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A Sports Dispute Started the Cuban Missile Crisis and Other Odd Facts

Khalid Elhassan October 28, 2019 31 min

Opening phase of the Battle of Leipzig. The Map Archive

2. Leipzig Started Out Well For Napoleon

Although outnumbered, Napoleon planned to take the offensive against the allies who sought to envelop him. He operated along interior lines, which allowed him to concentrate against enemy sectors faster than they could be reinforced by his foes, who operated on exterior lines. The battle’s first day, October 16^th, ended in a hard-fought stalemate, as allied attacks were defeated, while Napoleon’s outnumbered forces were unable to achieve a breakthrough.

The 17^th saw limited actions, and by the 18^th, Napoleon was running low on supplies and munitions, so he prepared to withdraw. An attempt to negotiate an exit was rejected by the coalition, who launched a massive attack all along the line that day. The offensive steadily pushed Napoleon’s forces back into Leipzig, and only fierce resistance prevented a breakthrough.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.