Word: napoleonism
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...winter of 1812 Napoleon retreated from Moscow, but in the winter of 1941 Fedor von Bock expects to take the city. This is partly because Fedor von Bock is driven by a furious determination shared by every German officer all the way up to Adolf Hitler; it is partly because der Sterber is disdainful of hard ships...
Steely determination to win and a willingness to die have won more than one battle. But when these qualities develop into indifference to losses-as they did on the Western Front in World War I and as they did in Napoleon's later campaigns-they can easily lose wars. Before Moscow Bock is expending men and materiel whose strength Germany will never be able to call on again. It is just possible that when the military history of World War II is written and a list is made of the generals who have done most to whittle down Germany...
...During the wars of Louis XIV and Napoleon, the French were regarded almost as the Germans are today. After France had been invaded and defeated and punished in 1814, in 1815 and in 1870-71, the French people ceased to be aggressive and dangerous. ... It is at least possible to hope that after similar experiences the Germans may get over their militaristic propensities...
...Surikov fixed in oil a sense of Russian gusto: Repin's Reply of the Cossacks to the Sultan curses in color. General Suvarov, who slaughtered the Turks at Ismail and the Poles at Warsaw, showed that in war a Russian can be ruthless. General Kutuzov, who lured Napoleon to his fate, showed that he can be shrewd...
Whatever his plan, Hitler's propaganda agents, pleading the nonsensicality of harking back to Napoleon, were at some pains to explain away their Führer's recent boast that Russia was already licked. "The beaten enemy," said the Berliner Lokalanzeiger, "unfortunately was not encircled in all sectors and has managed to assemble again and is still offering resistance, supported by fresh reserves...