The Campaigns of Gustavus Adolfus part III: Lutzen

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The final part of this series in which Gustavus marches into the heart of the continent and meets the great general Wallenstein in open battle.
As before, I attempted to take all of my images from Wikipedia, and based my research primarily in Bevin Alexander's 'How Wars Are Won'.

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14 янв 2016

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Комментарии : 28

@walross5658 5 лет назад

I actually grew up in Lützen. Or to be more precise, in the village of Meuchen. Its 2km next to Lützen. After Adolfus was found on the battlefield, they brought him to the church of Meuchen to clean his body and get it ready for the transport back to sweden.

@anglohistorian8687 5 лет назад

That's amazing, how is he generally viewed over there?

@walross5658 5 лет назад

@@anglohistorian8687 Neither good, nor bad. Its actually just a thing that happended. Everyone kind of knows the story and we tend to tell people whenever we talk about Lützen. The town is so sleepy, it really is the only reason why you should know it. My parents have some horses exactly where the battlefield was. Sometimes there are some archeologists that are looking around. They recently found a mass grave, dug it out and brought it to Halle.

@anglohistorian8687 5 лет назад

@@walross5658 Interesting, although I suppose a lot has happened since then. That must have been quite an amazing find for them, was it from the battle then?

@EspartaElion123 6 лет назад

Great series, thanks!

@WrathOfPhropet 8 лет назад

Well, you got one bit wrong: Swedes fought even after Gustavus' death, but mainly in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia. They even managed to loot half of Prague at the end of war.

@anglohistorian8687 8 лет назад

+Neverm0re Oh shit! Big mistake there, thanks for letting me know.

@kramdnusyerfdog8617 7 лет назад

Ehxcellent analysis of the consequences of Vasa's military strengths and weakness on the history of Europe. Many historians in the Anglo-Saxon world seem to turn a blind eye to the fact that Cromwell's tactics were merely the application of Vasa's tactics to the terrain and military assets in England.

@dosran5786 5 лет назад

the british stealing credit for an idea no never

@AliceMarieM 8 лет назад

thank you so very much for this series. I hope you have a chance to do one on the 80 years war.

@anglohistorian8687 8 лет назад

I'll certainly try, although I'll have to do a lot of research! Once I've got through my series on British wars and campaigns I'll be looking for a new heavy undertaking.

@mikesummers-smith4091 7 лет назад

I largely agree with you, but have a couple of comments. (1) Gustavus could not ignore Tilly's threat to his supply lines, not in C17 warfare. A march on Vienna would have been suicidal. (2) The comparison with Hannibal's failure to attack Rome is unfair. Gustavus is remembered as a soldier - but between campaigns, he accomplished a huge amount of civil reorganisation in both Sweden and Germany. Sweden remained a force to be reckoned with until the end of the Thirty Years' War because of that. (3) Friedland was a mediocre battlefield commander, at best. Good organiser, though. (4) Gustavus had been out-manoeuvred into fighting at Lützen. Gustavus has a name as one of the great captains; but WTF was he thinking of when he fought that battle there and then?

@anglohistorian8687 7 лет назад

Perhaps the Hannibal comparison was unfair, I merely meant to compare the two in terms of not expanding on battlefield success with a push on the enemy capital rather than to suggest that Gustavus was no more than a general. I know he was wise not to risk his supply lines, and I didn't mean to suggest it was foolishness to be concerned. I wish I could account for his thinking, it's quite strange to see his usual grasp of the situation dissipate during the later stages of the campaign.

@mikesummers-smith4091 7 лет назад

I should have said - I thoroughly enjoyed your set of videos - thought-provoking. Napoleon had a weakness for occupying capitals: Moscow 1812 is perhaps the worst example of several (Madrid? Berlin? Vienna?) - a strategic total failure. We seem to agree on one thing - what on earth was Gustavus thinking of in late 1632? (Of course, if hadn't got himself killed at Lützen, we wouldn't be asking this question.)

@anglohistorian8687 7 лет назад

Thank you, I am (finally) working on a new series on the Duke of Marlborough which I hope you'll find interesting. The fixation on capitals can doom a campaign, but depending on situation they can be a valid and useful target for forcing a resolution.

@mikesummers-smith4091 7 лет назад

IMO Marlborough was one of the Great Captains, and was by some distance England's greatest soldier. (Wellington was Irish...) I have the impression that Marlborough's troops would have invaded Hell if he'd ordered them to - because if their general had said to do so, it was because he thought there was a good chance of success. I can't lay my hands on the quote; but of Marlborough's attack on the river lines (1703?), an English soldier wrote that he thought his original orders rather ticklish, though he was ready to try to execute them. In the early morning gloom and mist, he saw a rider in a grey cloak behind his position. Half-an-hour later, he got new orders. That sort of attention to detail wins both loyalty and battles.

@anglohistorian8687 7 лет назад

That's a great anecdote and exactly the sort of thing I'd like to convey about him, I wrote my final dissertation on heroic leadership and it's a subject the fascinates me; motivating people in the most terrifying of circumstances. I'd have to agree on him being the greatest of British generals, Wellington was a superb battlefield leader but Marlborough also possessed all of the skills of a diplomat and used them to keep a highly fractious coalition together.

@tomasvlcek4476 6 лет назад

Very nice. Thank you. I would just add: 1) I would call it Swedish army but not Swedes as they were actually a minority. Most of Gustav's army by Lützen were Germans. 2) I wouldnt say German army but Imperial - most of them were Germans but there were other nationalities (Czechs, Scotts, Irish) but I admit - majority were Germans 3) Swedes fought until the end of the War and until the death of Karl XII. they were European power/Baltic superpower.

@anglohistorian8687 6 лет назад

Thank you for the feedback, definitely an oversight not to note the conglomerate nature of the army (or armies in general in this period!) and I do have to apologise for essentially getting the end date of the fighting wrong!!

@tomasvlcek4476 6 лет назад

But it was very very good I really enjoyed it. But you know everybody is so smart here... ;-) At the end you could end 4-5 point in which GA changed warfare so drastically. Thank you again! Great work! (You could do something on Eugen of Savoy - there is not much about him on YT)

@anglohistorian8687 6 лет назад

I've been very unproductive at the moment, but he's definitely a chap worthy of some coverage! I'm currently working my way (slowly) through a biopic of Marlborough so Eugene will pop up there, but if you like I could do him a supplemental of his own to expand on his broader career.

@tomasvlcek4476 6 лет назад

Wonderful! That only seems natural. Marlborough is considered by many as the greates English commander ever. When he met with Eugene before Blenheim Prince was already a legend of Zenta. They were called twins/dioscuri and until Malplaquete they were considered unbeatable...

@patricm.3718 6 лет назад

If only the people of Sweden still had this type of spirit and strategic intelligence today....otherwise it wouldn't be such a tragic waste of what was once a great country.