Battle of Ulm

Late October 1805, a soldier of Napoleon's "Grande Armée" wrote to his family: "The Emperor wins battles with our legs!". The soldier was referring to the victory of Ulm where little fighting took place between 15 and 20 October. How did this happen?

To understand, we have to rewind to a time where Napoleon had gathered his troops at Boulogne-sur-Mer (northern tip of France), in view of crossing the channel and attacking England! Knowing that thanks to their spies, Britain rallied a coalition (Austria, Russia, Kingdom of Naples) to attack France.

Napoleon's own spies found out about this, so he changed his plans: instead of targeting England, he decided to put his army on the move to meet the coalition armies before they could reach French territory. Austrian and Russian generals thought they had so much time on their hands...

What followed was one of the most incredible army manoeuvre ever accomplished. Marching 3 to 5 times faster than other armies, the Grande Armée surprised the Austrians at Ulm who had to surrender without much fighting.