of force concentration inherent in the Manoeuvre de Derrière also helped with foraging for food. Additionally it confused the enemy as to his real location and intentions. This strategy, along with the use of forced marches, created a morale bonus that played heavily in his favor.

This indirect approach into battle was also applied tactically by Napoleon, and allowed him to disrupt the linear formations used by the allied armies. As a battle progressed and his enemy committed its' reserves to stabilize their front ranks, Napoleon would suddenly release a flanking formation to attack them. His opponent, being suddenly confronted with a new threat and with little reserves left, had no choice but to weaken the area closest to the flanking formation and draw up a battle line at a right angle in an attempt to stop this new threat. Once this occurred, Napoleon would mass his own reserves at the hinge of that right angle and launch a heavy attack to break the lines. This rupture in the enemy lines then allowed Napoleon's cavalry to flank both lines and roll them up, leaving his opponent with no choice but to surrender or flee (See also...Tutorial: Mass de Decision for a more detailed description of this).

The second strategy used by Napoleon I of France was used whenever he was confronted with two or more enemy armies. He called it the "Central Position". Napoleon would use a cavalry force to drive a wedge and separate the enemy armies. He would then use part of his force to mask one enemy while the larger portion overwhelmed and quickly defeated the second army. He would then march on the first army (leaving a portion to pursue the second army) and then repeat the operation again. This was designed to achieve the highest concentration of men in the primary battle while also limiting his enemy's ability to reinforce this critical battle.

The weakness of the Central Position, as seen at the Battle of Waterloo, was that the full power of pursuing an enemy could not be achieved (because the second army needed to be masked). Therefore his preferred method of attack was the Manoeuvre de Derrière - flank march to cross an enemy's logistics.

Moved to the Historical Research Center.