Historian Breaks Down Napoleon's Battle Tactics

Love him or hate him,

Napoleon is a figure probably unrivaled in modern history.

I'm going to take you some snapshot, iconic moments

in some of his battles.

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Toulon, 1793,

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we're down here on the Mediterranean coast of France.

Here we have the young Napoleon, 24 years old,

full of energy, full of zeal for the revolution,

and that revolution is in danger.

The city of Toulon has been occupied

by French royalists.

The young Napoleon is given the task of leading an assault

on this important fort, which he does.

The French fire at the fortress,

and then they storm it, using infantry and ladders,

and Napoleon himself leads the attack.

He's stabbed in the thigh by a British soldier

with a bayonet, but the attack succeeds,

and the British are pushed out.

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The Battle of the Pyramids, 1798.

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We're now away down South on the map,

on the Southern shores of the Mediterranean in Egypt.

Here, we're going to be looking at Napoleon,

experimenting with a new formation,

the divisional square, and looking at his sense of destiny.

Actually, the battle took place

some nine miles away from the pyramids,

but what's wrong with a bit of artistic license?

He has captured the city of Alexandria,

but he's now faced with the vast, medieval

infantry and cavalry of the Mamluks,

the soldiers of the Ottoman Turks who rule Egypt.

He brings on what was called the divisional square.

Each division had three brigades,

and each brigade was formed into a square of infantry,

guns at each corner, and cavalry in the middle.

Now, squares were used throughout European warfare,

but they were used for a very particular purpose,

just to repel cavalry.

So, he is adapting the square,

making it a combined arms formation

and using it offensively, not defensively.

He moves South in this formation towards the enemy,

supported by the gunfire of his ships.

The Mamluks attack and superior

French firepower murders them.

They retreat.

Some of them try to cross the Nile and are drowned,

and the French are left in possession of the field.

Austerlitz, 1805.

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We are here in what's now the Czech Republic.

Here we're going to look at Napoleon,

prepared to take risks that could be fatal,

but also as a master of deception,

luring his enemies into a trap

from which they can't escape.

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This is a portrayal of an incident which actually happened.

It's reported that 150 guns were lost

and a lot of men were drowned.

Two or three days later, Napoleon ordered the ponds

to be drained, and although 150 horses were found,

only two human bodies were reported.

Napoleon has instituted the corps system.

Each corps is a combination of artillery,

infantry, cavalry, engineers and light troops.

It's all arms.

It allows him to expand the army

to something bigger than there's been seen

in Europe since ancient times.

He makes himself appear weak

in the South here on his right flank

because what he wants to do

is make the enemy launch a flanking attack.

Bring them down off the Pratzen Heights

to attack him and envelop him in the South,

will be able to take these attackers

in the flank and deal with them.

Napoleon himself will then be able

to unleash the decisive act of the battle,

a central attack on the enemy position

up here on the Pratzen Heights.

The Austrians play right into his hands,

and he turns to Marshal Soult,

the Commander of the Fourth Corps.

He's going to lead the attack and says to Soult,

One sharp jab and the war is over.

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Lutzen, Spring of 1813.

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We are at Lutzen, which is in

the Southern part of Germany.

Here, we're going to be looking at Napoleon

making and implementing decisions

far more rapidly than his opponents can do.

And we're going to see him inspiring

and leading the troops personally

and bringing that magnetism to bear on the battlefield.

What Lutzen gives us is a glimpse

of Napoleon's powers of analysis and decision-making.

Napoleon, after all his years in the field,

is now a master at this.

What unfolds at Lutzen?

Well, it's what's called a meeting engagement,

and a meeting engagement occurs

when two bodies of troops are moving towards each other,

but they don't know very much about each other.

And unexpectedly, they collide,

and victory will go to the side

that most speedily and most effectively

takes advantage of the chaos.

Napoleon himself rides to the sound of the guns.

Morale is pretty shaky, but his appearance works magic.

The troops see him and somehow,

they know that everything will be okay.

And those cries so dreaded

by his enemies on the battlefield begin to rise.

Vive l'empereur.

Not only does he inspire the troops,

but he actually takes charge of them,

leads them to the counterattack,

exposing himself to enemy fire.

And it's said that this is the day of his career

more than any other,

when he was in most danger of being killed.

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Waterloo, 1815.

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We are at Waterloo, in what's now Belgium,

and it's just to the South of Brussels.

Here's Napoleon, at the end of his career.

He's older. He's tired.

He's suffering the pains of duodenal cancer.

He nearly carries the day,

but in the end, he's caught in his own trap.

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Well, here we've got some great footage

of the use of squares.

We talked about squares earlier in Egypt,

and here's the defensive use of squares

by the British Army against that massed cavalry.

Ridley Scott's used enough people in it

to give you the sense of being there,

which too many TV programs just don't do.

The powers of Europe have declared war, not on France,

but on him, and they're closing in.

Napoleon organizes a proper combined arms attack,

which captures the farm of La Haye Sainte.

It means that the French can bring their artillery

right up close, blast a hole in the British center,

and then plow through it,

but at this critical moment,

the Prussians are appearing on the French right.

Napoleon has to detach part

of the Guard Corps to stop them.

Once La Haye Sainte is taken,

the critical moment has arrived.

The guard, weakened as it is, is committed.

It's stopped dead.

The Prussians break through on his right flank,

and Napoleon, is caught

in his own trap of a flanking attack.

Napoleon leaves the field of battle,

tries to rally the army at Philippeville,

but is not able to do so.

It's the end for Napoleon.

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He finishes his life as an exile

on the Island of St. Helena.

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We've been focusing on Napoleon,

and his prowess on the battlefield.

He did, however, leave a considerable legacy.

He reshaped armies through his corps system

and through his staff system

that have largely endured to the present day.

To this day, he is still an iconic figure.

If that were not so,

then Ridley Scott would not have invested

as he has done in making this movie.

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