📅 On This Day in Military History
1 event across history
Fought simultaneously at two locations ten miles apart, the twin battles of Jena and Auerstedt shattered Prussian military power in a single day. At Jena, Napoleon with 96,000 men crushed Prince Hohenlohe's 53,000 Prussians. Meanwhile, the more remarkable action unfolded at Auerstedt, where Marshal Davout with just 27,000 men defeated the main Prussian force of 63,000 under the Duke of Brunswick, who was mortally wounded. Napoleon initially refused to believe Davout's report, unable to credit that one corps had beaten the larger Prussian army. The pursuit that followed was relentless — within weeks the French had occupied Berlin.
The twin battles destroyed the myth of Prussian military invincibility built by Frederick the Great. Prussia sued for peace, losing half its territory by the Treaty of Tilsit. French dominance of continental Europe reached its peak.
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