Over forty thousand French troops were ready to advance and open the way for the bulk of the Grand Army crossing the river Saale behind them. The men were standing still and silent as ghosts as they waited for the attack to begin and Napoleon was pleased with their good discipline, since they were well within cannon range of the enemy position. If the Prussians were to detect any sign of the coming onslaught they would be ready in time to inflict fearful casualties amongst the leading French units.
As he stood behind the batteries on the heights Napoleon flipped his pocket watch open and glanced down now and again as the hands slowly crawled towards six o’clock.Then there was a distant shout as the order was given, and the signal gun boomed, announcing the start of the attack. An instant later the batteries on the Landgrafenberg thundered out and Napoleon’s gaze was caught by the thin dark smear of a ball as it arced towards the Prussian lines, until it dropped into the fog. Then the drums rolled as they beat the advance and Lannes’s divisions began to tramp down the slope until they too were lost in the fog.
Moments later Napoleon saw a bloom of orange in the murk and then heard the dull thud as a Prussian battery fired in the direction of the approaching French divisions. More enemy guns opened up and the rattle of musket fire accompanied the din as the skirmishers of both sides came into contact. On the Landgrafenberg the French gunners shifted their aim to target the dim flashes that revealed the positions of the enemy cannon. The firing from both sides grew more intense, but the fog prevented Napoleon from seeing how the attack was progressing. Then the first of the casualties came limping up the slope, nursing their injured limbs as they found what cover they could to wait out the battle and then find medical help.
‘I have to know what is going on,’ Napoleon snapped to one of the hussars of his personal guard. ‘Ride down there. Find Marshal Lannes and tell him to report his progress back to me at once.’
‘Yes, sire.’
The firing continued with growing intensity, as if a storm were raging below the smooth surface of the fog, and even though the rising sun began to burn off the mist thick banks of powder smoke still obscured much of the detail as the first hours of the battle raged. The first reports arrived from the leading divisions and Napoleon scanned the hurriedly written notes to learn that the nearest villages on the plateau had been taken, with heavy losses inflicted by enemy cannon firing at close range on the densely packed French assault columns. But the enemy had been driven back and Lannes had won sufficient space for the other corps of the Grand Army to join the attack.
By ten o’clock Soult’s men had reached their position on the right flank and launched an immediate attack on the Prussians, pushing them back.To the left, Augereau’s columns were striding out to take up their positions, and in the centre Ney’s fresh troops were marching up the road from Jena to reinforce Lannes. Only the last wreaths of fog lay in dips in the ground and now Napoleon had a clear view of the battlefield. The bodies of men from the assault columns littered the plateau, piled in small heaps where Prussian grapeshot had blasted into the French line. Beyond the villages of Closwitz and Lutzeroda the men of Lannes’s corps had paused to re-form in the face of fresh troops the Prussians had brought forward to meet the attack. There was a gap of nearly a mile between the reduced ranks of the men of Lannes’s corps and that of Augereau, and, as Napoleon watched, Ney’s column made for the gap and then continued forward alone towards the waiting Prussian artillery that had already done so much damage to Lannes’s men.
‘What is Ney doing?’ Napoleon fumed.‘What is that fool up to? He has no orders to advance yet. He can’t attack by himself.’
Behind the Emperor the staff officers and messengers stood silently and watched helplessly as Ney’s men closed on the enemy and began to deploy as the first of the Prussian guns ahead of them opened fire, orange flames stabbing through puffs of smoke that looked like tiny flowers at a distance. Through Napoleon’s telescope the effect on the delicate-looking lines of French soldiers was all too real, however, as round shot swept away whole files of men at a time. With painstaking steadiness Ney’s men completed the manoeuvre and advanced towards the enemy line. The bright colours of each battalion’s standard led the way and the waving swords of the officers glittered like far-off stars as they caught the morning sun. The enemy cannon continued to cut scores of men down as the French advanced and then, as they closed up on the Prussian line, they halted and made ready to fire.
There was a pause, then a final volley flashed out from the Prussian guns.An instant later, Ney’s men replied. Scores of men fell on each side, and then Ney’s infantry charged through the musket smoke and made for the enemy artillery positions.There was no time for the Prussians to reload and they fled from their guns, abandoning them to the French.
Berthier clapped his hands. ‘They’ve done it! They have the guns!’
‘Yes.’ Napoleon nodded. ‘And at what cost? The fool has advanced too far, and has no support. Look there, now Ney will really have his battle.’
Napoleon pointed out the dense mass of enemy cavalry already edging forward from the rear of the Prussian lines. They had been moving forward to counter Lannes’s attack, but the Prussian general had seen his chance to crush Ney’s isolated formation and the long lines of mounted men closed in on the French infantry. Ney did the only thing that he could under the circumstances, and Napoleon watched the distant infantry hurriedly form squares and prepare to receive the charge of the enemy cavalry.The Emperor had little doubt that Ney and his men would hold off the Prussian horsemen, but they were not the real danger.While Ney’s corps held off the cavalry the Prussians would bring forward more guns and infantry to blast the static French formations to pieces.They could not possibly endure such punishment for long, and the squares would break down. At that point they would be entirely at the mercy of the Prussians.
Napoleon frowned bitterly.‘Ney has forced my hand.We have to save that Gascon fool and his men.’ Napoleon turned away from the scene, his mind swiftly conceiving the necessary orders. ‘We need cavalry. Where is Murat?’
‘Still on the road to Jena, sire,’ Berthier replied.‘His advance elements have just begun to cross the Saale.We only have two cavalry regiments in the reserve.’
‘Then we must use them. Send them forward to support Ney.’
Berthier’s eyes widened. ‘Two regiments against that host, sire? They won’t stand a chance.’
‘Neither will Ney if we don’t act at once. I will not lose Ney’s corps,’ Napoleon stated firmly. ‘Send those two regiments forward immediately. And order Lannes and Augereau to advance and take position on either flank of Ney’s corps.’
‘Yes, sire.’
Napoleon turned back towards Ney’s embattled corps and saw that the enemy cavalry had now engulfed the squares. Each pocket of blue was surrounded by thick smoke amid which the dashing shadows of Prussian cavalry galloped past, their riders firing pistols at point blank range, and threatening to charge any weak points in the French lines. Napoleon’s heart was heavy with a mixture of dread for the fate of his men, cut off from the rest of the
