1704
Battle of Blenheim
The setting
Near the village of Blindheim (Blenheim) on the Danube, Bavaria, between Höchstädt and the river (modern Germany)
Danube floodplain: open arable plain bounded by the river to the south and wooded hills to the north, crossed by the marshy Nebel stream fronting the Franco-Bavarian position.
Reveal the outcome
Recorded sideGrand Alliance (Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy)
Recorded resultdecisive victory
Decisive Allied victory; the French army was destroyed and Marshal Tallard captured
How the atlas explains it
Marlborough crossed the Nebel and deliberately fed attacks into the flank villages of Blenheim and Oberglau, drawing the French to cram their best infantry into Blenheim where ~27 battalions became trapped and useless. With the enemy center thus stripped of infantry support, he massed his cavalry and broke the weakened French horse on the plain, splitting Tallard's wing from Marsin's and driving many into the Danube. Inter-allied coordination with Eugene, who pinned the other wing, was essential.
What followed
Saved Vienna and the Grand Alliance, ended French hopes of knocking the Empire out of the War of the Spanish Succession, and shattered the myth of French invincibility under Louis XIV. One of the most celebrated victories in British military history.