Napoleon's invasion of England
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| Napoleon's invasion of England | |||||||||
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| Part of War of the Third Coalition | |||||||||
 Napoleon distributing the first-ever Imperial Légion d'honneur at the Boulogne camps, on August 16 1804 |
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 French Empire (land and naval forces) Batavian Republic (invasion barges).svg/25px-Flag_of_Spain_(1785-1873_and_1875-1931).svg.png){kind=small} Kingdom of Spain (as part of combined fleet) |
 United Kingdom |
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| Commanders | |||||||||
| Napoleon, Eustache Bruix, Pierre-Charles Villeneuve Honoré Joseph Antoine Ganteaume | Robert Calder, Cuthbert Collingwood, Horatio Nelson |
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| Strength | |||||||||
| Around 200,000 troops | |||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Zero, besides losses in training accident | Zero | ||||||||
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Napoleon's planned invasion of England at the start of the War of the Third Coalition, although never carried out, was a major influence on British naval strategy and fortification of the coast of south-east England. The first Army of England had gathered on the Channel coast in 1798, but an invasion of England was sidelined by Napoleon's concentration on campaigns in Egypt and Austria, and finally shelved by the 1802 Peace of Amiens. Preparations began again in earnest soon after the outbreak of war in 1803, and were finally called off in 1805.
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[edit] French preparations
Over two years a new army of 200,000 men, known as the Armée des côtes de l'Océan (Army of the Ocean Coasts) or the Armée de l'Angleterre (Army of England), was gathered and trained at camps at Boulogne, Bruges and Montreuil. A large "National Flotilla" of invasion barges was built in Channel ports along the coasts of France and Holland (then under French domination as the Batavian Republic), right from Etaples to Flushing, and gathered at Boulogne. This flotilla was initially under the energetic command of Eustache Bruix, but he soon had to return to Paris, where he died of tuberculosis in March 1815. Port facilities at Boulogne were improved (even though its tides made it unsuitable for such a role) and forts built, whilst the discontent and boredom that often threatened to overflow among the waiting troops was allayed by constant training and frequent ceremonial visits by Napoleon himself (including the first ever awards of the Imperial Légion d'honneur).[1] A medal was struck and a triumphal column erected at Boulogne to celebrate the invasion's anticipated success.[2] However, when Napoleon ordered a large-scale test of the invasion craft despite choppy weather and against the advice of his naval commanders, they were shown up as ill-designed for their task and, though Napoleon led rescue efforts in person, many men were lost.
[edit] British countermeasures
Though this disaster in fact made the idea of a mass invasion unrealistic, British invasion paranoia continued. With the flotilla and encampment at Boulogne visible from the south coast of England, Martello towers were built along the English coast to counter the invasion threat, and militias were raised. In the areas closest to France, Dover Castle had underground tunnels added to garrison extra troops, the Dover Western Heights were constructed, and the Royal Military Canal cut to impede Napoleon's progress into England should he land on Romney Marsh. Unfounded rumours of a massive flat French invasion raft powered by windmills and paddle-wheels, a secretly-dug Channel Tunnel and an invasion fleet of balloons spread via the print media, as did caricatures ridiculing the prospect of invasion.
 The rumoured French invasion raft |
 Caricature mocking the fragile landing rafts |
 John Bull protected by the Royal Navy |
 John Bull vanquishing Napoléon |
[edit] Naval plan
Before the flotilla could cross, however, Napoleon had to gain naval control of the English Channel - in his own words, "Let us be masters of the Channel for six hours and we are masters of the world." He envisaged doing this by having the Brest and Toulon Franco-Spanish fleets break out from the British blockade (led at Brest by Collingwood and Toulon by Nelson), and then sail across the Atlantic to threaten the West Indies. This, he hoped, would draw off the Royal Navy force under William Cornwallis defending the Western Approaches. The Toulon and Brest fleets (under Pierre-Charles Villeneuve and Honoré Joseph Antoine Ganteaume respectively) could then rendezvous at Martinique, quickly sail back across the Atlantic to Europe (losing both these pursuing British fleets en route), land a force in Ireland (as in the two French Revolutionary invasions of Ireland in 1796 and 1798) and, more importantly, defeat what parts of the Channel Fleet had remained in the Channel, take control of the Channel and defend and transport the invasion force, all before the pursuing fleets could return to stop them.
This plan was typical of Napoleon in its dash and reliance on fast movement and surprise, but such a style was more suited to land than to sea warfare, with the vagaries of tide and wind and the effective British blockade making it ever more impractical and unlikely to succeed as more and more time passed. Only the Toulon force eventually broke out and, though it managed to cross the Atlantic, it did not find the Brest fleet at the rendezvous and so sailed back to Europe alone, where it was met by the force blockading Rochefort and Ferrol (where invasion vessels had been being prepared), defeated at the Battle of Cape Finisterre and forced back into port. Therefore, in 27 August 1805 Napoleon used the invasion army as the core of the new Grande Armée and had it break camp and march eastwards to begin the Ulm Campaign. Thus, by the time of the battle of Trafalgar on 21 October, the invasion had already been called off, and so this battle merely re-guaranteed British control of the Channel rather than the popular misconception that it prevented the invasion. The comment attributed to Admiral Jervis[3] - "I do not say they [the French] cannot come - I only say they cannot come by sea." - had been proved right.
[edit] Memorial
Today, the Boulogne camp's site is marked by a 53 metre-high Column of the Grande Armée (France's tallest such column), built in the 1840s, with a statue of Napoleon on top, panels on the base showing him presenting medals of the Lègion d'Honneur to his troops and surrounded by railings decorated with the golden French Imperial eagle. The arsenal from the camp is preserved.
[edit] References
- ^ Chandler, David G. The Campaigns of Napoleon. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995. ISBN 0-02-523660-1, p323
- ^ Medal, 1804, National Maritime Museum
- ^ It is attributed to him in a statement by him to House of Lords, though there is no definite evidence he actually said it.
