Napoleonic Wars: Retreat from Moscow 1812

I hope you enjoy the new episode in our Napoleonic Wars series. This one is a little longer as I wanted time to try and convey the sheer drama and suffering involved in this infamous and tragic episode of military history. Help us to make more videos by checking out our sponsor World of Tanks (use THIS link tanks.ly/33Sp1CW), joining us on Patreon for early access and other perks, or shopping for EHTV branded merchandise! Leipzig and the 1813 German campaign next up, in the meantime I hope you all have excellent holiday seasons.

Can we take a minute to realise that the narrators voice makes this 10 times more epic

And people say history is boring

I am Russian myself, but every time someone, in the context of a war with Russia, starts talking about winter, I want to tell the author - “Russians are the same europian people, Russians no have immunity from hypothermia, Russians also die from hypothermia.”

My ancestor, Christian Knoderer was a Captain under Napolean. He left Paris with nearly 400 men under his command and during the struggle of retreat return from Moscow with 3 of his men including himself.

Napoleon: "Peace lies in Moscow".
Moscow: Yes, eternal peace.

“This is beginning to be very serious”

The biggest understatement in history.

"The corridor was closing"
Chills went through my spine

The army that fought at Waterloo was only a shadow of its former self. It's quite likely that it's the retreat from Moscow that destroyed napoleon. My grandfather died only a few years ago aged 99. He remembered seeing at home, when he was a child, his own great-grandfather's napoleonic rifle propped up against the wall of the family home. His great-grandfather was one of the 5% who survived the retreat and got home. But he got frostbite and lost his toes apparently. He was one of the engineers that built the bridges, and one who destroyed the bridges to prevent the Russians crossing on them, dooming many of his own people who hadn't got over in time. What a horrifying situation they found themselves in

Napoleon: "We captured Moscow, surrender now!"
Alexander: "Or what?"
Napoleon: "I don't know I never thought I'd get this far"

Napoleon entering Moscow: So, it is finally over
Russians: It has just begun

"I've made a grave mistake, but I'll have the means to repair it."

You just lost a half a million soldiers for nothing. You can't repair that. No one can repair that.

I can't get over how intense your portrayal of the Battle of the Berezina is. The music and the narration make it clear like no other documentary I've seen how desperate the situation was. It's epic and I come back to it constantly.

The paintings are glorious.

Its Cold Outside...but after watching this video I’m not going to complain again.

Those 90k that actually made it home must’ve been the hardest men on the planet

Napoleon found it very convenient to lay the blame on "General Winter" - it was one of the things that allowed him to return to France having lost practically his entire army in a humiliating defeat and retreat but rather than being deposed in a coup, he created a whole new army in short order. Such was his charisma (and skill at propaganda) that the French population were still willing to follow him, and to have their sons conscripted despite the fact that it was the Emperor who had, in effect, just killed several hundred thousand of them. Moreover, it is likely that Napoleon's ego would not allow him to accept it was his own poor decisions that lead to disaster - he was very naive in his trust of the Tzar, and delayed evacuating Moscow for many unecessary weeks. It is a common fate of dictators - they start to believe their own myths of invincibility. Hitler was the same. The initial string of victories by the Wehrmacht convinced him that he was unbeatable.

Imagine being a Russian criminal imprisoned for your crimes and then suddenly your own guards spring you and your buddies from prison and are told "The French are coming, set the whole place on fire. Go nuts!"

Halo 1812.
New objective:
Survive

Two years later Russian troops entered Paris. No violence to civil people at all. No one case.