1809 Thunder on the Danube Vol. 2

€ 25,00

GILL John H.: 1809 Thunder on the Danube. Napoleon’s Defeat of the Habsburg. Volume II: The Fall of Vienna & the Battle of Aspern
Englisch, 464 Seiten, 36 s/w-Abbildungen, 48 Karten, 7 Tabellen, Literaturverzeichnis, Register, broschürt

In the second volume of this epic work, John H. Gill traces Napoleon’s progress as he sought to complete his victory over the Habsburgs. The war had erupted on April 10th with Austria’s invasion of Germany and Italy. After just two weeks, Napoleon had battered the Habsburg Archduke Charles in a series of bruising defeats.

This volume begins with a Napoleon astride the Danube at Regensburg. He faced a critical strategic choice – whether to pursue the injured Austrian main army into Bohemia or march directly for Vienna, the seat of Habsburg power.

After electing to target Vienna, his troops defeated the Austrians in the brutal Battle of Ebelsberg, allowing him to enter the city on May 13th. But meanwhile, on the far side of the Danube, he suffered a dramatic loss at the gruelling, two-day Battle of Aspern. While his Danube forces recovered from this setback, the Emperor cleared trouble from his strategic flanks.

Gill describes in vivid detail the hopeful Habsburg invasion of Italy, led by the 27-year-old Archduke Johann, and the fierce French counter-offensive under Napoleon’s stepson, Eugene de Beauharnais (also aged 27). In a series of encounters across Italy, de Beauharnais rebounded from initial defeat to advance triumphantly into Austrian territory, shattering and scattering Johann’s army. In the wake of Aspern, while the Austrians vacillated, Napoleon gathered every man, horse and gun around Vienna, setting the stage for the gigantic spectacle of the Battle of Wagram, the final chapter in the story of the 1809 war.

Biographical Note:
A military historian specialising in the Napoleonic era, John H. Gill wrote the acclaimed With Eagles to Glory and edited A Soldier for Napoleon. He has contributed numerous papers to the Consortium on the Revolutionary Era. His 2009 trilogy 1809: Thunder of the Danube won critical acclaim
An associate professor at the Near South-East Asia Centre for Strategic Studies in Washington DC, Gill has published extensively on military history and contemporary security issues in India, Pakistan and South Asia
Gill received the John Elting Award from the Napoleonic History Society for his contributions to the study of Napoleonic history
A retired US army colonel, Gill currently lives in Virginia with his wife and two sons