Eagles over the Alps: Suvorov in Italy and Switzerland, 1799

by Christopher Duffy

One of the world's greatest Wing military historians has done extensive fresh research in European archives to present a compelling narrative of one of the greatest campaigns of the era of the French Revolution and Empire.

Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov was one of the greatest generals in Russian history. Although his entire lifetime (1729-1800) was spent under the czars, such was his fame that the Order of Suvorov was one of Soviet Russia's highest decorations. The dramatic campaign in Switzerland and italy of 1799-1800 was his last, and one of his finest, performances.

Out of favor with the eccentric Czar Paul, the seventy-year-old Suvorov was recalled to active duty during the War of the Second Coalition (1799-1800). The most active theater of the War was northern Italy where Russian and Austrian forces faced the French. Both sides were hampered by unreliable allied contingents and political interference.

Despite his age, Suvorov planned to defeat several separate French armies before they could combine, by a series of forced marches across some of the most difficult terrain in Europe. Plagued by less-than-able Austrian generals and constant interference from Vienna. Suvorov nevertheless won some brilliant victories. An Austrian defeat at Zurich, however, eventually made his situation untenable and he was forced to withdraw. A convenient scapegoat for the failure of the campaign, he was dismissed by Czar Paul and died in disgrace the following year.

Upstart French Revolutionary generals lead a ragtag army across the Swiss and Italian Alps to do battle with the armies of the far-flung Austrian and Russian empires in this dramatic story. Special maps, complete orders of battle, and fulldetails of the military units involved back up the gripping main narrative.

Genres: History, Italy, European History, Russia, Nonfiction, Military History

288 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1998

About the author

Christopher Duffy (born 1936) is a British military historian. Duffy read history at Balliol College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1961 with the PhD. Afterwards, he taught military history at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and the college of the British General Staff. He was secretary-general of the British Commission for Military History and vice-president of the History Society of Ireland. From 1996 to 2001, he was research professor at the De Montfort University, Leicester. Today he lives and works as a freelance author.

Duffy's special interest is the military history of the European modern age, in particular the history of the German, Prussian and Austrian armed forces. He is most famous for his writings about the Seven Years' War and especially Frederick the Great, which he called self-ironically "a product of the centuries-old British obsession with that most un-British of creatures". Duffy is fluent in six languages and has published some twenty books about military history topics, whereof several were translated into German.

Reviews

[Heinz Reinhardt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a thoroughly enjoyable, very well written, erudite analysis of the one of the more unsung campaigns of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Christopher Duffy, one of the greatest military historians of the 20th century, turned his pen to tell that the of, perhaps, the greatest Russian commander in their storied history, and his greatest campaign.
Part biography of Alexander Suvorov, part military history of the events of the little, elderly Russian's epic campaign in northern Italy and Switzerland, this absolutely has to rank as one of the finest books I have read in 2021.
Duffy, clearly an admirer of all things Russian, doesn't bother to hide his bias in confirming his own admiration for Marshal Suvorov throughout this book, and I don't say that as a pejorative. It's utterly impossible not to become emotionally invested, at least in part, when discussing historical subjects, and admiration for a great general, who happened to likewise be a great, if delightfully eccentric and sometimes odd, man is only natural. That said, Duffy is fair in his treatment of the subject, and in his analysis he is, as always, detached enough to point out flaws and errors committed by Suvorov when they occured.
His narrative is top notch as always, and his narration of the events, both political and military, is very well done. Duffy also takes the time to point out that the Austrians had recovered significantly from their earlier thrashing in Italy at the hands of Napoleon, and went on an absolute tear of revenge in 1799. By the time Czar Paul authorized Suvorov and his Army to intervene on Austrian behalf, the Hapsburgs had already won several notable triumphs, and weathered a French counteroffensive.
Suvorov was a highly devout, and very pious, Orthodox Christian, and yet despite this, he went out of his way to show an eager acceptance of, and love for, the Catholics who he saw as defending against the Godless, atheist French.
When Duffy describes the character, eccentricity, and oddities of Alexander Suvorov, combined with his genuine military genius and his deep Christianity, it put me very much in the mind of Stonewall Jackson.
A comparison I think is quite apt.
Duffy highlights a couple of truly heartwarming and hilarious anecdotes of Suvorov that I wanted to paraphrase here. The first one that stuck in my mind was an interaction with his Cossack bodyguard.
The two men had grown quite close over the years, and they had a familiarity that would sometimes raise Austrian eyebrows. In one incident, during the Siege of Milan I believe it was, while under heavy French artillery fire, Suvorov stops the mounted procession so he can goggle at the local trees and fauna. Taken with the natural beauty, he becomes entirely oblivious to the artillery bursting around them.
His Cossack bodyguard, quite alarmed at this point, takes ahold of Suvorov to bodily turn him and his horse around to move them along to safety. Suddenly incensed at the man's cheek, Suvorov proceeds to begin shouting at the man for his rudeness, all the while striking him and attempting to wrestle him away.
And bear in mind, all the while artillery is impacting all around them.
Another humorous anecdote was during the same siege, Suvorov is napping in a castle tower, when French shells target it. Again, his by now more than slightly flustered Cossack, races up the stairs to see to his masters safety.
Suvorov stumbles out of bed, hair all askew, and grumbles at his bodyguard for waking him. When informed that he is in danger, the by now somewhat harried Cossack watches in stupefaction as his boss merely shrugs, and flops back down to finish his nap, exploding and plowing shells underscoring his chiefs utter indifference. (One wonders if said Cossack developed a drinking problem at around this time...?)
Far from attempting to highlight Suvorov as a nutter, these anecdotes, sprinkled throughout the narrative, only serve to deepen the sense of the man's humanity and utter likeability. Far less austere, and far more approachable than his Austrian counterparts, Suvorov, largely because of his quirks, developed a tremendous sense of loyalty from his men, and subordinates, (and a poor Cossack bodyguard who probably should have been paid far more than what he currently was). A sense of loyalty that only further cemented his command authority, and overall cohesion and effectiveness of his Army.
The Russians in this campaign would perform superbly, meeting the best the French could throw at them in the field, and then proceeding to practically mop the floor with them. All of Napoleon's gains were erased in a single crushing campaign that threatened to bring France to her knees.
And then, fate intervened.
Failures from other Coalition forces farther north along the Rhine were compounded by failure in Switzerland by a joint Russo-Austrian force under the command of another Russian general, Korsakov. Facing one of France's best in Andre Masséna, future Marshal of the Empire, the Coalition forces under Korsakov were battered to a stalemate at the First Battle of Zurich, and then absolutely crushed at the Second Battle of Zurich, Masséna's finest hour, losing over four times as many men of the French, and isolating Suvorov's now badly outnumbered forces in southern Switzerland.
Suvorov then leads the Russians and Austrians under his command in an epic, alpine fighting withdrawal that really deserved to be recognized as one of the greatest fighting retreats in military history. Time and again the Russians and Austrians, under overall Russian leadership, confounded French attempts to destroy them, and more often than not, gave them one hell of a bloody nose in the process.
Despite this brilliant operation, it was a retreat, highlighting ultimate Coalition failure in Switzerland, and the fracturing alliance between the Russians and the Hapsburgs.
Czar Paul, incensed over Austrian slights, and rightfully fearful over his Empire's greatest asset, Suvorov and his magnificent army, Paul withdraws Russia from the Coalition, and the War.
It's disheartening to read in the final chapter the dissolving relationship between Czar and Marshal, especially as Suvorov and Czar Paul had been quite close, as Suvorov had been close with Czarina Catherine before him. Alexander Suvorov would die in semi disgrace not long after returning to Russia following his greatest military success.
Despite ultimate defeat, Suvorov's campaign in Italy and Switzerland has to go down as one of the finest operations of the entire epoch, and as Duffy himself states, it's a shame that the two great geniuses of their age, Suvorov and Napoleon never met in person or on the field to test each other.
Alexander Suvorov has been largely forgotten in the West, now, and hopefully this book, being reprinted by Helion out of the UK, in the not too distant future, will be given to a new generation of young military historians who can hopefully revive the great Russian's tale here in the West.
Very highly recommended.

[Erik · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is fairly rare when I grade a historical book a "5", but this one is truly worthy and might even earn a 5+ or 6. This book is exceptional, with such detail and clinical analysis that I was left feeling like a witness to Suvorov's struggles and genius. Mr. Duffy has presented perhaps the best book on the Italian campaign of 1799, and the sources used are extensive enough to have me reading for many more years. This book has added greatly to my knowledge on the final glorious moments of Russia's greatest general.

The book has many pictures added by the author to give readers a look into the stark and barren wastes of the Alps where Suvorov led his army to both glory and defeat. Though taken in the present, these photos also show how little has changed since the armies of France, Austria, and Russia savagely fought for God and liberty.

Bravo Mr. Duffy!

[Jim Pfluecke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much like Arnold's book on Marengo, this book is an example of how to write a history of a campaign. It contains detailed orders of battle, plenty of maps (most of which are very good) and a ton of pictures. Becuase terrain was so key to the course of this campaign, the pictures add a lot of value, especially of the Swiss Alps.

Contained within this detailed account of the campaign maneuvering and fighting(including a lot of the smaller actions) is a biography of Suvorov. Finally, far from dry, Duffy fully plays the part of a Suvorov fan and, while respecting the abilities of the French and their generals, is clearly in awe of the prowess of the Russians in 1799.

I recommend this book to all who are interested in the period. You will not be disappointed...

[Miszor · Rating 4 out of 5]

daję like

[James Rooney · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had meant to read this book years and years ago, and came across it again on my shelf while looking for something else. I decided to commit to reading it at long last, but I was not nearly as excited to read it now as I was when I first got it.

First off, I hate the book is physically designed. I'm not a fan of unusual book shapes, this one being unusually large and unwieldy, and the pages are written so that there are two columns of text. This makes reading the pages more difficult and time consuming.

I like the illustrations, and I like the subject matter, but it was very inconvenient to read in this format.

I had initially intended to approach the War of the Second Coalition somewhat more holistically by reading Rodger's War of the Second Coalition: A Strategic Commentary, in parallel with this work, but as large sections of that work were missing from the copy I had, I was unable to finish that one.

It did provide some useful context for the war overall, however. This book focuses exclusively on the campaigns of Suvorov in Italy and Switzerland, as the title notes, and does not examine the war in either theaters in any depth (e.g. in Egypt, or even in Germany).

This wasn't such a great weakness because the core of the fighting was in this theater, and France's defeat here brought the Republic to the brink of ruin and opened the way for Napoleon's coup of 18 Brumaire where he was made First Consul and first took control of France's destiny.

Ironically, therefore, one might argue that Suvorov's success opened the way for Napoleon, a general who Suvorov respected in terms of talent, but detested in terms of being a 'blood sucker.'

I felt this book focused far too much on Suvorov's bizarre idiosyncrasies, his relations with his nephews, his religious habits, and so on. It bogged down the reading and took away from the operations.

The operations also get bogged down in minor details regarding terrain and small skirmishes so that I often found myself lost as to where Suvorov even was or what battle was being described.

I felt this resulted in a loss of focus on the strategic element, which is well worth studying because in brief, Suvorov fought a very impressive lightning campaign in Italy where he exploited the division and dispersal of the French to concentrate and defeat numerous French generals in quick succession.

Perhaps the most impressive moment was on the Trebbia, a legendary name due to its association with Hannibal, for Macdonald thought he could strike deep into the Allied communications and perhaps cut the Allies off in Piedmont.

Instead Macdonald discovered that Suvorov was fully alive to this thread and was rapidly concentrating his forces to counter it. So over a three day battle Macdonald was decisively defeated, and as Scherer had been defeated in his own attempt at an offensive at Magnano, Suvorov was able to chase the French practically out of Italy.

Joubert's offensive at Novi was a tragic moment, and one thinks of the Nivelle Offensive as Joubert was loudly boasting that he knew the secret of defeating the Russians, but finding that Suvorov was well-positioned to receive any French attack, Joubert unfortunately felt compelled to attack anyway, with predictably disastrous results.

Novi was a colossal defeat for France and Joubert himself was killed in action. At this point the Allies had practically won the war in Italy, but Suvorov displeased the Austrians with his decision to restore the King of Sardinia in Piedmont, and the Allies made the fateful decision to attempt a converging offensive on the French in Switzerland.

Here is the crux of the book, and Massena's operations around Lake Zurich are justly celebrated as a feat of heroics. In my mind I saw some similarities here with Tannenberg, as Massena was able to use the Swiss lakes to keep Suvorov and Korsakov separated, and to defeat them in detail.

Massena was also occupying a forward salient that flanked any routes of invasion to France either by the Alps or the Rhine, and so the Allies felt that he must be dealt with. Much blame is placed on the Austrians and on Korsakov for botching the Swiss campaign and preventing Suvorov from completing his designs.

Interestingly Duffy notes that after the battle in the Muotatal, Suvorov could still have attempted a junction with the forces in the north, but pessimistic counsel prevailed and it was decided to retreat through the mountains via the Panixer Pass.

This retreat has itself become legendary in the annals of Russian military history, and the route is carefully drawn in great detail in this work.

But it was very difficult to follow. Numerous obscure geographic points are mentioned in dizzying rapidity. I have a basic understanding of Swiss geography, I know some of the valleys, some of the rivers, but Duffy kept mentioning side valleys and streams that are so obscure that I had difficulty finding them even with the help of Google Maps. I can only imagine how impossible it would have been to follow this route when the book was published, unless one had on hand a detailed map of Switzerland.

The end is wrapped up sort of hastily, as we learn that Paul suddenly decided to withdraw from the coalition and called Suvorov home to Russia. I feel that it was not sufficiently explained why Russia was so disillusioned. The reasons were British retention of Malta, the disaster of the Den Helder Expedition, Napoleon's return from France, etc.

The latter is what makes the War of the Second Coalition so interesting. It is, in a way, proving the great man theory of history in a roundabout way via the absence of the great man. Already in the campaigns of 1796-1797 Napoleon had shown the world that he was something special. He won resoundingly in Italy while the Austrians were victorious in Germany north of the Alps.

Already Napoleon showed he was something more than Jourdan or Moreau. With his expedition to Egypt, France faced setbacks on all fronts except in Holland, and only because the Duke of York did not act with any initiative.

When Napoleon returned, of course, he dramatically reversed the situation and won the war for France, which demonstrates that any argument maintaining that Napoleon was not of decisive significance or that another French general could have achieved his results is on questionable grounds.

As Duffy points out, Suvorov defeated seven future marshals of France, and Suvorov himself noted it was a great achievement to have beaten Moreau.

Of course, Napoleon never faced Suvorov, and this has led to endless speculation on who would have won. Duffy concludes rather overoptimistically that Suvorov would have beaten Napoleon. I much doubt.

That, however, is all just counterfactual. This book gave me pause for reflection because it is hard to wrap your head about the position of Massena in Switzerland. Napoleon himself said that you can control the mountains via the river valleys. That the Danube and the Po control Switzerland, but the Allies controlled both at this time and failed in dislodging the French from the Alps.

It causes you to reflect on the strategic value of Switzerland more broadly, and why the position was not exploited in other wars. Or whether Massena's position was not quite as strong as it seems.

This book is probably by far the most useful work in English about the campaigns of Suvorov during the Second Coalition, and I'm grateful that it is available. But it is very tedious and hard to follow, it is awkwardly designed, and it sheds little light on the Second Coalition outside of Suvorov.

[Sean Chick · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book Duffy takes on Suvorov, one of the era's greatest soldiers. Duffy peels away some myths but he mostly finds Suvorov to be every bit as talented as portrayed in most accounts. The originality of the book is his attention paid to the Austrians and their successes and failures. Also interesting is Suvorov's take on Napoleon, which was quite prescient.

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