File:Levels of War – Napoleon's Ulm Campaign, 1805.png

English: Levels of War – Napoleon's Ulm Campaign, 1805. Interpretation of Napoleon's conduct of the Ulm campaign may be illustrated visually in terms of three discrete levels of war, where depth and simultaneity of operations become the chief defining variables (with operational tempo a close correlate). In this setting, Napoleon, who was both French head-of-state and army commander-in-chief, translated his vision of the national strategic aim into the practical application of force on a theater-wide basis. Strategically focused, sequential operations and engagements culminated finally in a decisive blow to destroy the enemy's armed might. Unsurprisingly, the synergistic effect of Napoleon 's campaign strategy became the organizing imperative of the great offensive campaigns of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Analyses of subsequent Prussian-German campaign strategy in 1866, 1870, 1914, and 1940, for example, revealed that the intent of the Prussian and German opening perations was to repeat Napoleon's achievement in the VIm campaign of 1805. They sought to bring on a battle of annihilation by inflicting a strategic defeat on the enemy which his tactical measures could not remedy. For that matter, later Soviet concepts of theaterwide offensive operations were also logical successors in a series of attempts to replicate Napoleon's victory on an even larger scale.