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1809: Thunder on the Danube #1
1809 Thunder on the Danube: Napoleon's Defeat of the Habsburgs
The Franco-Austrian War of 1809 was Napoleon's last victorious war. Napoleon faced the Archduke Charles, the best of the Habsburg commanders, and a reformed Austrian Army that was arguably the best ever fielded by the Danubian Monarchy. The French ultimately triumphed but the margin of superiority was decreasing and all of Napoleon's skill and determination was required to achieve a victorious outcome.
Gill tackles the political background to the war, especially the motivations that prompted Austria to launch an offensive against France while Napoleon and many of his veterans were distracted in Spain. Though surprised by the timing of the Austrian attack on April 10th, the French Emperor completely reversed a dire strategic situation with stunning blows that he called his 'most brilliant and most skillful maneuvers'. Following a breathless pursuit down the Danube valley, Napoleon occupied the palaces of the Habsburgs for the second time in four years. The Austrians recovered, however, and Napoleon suffered his first unequivocal repulse at the Battle of Aspern-Essling on the shores of the Danube opposite Vienna.
He would win many battles in his future campaigns, but never again would one of Europe's great powers lie broken at his feet.
In this respect 1809 represents a high point of the First Empire as well as a watershed, for Napoleon's armies were declining in quality and he was beginning to display the corrosive flaws that contributed to his downfall five years later.
496 pages, Hardcover
First published March 20, 2008
79 people are currently reading
227 people want to read
About the author
John H. Gill
20 books11 followersA retired U.S. army colonel and 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.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 25, 2024
This is the first book of a trilogy chronicling the last major victory of Napoleon over the Austrians and their allies. Being the first book of course it feels a little incomplete, but it is also very long. Gill is certainly a fan of Napoleon and mostly in this book he and his generals did very little wrong while the Austrians mostly were inept.
The campaigns are detailed meticulously with all the major movements of the different armies on the different fronts. I had a hard time keeping everyone straight and the maps did not fully enlighten me. It could have been the limitations of trying to decipher the maps on my Kindle. I did learn a lot even if I did not totally find the book compelling.
The campaigns are detailed meticulously with all the major movements of the different armies on the different fronts. I had a hard time keeping everyone straight and the maps did not fully enlighten me. It could have been the limitations of trying to decipher the maps on my Kindle. I did learn a lot even if I did not totally find the book compelling.
August 15, 2016
Parts of this book are excellent and quite informative. I learned a great deal about the reasons behind the 1809 Campaign, especially the mistakes made by the Austrians. Their foreign minister, Stadion, was gung-ho on war and he got it. Napoleon, because of his desire to defeat Britain in the Peninsula, really did not seem to want a war with Austria then, but was not about to back down when the Austrians attacked.
Of primary interest to me me was the Battle of Eggmuhl, which resulted in a victory for part of Marshal Davout's Third Corps. At the end of the first book in the trilogy, the Austrians are dispirited as the Archduke Charles hopes to find an answer to his many problems. This is a good book, but it helps to know something about the subject because the names and actions, particularly of the Austrians can be confusing.
Of primary interest to me me was the Battle of Eggmuhl, which resulted in a victory for part of Marshal Davout's Third Corps. At the end of the first book in the trilogy, the Austrians are dispirited as the Archduke Charles hopes to find an answer to his many problems. This is a good book, but it helps to know something about the subject because the names and actions, particularly of the Austrians can be confusing.
January 30, 2023
This first volume sets the tone and pace for the whole trilogy. The tone is serious but relaxed, even refreshingly informal at times, and the pace is perfectly pitched between feeling brisk in terms of excitement and leisurely in terms of Gill taking his time and covering everything. Superb!
Gill starts with detailed and lengthy but nonetheless very necessary and interesting expositions of the state of things leading up to the war. Summarised as concisely as I can, it boils down to Johann Phillip Stadion egging on the Austrian pro-war faction, using Napoleon's setbacks in Spain as inspiration, against the better judgement of both Archduke Charles, to whom leading the Austrians into war would fall, and The Kaiser. Stadion and the pro-war faction were woefully out of touch with the political and military realities, such that many Austrians felt, in the words of general and rising star Joseph Radetzky, 'the campaign of 1809 was lost before it began'.
Once Gill gets stuck into the campaign action you feel he's really in his element - although in fairness to him he does the political preludes just as well - and for many of his readers, perhaps especially wargamers, this will be where the excitement and interest ratchets up a gear or three. Be warned, Gill's account is very detailed! Almost all 'actions' are covered, and names of commanders, units and places are assiduously given. This is commendably thorough, but might perhaps be a touch too much for the general reader.
Connected to this is a problem that I feel nearly all military history books (or for that matter history books in general) suffer from, namely inadequate maps. There are plenty of decent maps here, but the number of times - and consequently the waste of time & frustration - I couldn't find a place referred to in the text on any of the maps... Well, it was quite galling, and makes taking the level of interest in detail required by the text a shade redundant at times.
However, this gripe aside, and duly noting that there are more and better maps here than in most books on similar subject matter, the remainder of what's on offer here is great. Having set the scene Gill gets stuck into the manoeuvres and combat, in great detail. Perhaps for some this 'buffish' fixation on detail might be too much, but personally I prefer it to the drier overviews of the sort given in books like Napoleon's Wars, or Clausewitz's almost unreadably stodgy account of the 1812 campaign in Russia.
But Gill is meeting the needs of the more seriously interested reader, spreading his work over three volumes (four if you includes With Eagles To Glory, his companion piece on France's German allies), and does a great job. One consequence of the level of detail is that, certainly in Volume I at any rate, a sizeable proportion - a good third in this case - of the book is given over to hyper-detailed appendices and notes, including, of vital importance to the wargamers who'll love these books, OOB, or 'orders of battle'.
As well as being almost overwhelmingly thorough, these books are well-written and structured, Gill possessing an amiable tone and quoting diverse sources to good effect: as well as being beautifully bound and printed, there are the maps, a table explaining rank titles and abbreviations, some good black and white illustrations, and extensive notes. My only complaint on this front is that the index isn't very comprehensive. But best of all, this book - indeed the whole trilogy - is just plain enjoyable.
Personally I'd have preferred the copious notes (there are 120 pages of them!) to have been footnotes at the bottom of each page, a la Gibbons Decline & Fall, rather than gathered as they are at the back. On this, my first reading of the book, I hardly referred to them at all. But its good they're there, as one can return to them as and when one feels ready. There are also sixty pages of appendices (which is where you'll find the OOB etc.), so the detail is, to say the least, copious!
To summarise: Vol. I deals with the diplomacy and politics that lead to the outbreak of the 1809 conflict, culminating in Abensberg, the first major battle of the campaign. Stylistically it sets you up nicely for the next two volumes.
I vividly remember how exciting I found reading this. I had planned to ration my reading of the series, but this was so gripping I read it quicker than I'd intended to, and then went straight out and bought the next one…
Gill starts with detailed and lengthy but nonetheless very necessary and interesting expositions of the state of things leading up to the war. Summarised as concisely as I can, it boils down to Johann Phillip Stadion egging on the Austrian pro-war faction, using Napoleon's setbacks in Spain as inspiration, against the better judgement of both Archduke Charles, to whom leading the Austrians into war would fall, and The Kaiser. Stadion and the pro-war faction were woefully out of touch with the political and military realities, such that many Austrians felt, in the words of general and rising star Joseph Radetzky, 'the campaign of 1809 was lost before it began'.
Once Gill gets stuck into the campaign action you feel he's really in his element - although in fairness to him he does the political preludes just as well - and for many of his readers, perhaps especially wargamers, this will be where the excitement and interest ratchets up a gear or three. Be warned, Gill's account is very detailed! Almost all 'actions' are covered, and names of commanders, units and places are assiduously given. This is commendably thorough, but might perhaps be a touch too much for the general reader.
Connected to this is a problem that I feel nearly all military history books (or for that matter history books in general) suffer from, namely inadequate maps. There are plenty of decent maps here, but the number of times - and consequently the waste of time & frustration - I couldn't find a place referred to in the text on any of the maps... Well, it was quite galling, and makes taking the level of interest in detail required by the text a shade redundant at times.
However, this gripe aside, and duly noting that there are more and better maps here than in most books on similar subject matter, the remainder of what's on offer here is great. Having set the scene Gill gets stuck into the manoeuvres and combat, in great detail. Perhaps for some this 'buffish' fixation on detail might be too much, but personally I prefer it to the drier overviews of the sort given in books like Napoleon's Wars, or Clausewitz's almost unreadably stodgy account of the 1812 campaign in Russia.
But Gill is meeting the needs of the more seriously interested reader, spreading his work over three volumes (four if you includes With Eagles To Glory, his companion piece on France's German allies), and does a great job. One consequence of the level of detail is that, certainly in Volume I at any rate, a sizeable proportion - a good third in this case - of the book is given over to hyper-detailed appendices and notes, including, of vital importance to the wargamers who'll love these books, OOB, or 'orders of battle'.
As well as being almost overwhelmingly thorough, these books are well-written and structured, Gill possessing an amiable tone and quoting diverse sources to good effect: as well as being beautifully bound and printed, there are the maps, a table explaining rank titles and abbreviations, some good black and white illustrations, and extensive notes. My only complaint on this front is that the index isn't very comprehensive. But best of all, this book - indeed the whole trilogy - is just plain enjoyable.
Personally I'd have preferred the copious notes (there are 120 pages of them!) to have been footnotes at the bottom of each page, a la Gibbons Decline & Fall, rather than gathered as they are at the back. On this, my first reading of the book, I hardly referred to them at all. But its good they're there, as one can return to them as and when one feels ready. There are also sixty pages of appendices (which is where you'll find the OOB etc.), so the detail is, to say the least, copious!
To summarise: Vol. I deals with the diplomacy and politics that lead to the outbreak of the 1809 conflict, culminating in Abensberg, the first major battle of the campaign. Stylistically it sets you up nicely for the next two volumes.
I vividly remember how exciting I found reading this. I had planned to ration my reading of the series, but this was so gripping I read it quicker than I'd intended to, and then went straight out and bought the next one…
June 30, 2025
Vaya máquina el Napoleón este
June 28, 2023
Napoleon’s campaign in 1809 is his last campaign in which that master of war was ultimately successful. To come were the attrition of Spain, the icy winter of Russia, and the final defeat in Germany and France. Thunder on the Danube is therefore a study of a campaign in which Napoleon’s France was at the height of her power - Austria had been catching up in strictly military organisational terms following reforms but could still not match the pace and flexibility of Napoleon’s army. Volume I: Politics, Strategies and the Road to Abensberg-Eggmühl does pretty much what it says on the tin. This volume covers the initial build up to war, the balance between the two armies and their structures, and then the initial invasion of Bavaria by Austria leading to a series of reverses at the hands of Napoleon and Davout at Abensberg-Eggmühl.
This is clearly the definitive book on the 1809 campaign covering it in intricate detail. Gill writes in a manner that makes the many minor engagements covered in this book easy to understand while never losing sight of the wider operational and strategic context between the two sides. The book at times lacks observations from those on the ground who are not the generals or others of senior rank, the slogging soldiers, and particularly the experience of civilians is rather neglected. But then perhaps it is as well that he does not dive too much into the personal details as it could have doubled this too a six book series!
The main problem with the book is obviously that it is just one volume of three. Gill does not pander to the reader who is only planning on reading the one book. There is precious little conclusion or looking ahead to what happens next. So to anyone not rushing on to the next book (and then presumably the third too) it is a very incomplete ending. This also means that the book is somewhat unbalanced, with that decidedly small conclusion dwarfed by the introduction and scene setting of the diplomacy prior to the war which take quite a large chunk of the book - though quite modest if thinking over the trilogy as a whole.
The extras are excellent. Unusually if anything the difficulties with maps is a surfeit rather than a dearth; they are good, mostly clear, and numerous, so numerous that it would often be helpful to know which map the reader should be looking at at what point of the text. There are pictures of all the main participants and enough to give a flavour of what armies of the period looked like. There is also a large body of appendices covering the order of battle and losses broken down by unit, nice to see but unlikely of more than passing interest to the casual reader.
A book I would recommend, but definitely not one for someone starting out on the Napoleonic wars. Given how comprehensive and in depth this is a book you will want if you have a pretty deep interest in the napoleonic wars already where it will probably tell you everything you wanted to know about the start of this campaign.
This is clearly the definitive book on the 1809 campaign covering it in intricate detail. Gill writes in a manner that makes the many minor engagements covered in this book easy to understand while never losing sight of the wider operational and strategic context between the two sides. The book at times lacks observations from those on the ground who are not the generals or others of senior rank, the slogging soldiers, and particularly the experience of civilians is rather neglected. But then perhaps it is as well that he does not dive too much into the personal details as it could have doubled this too a six book series!
The main problem with the book is obviously that it is just one volume of three. Gill does not pander to the reader who is only planning on reading the one book. There is precious little conclusion or looking ahead to what happens next. So to anyone not rushing on to the next book (and then presumably the third too) it is a very incomplete ending. This also means that the book is somewhat unbalanced, with that decidedly small conclusion dwarfed by the introduction and scene setting of the diplomacy prior to the war which take quite a large chunk of the book - though quite modest if thinking over the trilogy as a whole.
The extras are excellent. Unusually if anything the difficulties with maps is a surfeit rather than a dearth; they are good, mostly clear, and numerous, so numerous that it would often be helpful to know which map the reader should be looking at at what point of the text. There are pictures of all the main participants and enough to give a flavour of what armies of the period looked like. There is also a large body of appendices covering the order of battle and losses broken down by unit, nice to see but unlikely of more than passing interest to the casual reader.
A book I would recommend, but definitely not one for someone starting out on the Napoleonic wars. Given how comprehensive and in depth this is a book you will want if you have a pretty deep interest in the napoleonic wars already where it will probably tell you everything you wanted to know about the start of this campaign.
April 10, 2025
First volume of the trilogy completed. Very in depth description down to the minor skirmish level at times, which while good in some respects can become a little too much and detract from the bigger picture of how the campaign is unfolding. While there are some detailed maps of the actions, they can be a little difficult to read at times.
The author has made a lifetime study of the campaign and has detailed good sources from French, Austrian and German Allies sources to make sure a balanced view of the opening campaign moves emerges.
While I will read the next two volumes in the series, I’m still thinking I prefer the FL Petre one volume treatment.
The author has made a lifetime study of the campaign and has detailed good sources from French, Austrian and German Allies sources to make sure a balanced view of the opening campaign moves emerges.
While I will read the next two volumes in the series, I’m still thinking I prefer the FL Petre one volume treatment.
February 3, 2023
I really have to wonder at the level of obsession that makes someone write so many words on one campaign, and so few on anything else. But, Gill's obsession is our gain, as his books are worthwhile additions to the studies of Napoleon's campaigns.
This first volume covers up up through 23rd April 1809, and the aftermath of the Battle of Eggmühl. Before that, we of course get the general build up, and the political pressures that caused Austria to go to war with France, again.
That first part is very informative, as we are treated to the crosscurrents operating in Austria, and how a commander who didn't feel the Austrian army was ready got swept up in tide anyway. After that we get a nicely detailed account of the initial Austrian offensive, and all the problems that slowed what was supposed to be a sudden, daring, lunge over the border into a fairly slow march.
After this, things break up a bit, as the maps in the book just can't handle the job of backing up the narrative. There's a good number of maps, but they are not horribly well-done, and often don't make things much clearer, as it's often impossible to find the places being referenced in the text.
That is by far the worst problem here though. The text and descriptions are great, the narrative is a bit slow, thanks to the fine level of detail being presented, but it does not lose coherence in spite of that. I will note that he also stays focused on the main theater; I thought he might borrow some from his earlier With Eagles to Glory to fill in what was going on away from the main armies and at least present the Tyrolean revolt in its bigger chronological context, but no. Obviously, it would have expanded an overstuffed series even further, but I could do with the further context. Even so, this is not to be missed by anyone with a real interest in the Napoleonic Wars.
This first volume covers up up through 23rd April 1809, and the aftermath of the Battle of Eggmühl. Before that, we of course get the general build up, and the political pressures that caused Austria to go to war with France, again.
That first part is very informative, as we are treated to the crosscurrents operating in Austria, and how a commander who didn't feel the Austrian army was ready got swept up in tide anyway. After that we get a nicely detailed account of the initial Austrian offensive, and all the problems that slowed what was supposed to be a sudden, daring, lunge over the border into a fairly slow march.
After this, things break up a bit, as the maps in the book just can't handle the job of backing up the narrative. There's a good number of maps, but they are not horribly well-done, and often don't make things much clearer, as it's often impossible to find the places being referenced in the text.
That is by far the worst problem here though. The text and descriptions are great, the narrative is a bit slow, thanks to the fine level of detail being presented, but it does not lose coherence in spite of that. I will note that he also stays focused on the main theater; I thought he might borrow some from his earlier With Eagles to Glory to fill in what was going on away from the main armies and at least present the Tyrolean revolt in its bigger chronological context, but no. Obviously, it would have expanded an overstuffed series even further, but I could do with the further context. Even so, this is not to be missed by anyone with a real interest in the Napoleonic Wars.
January 18, 2016
Solid little work on the politics and diplomacy that lead up to the Austrian Empire's decision to attack Napoleonic France and the initial stages of the war. The coverage of the conflict in this volume is from 09-April-1809 when the Austrian army first crossed the frontier until shortly after the battles around Abensburg-Eckmuhl (Eggmuhl) 20-22 April 1809.
Some decent writing, not entirely sure why the author elected to split this book into three volumes as the first book is probably only 200 pages long in physical form. The Kindle version reads fast. I would have two complaints: one, there is no overarching campaign map for the volume, which would be handy because many of the places, other than perhaps Regensburg and Munich, are small villages. Second, in the Kindle version the available maps are tiny and difficult to read (more a complaint about the Kindle's ability to render map than a complaint about the book).
Plan on reading the following two volumes when I get some other volumes of my plate.
Some decent writing, not entirely sure why the author elected to split this book into three volumes as the first book is probably only 200 pages long in physical form. The Kindle version reads fast. I would have two complaints: one, there is no overarching campaign map for the volume, which would be handy because many of the places, other than perhaps Regensburg and Munich, are small villages. Second, in the Kindle version the available maps are tiny and difficult to read (more a complaint about the Kindle's ability to render map than a complaint about the book).
Plan on reading the following two volumes when I get some other volumes of my plate.
November 1, 2013
Great book. Looking forward to 2
December 31, 2015
Completed the first of this three volume series. Gill does an excellent contrasting Austrian command and control with the French allies.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews