In the Footsteps of Alexander

[dean]

Hello,I was curious as I know that supposedly Alexander, throughout his life, led a kind of rivalry with his childhood heroe, Achilles and was curious to know if any other leaders, generals, etc tried to emulate or copy the moves of Alexander on the battlefield- after his deathI seem to recall someone mentioning on a post sometime ago that Napoleon had once copied the same moves yet can't remember the battle or the details.Thanks for your help in advance,
and best regards,
Dean.

[xxx]

If I am not mistaken Patton considered himself rather Alexander reborn.

[marcus]

Hi Dean,I don't know whether anyone tried to emulate Alexander's 'moves', if by that you mean his tactics. Certainly I don't know enough about Napoleon to have an opinion. The danger is always, of course, that as armies and weapons evolved, the whole way in which battles were fought changed. But I suppose certain things never change - after all, the idea of isolating and incapacitating the head of the army has always been an obvious way to victory - even if in more recent times it's been thought rather bad manners to go killing officers...As for people emulating Alexander generally... well, you start with the Diadochoi, move on to Pompey, then just about any successful general from then on. :-)All the bestMarcus

[maciek]

Hi companions!
I'll try to answer that question.
Napoleon used so called economic of forces (I'm not sure if I translated corectly) in his battle of Austerlitz. There he charged main body of his army against Austrians and waited for the good conditions to send the best troops on the right flank. Sorry it is not to detailed description but I read it quite a long time ago.
When Austrian lines were a littne confused he asked one of his generals (I think Lannes) how much time do You need to take that hill in front of You (where was the left wing of austrians) Soult answered that 20 minutes (I might be wrong about this number...) Then Napoleon waited a while and seeing that situation is best for this manouver he sended his best veterans and destroyed completly large part of austrian forces. Well I think it is very close to this what was made by Alexander in Gaugamela. We know that Napoleon appreciated Alex very much so the idea of tactic had to come from our him.
Best regards
Maciek
P.S. Althrough other manouvers wasn't so good as Alexanders and esspecially all Moscowy Campaign.

[maciek]

All right small remarks... Main impact of attack was made on the centre not wing. But the tactic is the same just in this situation it was better to attack in the middle. So it is closer maybe to Granikos battle.Map of the battle is here:
http://mojtaba.proboards7.com/index.cgi ... 9556Maciek

[Jeanne]

Yes, that's correct. Patton was a rather ... odd person. One of his various beliefs was that he was a reincarnation of ATG.Dr. Jeanne

[Nax]

.. that's an interesting twist-- I thought he believed he was in the army of ATG, but not actually ATG.I expect when this movie comes out, we'll have a whole bunch of new Alexanders from the fantasy fringe- or maybe an Alexander con instead of the usual sci-fi consHey- that could be fun!

[dean]

Hello,Thanks all for the help- as always, especially Maciej! Spot on!!! I could have sworn that Napoleon had copied, in his own way, Alexander's moves- although I couldn't for the life of me remember the name of the battle. Austerlitz... Thanks very much,
Dean.

[maciek]

Ehh sorry for another remark but this commander who made the main charge was Soult not Lannes but Lannes in fact was on the right wing... Well I have to refresh my memory about the Napoleon...
Anywhay it's nice to be helpful.Regards
Maciek

[beausefaless]

Here you go Dean,During the battle of Gaugamela one of the significant addition to tactics was Alexander's use of successive attacks against superior numbers. When he sent his outnumbered cavalry in a sequenced squadron after squadron assault against the superior Persian left wing, Alexander proved that the Persian mass was not sufficient enough to win a battle. By phasing his fewer cavalry squadrons in wave assaults, Alexander was able to keep the larger enemy force at a safe distance away from his phalanx by exerting continuous pressure. "This is best explained by Napoleon's account of the cavalry fights between the French and the Mameluks. When the Arabs were on the point of overwhelming the first, the second came to its assistance"(Creasy76). If he had committed the entire cavalry in one body, they would have been ultimately destroyed, thereby exposing the vulnerable flank of his phalanx to attack. A similar tactic will often be repeated in the future when riflemen fired in volleys by rank, thereby maintaining a continuous volley of fire on the enemy.

[beausefaless]

A perfect example, the History Channel had a two hour special called "The Killing Box", Storming Norman mentioned he used one of Alexander The Great and Napoleons tactics against the Iraq armored front in Kuwait and it worked to perfection, the Iraqis that survived had no where to go except to the highway of death.

[karla]

I have also read that Patton "talked" to Alexander right before every battle or charge he made. He would not go to battle without Alexander's "advice". very strange man indeed....

[jan]

That impresses me. I wonder if there is a special course on ATG at West Point.

[dAVID]

IS IT TRUE THAT ALEXANDER WAS GAY