[Wikipedia] Ulm Campaign

[Faraaz Damji]

   The Ulm Campaign was a series of French and Bavarian military
   maneuvers and battles in 1805, during the War of the Third Coalition,
   designed to outflank an Austrian army.  The French Grande Armée, led by
   Napoleon Bonaparte, comprised 210,000 troops organized into seven
   corps, and hoped to knock out the Austrian army in the Danube before
   Russian reinforcements could arrive.  Through feverish marching,
   Napoleon conducted a large wheeling maneuver that captured an Austrian
   army of 23,000 under General Mack on October 20 at Ulm, bringing the
   total number of Austrian prisoners in the campaign to 60,000.  The
   campaign is generally regarded as a strategic masterpiece and was
   influential in the development of the Schlieffen Plan in the late
   nineteenth century.  The victory at Ulm was not decisive enough to end
   the war.  A large Russian army under Kutuzov near Vienna ensured that
   another major confrontation would be required to settle affairs.  On
   December 2, the French prevailed decisively at the Battle of
   Austerlitz, which effectively removed Austria from the war.  The
   resulting Treaty of Pressburg in late December brought the Third
   Coalition to an end and left Napoleonic France as the major power in
   Central Europe, leading to the War of the Fourth Coalition with
   Prussia and Russia the following year.

Read the rest of this article:
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulm_Campaign


_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:

1876:
   Abdul Hamid II became Sultan of the Ottoman Empire when his brother
   Murad V was deposed.
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Hamid_II)

1888:
   Mary Ann Nichols' body was found on the ground in front of a gated
   stable entrance in Buck's Row, London, allegedly the first victim of
   the unidentified serial killer known as Jack the Ripper.
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_the_Ripper)

1986:
   After a collision with a freighter, the Soviet ocean liner Admiral
   Nakhimov sank in the Tsemes Bay area of the Black Sea within 7
   minutes, killing over 400 on board.
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Admiral_Nakhimov)

1992:
   The one-party Marxist rule in the Republic of the Congo officially
   ended when Pascal Lissouba was inaugurated as its president after a
   multi-party election.
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_the_Congo)

1997:
   Princess Diana, her companion Dodi Fayed, and their driver Henri
   Paul were killed in a high speed car accident in the Pont de l'Alma
   road tunnel in Paris.
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Diana%2C_Princess_of_Wales)


_____________________
Wiktionary's Word of the day:

   specious: Seemingly well-reasoned or factual, but actually fallacious
   or insincere.
   (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/specious)


_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:

   Have no shame in being kindly and gentle, but if the time comes in the
   time of your life to kill, kill and have no regret.  In the time of
   your life, live — so that in that wondrous time you shall not add to
   the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the infinite
   delight and mystery of it.  -- William Saroyan
   (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Saroyan)