[The following takes place shortly before the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805.]
The large wooden bridge over the Danube River on the road to Vienna was of great strategic importance to Napoleon as his army marched to confront the combined forces of Austria and Russia. The Austrians knew this, of course, and kept the bridge well guarded. They also rigged it with explosives should a French approach make its destruction necessary. Confronted with this obstacle, two of Napoleon’s top marshals, Jean Lannes and Joachim Murat, devised a scheme to take the bridge intact. Dressed in their full ceremonial uniforms and accompanied by a group of German-speaking officers, they approached the bridge.
”Armistice! Armistice!” they called as they calmly walked across. The Austrians, unsure what to do, called for the local commander, General Auersperg. Murat and Lannes told the elderly, and not too bright, general that the French and Austrian emperors had come to terms. As the leaders of each side conferred, French troops quietly advanced on the bridge and disabled the explosives. No one fired at them for fear of breaking what was believed to be a truce.
Source:
Farquhar, Michael. “The Wars of the Ruses.” A Treasury of Deception: Liars, Misleaders, Hoodwinkers, and the Extraordinary True Stories of History's Greatest Hoaxes, Fakes and Frauds. Penguin, 2005. 62-3. Print.
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