Campaign Post Operations Report #16 - French Orders

The French plans were never shared with any other players than the core French team:

Orders and dispatches from Napoleon and others

Written at 23.30hrs on August 24, 1813

Napoleon with the Polish Lancers (at14/24) to move cross country to 16/25 & then by road to 18/26

Guard Light Cavalry under Dejean (at 14/24) are ordered to escort the prisoner Bernadotte to Torgau, moving through Furstenwalde, Teupitz and Dennewitz.

ADC to take message to Davout informing him that Bernadotte has been captured and for him to parley with the Swedish troops at Schwerin. Davout can offer them safe passage to the Baltic port of Straslun where they can embark and return to Sweden. They have 24 hours to commence their withdrawal from the War, failure to comply will result in their being attacked by the Emporer and his Imperial Guard as well as Davout’s troops

The Imperial Guard (at 16/23), under Mortier, are to move to 17/25 with the Guard Heavy Cavalry moving to Furstenwalde; both advancing along the road.

Orders sent to Latour-Maubourg to move from Lubben to Luckau and send out patrols towards Cottbus and Elsterwerda.

Orders sent to Flahault to advance no further than Lubben and await Napoleon and the remainder of the Imperial Guard.

ADC with despatch for Oudinot – report your situation by return; I am marching towards Lubben with the Imperial Guard and I Cavalry Corps

Oudinot (at29/30) orders the troops under Drout (at 29/30) to direct their retreat northward towards Luckau

Oudinot to send orders to VII Corps and the II Cavalry Corps (at 28/33) to move directly away from the enemy to 28/32 using VII Corps Cavalry to cover their movement and provide a rearguard.

Davout (at 8/7) sends out the following orders:

To the Danish Auxillary force at Hamburg (8/1) to move to Gudow (8/5)

To V Cavalry Corps (at 7/8) to move to 9/8 via 8/7

To XIII Corps (at 9/8) to move to 8/7

To 9^th Light Cavalry (at 5/9) maintain your position on one of the enemy’s lines of supply; should the enemy at Schwerin move against you then you may retreat towards Lubeck if faced by overwhelming numbers

To 30^th Light Cavalry (at 10/7); I would commend you on your action against the Swedish Cavalry Division at Karstadt. However should they advance on your position I require you to move towards Gudow.

Despatch to Napoleon – My Emperor, my troops have been confining the enemy at Schwerin. Cutting their lines of supply has had the effect of their having to send a force out to secure their supply lines. This happened yesterday, Aug 23^rd, and the infantry then retired back to Schwerin. The Swedish Cavalry Division however advanced into contact with my 30^th Light Cavalry and received a bloody nose with their having a Hussar Regiment destroyed.

The comparative size of the opposing forces means that I do not have a force large enough to storm and take Schwerin. I have sent orders to the Danish Auxillary force in Hamburg to move towards Gudow primarily as a show of force and to give them something additional to consider.

Campaign Post Operations Report #15 - French Command disarray

Bonaparte was not a well man in 1813

Unknown to almost all players in the campaign at the time, indeed the GM was only aware that the Napoleon player was not responding to email contacts, the French high command was 'not well'.

Our Napoleon player, who has been doing Napoleonic games since the 1970's as was intrigued by the prospect of a intercontinental game, had been briefly hospitalized and was 'out of action' ~ while this made the communication gap with the Allied command easier to take time resolving, it did cause some concern ~ at least with the GM, where was our Napoleon player?  Was he alright?

Eventually we did hear from the player, then all went quiet again, still no orders, though not an issue as the front line commands knew what to do from earlier directives, it would become an issue in a few game days.

Then again, news came:

My apologies for lack of input this last week. I unfortunately had a relapse and was taken back into hospital.

I have been discharged, this morning, and my daughter has just brought me home. Although still feeling a little shaky I am positively loads better than this time last week.

Xxxxxx, bless her, wouldn't bring my computer/iPad into the hospital insisting I get complete rest. So I have a stack of mails to read and am tackling the latest first. (maybe not the best way)

I will get up to date with the progress of the campaign during today and get a set of orders etc off to you tonight/tomorrow am

Best regards

Once again we had a Napoleon player and the status of the French command was set.

Campaign Post Operations Report #14 - Allied Monarchs Orders

Allied Monarchs in 1813

Unable to find Schwartzenberg, the Allied Monarchs issued a directive to their field armies:

The Monarchs are unanimous; Berlin must be relieved!
We order Schwarzenberg to await the arrival of Gallitzin V's reserve cavalry, Raevsky's grenadiers and Yermolov's Russian Guard and then to take command of these troops plus the army of Bohemia (except for Klenau's IV Korps) and march to join FM Blucher near Lohsa. This combined force is then to proceed to Berlin via Grossraschen, Cottbus, Lubben and Teupitz.
Klenau is hold at Bautzen and await the arrival of Sacken and Scherbatov. This combined force, under the command of von Müssling, will proceed towards Dresden to join forces with Barclay de Tolly.
signed,
Francis I
per Alexander I and Frederich-William III

Campaign Post Operations Report #13 - Allied Monarchs are roused

Driven by the messages of the 19th and 20th of August, that Berlin was now under siege and only the citadel was being defended by Russian troops under the command of Pozzo di Borgo, Count Haugwitz continued his tirade about the situation to King Frederick of Prussia:

Count Haugwitz

"Vorwaerts, immer vorwaerts, I always said it-on to the relief of Berlin, surely, Euerer Majestaet...

...unless for some reason, of course, our Habsburg allies and friends have some cause to delay the advance? Surely not, surely not-why they are our friends, and victory is theirs-ours, I should say, for all have played their part. If Vienna was in similar danger, I doubt not that we would all rush to the Danube, after all.

Some reason for delay, Euerer Majestaet/ Surely not, surely not!

Euerer hochtreueste Ergebener,

C.v.H."

To which the King responded:

This splendid victory of which we have heard so much, meinen herren, can someone perhaps describe it to me? I shall be delighted to receive Metternich at the earliest juncture, except of course that Potsdam has not been relieved yet so I cannot even celebrate in my own palace, as far as I recall...

The discussion continued:

That is because it has not really happened, Euerer Majestaet, as I am sure that you perceive...

I predict that we shall see by and by that far from having routed the French at Bautzen, and sent the eagles flying in terror back over the Elbe, we shall learn that the results of this action are meagre, that the Emperor Francis himself does not think them worthy of any particular military movement in consequence, no swift pursuit, no daring combination, no strategic or even tactical advantage having accrued whatsoever, upon which we can depend. I think we will see the signs of this quite soon, even if the August Habsburger seeks to keep up as long as he can the pretence that his armies at long last won a victory, because he will not want to take any risks as a result of this, what shall we say, Begegnung, this encounter..

But none would be more delighted than your Majesty's truest Servant, to find that suddenly the way is clear to Berlin, that the shadow of war is lifted from the Kingdom, and our Habsburg allies, having depended on us to shield at great risk to ourselves their territories in Bohemia, are ready now to do their part and drive the enemy from the gates of our own capital. Why do we not put this to the test, eh?

C.v.H.

Unknown to any of the Allied GHQ, Prince Charles John (formerly French Marshal Bernadotte) has deployed his forces in a more 'land grab' mode into Mecklenberg.

Allied Army of the North, Charles John, 19 August

 However by the 24th the situation had greatly changed ... and the Allied command knew nothing of this at the time:

Allied Army of the North, 24 August

So the North Commander had this message regarding the deployment of his forces:

If possible the Swedes will now head east to Pritzwalk, if not then Parchim.

Bulow and co appear to be engaged against the French so I don't think I can
do much there.
I would like the Swedes to meet up with Bulow if possible but they are to
try and prevent the French from getting past them. 

Clearly the situation in the north had deteriorated ... and now the Allied Monarchs were to meet formally for a detailed council of war.   

Meaning we were arranging a 5 continent, 22 time-zone conference call on Skype.

Campaign Post Operations Report #12 - News arrives at the Allied Supreme Headquarters - 24 Aug 1813

detail from the Leipzig Battle painting

Below are the messages and information received at Allied Monarchs Supreme Headquarters on 24 Aug 1813:

At about 0800:
Swedish Courier:
Messenger to Allied Monarchs
Siege of BERLIN

Message Dated: 19 August 1813

At about 1000
Prussian Liaison: Generalmajor Baron von Krusemark

Prince Charles John has abandoned BERLIN, retreating to Pomerania.  Only Russian forces are hoding the citadel.  Under command of Pozzo di Borgo.

Supplies will last until spring 1814.

Expect no further messages until siege is lifted.

Message Dated: 20 August 1813

Pozzo di Borgo

At about 1300:

BERLIN surrounded by French forces.

Demanding surrender.

Pozzo di Borgo

Dated: 20 August 1813

Feldmarschall Fürst Carl zu Schwarzenberg has still not been seen in the Headquarters and is assumed to be touring the recent battlefield at Bautzen.

Are there any directives/orders from the monarch(s) forthcoming?

Campaign Post Operations Report #11 - a diplomat emerges

Julius August Reinhold von Grawert

Count Haugwitz continued ...

May I respectfully suggest to your Majesty the following excellent fellow, Julius August Reinhold von Grawert (1746–1821), awarded the Pour le Merite, former governor of Silesia, General der Infanterie,and hardened on campaign but well-known to his French counterparts and only recently retired as a corps commander to his estates near Landeck in Lower Silesia-you may recall taking the waters at the Marienbad by Ober-Thalheim, your Majesty, as many have done in happier times, and the general lives nearby. As it is a truce we are talking about, we need the delegation to be headed up by a soldier, and I am sure that he will pass muster with the French, and as staff assistant I would nominate my own adviser the elder Steinmetz brother-no friend of the French he, like his younger sibling, but a tapfer Kerl who famously slipped through French lines at besieged Breslau, if he can do it once, he can do it again...

As political adviser, surely your Majesty could do no better than Hans, Graf von Buelow, at the moment your finance minister and at headquarters as he cannot get into Berlin at the moment on his way back from Liegnitz-this versatile man has actually met and negotiated with Napoleon in his time and also has good connections in the enemy camp, although he fell out with the preposterous Jerome of Westphalia when at that court some years ago, he has a realistic eye for what can be done in Germany. He will be in a position too to insist upon seeing the French Emperor and not being palmed off with a lackey in ostrich feathers and tight breeches.

The suggestion is being made that this all may go awry, however-surely your Majesty, we have a system of passwords agreed with the other side to ensure that nobody has to carry signed letters or risk getting entangled with minor functionaries? Do the French want to negotiate or not? A proper meeting of ambassadors can take place later, I should say, to sign off the deal.

C.v.H.

(Historical note: Grawert headed the Prussian contingent in the Grande Armee and is a Francophile; the elder Steinmetz on the other hand was a fire-eater against the French and was killed at Leipzig, his younger brother being the famous Steinmetz who commanded in the 1866 and 1870 campaigns; Hans von Buelow was finance minister both of Westphalia and later of Prussia and a supple political character, just the party we need, eh?)

 =======================================

The players in charge of the Prussian issues happening now were unclear about the reality of communicating on the 1813 battlefield.  As the game master here explains:

> There is no way to get a message to the French Emperor *immediately*.
>
> This is 1813, you are crossing a FEBA (forward edge of the battle
> area) and the fastest communications is by horse.
>
> Your supreme command is coming out of the eastern Bohemian Mountains,
> with your troops out of Potsdam, some 200 miles away. Even with the
> fastest horses that is TWO DAYS before the message could reach them!
>
> I shall not reveal, at all, how far away Bonaparte is; let alone
> comment on the likelihood that Prussian Officers - whatever their
> mission - will be so easily permitted to travel in the territory
> controlled by France.
>
> The battles are happening,as you have summoned the messengers, and
> they are still to arrive at the Allied Monarchs Supreme Headquarters
> in the field near Zittau. You will have news of Bautzen before
> sending off the emissaries to communicate with Bonaparte.

 Further explanation was needed:

> The, troops in the north are under the overall command of Swedish
> Crown Prince Charles John. Generallieutenant Bülow commands the
> forces that have marched to victory south of Potsdam and are now
> attacking to force the French away from Potsdam completely.
>
> As Monarch, you have had little or no contact with Berlin or the
> Northern forces for at least two weeks.
>
> Since the 17th of August 1813 (the current game turn is 23 August) you
> have been in the Allied Monarchs HQ in Bohemia, now marching out.
>
> -- in game we have been stuck on the 23rd for more than a month, not
> what I wanted and we are dealing with it --
>
> This means that the game is *frozen* at the moment and there is
> nothing to do until after the battles are resolved.

 The challenges with the one player were (mostly) resolved and James had this commentary:

As I have said several times previously, I am really enjoying this campaign. I particularly like the way that the fog of war is playing out. Julian as Frederick is deep in that fog now...!

 To which the player responded with:

Want of a telegraph, I suspect...

================================================

There were whispers ...

 here is some news from "a source close to the Czar":

Alexander was bemused to hear rumours that Frederick William is considering treating with "the ogre".

"Why would Frederick consider dealing with Napoleon?" he asked.

 "What is he thinking?"

"I do not know sire, they are only rumours..."

"Surely he would not be so foolish as to do such a treacherous thing? It will cost him his crown!"

<<silence>>

"Should he be so stupid he will regret his loss of reason when I burn Berlin!"

 ==================================================

Tsar Alexander, looking over his shoulder at Prussian "Allies"

Campaign Post Operations Report #10 - the political maneuvers continue

the campaign map as seen by Prussian ministers

The machinations of Count Haugwitz continued:

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

And the re-groupment of the Prussian armies to the north, mein Herr General, this is of the very essence. It is so essential for the Prussian forces isolated and imperilled at Marienberg to be recalled at once-sofort!-by way of Komotau and Leitmeritz on Zittau, however, that this force can only make its northwards movement after it is clear of the Austrian rear. After that it can turn north and the army should really concentrate at a suitable point in the Mark Brandenburg.

Nach Norden, immer nach Norden!

We do not want the Habsburgers to understand that we are offering full neutrality if the French pull back from Berlin and then evacuate the Kingdom, of course, but that is what our envoys must be saying to the envoys of the French commander-in-chief. Only that will, I am sure, offer him the security that he needs to prolong his campaign in Saxony and be assured that his left flank will not be in constant danger (not that he will be able to neglect it entirely, under the circumstances, ho ho!).

The truce, and the regroupment, then.

Wo ist Bluecher?

C.v.H.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
while the player had these comments:

The other interesting point is that it is not only the Prussians,
befuddled by the neutralist advice in their camp and notoriously misled
by their weak-minded monarch, who have gone wrong, despite the
equivocal advantages of hindsight. In some ways they are doing right by
pulling back from an isolated position: was not the key to the success
of the historical 1813 campaign the firm resolution amongst all the
Allied commanders that they would never fight the Beast as a national
contingent by themselves, only when the entire Allied Army was
assembled? And look what Francis is doing now! How does he know the
Emperor will not appear?

I shall look forward to each post with great
anticipation, do I hear the thud of the despatch-rider's hooves on the
Lobauer Landstrasse even now?

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 Thinking 'privacy of his own tent' meant anything:

Alles immer schlechter, Euerer Majestaet...
The normally restrained Minister von Haugwitz is going to deliver an immoderate tirade in the privacy of his own tent, at this latest blow. How did all this come about? I was given to understand that Bluecher was coming up out of Silesia, I had hoped with a significant force, I had fondly imagined that he would save the day-now we discover him immersed in the great Lausitzer Bog, at the remotest corner of the theatre, as far as our army at Marienberg is concerned, in the land of the barbarous Sorbs, who speak a Slavonic dialect and still worship the Sun and Moon. We discover indeed that the Prussian Army, quite in contrast to the Habsburg one, and no doubt we shall discover to the Russian one as well, is actually deployed on a front of 200 miles, from the western Bohemian mountains on the left to Rothenburg on the middle Bober on the right, and that to reunite with Bluecher our corps from Marienberg must march the whole length of the fighting front, our flank to the enemy, to reach him. And all the while your Majesty's capital is under close siege by the French!

Oh, now we see the plans of our enemies made plain! Ganz sicher! Had we the most charitable view of our Habsburg cousins, we should have to conclude that they have contrived to consign the army of your great uncle to the role of flank-guard, outpost-provider, convoyer and garrison-keeper: with any more realistic appraisal of the situation we should have to say that they have set out deliberately and entirely to destroy the fighting capacity of the Prussian State, and to remake your Majesty as a vassal of the Habsburg empire. We have not been outmanoeuvred by the French, Euerer Majestaet, but we have been utterly bamboozled by our so-called Allies!

I cannot tell what is to be done by the generals, who are just as blame-worthy in this situation, a gaggle of hens presenting their necks for the farmer's chop. Would that Scharnhorst were still with us! It seems to me that Bluecher cannot move away north towards Cottbus or even Stettin until the corps from Marienberg is close at hand, but if this is any longer delayed-and what will Bonaparte be doing in the meantime, eh? Apart from defeating the arrogant Francis at Bautzen, of course-then it may be that the Marienberg corps (what is it called? Who commands it? I cannot keep calling it after the place it long ago departed) will have to remain detached, and march on into Upper Silesia by way of Jungbunzlau, Koeniggraetz and Nachod, where I presume it will find the fortress of Glatz in our hands, at least. We must look now to save the Army at all costs, it is yet the rock upon which the machinations of the enemies of Prussia will break.

I should suppose, Euerer Majestaet, that you should wish to depart the camp of the faithless Verbuendeten as soon as possible and make your way to join Bluecher, for under these circumstances, I deign to say that I fear for your Majesty's personal safety, I really do...

C.v.H.

 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

To which the Prussian King responded:

Yet again you are absolutely right - I shall await a reply from the Beast, and assuming it is favourable, this will give me even more reason to take off for Berlin immediately - pausing only perhaps to discover if, against all the odds, our Hapsburg cousins do succeed in giving the French a bloody nose, which I think most unlikely under the circumstances.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Count Haugwitz responded:

As I thought, Euerer Majestaet, answer comes there none. Your generals hang their heads in shame, if they are capable of it. They have presided over the extinguishing of their own prestige. The Army of the Great Frederick!

 then a few days passed (in the real world, nothing in-game had yet happened) and Haugwitz continued his verbal work on the Prussian King:

I presume the French besieging Berlin are growing weary of waiting for
their opponents to assemble sufficient forces to offer them a real
fight or even to defend the capital, and want to make an end of it.
Perhaps your Majesty needs to consider the Royal Castle at Posen, as
his first resort, and send ahead some staff and court officials to make
it ready. It is the twilight of Great Prussia...

Francis, meanwhile,
cannot wait to be beaten by the French at Bautzen, indeed he seems to
want to arrange it so that he may be beaten several times over on the
same field-unlike the Beast himself at Marengo, he will be able to say
that he had lost the battle in the afternoon, and lost it all over
again by nightfall!

C.v.H.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Prussian King appeared to be more concerned than ever:

We must avoid an encounter at Potsdam at all costs! What is the news from our emissary to the French Emperor?

 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 It was at this point that the Battle of Second Bautzen took place in our Campaign of Nations.