Napoleon's Downfall: Invasion of Russia 1812 (Full Documentary)

but their morale is higher than it has ever been since June. The men of the Grande Armée have only one goal: to survive. But as they limp westward from Smolensk, they are once again called upon to fight. By mid-November, the main column of the Grande Armée only had 36,000 men, about a third of what it had two months earlier when it left Moscow. There are 10,000 eligible soldiers in the Imperial Guard, 12,000 in Davout's corps, 5,000 in Ney's, 6,000 in Eugene's. 1,000 in Junot's and barely 800 in Poniatowski's. In total there are only 5,000 mounted cavalry left. They are accompanied by some 40,000 wounded, deserters and sick, among them women and children. (King 244) When the Grande Armée leaves Smolensk on November 17, it once again faces the grave danger of being isolated and destroyed.

While Napoleon waits near the town of Krasny for the rest of the army to catch up with him, Russian troops under Miloradovich and Kutuzov are approaching. Napoleon orders an attack to prevent the Russians from blocking the main road ahead. The Imperial Guard leads the charge as 16,000 soldiers led by frozen and starving French clash against 35,000 Russians. The Emperor's gamble pays off, as his men force the Russians back and eliminate the immediate danger of an encirclement. Russian partisan officer Denis Davydov paints a dramatic picture of the action: “The Guard with Napoleon passed through our Cossacks like a hundred-gun ship through a fishing fleet.” (Chandler) Historians who take a more pro-French view of the Battle of Krasny point to the partial French victory as justification for Napoleon to preserve the Guard at Borodino in September, and as proof that even in the face of catastrophic conditions, the Emperor still dominated. to his men when he was present on the battlefield.

However, success comes at a cost: approximately half of the Young Guard is lost. Meanwhile, at the eastern end of the Grande Armée column, Miloradovich manages to cut off Ney's rearguard of 6,000 men and 12,000 civilian stragglers, and this time, the rest of the Grande Armée does not rush to help. Ney is not happy with his Emperor: “That bastard has abandoned us; he sacrificed us to save himself; What can we do? What will become of us? Everything is screwed! Those who pass this will prove that their balls are hanging from steel wire! (Zamoyski) On the 18th, Ney rejects Miloradovich's offer to surrender and launches a desperate frontal assault against the Russians blocking the road to the west.

But the French-led troops are stopped by a wall of Russian artillery fire. That night, the marshal and 1,000 survivors manage to cross the Dnieper River and join Napoleon in Orsha. The escape earned Ney the nickname "the bravest of the brave." Marshal Ney's body is destroyed, but only one more natural barrier remains between the Grande Armée and safety: the Berezina River. Despite the French situation, Marshal Kutuzov wants to continue letting hunger, cold and partisans weaken the French. On a geopolitical level, he also fears that if Napoleon is captured or killed, Britain could become too strong. But many other Russian commanders and the tsar himself want to be more aggressive.

Kutuzov then decides that Admiral Pavel ChichAgov and General Wittgenstein will do most of the fighting. Once Chichagov takes Minsk and denies supplies from it to Napoleon, the only realistic option for the Grande Armée to cross the Berezina River is the city of Borisov. Schwarzenberg's Austrians and Reynier's Saxons try to advance east to distract Chichagov, but the Russian general Osten-Sacken manages to stop them; In any case, Schwarzenberg has orders from home not to be too aggressive. The Emperor will have to face the challenge. On November 22, Chichagov's vanguard reaches BorIsov after covering the last 55 kilometers in just 24 hours, and then proceeds to force the two Polish divisions guarding the city to cross the river.

The Grande Armée arrives within sight of the river on the 23rd and quickly drives back the Russian troops, but the Russians manage to destroy Borisov's only bridge. As the climate has warmed, the river is no longer frozen, so there seems to be no escape. But two days earlier, a Russian peasant informs a missing French cavalry unit of a passable stretch of Berezina at Studienka, just 15 kilometers north of Borisov. On November 25, Napoleon and the Imperial Guard enter Borisov. Chichagov has no idea that the French have found an alternative crossing, so he issues an order of the day with a description of Napoleon so that he can be identified for capture: the Emperor is said to be "short, stocky, with a neck short and thick." , strong head and black hair.” (King 269) But the Admiral is too confident.

Marshals Murat and Oudinot move their troops towards Studienka, and on the night of the 25th, the engineers brave the freezing water to build two bridges over the Berezina. At the same time, the French pretend to be preparing to cross at Borisov and another crossing to the south. Chichagov takes the bait and moves troops south, while Napoleon continues to divert his forces towards Studienka. The Grande Armée begins to cross the river on the afternoon of the 26th. Although Chichagov learns that he has been deceived, his and Wittgenstein's units are still too far away, although the Russians manage to destroy the last French division that Borisov abandoned. .

By the morning of the 27th, most of the Grande Armée had crossed, except for the 9th Corps which protected the bridges. On the morning of the 28th, 30,000 stragglers, wounded and civilian supporters of the army headed in a disorganized mass towards the Studienka bridges. But now the Russians have rebuilt the Borisov bridge and repositioned their forces: Chichagov's 27,000 men, Wittgenstein's 40,000, and Kutuzov's vanguard are ready to attack the 19,000 Grande Armée soldiers, of which 9,000 are Poles. . On the 28th, in the West Bank, Russian numbers put extreme pressure on the French-led troops, but Marshal Ney's cavalry manages a counterattack that drives the Russians back.

The fighting is fierce, as the Swiss soldier of the Grande Armee Jean-Marc Bussy recalls: “We did not dare to look to the right or to the left for fear of no longer seeing our friends, our comrades. We closed ranks, shortened our line and redoubled our courage. Horrible carnage! To get to our bridges they would have to cut through us, crush each and every one of us. We shout “Vive l’Empreur” and we don't feel the cold. “On ne sent pas le froid.” (King 273) At the same time, on the east bank, Wittgenstein's artillery fires on the crowds of soldiers, wounded, and civilians crossing the bridges.

Württemberg officer Christian von Faber du Faur observes the panic: “Musket and cannon balls fall on the compact mass; The cries of the unfortunate drowned out the thunder of the cannons and the whistle of the bullets; and they ran even more furiously toward the bridge. Around the bridges stood piles of dead men and horses trampled or shot down by enemy fire; To get to the bridge you had to fight your way across them. The ice floes in the river would carry them away from time to time, but this only left room for others.” (King 274) It was already night when the last of Victor's rearguard cleared a trench between the piles of corpses and crossed the river to rejoin the rest of the army.

There are still thousands of non-combatants on the eastern shore, but most are too exhausted and frozen to move, and are killed or taken prisoner by the Russians. When French troops set fire to the bridge early on the 29th, desperate figures attempt one last charge: many more drown in the river, including some mothers who commit suicide by throwing themselves and their children into the icy Berezina. As the Cossacks loot the abandoned carts, Russian engineering officer Martosa is shocked by the carnage: “The first thing we saw was a woman trapped in a hole and crushed by ice. One of her arms was hanging half severed, the other was holding a baby with his arms around her mother's neck.

She was still alive, her eyes fixed on a nearby man who was already frozen. Between them lay another dead child.” (King 278) In military terms, the Battle of the Berezina can be considered a French tactical victory. Napoleon managed to save the core of his very small army against vastly superior Russian forces, including his marshals, his staff, all but one of his division commanders, and 2,000 officers. For the Russians, it was a missed opportunity, and the Tsar places most of the blame on Chichagov. He removes the admiral from command and sends him into exile, a convenient scapegoat for a Russian general failure.

The cost was incredibly high: 13,000 Grande Armée soldiers are dead or wounded, 5,000 non-combatants have died and 10,000 have been taken prisoner. The Russians lose 15,000 dead and wounded. (King 277-8) After failing to completely crush the Grande Armée at Berezina, Kutuzov devises a new plan to capture and surround Napoleon's main force and isolate Macdonald's 10th Corps in the north, at Riga. But with temperatures dropping to -37°C, Russians are also suffering from cold, hunger and exhaustion. The agony of the remnants of the Grande Armée, which once numbered 600,000 men but is now reduced to 15,000 men and up to 40,000 stragglers, is even worse.

The road to Vilnius is littered with the dead and dying, and the Russians launch several small-scale attacks along the way. Napoleon departs for Paris on December 5, leaving his men to fight through the snow until the survivors cross the Neman on December 14. Napoleon's grueling Russian campaign is over. Shortly before leaving, Napoleon publishes a final military bulletin in which he admits defeat but indicates that his "health has never been better." The same cannot be said for hundreds of thousands of people on both sides of the campaign. Historians estimate that around 300,000 Grande Armee soldiers (half of those who entered Russia) died in battle, from wounds, starvation, disease or exposure.

Russian losses are estimated at between 200 and 300,000 dead, along with tens of thousands of civilians. In that same bulletin, Napoleon blamed the harsh Russian winter for his defeat, sparking a myth that would last more than two centuries. “General Winter” certainly contributes to the French disaster, but inadequate logistics, command errors, and fierce Russian resistance ensure the defeat of the Grande Armée even before the first snow falls. Russian myths also grow after

1812

. Intellectuals like Lev Tolstoy and leaders like Joseph Stalin (including the current Vladimir Putin) turn to the fight against Napoleon for inspiration to form national identity and motivate Russians to fight their wars. .

In December

1812

, the destruction of the most powerful army in the world shakes the European order. The Grande Armée maintained Napoleon's rule and imposed the continent's alliance system, and now it no longer exists. The prospect of an independent Polish kingdom and the loyalty of the unwilling French allies P

russia

and Austria are now uncertain. When the Count of Mailly-Nesle arrives at Koenigsberg, his P

russia

n ally, he finds hints of trouble ahead: “he showed an insolent and ungenerous hatred towards the French. Many inns refused to take us in, saying: "Go away, we've had enough of you Frenchmen!" (King 299) The Russian army is intact, the German-speaking lands are restless, and Britain fights on: 1813 promises a new chapter in the fall of Napoleon.