Napoleons Greatest Battlefield Ability Explained | Battle of Friedland 1807

The battle of Friedland serves as the perfect demonstration of how powerful the corps system was
It begins with far more Russians than French, but by the end Napoleon has concentrated more men on the field, and punishes the Russian over extension by trapping them against the Alle river, ending the war of the 4th coalition
Sources:
-Napoleon the Great by Andrew Roberts
-The Campaigns of Napoleon by David G. Chandler
-Napoleon and his Marshals by A.G. Macdonell
-The First Total War by David A. Bell
-The German Way of War by Robert M. Citino

[@haze154]

Another fantastic video on the Napoleonic battles. Very well done. Love the addition of some pre battle context. And as always nice to see the collection book grow. Keep up the good work

[@battlefieldgenius]

Thank you so much for the kind words of support my friend!

[@-shi.v-]

i find the whiteboard so engaging! i feel like a lot of military strategy channels have digital maps and it's hard to gauge the scale of a battle, but with the whiteboard, it was so much easier to understand the scale and the details of the battle! watching you move the pieces and draw the dotted lines and such helped me just stay paying attention too! great video

[@battlefieldgenius]

Thank you for the detailed comment my friend, i'm glad you enjoyed it!

[@Alex-tx2em]

Keep up the consistency. Your channel is steadily growing as a result of the momentum. We need more channels like these to counteract the horrendous "history" channels that pull things out of their ass.

[@zecchini466]

One thing that I don't understand is why do people care about consistency in educational videos? Like, I even understand that for entertainment videos, but for educational videos I only care if the guy makes really good videos, quantity in the sake of quality is worth nothing to me.

[@Alex-tx2em]

@@zecchini466 Because it is valuable to both maintain and grow an audience. Its' importance is relative to the KZbinr's goals and interests.

[@zecchini466]

@@Alex-tx2em KZbin's algorithm doesn't give a fuck to your frequency, as long as your audience is satisfied. Why audience would care about frequency for educational videos? Entertainment videos need consistency because audiences create a habit, but why that logic would apply to educational videos? Educational videos attract public by being useful (and reputation), more quality/useful, more attractive, more reputation for the channel. Desconsidering monetization optimization (where quality x quantity really matters), for educational videos, as audience, I really prefer a very quality video, even if it takes 3 months. I say that because, generally, KZbin videos that don't have very high quality content are bad (or even very very bad) sources of information compared with books or documentaries, for example.

[@Alex-tx2em]

@@zecchini466 Because people who view this type of content are entertained by it, as its' educational value isn't really applicable. We aren't in command of armies. I'm only saying consistency is important for growth if that's what he wants.

[@battlefieldgenius]

Thank you for the support Alex, i appreciate it

[@davidaloysparrow219]

Great video! Keep up the good work and I look forward to your next installment.

[@battlefieldgenius]

Thank you so much for watching David!

[@Yo12.q]

Thanks for this great video

[@battlefieldgenius]

And thank you for letting me know! Happy you enjoyed it

[@EnRandomSten]

Europe were playing civ V while Napoleon was playing Starcraft

[@bakters]

They were playing the same game, just badly.

[@battlefieldgenius]

haha, Napoleon was so good he basically forced everyone else to either play the same game or live under his rules

[@generalsandnapoleon]

Nice job once again! I like the whiteboard concept.

[@battlefieldgenius]

Thank you so much my friend, and congratulations on your first paycheck, much deserved and hopefully the first of many!

[@DawnFeather960]

Nice video man, I'll make sure to get Andrew Robert's book in the coming months hopefully

[@battlefieldgenius]

Thank you my friend! Yes you definitely should, let me know what you think once you've finished it!!

[@bakters]

I don't think that this "artillery charge" should symbolize the demise of cavalry, simply because cavalry was the only force capable of dealing with artillery. It's because of them why this "charge" is an absolute exception, not the rule. Cavalry never became obsolete, not as a concept. Obviously, horses were expensive to maintain and quite fragile, so motor vehicles replaced them as soon as they became available. However, mobile forces did not lose significance. It only happened for a short period of time on the Western Front in the Great War, that mobility became less of an asset, but the very next big war, between Poland and Soviet Russia in 1919-1921 proved that mobility was still a serious advantage on the field of battle. De Gaulle took part in this war, received the highest Polish military order (Virtuti Militari) and he also quite correctly predicted how it all is about to progress.

[@battlefieldgenius]

Some very solid points! I was recently reading about how even the WW2 German army was still using thousands of horses for transport which is kinda nuts considering how everyone associates that army with the Blitzkrieg and mechanized formations

[@bakters]

@@battlefieldgenius Yes, they predominantly relied on railways and horses for transport, American Civil War style. Regarding the Napoleonic period, there was an equally exceptional charge at Somosierra. Definitely not the norm, but it could serve as a counterpoint to this example of artillery being able to defend itself, because at Somosierra the artillery lost, despite having all the advantages they could've hoped for.

[@Neil-y3l]

Thanks

[@ANZACJugger0]

What a flex ... heres a map of Prussia I just happen to have handy...

[@battlefieldgenius]

Oh, you don't carry around maps of non-existent European states? You'd be surprised how handy they can be haha!

[@gideonhock221]

W cannon charge

[@battlefieldgenius]

Thanks for watching Gideon! Appreciate the support bud

[@rasputinelciego1547]

Though it was true that meritocracy was a key element of the Napoleonic military structure, we mustn't forget that nepotism was just as present in the leadership of the conquered land, witch arguably lead to the empires downfall. But yeah, besides that Napoleon was a true genius, comparable only to men like Cesar or Alexander. As for drone warfare, look no further than the current Russo-Ukrainian conflict, to see the true advantages of drones, i.e.; they are cheap and easy to replace.

[@alexv1387]

An even better Example might be the second Nagorno-Karabakh War actually, with how dominant Drones were in the initial Stages of that War

[@rasputinelciego1547]

​@@alexv1387 True, but more than the usefulness, which relies on the drone operators and who ever draws the battle plan, the usefulness of the drones lays on how disposable they are. Instead of buying a 5th generation jet, you can get a massive swarm of drones for half the price.

[@alexv1387]

@@rasputinelciego1547 Exactly, in Addition to that it takes a lot less Training to train a Drone Operator than a combat Pilot, and they are at less risk of being KIA

[@rasputinelciego1547]

@@alexv1387 Also very true.

[@battlefieldgenius]

Hi Rasputin! Great point! Napoleon definitely employed a lot of nepotism (just look at his brother lmao), but perhaps i should have stressed that his methods were meritocratic not as we know it today, but relative to the other European states Yeah, i've been following the Russo-Ukrainian conflict closely and the advantages make it very likely that we'll just see more in future wars

[@CFCTheZoren4]

Where did you get the sticker?

[@battlefieldgenius]

Got the images from Wikipedia and printed them out at the local Xerox

[@priyairfan6878]

Hi battlefield genius Well,when i watched the other two videos of napoleon I was very disappointed from napoleon.I I was like man what the hell. Luck has been alway on side of napoleon and sacrifice of his soldiers+ little bit of tactic but,no I was wrong.Napolen did have some impressive tactics. Well all thanks to you for covering this battle but,I did not understand two thing.Distance between the cores so can you please explain the distance between the cores and how did law made his army look more bigger I did not understand that properly so please explain 😅😅😅😅.by th way when you said that"except oh yeah Napoleon hasn't even shown up yet"I quickly understood that russians will be cooked when napoleon shows up ☠️☠️☠️☠️ and men the cannon charge of Andrew roberts and mens was totally unexpected and amazing at the same time and I'll be honest this can I charge was pretty much similar to desert shuffle except in a different way and thank you for loading and using the same method that you used in the battle of Marengo video and sorry I responded late 😅😅😅😅

[@battlefieldgenius]

Hello my friend! Don't worry about the late response, i'm just glad you enjoyed the video and that you took the time to share your thoughts! Now regarding the distance between corps. Very basically, they were always supposed to be close to each other so that they could help each other if something went wrong. It didn't make his army look bigger, thats something Lannes did at with his own corps to buy time, for the others nearby to come and support him. I hope that helps clear things up!

[@marksheen4873]

Great video but I’m so tired of seeing people using Joaquin phoenix in their napoleon videos. Or whatever the video picture is called

[@battlefieldgenius]

Thanks Mark! Yeah unfortunate movie, but i heard Spielberg might be making a Napoleon mini series so hopefully thats better

[@worldwar2ss545]

Been waiting for your video why you take so much time for uploading it i mean 3 month's make the viewers bored and their intrest lossen also for the question you asked as in the battle of friedland we saw how cannon, howitzer changed the tide of situation that napoleon army was in we can say that we are also in the era or revolution where drones (as seen in russia ukraine war) made significant impact in destroying heavy armour and vehicle its inevitable that these will bring the same impact that canon and howitzer did in battle of friedland My request to you is my friend please be consistent and also try to make video of the ww2 german battle campaign. Hope you will acknowledge this message

[@DawnFeather960]

Depends on the person, I think I thought his question was very profound

[@battlefieldgenius]

Hello my friend.Firstly, i love your enthusiasm and appreciate your support! I'd love to make videos more consistently however i have a day job as well as other commitments such as friends and family. As of right now, this channel makes me 0 dollars. It would be irresponsible of me to neglect other priorities to focus on something that as it stands is just a hobby and a fun way to connect with people who are passionate about military history as well Also, making these videos takes time and involves reading several books a process that is impossible to speed up Finally regarding your request for more German content, my next video will not be on that unfortunately. However i've recently finished reading 'The German Way of War' by Robert M. Citino, and am currently reading 'Panzer Battles' by Friedrich Wilhelm von Mellenthin and 'Panzertruppen' by Thomas L Jentz so who knows!

[@worldwar2ss545]

Affirmative brother I understand it's really hard to make these video when you don't earn even a dollar also bro i am always with you don't worry and keeping making these type of videos