Word: napoleonism
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...going got tougher. The initial Nazi torrent, catching the Russians with their rubbers off, had swept ahead breathtakingly. But in the second week it began to look as if that early ease had been misleading. The Germans came up against a tough natural line at the Berezina River where Napoleon caught hell on his return trip, against the so-called Stalin Line at the Dniester River and near Zhitomir, and against ferocity and tenacity everywhere...
...Napoleon recalled his Ambassador to Moscow, General de Caulaincourt, in 1811. and explained to him his plan of crushing England by crushing Russia-the only continental power still vigorous enough to join forces with England against...
During the night of June 24, 1812 (Hitler started in the night of June 21), Napoleon crossed the Niemen with 363,000 men, the "army of 20 nations," many of them German. Just as the Nazis have a large proportion of mechanized troops, Napoleon had 80.000 cavalry...
...luck struck early. On the very first day, Napoleon fell off his horse-a bad omen. The horses got colic from eating green crops, and in ten days one third of the cavalry was lost. By the time they reached Vilna, 50.000 men were lost from sickness alone. The Russians fought sharp rearguard actions almost to Moscow, stood at Borodino, killed 25,000 Frenchmen. Having entered most of the first cities of Europe except Moscow, the soldiers were eager to sweep into Moscow. But the Russians burned the town as they entered...
...five weeks Napoleon tried to negotiate with the Tsar. In October the weary remains of the Grand Army, 80,000 men, started their fateful march home. Thousands died of hunger, thousands more were trapped by the Russians as Napoleon tried to get back across the Berezina River, where the Germans also had heavy losses last week (see p. 17). On Dec. 20, his troops recrossed the Niemen. They had left 300,000 dead or prisoners in Russia...