nd to profit by their
advantages; to gain other still more decisive, and
thus to go on playing double or quits till he broke
the bank this was his manner; and we must admit,
that to this manner he owed the enormous success of
his career; and that the attainment of such success
was scarcely conceivable in any other manner ...
To beat the enemy to shatter him to gain
the capital to drive the government into the last
corner of the empire and then, while the confusion
was fresh, to dictate a peace had been hitherto
the plan of operation in his wars.2
Clausewitz' description of Napoleon's overall strategy could also serve almost exactly as a description of Hitler's blitzkrieg victories, especially the conquest of France in 1940. Both would be conquerors were thus predisposed by their previous experience of swift victories in lightning wars.
Napoleon's campaign of 1812 was Napoleon's
...