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1809 Thunder on the Danube: Volume 2: Napoleon's Defeat of the Habsburgs: The Fall of Vienna and the Battle of Aspern
Contributor(s): Gill, John H. (Author)
ISBN: 1848327587     ISBN-13: 9781848327580
Publisher: Frontline Books
OUR PRICE:   $26.96  
Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats
Published: May 2014
Qty:
Temporarily out of stock - Will ship within 2 to 5 weeks
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- History | Modern - 19th Century
- Political Science | World - General
- History | Europe - General
Dewey: 940.274
Physical Information: 1.5" H x 5.4" W x 8.4" (1.35 lbs) 472 pages
Themes:
- Chronological Period - 19th Century
- Chronological Period - 1800-1850
- Cultural Region - French
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
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 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. However on the far side of the Danube, he then suffered a dramatic loss at the grueling, 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.


Contributor Bio(s): Gill, John H.: - John H. Gill (Jack), a military historian specializing in the Napoleonic era, is the author of With Eagles to Glory and the editor of A Soldier for Napoleon. He has contributed numerous papers to the Consortium on the Revolutionary Era and other academic forums. His latest work is 1809: Thunder on the Danube, just published in March 2008, which is to be the first of three volumes. An associate professor at the Near East-South Asia Center for Strategic Studies in Washington, DC, he has also published on military history and contemporary security issues relating to India, Pakistan, and other South Asian countries. A retired US Army colonel, he lives in Virginia, USA with his wife, and their two teenage sons.