Did Winter REALLY Destroy Napoleon's Army?

On the 15th of December 1812, a man who looked like a beggar walked into a warm house in Gumbinnen, East Prussia. His beard was matted, his face black with gunpowder and frostbite. "Don't you recognise me?" he said. "I am the rearguard of the Grande Armée. I am Marshal Michel Ney." Six months earlier, the largest army Europe had ever seen had crossed the river Neman into Russia. Only a small fraction came back. This animated documentary follows Napoleon's invasion of Russia from both sides: from the French side, where a genius was sure he could win in a few weeks — and from the Russian side, where an emperor, an old one-eyed general and millions of ordinary people decided they would rather burn their own country than surrender it. To follow the army we use one of the most famous charts ever drawn: Charles Minard's ribbon, whose width is the army. And we keep an eye on Napoleon's pocket watch. His plan was twenty days. ⏱ CHAPTERS 0:00 Gumbinnen, December 1812 — the last man out 2:55 1807: Two Emperors on a Raft 6:02 24 June 1812: The Biggest Army Ever 9:00 Summer 1812: The Battle That Never Came 13:14 7 September: Borodino 16:29 Moscow: The Keys That Never Came 19:50 Five Weeks 22:40 General Winter? 25:25 The Berezina 28:18 The Price 📌 KEY FACTS • Napoleon gathered more than 600,000 men; around 450,000 crossed the Neman in the first wave — less than half of them French • His army carried supplies for roughly three weeks • Barclay de Tolly's plan: don't give him his battle — retreat, stretch his supply lines • Most of the Grande Armée was already gone before the first snow fell: heat, disease (typhus, dysentery), hunger, desertion • Borodino, 7 September 1812: around 70,000–80,000 killed or wounded in one day, the bloodiest day of the Napoleonic Wars • Moscow burned for four days; around three quarters of the city was destroyed. Most historians think Governor Rostopchin ordered the fires • At the Berezina, a few hundred pontonniers under General Éblé built two bridges standing in freezing water • Of the main army that marched on Moscow, only a few tens of thousands returned 💬 WHAT DO YOU THINK? Who really beat Napoleon? Russia's generals, the Russian people, the heat, the lice and the winter — or Napoleon himself, who planned for twenty days and stayed for a hundred and seventy-five? Tell us in the comments. 🔔 Subscribe for more history told from both sides. Unlike Napoleon's supply wagons, the button is right where you need it. 📚 SOURCES & FURTHER READING • Adam Zamoyski — 1812: Napoleon's Fatal March on Moscow • Dominic Lieven — Russia Against Napoleon • Armand de Caulaincourt — With Napoleon in Russia (memoirs) • Adrien Bourgogne — Memoirs of Sergeant Bourgogne • Charles Joseph Minard — Carte figurative des pertes successives en hommes de l'Armée Française dans la campagne de Russie, 1812–1813 (1869) • Edward Tufte — The Visual Display of Quantitative Information #history #napoleon #1812 #animatedhistory #documentary