Editing Battle of Eckmühl (section)

==Strategic situation==
Operating over a fifty-mile front, from [[Regensburg]] (Ratisbon to the French) to [[Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm|Pfaffenhofen]], marked by stretches of rugged, wooded terrain, neither the French nor the Austrians had developed adequate intelligence about their opponent's strength, dispositions, or intentions.  Assuming that the bulk of the Austrian army was deployed to cover their bridgehead at [[Landshut]] and the main highway to Vienna, on 20 April 1809, Napoleon launched most of his army in an attack to the Southwest.  The resulting [[Battle of Abensberg]] was a clear, French victory, following which Napoleon ordered all but [[Louis Nicolas Davout|Davout]]'s III Corps and Lefebvre's (Bavarian) VII Corps to pursue and destroy what he thought was the remains of the Austrian Army.

The French attack, however, had only split the Austrian Army, separating its Left Wing, composed of the V Armee Korps, VI A.K., and II Reserve A.K., from the balance of the army.  Two corps, III A.K. and IV A.K., were withdrawn by Archduke Charles to the North, forming a nine-mile line from Abbach on the [[Danube]] to Eckmühl on the [[Grosse Laber]].  More importantly, unbeknownst to Napoleon, the Austrians gained a victory of their own on 20 April 1809, by surrounding and capturing the French garrison at Regensburg and its strategic bridge over the Danube.  The capture of the bridge at Regensburg allowed Charles to re-establish contact with his Right Wing, [[Heinrich Graf von Bellegarde|General der Kavallerie Bellegarde]]'s I A.K. and [[Johann Kollowrat|FZM Kollowrat]]'s II A.K., hitherto separated from the rest of the Austrian Army by the Danube.