PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL: FOR THE EYES ONLY OF HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTY CZAR PAUL III
To His Imperial Majesty Tsar Paul,
Highness, my apologies for the late completion of the second part of my plan for our forthcoming invasion of the Austrian Empire, scheduled to take place following the successful conclusion of a western war against Prussia, waged by the joint armies of Poland and Russia. The forces remain the same as for our previous plan (five armies of eight divisions, plus twenty individual divisions). Herewith are attached the maps of our offensives.
Our forces are to be arranged as shown on the map: one of each of the five armies positioned at Goerlitz, Breslau, Kattowitz, Radom and Rovno. Our twenty remaining divisions are each represented by a small red dot where they must be located before the beginning of the campaign.
The key to our invasion, particularly its first phase, is to be the strike through the heart of the Austrian Empire to Vienna by two of our larger armies. One will commence in Breslau, and move on to capture Olomouc, Brno, and then advance on the capital itself. The second, at Kattowitz, will strike through Ciezyn, Trencin and Bratislava (Pressburg), and then finally also to Vienna. It is imperative that both these armies- from Breslau and from Kattowitz- converge upon the Austrian capital simultaneously, thus taking the capital from both sides. Whatever happens on other fronts, this must be achieved- the Austrians can do little without their capital, and it was indeed immediately once Vienna became exposed that they capitulated to Napoleon Bonaparte. To thus ensure the capture of Vienna, the eight-division army stationed at Goerlitz will drive through Karlsbad, Praha (Prague) and Budejovice to its final destination- Sankt Poellten, from where it can threaten Vienna from the west, thus facilitating the conquest.
Aside from these major movements, we must effect a general advance in the west. Two divisions stationed at Goerlitz will attack through Karlsbad (which ought to be cleared by our eight-division army from the same province), and will then move on to Plzen and finally to secure Budejovice, thus prevented an Austrian flanking manoeuvre. Of the three divisions at Liegnitz, two will stop at Hradec Kralove, the third will move on to Prague (again cleared by our larger armies of enemy forces). One division each from Breslau and Gleiwitz will secure Troppau. Our one division at Kattowitz will advance into Zator, as will our troops at Kielce- after having secured Krakow.
In the east, I fear the subtlety of my plan descends to the level of a simple push forwards into Galicia. Our larger army at Radom will strike through Tarnow, ending at Nowy Sacz. The second eight-division force, starting at Rovno, will capture Ternopol, Stanislavov and Stryj, and then await the completion of other offensives. Other than these larger forces, a single division will advance from Radom into Premysl, meeting up with two divisions from Spiff. Two will advance from Kovel to Lviv, one each from Spiff and Rovno to Brody, one from Kamenec to Ternopol and two from Beltsy to Cernovcy. This first phase of offensives should put us in control of all Galicia (bar possibly Stanislavov, which may be retaken), as well as all of Bohemia-Moravia, all of Austria’s Polish provinces, as well as Sankt Poellten and Vienna itself.
The second phase of the plan involves the conquest of Slovakia, and a modest further push into Austrian territory. This will put us on an appropriate footing to make considerable demands of the Habsburgs, and if they refuse to march into Hungary, Tyrolia and Austria’s other possessions.
Of our two divisions at Bujedovice, one will occupy Ried, the other Linz. Our large army at Sankt Poellten will march to Judenburg, and one of the two in Vienna will advance to Graz. Our movements in the west must necessarily be modest, as we must allow time for our eastern armies to catch up. The troops behind the western front-line will have to move up to bolster our forward armies. One division each from Prague and Hradec Kralove will advance to Sankt Poellten, while one division from Troppau will move up to Brno.
In the east, again, our offensive must take the form of a “push”. The three divisions at Zator will strike through Trencin to Bratislava, which may or may not have been cleared by our previous offensive against Vienna. Our larger army at Nowy Sacz will capture Nitra, also by way of Trencin. Further east, the three Przemsyl divisions will capture Kosice, the army at Stryj will move to Uzgorod, the two at Brody through Stansislavov to Chust, and one each from Ternopol and Cernovcy to Stanislavov. It is to be expected that even these modest gains will give us a sufficient position to take what we demand from the Austrians.
This final diagram represents our territorial demands from Austria. Territories outlines in green are lands that will be surrendered to Russia- which will naturally conjoin to Russian gains in Silesia at Prussia’s expense. Territories outlined in the pale colour represent the gains of the Kingdom of Poland, and are inhabited by a population that is majority Polish.
