200 years ago this day: Armageddon in Europe

[Capitaine Vengeur 263]

On 16 October 1813, began in the Eastern outskirts of the Saxon city of Leipzig what was to be rightfully called the Battle of Nations. The Grande Armée of the French Empire (including Belgium, Netherlands, Northern Germany, with addition of allied troops from various states of Western Gernany, Northern and Southern Italy, Poland, Switzerland...) faced four converging armies gathering Prussians, Swedes, and all of the nations of the Austrian and Russian multiethnic Empires.

 

For four days, over 200,000 of Napoleon's followers desperately tried to repel over 350,000 greedy Allies seeing the Emperor's fall within range at last; 100,000 men were killed or received wounds, most often a short intermede before a painful death. Such attested numbers make this terrible bloodbath the biggest pitched battle ever before the static operations of WW1 and mobile offensives of WW2.

 

As for many other Napoleonic battles, there were Germans and Poles on both sides; thus, some 15,000 Saxons and Wurttembergers treacherously defected to the winning side in one move in the middle of the boiling melee, immediately fighting their former brothers-in-arms ("Saxon!" remained an insult in France for decades afterwards). On 19 October, Napoleon was forced to order the evacuation of his cornered troops westwards through a single bridge, which was dynamited before the end of the operations with disastrous consequences. This dramatically concluded the Saxon campaign of 1813 on a decisive defeat that sealed the fate of the French Empire.

 

Battle of Leipzig - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Large festivities are planned in Saxony to commemorate the battle the most representative of the European disunity before the EU. The citizens of Leipzig also commemorate the 100th year of their Völkerschlachtdenkmal (bless you!), a 91-meter-tall pagan-style stone monument erected in 1913 over the battlefield, for the centenary the battle.

[+Gepard 11,304]

One correction. The battle lasted only 3 days. It was fought on Friday, Saturday and Monday. On Sunday the weapons were not fired.

[Capitaine Vengeur 263]

One correction. The battle lasted only 3 days. It was fought on Friday, Saturday and Monday. On Sunday the weapons were not fired.

The battle was fought on 16, 18 and 19; 17 October saw minor actions and arrival of reinforcements on both sides (but about 10 Allies to 1 French! Napoleon should have fallen back at that moment). Anyway, it makes the rate of casualties per day even heavier. I hope to see some pics of re-enactments, for I've read  somewhere that about 5,000 re-enactors were expected. It could look and sound something more than a common skirmish.

[+Gepard 11,304]

Maybe, that it was fought on saturday, monday and tuesday. Sunday was free.

 

Here a link to the official site Völkerschlacht

 

http://www.leipzig1813.com/de/home.html

[MigBuster 2,884]

Few pics on the news

 

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24599921

 

 

Some 6,000 history buffs in period military costume are re-enacting one of Germany's bloodiest battles, the Battle of the Nations.

French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated near Leipzig in October 1813 by forces from Russia, Austria, Prussia and Sweden.

Tens of thousands of spectators are attending the reconstruction, described as a "reconciliation".

However, Church leaders object to the battle being turned into a game.

They see Sunday's event as tantamount to glorifying the carnage of war, the BBC's Damien McGuinness reports.

[Capitaine Vengeur 263]

Few pics on the news

 

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24599921

The present British contingent quoted here was actually minimal and merely symbolic: 150 men from the Rocket Corps in 1 battery of Congreve rockets attached to the Swedish Corps. Perhaps enough for King George to pretend he participated in this most decisive battle, not enough to completely evacuate Napoleon's accusations that the main British participation in his fall had been to bribe into war the absolute monarchs of the continent, again and again until he was put down for the highest profit of the bankers and traders of London.

[+Gepard 11,304]

Here a 89 minutes report from german TV station MDR:

 

http://www.mdr.de/mediathek/fernsehen/video155386_zc-7931f8bf_zs-2d7967f4.html

 

 

And here a link to the official photo galerie:

 

http://www.leipzig1813.com/de/veranstaltungen/fotogalerie/2013.html

 

one example: