EPISODE 8: PRUSSIA FALLS ## CHAPTER 1: PRUSSIAN PRIDE Berlin, Summer 1806. Prussia decides to fight. King Frederick William III has watched Napoleon's rise with growing horror. The French Emperor has reorganized Germany, abolished the Holy Roman Empire, created a satellite confederation that surrounds Prussia on three sides. If nothing is done, Prussia will be swallowed. Queen Louise leads the war party. She is beautiful, passionate, fiercely patriotic—everything her hesitant husband is not. She attends military parades, encourages her officers, speaks of Prussian honor and the glory of Frederick the Great. "We are the heirs of Frederick!" she declares. "We defeated Napoleon's Revolution once before. We will do it again!" The army that mobilized against Revolutionary France in 1792 is remembered as victorious—though that campaign ended in the disaster of Valmy. The army that Frederick the Great led to glory sixty years ago is remembered as invincible—though most of its commanders have died of old age. Prussia declares war on October 1, 1806. It's an act of breathtaking miscalculation. --- ## CHAPTER 2: THE PRUSSIAN ARMY The Prussian military appears formidable. On paper, 200,000 men. In reality, perhaps 150,000 fit for campaign. The officer corps is elderly—many commanders remember Frederick's wars as young lieutenants, now leading armies at seventy or older. The tactics are antiquated, frozen in the forms...