In 1809, Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the
French, was at the height of his power. He had just won another crushing victory against
Austria at Wagram, and imposed a humiliating peace treaty. But the war heâd started in Spain and Portugal,
with his ill-judged invasion the previous year, continued to rage. Napoleon had placed his own brother Joseph
on the Spanish throne â uniting a proud country against him. His troops had dealt ruthlessly with popular
uprisings, while routing a succession of Spanish armies. In February 1809, Marshal Lannes overcame
the heroic defence of Zaragoza, in a brutal siege that cost 54,000 Spanish lives and 10,000
French. But still⊠the Spanish and Portuguese remained
defiant. And 3 months after their escape from Corunna,
the British were back. In April, Sir Arthur Wellesley landed in Lisbon
to lead a small Anglo-Portuguese army: British redcoats would fight alongside Portuguese
troops, who, with the help of British training, would soon prove themselves highly effective. Three weeks after arriving in Portugal, Wellesley
moved against Marshal Soultâs Second Corps, which had recently taken Porto. Soult and his troops, preoccupied with plundering
the region, had no warning of the British advance, and were soon in headlong retreat,
back through the mountains into Spain. Having secured Portugal, for the time being,
Wellesley planned a joint campaign with General Cuesta, commanding the Spanish Army of Extremadura. On 10th July, the two commanders met at Casas
de Miravete to discuss strategy. Relations between these two allies were not
straightforward. Britain and Spain had a long history of conflict: The Spanish were deeply suspicious of British
intentions in Spain, while the British had a low opinion of the Spanish army, which they
considered poorly trained, and badly led. Wellesleyâs request to take over command
of Spanish forces was rejected. But the generals agreed to a joint advance
up the Tagus valley towards Madrid, to be supported by General Venegas, advancing from
La Mancha. In the face of their advance, Marshal Victorâs
First Corps withdrew to Talavera, where he was joined by King Joseph and General Sebastianiâs
Fourth Corps. The French plan was for Josephâs army to
defend Madrid, while Marshal Soult led three corps down from the north, to get behind and
trap the Anglo-Spanish forces. But Joseph, worried by Soultâs slow progress,
and General Venegasâ advance on Madrid, decided to attack at Talavera. This video is brought to you by our sponsor
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video. The Battle of Talavera saw British infantry
bear the brunt of the French assault: they stood firm, and repelled the enemy with disciplined
musket-fire and bayonet charges. Talavera was a small battle compared to the
great clashes fought that year in Austria. But it proved that under Wellesley, Britainâs
small, well-drilled army was a force to be reckoned with⊠even though in the short
term, victory achieved little. Warned of Soultâs approach from captured
despatches, the victorious Anglo-Spanish army⊠retreated. ⊠while King Joseph and Fourth Corps marched
against Venegasâ army, which they smashed at the Battle of Almonacid. That autumn the Supreme Junta in Seville,
free Spainâs effective government, raised two new armies for another attempt to liberate
Madrid, planning to converge on the capital from north and south. But Wellesley, ennobled as Viscount Wellington
for his victory at Talavera, had been so disgusted by the lack of Spanish co-operation that summer,
that he refused to risk his army. Predictably, Spainâs inexperienced armies
met with disaster: at Ocaña, they suffered their biggest defeat of the war, when a smaller
force under Marshal Soult routed the Spanish army, taking 14,000 prisoners and 50 cannon. A week later, the Army of the Left was heavily
defeated at Alba de Tormes. There was more bad news when Girona fell to
the French, after an epic 7 month siege. The Supreme Juntaâs plans to retake Madrid
were in tatters... And Southern Spain was now wide open to French
attack. In January 1810, King Joseph marched south
with an army of 60,000 men. In the face of his advance, Spanish resistance...
evaporated. Spainâs Supreme Junta was overthrown in
a coup, as Cordoba and Seville fell without a fight. Joseph, who still hoped to win over the Spanish
with his progressive reforms, was welcomed by many as a saviour from anarchy. Only Cadiz held out - its defences reinforced
by a British naval squadron - and was besieged by Victorâs First Corps. Meanwhile Napoleon sent Marshal MassĂ©na to
Spain with 65,000 reinforcements. He was reckoned one of Napoleonâs best marshals,
and had just been made âPrince of Esslingâ for his heroics in the recent war against
Austria. Masséna was to lead a third French invasion
of Portugal, take Lisbon, and chase the British back into the sea. He laid siege to Ciudad Rodrigo, a fortified
city controlling one of the main routes into Portugal, which surrendered after two weeksâ
bombardment. Wellington, with only 33,000 men to face MassĂ©naâs
50,000, retreated. Masséna crossed the Portuguese frontier,
and besieged Almeida. After just 13 hours of bombardment, a lucky
French shot hit the Portuguese magazine⊠70 tons of gunpowder went up in a devastating
explosion, that made all further resistance useless. It was a serious blow to Wellington, whoâd
been relying on Almeidaâs strong defences to buy him time. At Buçaco, he found a strong defensive position
and made a stand. MassĂ©naâs uphill, frontal attack failed
at a cost of 4,000 casualties. But the next day, the French found a way to
outflank Wellingtonâs position, and his retreat continued. As MassĂ©naâs army neared Lisbon, his scouts
reported something completely unexpected: Stretching across the Lisbon peninsula, protecting
the city from attack, they found a new chain of fortifications, in two major lines. Known as the Lines of Torres Vedras, the British
and Portuguese had been constructing these defences for more than a year. Now the Lines bristled with more than a hundred
forts, redoubts and batteries, manned by 30,000 troops and 250 guns. Masséna soon discovered the Lines were far
too strong for him to attack. Whatâs more, a âscorched earthâ strategy
had stripped the surrounding countryside of anything that might help the French⊠While Portuguese partisans attacked French
supply columns, as they struggled through the mountains to reach MassĂ©naâs army. MassĂ©na faced a grim predicament: starved
of supplies, too weak to attack⊠unwilling to retreat. But throughout this stand-off, it was Portuguese
peasants who suffered most of all. When their villages and farms were burned,
many took refuge in Lisbon, where thousands died of starvation and disease. Back in France, Napoleon had been preoccupied
with his divorce from the Empress Josephine⊠and then a new marriage Archduchess Marie
Louise, daughter of the Emperor of Austria. She was now expecting their first child. Nevertheless, from Paris, Napoleon sent frequent
orders to his Marshals in Spain and Portugal, urging them to take more aggressive action. But when these orders arrived, weeks later,
they were usually out of date, and showed little understanding of the problems his Marshals
faced. He now ordered Soult, based in Andalucia,
to go on the offensive, to draw enemy forces away from Lisbon, so Masséna could take the
city. Soult laid siege to Badajoz, a fortified city
that controlled the southern route into Portugal. When 12,000 men of the Army of Extremadura
marched to its relief, they were routed by Soult⊠after which the city tamely surrendered,
giving up 8,000 prisoners and vast quantities of stores. It was another heavy blow to Spainâs armed
forces. But remarkably, despite such disasters, and
their many blundering generals, Spanish troops remained willing to fight, the courage of
the rank-and-file undimmed. Victorâs First Corps, besieging Cadiz, had
now been so weakened to support other operations, that the Anglo-Spanish garrison decided to
attack. The allies landed along the coast, to strike
at the French siege lines from the rear. But they were ambushed by the French at Barossa. Despite heavy losses, the Anglo-Portuguese
rearguard fought off the enemy - but a furious falling out between British commander Sir
Thomas Graham, and his Spanish counterpart General La Peña, threw away any advantage. Soult, alarmed at these developments, marched
back to Andalucia. Meanwhile Masséna, out of food and with no
prospect of reinforcement, had no option but to retreat. Wellingtonâs army pursued, discovering evidence
of several appalling atrocities, committed by the French against Portuguese villagers. There were running battles with the French
rearguard, brilliantly commanded by Marshal Ney, until he was sacked by Masséna for criticising
his leadership. Having chased the French out of Portugal,
Wellington besieged Almeida. MassĂ©naâs army, now rested and reinforced,
marched to its aid. The two armies clashed again at Fuentes de
Oñoro. In two days of heavy fighting, Masséna failed
to break through Wellingtonâs position to relieve Almeida. The fortress fell the next week, but to Wellingtonâs
fury, British bungling allowed most of the French garrison to escape. MassĂ©na had lost 25,000 men in Portugal. Now heâd lost Almeida too. And a string of bad decisions, not least to
bring his mistress with him on campaign, had cost him the respect of his officers. The Marshal, whom Napoleon had once nicknamed
âthe dear Child of Victoryâ, was recalled to France in disgrace, never to hold senior
command again. Napoleon sent Marshal Marmont to replace him. Meanwhile Marshal Beresford, the British commander
of Portugalâs army, was sent to retake Badajoz with 20,000 British and Portuguese troops. When Soult approached with a relief force,
Beresford marched to meet him at Albuera: it was one of the bloodiest battles of the
war â around 6,000 casualties on each side, with more than a third of the British infantry
killed, wounded or captured. Marshal Soult declared... "There is no beating these troops, in spite
of their generals. I always thought they were bad soldiers, now
I am sure of it. I had turned their right, pierced their centre
and everywhere victory was mine â but they did not know how to run!" Soult had been checked, but he was determined
to save Badajoz. The newly-arrived Marshal Marmont marched
to his aid, and they advanced again. This combined army forced the British to abandon
the siege - But when Wellington withdrew to a strong defensive
position across the Portuguese border, Soult and Marmont did not pursue. French commanders in Spain had learned grudging
respect for Wellington, and for the steadiness of his troops. For now, the war in Spain had entered stalemate. While British, French and Spanish armies criss-crossed
Spain and Portugal, another war was fought every day in the mountains, hills and woods. From 1808 Spanish and Portuguese civilians,
militias and ex-soldiers began taking up arms against the hated French invader. They waged a war of ambushes and hit-and-run
raids, known in Spanish as la guerrilla - âthe little warâ. Its fighters became known, in English, as
guerrillas. Britainâs Royal Navy supplied vital weapons,
stores and money, often landing them behind enemy lines. Much of Spainâs rugged countryside fell
under the control of the guerrillas: North of Madrid, Juan MartĂn Diez, an ex-soldier
known as El Empecinado, âthe Stubbornâ, led a guerrilla band 6,000 strong. In Navarre, Espoz y Mina, a former peasant,
ran a highly organised band that caused havoc for the French, capturing convoys and couriers
on the strategic Burgos-Bayonne road, and branding âViva Minaâ on the forehead of
collaborators. While in the west Julian Sanchez, known as
El Charro, led the self-styled âLanceros de Castillaâ. El Charro himself wore a French hussarâs
cap, its eagle symbolically turned upside down. There were dozens more bands operating across
Spain â though a few were no better than bandits, terrorising civilians as often as
the enemy. The guerrilla war was merciless, marked by
hideous atrocities on both sides. A French soldierâs greatest fear was to
be taken alive by the guerrillas, who often tortured their prisoners before killing them. Tens of thousands of French troops were tied
down by this âpeopleâs warâ â guarding outposts, or patrolling the countryside. The roads were so dangerous for French messengers
that they required cavalry escorts of 200 men or more. Many still didnât get through - their valuable
despatches forwarded to Wellington, for whom they became an invaluable source of intelligence. The war in Spain would ultimately cost the
lives of 240,000 French soldiers: As was typical in wars of this era, most died
from disease â but more died fighting guerrillas⊠than in battle against the British and Spanish
armies. However, it was the twin threat - a well-led,
regular army under Wellington, and a popular insurgency, that left the French facing an
impossible strategic dilemma: If their armies remained dispersed, to fight
the guerrillas â Wellington could attack. But if they concentrated to defeat Wellington
in battle â huge swathes of the country would quickly fall to the guerrillas. This was âNapoleonâs Vietnamâ - or his
âbleeding ulcerâ as he called it â a war that cost his empire an average of 100
casualties every day, with little prospect of victory. And in 1812, as Napoleon launched his gigantic
invasion of Russia, Wellington and the guerrillas launched their own offensive... that would
turn the war in Spain on its head. Thank you to all the Patreon supporters who
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From what I understand it wasn't until the 1960's that historians found out why it was called Napoleon's Vietnam.
The fascinating bit is that this earliest example proves a general truism. Guerrilla war works at its best with conventional war, which is exactly what the British Army provided. Absent the British, the guerrillas would have been annoyances but not even a boil on Napoleon's ass. With the British they bled the French army and gave it an ulcer that made the Russians, Prussians, and Austrians stomping it flat that much more challenging.
I invaded as Prussia in ntw and it was impossible to win, I just withdrew after like a year