Ambush (xii), Strategic Ambush (cont.) The Battle of Slavkov (Austerlitz)
At the beginning of December 1805, in a location between Šlapanice and Slavkov an allied Austrian and Russian army stood against the army of the French emperor Napoleon I. The most famous of Napoleon's victories was preceded by a magnificent campaign, during which he forced the Austrian army in Bavaria to capitulate in the course of two months and he pushed its remnants, allied with the Russian troops, through the whole of Lower Austria to Moravia near Olomouc. At Olomouc the allies were reinforced by other Russian units and their numbers gave the Russian Tsar and the Austrian Emperor, present with the army, an idea for an offensive march against Napoleon, regardless the fact that from northern Italy a strong army of the archduke Karel was approaching to help him. The allies set off from Olomouc to Brno and on December 2, on the jubilee day of the Napoleon's coronation, the opposing armies clashed. The allies occupied a line extending from the area north of the Olomouc road through Staré Vinohrady, to the dominant Pratce hill towards Telnice in the south. Their intention was to destroy Napoleon's right wing with a strike of their left wing and to cut it off from his connecting supply lines with Vienna and to destroy him and push him to Bohemia. To achieve this, both allied monarchs had about 90 000 men. Their opponent was weaker by approximately 15 000 men, but militarily he was much more experienced. He faced the attacks of the allied left wing in Telnice and Sokolnice with only relatively small units, the majority of his army was kept waiting in ambush for the prepared destroying strike. It happened the moment when the allies had already nearly cleared Pratce hill and were attacking Sokolnice with great might. Covered in fog, the force of the marshal Soult moved unseen almost to Pratce, they attacked Staré Vinohrady and Pratce hill with a strong onrush and after fierce fighting with the Austrian and Russian units, they seized the area. Even the intervention of the Tsar's Russian Guard was no help, the battle was lost. The allies had to leave the battlefield and in confusion they had to retreat to Slavkov. The Austrian - Russian units in the area of Sokolnice were then mostly surrounded and forced to capitulate. Only a small number of them managed to escape over the dykes of the frozen ponds. Thus the allied armies suffered a catastrophic defeat in the centre and on the left wing. What was left was a Russian unit under general Bagration, which was engaged in a quite isolated fight with the forces of marshal Lannes at Tvarožná and in the area of the Olomouc road. Although even Bagration suffered significant losses, he was not crushed and only he retreated with his forces in good order. The allied army was not able to fight any more and it retreated to Hodonín towards Hungary. On 6th December an armistice was thus signed in the Slavkov manor, which was followed by the so-called Prešpurk peace treaty, casing considerable losses of land to Austria. The Slavkov battle became an important concept in history and Napoleon himself appreciated it above all the battles he had ever fought. After the battle at Slavkov, the Kounic's manor became the seat of the French emperor Napoleon I for several days. The spectacular aristocratic residence impressed the winning commander so much, that he named his most famous battle after Slavkov (Austerlitz), although the actual battle happened several kilometres west from the town. In the Slavkov manor Napoleon also drafted his famous order to the army starting with the words: Soldiers, I am satisfied with you. On the fourth of December 1805 Napoleon met the Austrian emperor František I at Spálený mlýn and two days later they signed an armistice between France and Austria in the hall of the Slavkov castle. On behalf of the French party the document was signed not by Napoleon, but by the marshal Berthier. The hall, in which the armistice was concluded, was later nicknamed historical. There are many legends about Napoleon's stay in Slavkov, apart from others, Napoleon's alleged bed is mentioned, which is exhibited in the manor exposition, but which is only from the middle of the 19th century. Napoleon left Slavkov on 7th December 1805, but his soldiers stayed there until the beginning of the following year. The adverse side of their stay was impressments, plundering and violence to which the local inhabitants were exposed. French soldiers also took away about 80 canvases from the famous Kounic Baroque gallery. Then, Napoleon could carry out his original idea ��" he directed the Soult's forces as well as the reserves to the rear of the Russian forces fighting in the valley of Zlatý Potok against Davout who supported the defence of Telnice and Sokolnice. It was decided. Over 30,000 fallen, injured or captivated Russian and Austrians remained on the battlefield. The French victory cost only 1,500 dead and 7,000 injured. On 6 December, the armistice was signed in Slavkov castle, followed later on by another peace contract signed in Pressburg (today's Bratislava) on 26 December 1805. The most significant place of the battlefield was undoubtedly the hill at Prace, the place that witnessed the several-hour log battle of the French division of General Saint-Hilair with the obvious Russian-Austrian superiority. Exactly that army unit had the greatest losses of all the French forces. The response of Colonel Pouzet leading the 10th light regiment to Saint-Hilair's intention to withdraw is famous: "What, withdraw! If we only stop, we are lost! The enemy must not get time to count us! Let's swoop on them!" In 1912, a cairn was built on the hill from the initiative of the Catholic priest and first Czech modern historian of the battle, P. Alois Slovák, according to the design of the Prague architect Fanta. The cairn of Peace as it is called is in Art Noveau style and later it was supplemented by the building of the museum of the battle. The Cairn of Peace is the symbol of the battlefield. It emphasizes the reconciliation of the nations and serves as a reminder of thousands of military as well as civil victims of the battle. The original name of the hill above the Village Tvarožná is Padělek, the new name, Santon, was given to it by the French soldiers in 1805. The most probable explanation is that it reminded them of the hills in Egypt. Because of its excellent defensive position, Napoleon chose the hill already few days before the battle as the supporting position of his left wing. A replica of the French canon of the Gribeauval type was placed on Santon hill by admirers of military history in 1988. Every year on the occasion of the battle anniversary, a reconstruction of the battle is held on the field under Santon hill, specifically between the actual hill and the road from Brno. The top of the hill is among the listed monuments of the Brno-country district. At the beginning of the battle, Žuráň hill was the main commanding post of Napoleon who also spent the last night before the battle close to it: he had dinner in the roadhouse Pindulka and slept in a makeshift shack. From Žuráň, Napoleon issued orders early in the morning on December 2. There he also watched the rising sun over Slavkov with his marshals shortly after half past 7 in the morning of the battle. In 1930, a stone memorial with a plastic map showing the positions of individual armies before the decisive battle was unveiled by Czechoslovak and French generals as a reminder of the famous victory and as an expression of the then very close relations of both nations. It is said that the top of the hill is an extraterritorial zone of France. Dear readers, your contributions to and/or comments on articles published in this corner are welcome. We promise to publish whatever is deemed publishable at the end of this series.
