Boulogne Camp

a military camp near Boulogne set up by Napoleon in 1801-05 in preparation for an invasion of Britain across the English Channel. By August 1805 more than 2,300 landing craft and 130,000 men were concentrated in the Boulogne camp. The British Navy, which was superior to the French Navy, blockaded the coast and frustrated the preparation of the landing operation. Napoleon’s attempt to divert the main forces of the British Navy through forceful actions on the sea was unsuccessful. The formation of the third anti-French coalition forced Napoleon in August-September 1805 to transfer his troops from the Boulogne camp to the Rhine, where the Russian-Austrian-French War of 1805 began.