The Allies Strike Back:
Field Marshal Suvorov
Retakes Italy in 1799

Post-Novi Allied Grand Strategy
Map (54K)


After defeating every army sent against him, Suvorov wanted to push on to take Genoa and invade France. However, a French counter-offensive in Switzerland was to have disastrous consequences for the Allies. British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger had delegated management of the strategy of the war to his foreign minister, Lord William Grenville, who became fascinated with the possibilities of a new offensive through Switzerland. Suvorov's victorious army and another Russian army under Lieutenant-General Rimsky-Korsakov were ordered to march into Switzerland from opposite directions, unite and crush the French, and then move into France supported by Austrian armies under Melas in Italy and Archduke Charles near the upper Rhine. A joint British-Russian expedition would land in Holland as a diversion to draw away French troops.

Everything went wrong. The expedition in Holland was a fiasco, and French General Masséna routed Korsakov's army and then chased Suvorov's force out of Switzerland. Suvorov conducted a masterful retreat, saving most of his men. But the ragged Russian survivors who miraculously crossed over the treacherous Panixer Pass in October 1799 were in no condition to fight. These setbacks angered Tsar Paul and he recalled his armies and withdrew from the coalition. Russia's greatest loss of the campaign came on 17 May 1800 when Suvorov, physically worn out, died in his son-in-law's home in St. Petersburg.

The Allies Strike Back: Suvorov Retakes Italy 1799

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