Defense of Danzig 1813

Introduction

by A. Ricciardiello, Poland

The source of this article comes from a book written a hundred years after the event it describes. It's title, The Italians in Germany in 1813 reflects exactly that. My title is somewhat misleading, as the description below does not include everything that went on with respect to all the nationalities that took part.

However, given that Danzig was one of the few major sieges that took place outside of the Spanish Peninsula, and to my not so extensive knowledge there has been little written in the popular press on such matters, this may be of interest. Furthermore, the book is written in Italian and thus not so accessible to an English speaking audience.

The book revels in national pride, is consequently biased. So openly by today's standards as to be naive. Martial virtues, honour and glory, are exemplified and reiterated at every possible opportunity, mostly in heroic terms.

What is also clear though, is that much of the attitude the authors had most certainly was carried over from the contemporaries they talk about. To quote Napoleon "France needs glory not men". This, incidentally, helped me to understand in part how such terrible losses were tolerated during WWI.

Despite all this, it is full of tables, anecdotes, and good general information that can not always be found in the available books. There is also a lot of incidental information that makes it interesting.

More The Defense of Danzig 1813

Back to Table of Contents -- First Empire #51
Back to First Empire List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List
© Copyright 2000 by First Empire.
This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com