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10:09 That corpse was hit so hard it flipped 180° instantly! ...kidding aside, great video! That's probably one of the very few animation mistakes I've seen in the entire time I've watched your channel, which just shows how good of a job your team has done up to this point.
@@Opama_ Waterloo wasn't the bloodiest at all. Leipzig, Wagram, Borodino, Aspern-Essling, Eylau were bloodier. Lutzen and Bautzen were also possibly bloodier. Bodorino was by far the bloodiest day.
Out of every twelve men who marched with the Grande Armée into Russia in 1812, 1 was killed in combat, 2 became POWs (1 of which would die in captivity), 7 would die from disease, starvation, or exposure, and only 2 would make it back. That means that out of the roughly 600,000 men that marched in, only about 100,000 marched back out. Over half a million men either dead or captured, and only about 1/10 from the fighting. The fact that Napoleon managed to fight on for over a year afterwards is a major miracle of military logistics.
Не стоит забывать о партизанских движениях, от последствий которых и погибло большинство, поэтому победа над французами это не достижение наших военных, и не природных условий, это достижение всего народа, который героически сражался с оккупантами
Oh, of course, General Frost is a favorite excuse for Europeans, from Napoleon to German Nazis, who either drown in mud or freeze to death, but this, of course, is by no means connected with the courage and valor of Russian soldiers and officers ...
Everyone knows that Napoleon was defeated by England, which spent the entire war on the island and in the battle of Waterloo, where the remnants of the guards and armed peasants who had not yet frozen to death in Russia, who had to be trained to reload muskets during the battle, nevertheless defeated the remnants of Napoleon's army ...
To clarify, the Kingdom of Wurttemberg did not supply half of the cavalry or a third of the infantry. The small german kingdom only contributed some 12k men. However, the Confenderation of the Rhine as a whole contributed 111k men. In fact, the largest foreign contingent were the Poles from the Duchy of Warsaw (around 90k men).
A Pyrrhic Victory. Napoleon held the field. But the Russian Army was not destroyed, retreated in good order, and had fought the Grand Armee to a standstill for hours. All it got Napoleon in the end was tens of thousands of dead and wounded men
That's not what a Phyrrhic victory is. A Pyrrhic victory is a victory where more is actually lost than gained. At Borodino, the French won the field and Moscow. They also inflicted far more losses. The campaign became a disaster because Moscow was set on fire and because Napoléon stayed one month there waiting for a Russian surrender. Kutuzov wanted to defend Moscow in another battle but had to withdraw when he learned the full scale of his losses at Borodino.
@@lahire4943 moscow is worthless at this point, the city has been evacuated, it serves no strategic point at this time, meanwhile the Grande armee is exhausted, already lacking men and can't refill their numbers, Borodino and Moscow is a strategic lost for Napoleon, he got nothing yet lost so many, the upcoming retreat and many defeats suffered in it would be the final nail in Grande armee's coffin This is by any definition, is Phyrhiic tactical victory but a strategic loss.
If anyone wants to see an amazing representation of this battle, look up "War and Peace: Part iii". With the battle scene taking 2 years by itself, it is unbelievable in it's gargantuan scale and astonishing attention to historical detail (The scene is even filmed where the actual battle took place). It remains the largest battle scene filmed in history, and I would say it's the very best portrayal of Napoleonic warfare i've ever seen.
you are absolutely right. Sergei Bondarchuk is a great Soviet director. He was so trusted by the Soviet Ministry of Cinema that he gave him 2 divisions of soldiers as extras. This is a wonderful film based on one of the greatest books in history. Leo Tolstoy was a brilliant writer.
Wurttemberg supplied 12,000 soldiers. I don't know where they got their info but it's very strange. And less than 1/4 of the army was German, so that's even worse
"Quick, the French are taking the city. Release all these prisoners and tell them to burn it to the ground." "Well, well, Jimmy the Arsonist, you are not going to believe your luck."
I’m sorry but there are major inaccuracies. For example Kutuzov wrote a letter that is known throughout all Slavs who have interest in Russian history,” my tsar, I can neither claim victory nor defeat, as we (kutuzov and Napoleon) suffered deeply.” Or something along those lines.
@@mexicomax77 Winter was coming regardless. Napoleon expected that he'd just turn up at Moscow and the Csar would make peace, because that was how it was done. He never expected the Russians to burn Moscow, but even then, when it was clear that his army couldn't winter in Moscow, Napoleon hesitated for weeks. Kutuzov and the Csar outplayed Napoleon, who waited far too long in Moscow for a peace offer that would never come.
@@That-Belgian-Guy Saying 1/2 of Napoleons army was from Würtenburg was a glaring fault. That would be 25% of their whole population. Würtenberg made up 12,000 men so idk where he got 250,000 from. The entire Rhine confederation of which Würtenberg was a part gave 110,000 men. Describing Ney as a cavalry commander when he was an infantry leader Giving a very poor description of the actual reasons Napoleon invaded Russia. There are more pointed out in other comments
And did you know that Pytor Tchaikovsky wrote and composing the 1812 Overture that was inspired by the Russians victory over the French in 1812 during a Russian Winter that totally devastating the Grand Armee of Napoleon Bonaparte. You should listen to its iconic masterpiece and hear the cannons Boom.
Nevertheless the 1814 campaign is considered one of the most sophisticated of Napoleons actions. He managed to defend France from numerous coalition armies and make several significant defeats to the allied troops
This video makes some pretty bizarre claims, such as one at 3:30 that half of Napoleon's cavalry and a third of his infantry came from the German state of Wurttemberg, which was at most a second-tier member of the Confederation of the Rhine. They didn't even have their own corps in the Grande Armee, while states such as Saxony, Bavaria, and Westphalia did. Then the video refers to Michel Ney "of the French cavalry", even though Ney commanded III Corps (previously VI Corps), which consisted of infantry units. Ney hadn't directly led French cavalry since the War of the Second Coalition.
I also noticed this as well. I think someone on his research staff mentioned Wurttemberg as a part of the German contingent making up that percentage of the army, but someone else misreading it. As for the comment on Ney: yeah, he wasn't commanding the cavalry, that was Murat. Also wasn't a really distinguished or famous Marshal by this stage of the war, wouldn't be until the retreat from Moscow that the army considered him a legend. Think again, someone confused him for Murat, who would be a better fit to mention given how highly regarded he was by the French and the Russians as a cavalryman (the Cossacks considered capturing him and making him a member of their band). I really hope Griffin and team fix the error and reupload this.
I totally agree. Stopped watching after the Ney comment as it makes me wonder how accurate the rest of the video is. Sad because normally I like the Armchair Historians stuff.
It also claims that the rumour of the Russian commander "critically wounded Russian moral". Do they even realise what that means? It means Russian morale was dying. Well, it wasn't. So what use is such a statement?
As a Russian, I would like to say thank you for doing such a great work. I might be biased but the Russian history is the most complex and interesting one , yet it is definitely under represented and even mis represented most of the times in the western culture. Thanks for doing such a great work, much appreciated👍
I'm french and you know. I'm fascinate with Russia. I love this country almost as I love France. Such a land of genius, pride and strength. From Poltava to Berezina until WW2. Huge.
I'm sure this won't get as much attention as it rightfully deserves, but the animation quality has gotten surreal. The way the animation moves and how well drawn everything is made. I must give it to the team for putting out very good quality content. Just goes to show how much of improvement you guys have truly made over the years. Can't wait to see what you guys have to come for the rest of the channels life!
Fun fact : 0:00-1:48 this theme music comes from a famous French "chanson revancharde" (revanchist song following the defeat of 1870 Franco-Prussian War). It's called "Vous n'aurez pas l'Alsace et Lorraine". I truly appreciate these little details that make your video even better :) There is a beautiful version sung by George Thill (who was one of the greatest tenor in history) that you can listen to on RUclips!
I don't know why it's emphasised so much for the Russians and not the French at the start of the video but the French infantry also consisted of mass conscripts. Napoleon would launch huge conscription drives at the start of each major offensive throughout the period to raise more and more troops.
I noticed that too, these "historians' try to protect Napoleon as possible. They do not want to come to terms that Napoleon was nothing more than a goon who hijacked a powerful military from a lost and confused nation, and waged total war on Europe, ending in defeat. It does Europe no favors glorifying this, not today, not in 1938, not in 1799.
Even if Napoleon had sent his Old Guard in, the assault would not have been any more successful. The Russian guard sustained all the cannon and cavalry of the French army, the infantry may have been the one to rout them, but the Russian guard were notorious for their refusal to be turned away at any cost. Even if the Russian rearguard was routed, here's your issue: Catching the remnants of the army would need breakneck speed with a tired army, and even the Old Guard would be tired after engaging the rear. Everyone knew the casualties would be tremendous, and if Napoleon did indeed throw his Guard into this all, then he wouldn't have made it out of Russia when he was given a persisting chase.
I have been to Borodino, it’s crazy, there are ww2 entrenchments that have been left there and it’s crazy how in the same field, you can see how the French tried to take Russia and then the Germans and both failed. The distance isn’t even that long, if it wasn’t for the smoke, napoleon and reyevsky could have actually seen each other. This kind of battle would be impossible now as either of the generals would just get sniped, napoleon was crazy to just go straight into the battle to be able to see it.
The beginning of the video has glaring misinformation. Napoleon didn't invade Russia *solely* for the conquest of Europe, the breaking of both France and Russia of the Treaty of Tilsit did convince Napoleon that Russia is a uncommiting ally. It wasn't Ney that was famous (not until Waterloo / Eylau), but Davout. Russia was numbering around 200,000 at the start of the invasion. Napoleon lost more to hunger and heatstroke in the summer, compared to the usual banter of Russian Winter (not underestimating it! It was a huge factor of Napoleon's defeat) beating it all. But overall, a nice video!
Ney wasn't that famous before the Russian Invasion, but he was very admired during the retreat from Russia. He led his corp during the retreat and escaped russian encirclement (an amazing feat considering the odds). Napoleon even called him 'The Bravest of the Braves'.
@@trollege9618 Yes, I completely forgot that lol. It was after the Invasion that Ney got his reputation of "The Bravest of the Brave". But it was more on Davout that is more famous during the invasion, so we're both in the right here.
6:48 oop, not sure if im misunderstanding or if this is an animation error; bottom most French lineinfantry icon turns into a Russian one once it reached the "most injured" state. Overall, animation has gotten insanely good since I been watching for a few years. Facial animation and minor stuff in particular.
Preservation of force was also at play. Remember that at those times, raising & maintaining an army on campaign was expensive and given that the european mainland was under a state of perpetual war, their coffers would be running out or outright depleted. An unpaid army would could evolve into mutiny.
Most often cited numbers of the Grande Armee: 300 thousand French (including conscripts from annexed territories) 108 thousand Poles (Duchy of Warsaw, Imperial Guard, Legions and fresh recruits from Russian occupied Poland) 112 thousand from the Confederation of the Rhine (12 thousand from Wurttemburg) 27 thousand Italians 8 - 16 thousand Swiss 4 thousand Spanish 2 thousand Portugal 8-10 thousand "Illyrians" (modern Slovenia, Croatia) 20 thousand from Prussia 35 thousand "Austrians" (about 2/3 were from occupied nations) There is ofcourse debate about the exact numbers but those are the most often listed that I found.
I'm from Württemberg and we still got to this day many, many horse staples. Especially in the northern black forest area, like the Landkreis Freudenstadt.
Yeah it's incredible they asserted such a thing. Württemberg contributed with 12,000 soldiers... The Confederation of the Rhine contributed with 110,000 soldiers, which is still far from 1/3 of the infantry and 1/2 of the cavalry.
One of the few moments Napoleon went forward to see for himself what was transpiring was when he received reports from front line cmdrs that the Russians were near total collapse and required one final push to seal their fate - so it is likely that Napoleon despite his reservations seriously considered moving forward his last reserve against an enemy on verge of near total route. Quite to the contrary however, through the confused smoky haze, he saw lines of plenty Russian infantry STILL (Ney couldn't believe it either) holding their ground in good order opposite Semyonovskaya ridge. Napoleon and the French realized that it would need another day to reorganize for another assault. What they did not know, was that the Russians would totally withdraw overnight - then abandon Moscow! - and thus the great opportunity to crush the Russian main army once and for all would be lost. Had that have been known, Napoleon would have likely deployed the Guard immediately against a vulnerable point to prevent the orderly withdrawal of Russian forces as he would have nothing left to lose then. But that possibility wasn't even considered. They thought the Russians would fight to the death to very the gates of Moscow. Credit to the Russians for throwing a monkey wrench in French plans.
Overall this was a good video, but there's one thing that has been bothering me, you said the Kingdom of Wurttemberg's troops made up 1/2 of his cavalry and 1/3 of his infantry, which is not true at all. In fact the entire Wurttemberg contingent amounted to no more than 12,000 men and the entirety of the Grande Armee's contingent of ethnic Germans no more than 151,000 of his 680,000.
Mom once took me to Borodino for couple of days to visit recreation of events and walk around rhe place. There are still remains of fortifications left there, although obviously, very damaged after 200 years.
Funny fact: In 1789, Napoleon applied for service in the Russian army, but after learning that there were career restrictions for foreigners, he abandoned this idea.
@@Thefrogking234 i doubt it very much, he was boosted to join french officer college, i don't see why he would want to join the russian army, especially during the revolution, considering his name, i call it BS
@@mikestauffer7033 well the Russians were hiring foreign officers to fight the ottomans and he was having a tough time due to the debt when his father died which he had to take care of and the French army kept discharging him so he tried to join the Russians but as you can see they didn't let him in
Borodino might have been the last "triumph" of Napoleon, but there were still impressive victories ahead, for instance: The 6 days campaign in 1814: ~30 k French VS ~50-56 k Prusso-russians led by Blücher. French victory (despite MANY unexperienced very young conscripts). Napoleon inflicted an important amount of casualties to his opponents while losing only minimal casualties himself (the Prusso-russians had between 6 and 10 times more casualties than the French). -- Battle of Dresden in 1813: ~100,000 French (w/ a few Saxons) VS ~200,000 Austrians, Russians and Prussians. Result: French victory etc....
I love finding comments like this. It’s so easy to forget about the remaining battles of the napoleonic wars. Too many people just think Borodino, retreat, exile then Waterloo!
@@robnixon8832 And there's also just before Waterloo, Quatre-bras won by Ney against Wellington, ans Ligny, led by Napoleon against Blücher and that almost reverse the cours of the war because Blücher fell from his horse and it was only luck that the french cavalry didn't found him under his dead horse. In fact, in the whole campagne of Belgium, only Waterloo was a defeat, thanks for the intervention of Blücher and the determination of Wellesley to hold the line.
Wrong, because both campaigns in 1813 and 1814 ended in total DEFEAT! There was nothing brilliant about the 6 Day Campaign when Napoleon foolishly went on the offensive and was out of position to defend Paris, that fell easily to the coalition. Nor the campaign in 1813 where Napoleon was trapped and smashed at Leipzig. Both campaigns were utter failures by Napoleon. It is no coincidence that as the French military got weaker, Napoleon did not look as "brilliant" anymore. Especially after Borodino, which was the point in time the French military became second-rate. And if you look at the retreat from Russia, the Leizpig Campaign, 1814 France, and the Waterloo Campaign, you will see four of the most poorly led campaigns in the history of warfare. If history was being honest, people would see that Napoleon had four consecutive terrible losing campaigns, four straight years as the French army was second-rate. It is clear that those early military successes France had more to do with the might of the French military, in spite of Napoleon. Even the French Revolutionary Wars ended in victory. And in the case of the War of Second Coalition, in spite of Napoleon, not because of him. Not with the disaster at Egypt and the near disaster at Marengo.
to Hazel Mel: _"both campaigns in 1813 and 1814 ended in total DEFEAT!"_ I said: _"there were still impressive victories ahead"_ . How amazing victories in battles won against all odds couldn't qualify as "victories" will remain a mystery. You just needed a pretext to spew your venom. _"There was nothing brilliant about the 6 Day Campaign"_ You're funny. Somehow you missed the fact that the French tiny "army" was totally outnumbered and somehow miraculously trounced the Russo-Prussian army, inflicting to it an (literally) incredible number of casualties. It was a desparate attempt and there was nothing to expect except defeat. It was nothing short of a miracle that Napoleon and his young unexperienced little army was able to to do anything at all - let alone ridiculizing his mighty opponent. He should have been smashed right away. You're an extremely dishonest and biased individual. _"was out of position to defend Paris, that fell easily to the coalition"_ There was nothing to do to win. And somehow the tiny army defending Paris managed to inflict way more casualties to the huge coalition army attacking it, before having to surrender. _"Nor the campaign in 1813 where Napoleon was trapped and smashed at Leipzig"_ This tend to happen when you're so much outnumbered - a fact that you couldn't ignore. The manpower of France was reduced by ~ one GENERATION of constant wars (1792-1813 (1815 in total)). France was exhausted on account on fighting the major powers of Europe for so long and had to rely more and more on unexperienced very young conscripts. The quality was bound to decrease and yet Napoleon still managed to win impressive victories, somehow. I wonder from which country with such a fantastic military history you are - that you can allow yourself to (try to) belittle such impressive achievements.
@@krips22 Both 1813 Germany and 1814 France were pathetic military campaigns by Napoleon, which followed up the disastrous 1812 Russia campaign. And you want to defend that, what a disgrace...... The way Napoleon got smashed at Leipzig was way harder than any smashing Napoleon ever did, by far. But you want to be dishonest and tell only half the story, and you do not mention that whatever Napoleon did in 1813 Germany led to him getting trapped and smashed at Leipzig as Napoleon wasted away another entire French army, his second in two years in 1812 and 1813. In 1814 France, you want to give Napoleon credit for taking MEANINGLESS pawns in the Six Days Campaign, and getting himself out of position as Napoleon foolishly went on the offensive and lost Paris easily, checkmate Napoleon, your king Paris was taken while you went after meaningless pawns.. So bad was Napoleon's incompetence in 1814 France, that his own Marshalls fired him for incompetence as Paris fell. But you don't want to mention that, you want to make it seem like Napoleon was "brilliant" in the Six Days Campaign when it was a counter-productive, meaningless, waste of time and resources offensive campaign that ended in Napoleon being dismissed by his own Marshalls as Paris fell easily. And for the last time, stop ignoring the pathetic military results, which absolutely matter. In fact, results are the most important part of any war. When foreign troops capture your capital, occupy your territory after you ran your powerful military off a cliff like Napoleon, those are garbage military results.
You could mention about Poles in the begging French force. In Napoleon Grand Army marching into Russia was 100 000 polish solder. V korp of the Napoleon army was sometimes named polish,and was under command of great polish Commander prince Josef Poniatowski. He fought on się of Napoleon to his death in" battle of nation".
I find the napoleonic wars as the most exciting time in European history from a historic perspective. This was an amazing video. But I do not know much about early colonial times in the Australian continent. (Since I’m Australian), would be cool if you made a video covering some of those topics
Im australian too. Nothing of much interest happened down under until WW2 unfortunately. Even nowadays, we are lucky to be geographically isolated but also means not much history is produced in Oceania..
You think that when a thug hijacks a powerful military from a lost and confused nation and wages war on Europe, that is exciting? Let me guess, you are 12 years old, right?
"It ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!” - Rocky Balboa Borodino Battle of Stalingrad Russian's ability to absorb all those damages and bounce back is crazy !!
@@vermilion6966 When he invaded it was very hot, when he was leaving he and his army was freezing to death all the way back to France though. I would know, i am a Moscow native. )
@@smal750 All i have to say is two Russian proverbs: “A man who threatens with the sword will die by the sword.” And “A Russian can only control Russia, as Russia is already impossible to rule by a Russian himself.”
Хочу сказать, что я русский и знаю Бородинское сражение почти наизусть, и я могу сказать, что здесь есть грубая ошибка, так как на одном участке с Наполеоном было 2 армии численностью около 180.000 человек, а у Вас сказано будто больше половины миллиона. Русская армия может в те времена и достигала таких размеров, но силы которые могли оказать сопротивление Наполеону были размером в 180000 человек, именно поэтому 2 армии и отступали из-за такого огромного численного перевеса Наполеоновских войск. Однако я ещё хочу добавить, что на Бородинском поле присутствовало примерно по 150000 человек с обеих сторон
про полмиллиона никто не говорил, он поминал, что в Россию вошло 400 с чем-то тысяч. точное число войск при Бородино у него есть. и там 130 на 125 или типа того
я бы ещё отметил, что не упомянут тот факт, что Москва не была столицей (и уже несколько лет как на тот момент имела меньше населения, чем Питер). здесь же мы слышим что взятие Москвы "логически" привело бы к сдаче всего и вся царём
Borodino was one of the most significant battles of the Russian imperial era, the USSR march "we are the army of the people" featured the notation of its chorus
I have a interesting theory that Napoleon did not take Davout's advice on a flanking manuever because he was psychologically affected and unnerved to crush the Russians while they are weak, he was partially right to not authorize a monumental flanking manuever until the Russian reserve divisions have been deployed. But I am interested to see what would have happened if the flanking plan had gone into affect, with Ney and Murat pinning down the bulk of the Russian units sent to outmanuever the flankers.
It would be difficult for large French forces to break through rough terrain of the Utitsa forest without being noted by Russians. In this case it is likely that Kutuzov would retreat from the battle field another time
Napoleon was a master, thus he had good reason to analyze and ultimately decide against Davout's flanking plan. Maneuvers are not that easy. They were already DEPLOYED at Borodino, and to maneuver at such a scale would be very hard to keep a secret. It wasn't like at Ulm, or at Austerlitz where the Allies were aggressive. And the Russians have reserves to match Davout's maneuver. A frontal attack was logical to Napoleon - the Grand Armee had superior artillery, plenty of infantry and cavalry, and he was confident they matched the Russians. And so, the battle of Moskova was bloody.
@@napoleoncorneliusscipio5141 I agree, good luck trying to move 50k worth of troops through thick woods and ravines. Perfect targets for sharpshooters and skirmishers as well. His best chance i think would have been to skirmish in front of the Redoubt and Fleches while simultaneously sending a huge column in between the two fortifications with the hope of cracking the center as he had so many times before.
I went to highschool with Griffen Johnson, the guy was always such a creep. He followed my little sister in the bathroom one time and almost got expelled. Ive got the restraining order and everything to prove it. Strange hes making history videos now.
You missed so much about why Russian high command let Moscow be taken and next manuvers that Kutuzov did and also I don't believe that Kutuzov was far away from a fight he positions his headquarters that way that he can see the battle
Awesome video as always, although I'd like to point out two minor inaccuracies: - at 4:40 it almost sounds as if the armies that met at Borodino were significantly smaller than they were at the start of the invasion due to casualties, whereas in reality this was mostly due to the fact that the French advance went on various fronts, not just towards Moscow, and that the French had to use a considerable number of soldiers to protect their long supply line. The Russians had to deploy their own army accordingly. - at 17:12 you mention that the Grand Armee "wintered" in Moscow, although Napoleon left Moscow as early as October 19, due to the fact that the city was in rubbles and it couldn't sustain his army. Napoleon was desperately seeking a decisive victory against the Russians before winter, because he knew he was running out of supplies. When he couldn't, he had no other choice other than withdrawing as winter approached.
yes, they were smaller due to casualties. The hot summer, exhaustion and typhus had by that point killed about 60% of the original invading force. The other fronts, mainly the Corps of Saint-Cyr, Macdonald, Reynier and Schwarzenberg amounted to less then 100,000 men
Neat, I only recently even heard of the battle of Borodino. Somehow, I thought the Russians barely fought back against Napoleon, using the land and winter instead (and no, not because of bad history memes; I know Napoleon invaded in June and left Moscow before winter).
You forget a lot of Napoleon's forces were guardung his flanks so all of them were not deaths he had to cover his flanks because there was Russian armies in the North and the South trying to cut off his supply lines so this is not true about all the deaths until the retreat back to Poland
Peoples always want world war two or one shooters when it comes to historical shooters.. but tbh musket warfare is pritty fucking scary and cool as well..
It would be difficult for large French forces to break through rough terrain of the Utitsa forest without being noted by Russians. In this case it is likely that Kutuzov would retreat from the battle field another time.
Скажи-ка, дядя, ведь не даром Москва спалённая пожаром, Французу отдана? Ведь были ж схватки боевые, Да,говорят, ещё какие! Не даром помнит вся Россия Про день Бородина! Михаил Юрьевич Лермонтов, «Бородино»
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Austerlitz when
Could you do Aspern Esserling?
@@morisscramdoodle1220 It's a Statu quo battle lmao why this one instead of Leipzig. it's only significance is the loss of General Jean Lannes.
10:09 That corpse was hit so hard it flipped 180° instantly!
...kidding aside, great video! That's probably one of the very few animation mistakes I've seen in the entire time I've watched your channel, which just shows how good of a job your team has done up to this point.
Every war sure has a deadly part in it
Little correction, this is the bloodiest day in the napoleonic wars, not the bloodiest battle, the battle of Leipzig was bloodier
What about Jena-Austerlitz
Wasn't waterloo THE bloodiest?
@@Opama_ borodino had between 68 and 80k deaths
waterloo had around 50k casualties.
so no waterloo wasnt the bloodiest.
@@Opama_ Waterloo wasn't the bloodiest at all. Leipzig, Wagram, Borodino, Aspern-Essling, Eylau were bloodier. Lutzen and Bautzen were also possibly bloodier. Bodorino was by far the bloodiest day.
@@margaretkairu7418 ut was bloody but the battle of aspern, wagram and many more beats it, the large battles where brutal in the napoleonic wars
Out of every twelve men who marched with the Grande Armée into Russia in 1812, 1 was killed in combat, 2 became POWs (1 of which would die in captivity), 7 would die from disease, starvation, or exposure, and only 2 would make it back. That means that out of the roughly 600,000 men that marched in, only about 100,000 marched back out. Over half a million men either dead or captured, and only about 1/10 from the fighting. The fact that Napoleon managed to fight on for over a year afterwards is a major miracle of military logistics.
IMO his campaigns of 1813 and 1814, although he lost, were his most brilliant. Racing around trying to counter hopeless odds.
Не стоит забывать о партизанских движениях, от последствий которых и погибло большинство, поэтому победа над французами это не достижение наших военных, и не природных условий, это достижение всего народа, который героически сражался с оккупантами
Oh, of course, General Frost is a favorite excuse for Europeans, from Napoleon to German Nazis, who either drown in mud or freeze to death, but this, of course, is by no means connected with the courage and valor of Russian soldiers and officers ...
@@ИльяСапрыкин-б5е сапрыга, ты вроде русский, а почемуто пишешь на английском и полную ахинею несёшь
Everyone knows that Napoleon was defeated by England, which spent the entire war on the island and in the battle of Waterloo, where the remnants of the guards and armed peasants who had not yet frozen to death in Russia, who had to be trained to reload muskets during the battle, nevertheless defeated the remnants of Napoleon's army ...
To clarify, the Kingdom of Wurttemberg did not supply half of the cavalry or a third of the infantry. The small german kingdom only contributed some 12k men. However, the Confenderation of the Rhine as a whole contributed 111k men. In fact, the largest foreign contingent were the Poles from the Duchy of Warsaw (around 90k men).
The battle that made the cannon an orchestra instrument.
@Thank me later 🅥 You are the bot.
You don't say
Wellington's Victory (Beethoven), Parade (Satie), "At the Hunt polka/Auf der Jagd" (Strauss), and others would like a word with you...
A Pyrrhic Victory. Napoleon held the field. But the Russian Army was not destroyed, retreated in good order, and had fought the Grand Armee to a standstill for hours.
All it got Napoleon in the end was tens of thousands of dead and wounded men
the point was to stall Napolean until winter. and they did.
That's not what a Phyrrhic victory is. A Pyrrhic victory is a victory where more is actually lost than gained. At Borodino, the French won the field and Moscow. They also inflicted far more losses. The campaign became a disaster because Moscow was set on fire and because Napoléon stayed one month there waiting for a Russian surrender.
Kutuzov wanted to defend Moscow in another battle but had to withdraw when he learned the full scale of his losses at Borodino.
The victory gained him nothing in the end.
@@michaelsinger4638 Because he made bad decisions after
@@lahire4943 moscow is worthless at this point, the city has been evacuated, it serves no strategic point at this time, meanwhile the Grande armee is exhausted, already lacking men and can't refill their numbers, Borodino and Moscow is a strategic lost for Napoleon, he got nothing yet lost so many, the upcoming retreat and many defeats suffered in it would be the final nail in Grande armee's coffin
This is by any definition, is Phyrhiic tactical victory but a strategic loss.
If anyone wants to see an amazing representation of this battle, look up "War and Peace: Part iii". With the battle scene taking 2 years by itself, it is unbelievable in it's gargantuan scale and astonishing attention to historical detail (The scene is even filmed where the actual battle took place). It remains the largest battle scene filmed in history, and I would say it's the very best portrayal of Napoleonic warfare i've ever seen.
Sergei Bondarchuk knows his stuff, he'd make Waterloo a few years later.
you are absolutely right. Sergei Bondarchuk is a great Soviet director. He was so trusted by the Soviet Ministry of Cinema that he gave him 2 divisions of soldiers as extras. This is a wonderful film based on one of the greatest books in history. Leo Tolstoy was a brilliant writer.
There is no way that Wurttemberg could have supplied 250.000 soldiers. Even the hyper militarised Prussia couldn't muster that many men.
Wurttemberg would have had to conscript 20% of the whole kingdom to get those numbers.
Wurttemberg supplied 12,000 soldiers. I don't know where they got their info but it's very strange. And less than 1/4 of the army was German, so that's even worse
I believe he mistook wurttemberg for the entire confederation of the rhine + prussia. Wurttemberg only supplied around 30-50k men
@@randomhumanbeing4182 Yeah I was wondering why Wurttemberg did not conquer France and the rest of Germany LMFAO
Yes! Bavaria famously had the largest army, and they supplied about 30.000 men of the VI. Korps.
"Quick, the French are taking the city. Release all these prisoners and tell them to burn it to the ground."
"Well, well, Jimmy the Arsonist, you are not going to believe your luck."
Oversimplified reference
Good ol oversimplified
Napoleon lost more men from nature than from the fighting during his invasion of Russia
ayyyy scorpo
No
True, love your videos Scorpo :3
Every army lost more men from diseases (nature) than fighting
The Motherland has always had the protection of mother nature herself.
I’m sorry but there are major inaccuracies. For example Kutuzov wrote a letter that is known throughout all Slavs who have interest in Russian history,” my tsar, I can neither claim victory nor defeat, as we (kutuzov and Napoleon) suffered deeply.” Or something along those lines.
People say that General Winter defeated Napoleon. He was already defeated before winter. Winter made the defeat absolute and final.
Haven’t you watched the video ? France won at Borodino and conquered Moscow….Without that harsh winter, history would have been very different indeed.
@@mexicomax77 Winter was coming regardless. Napoleon expected that he'd just turn up at Moscow and the Csar would make peace, because that was how it was done. He never expected the Russians to burn Moscow, but even then, when it was clear that his army couldn't winter in Moscow, Napoleon hesitated for weeks. Kutuzov and the Csar outplayed Napoleon, who waited far too long in Moscow for a peace offer that would never come.
People claiming that winter won most wars for Russia are stupid... like in 1941 USSR *advanced* in *winter* , when defending would've been easier
@@mexicomax77 what won ? So what if they captured moscow ?
@@mexicomax77 Napoleon lost over 50% of the army before winter
I’d love to see a video of Napoleon’s finest military hour: The 1805 Battle of Austerlitz.
Amazing video Griffin!
The Bloodiest single day in the napoleonic wars, I love it!
Dont forget about animators bruh
How was it amazing? It was riddled with inaccuracies and was vanilla af. Good animations tho
@@rhysnichols8608 Polish troops had French skins xD
@@rhysnichols8608 can you sum up some inaccuracies?
@@That-Belgian-Guy
Saying 1/2 of Napoleons army was from Würtenburg was a glaring fault. That would be 25% of their whole population. Würtenberg made up 12,000 men so idk where he got 250,000 from. The entire Rhine confederation of which Würtenberg was a part gave 110,000 men.
Describing Ney as a cavalry commander when he was an infantry leader
Giving a very poor description of the actual reasons Napoleon invaded Russia.
There are more pointed out in other comments
And did you know that Pytor Tchaikovsky wrote and composing the 1812 Overture that was inspired by the Russians victory over the French in 1812 during a Russian Winter that totally devastating the Grand Armee of Napoleon Bonaparte. You should listen to its iconic masterpiece and hear the cannons Boom.
Always like to see Napoleonic Era content!! Awesome video!!
"And as he got older, Napoleon's tactics seemed a bit more 'run straight to the enemy, try not to die'"
-Oversimplified
Nevertheless the 1814 campaign is considered one of the most sophisticated of Napoleons actions. He managed to defend France from numerous coalition armies and make several significant defeats to the allied troops
Yes. The classic
“WITH THE SACRED PHRASE, MOSCOW IS BEHIND US, WE REMEMBER THE BATTLE OF BORODINO!”
Donbass za nami, s nami Bog, Rossiya za nami, s nami Bog!
This video makes some pretty bizarre claims, such as one at 3:30 that half of Napoleon's cavalry and a third of his infantry came from the German state of Wurttemberg, which was at most a second-tier member of the Confederation of the Rhine. They didn't even have their own corps in the Grande Armee, while states such as Saxony, Bavaria, and Westphalia did. Then the video refers to Michel Ney "of the French cavalry", even though Ney commanded III Corps (previously VI Corps), which consisted of infantry units. Ney hadn't directly led French cavalry since the War of the Second Coalition.
I think he confused Marshal Ney with Marshal Murat.
I also noticed this as well. I think someone on his research staff mentioned Wurttemberg as a part of the German contingent making up that percentage of the army, but someone else misreading it.
As for the comment on Ney: yeah, he wasn't commanding the cavalry, that was Murat. Also wasn't a really distinguished or famous Marshal by this stage of the war, wouldn't be until the retreat from Moscow that the army considered him a legend. Think again, someone confused him for Murat, who would be a better fit to mention given how highly regarded he was by the French and the Russians as a cavalryman (the Cossacks considered capturing him and making him a member of their band).
I really hope Griffin and team fix the error and reupload this.
I totally agree. Stopped watching after the Ney comment as it makes me wonder how accurate the rest of the video is. Sad because normally I like the Armchair Historians stuff.
It also claims that the rumour of the Russian commander "critically wounded Russian moral". Do they even realise what that means? It means Russian morale was dying. Well, it wasn't. So what use is such a statement?
As a Russian, I would like to say thank you for doing such a great work. I might be biased but the Russian history is the most complex and interesting one , yet it is definitely under represented and even mis represented most of the times in the western culture. Thanks for doing such a great work, much appreciated👍
It's definitely the most complex in my opinion
I find russian history very interesting.
I'm french and you know. I'm fascinate with Russia. I love this country almost as I love France.
Such a land of genius, pride and strength. From Poltava to Berezina until WW2.
Huge.
Russian history is that of a country failing at everything it does and still coming out as a major power.
@Floron doing Germany, the Balkans, Turkey, and Italy pretty dirty there.
I'm sure this won't get as much attention as it rightfully deserves, but the animation quality has gotten surreal. The way the animation moves and how well drawn everything is made. I must give it to the team for putting out very good quality content. Just goes to show how much of improvement you guys have truly made over the years. Can't wait to see what you guys have to come for the rest of the channels life!
had Pyrrhus of Epirus never been born, we would call his thing a Napoleonic victory.
It’s amazing how much work was put into this video
Fun fact : 0:00-1:48 this theme music comes from a famous French "chanson revancharde" (revanchist song following the defeat of 1870 Franco-Prussian War). It's called "Vous n'aurez pas l'Alsace et Lorraine".
I truly appreciate these little details that make your video even better :)
There is a beautiful version sung by George Thill (who was one of the greatest tenor in history) that you can listen to on RUclips!
This version of the song comes from the armchair historian's video game "fire and maneuver"
who cares.
@@LastBrigadierme
@@LastBrigadierme
I don't know why it's emphasised so much for the Russians and not the French at the start of the video but the French infantry also consisted of mass conscripts. Napoleon would launch huge conscription drives at the start of each major offensive throughout the period to raise more and more troops.
Napoleon absolutely abused conscription from a vast French population at the time.
I noticed that too, these "historians' try to protect Napoleon as possible. They do not want to come to terms that Napoleon was nothing more than a goon who hijacked a powerful military from a lost and confused nation, and waged total war on Europe, ending in defeat. It does Europe no favors glorifying this, not today, not in 1938, not in 1799.
Thank you for making this video. Borodino, specifically the struggle for Raevskys Redoubt, is probably my favorite engagement in all of history.
Even if Napoleon had sent his Old Guard in, the assault would not have been any more successful. The Russian guard sustained all the cannon and cavalry of the French army, the infantry may have been the one to rout them, but the Russian guard were notorious for their refusal to be turned away at any cost.
Even if the Russian rearguard was routed, here's your issue: Catching the remnants of the army would need breakneck speed with a tired army, and even the Old Guard would be tired after engaging the rear. Everyone knew the casualties would be tremendous, and if Napoleon did indeed throw his Guard into this all, then he wouldn't have made it out of Russia when he was given a persisting chase.
I have been to Borodino, it’s crazy, there are ww2 entrenchments that have been left there and it’s crazy how in the same field, you can see how the French tried to take Russia and then the Germans and both failed. The distance isn’t even that long, if it wasn’t for the smoke, napoleon and reyevsky could have actually seen each other. This kind of battle would be impossible now as either of the generals would just get sniped, napoleon was crazy to just go straight into the battle to be able to see it.
Those days still has chivalry type of warfare, that died in the late 18th century in Europe.
The beginning of the video has glaring misinformation.
Napoleon didn't invade Russia *solely* for the conquest of Europe, the breaking of both France and Russia of the Treaty of Tilsit did convince Napoleon that Russia is a uncommiting ally.
It wasn't Ney that was famous (not until Waterloo / Eylau), but Davout.
Russia was numbering around 200,000 at the start of the invasion. Napoleon lost more to hunger and heatstroke in the summer, compared to the usual banter of Russian Winter (not underestimating it! It was a huge factor of Napoleon's defeat) beating it all.
But overall, a nice video!
Ney wasn't that famous before the Russian Invasion, but he was very admired during the retreat from Russia. He led his corp during the retreat and escaped russian encirclement (an amazing feat considering the odds). Napoleon even called him 'The Bravest of the Braves'.
@@trollege9618 Yes, I completely forgot that lol.
It was after the Invasion that Ney got his reputation of "The Bravest of the Brave".
But it was more on Davout that is more famous during the invasion, so we're both in the right here.
6:48 oop, not sure if im misunderstanding or if this is an animation error; bottom most French lineinfantry icon turns into a Russian one once it reached the "most injured" state. Overall, animation has gotten insanely good since I been watching for a few years. Facial animation and minor stuff in particular.
one of my favourite battles in history, it was considered by some as the beginning of the end for Napoleon's invasion
Preservation of force was also at play. Remember that at those times, raising & maintaining an army on campaign was expensive and given that the european mainland was under a state of perpetual war, their coffers would be running out or outright depleted. An unpaid army would could evolve into mutiny.
Most often cited numbers of the Grande Armee:
300 thousand French (including conscripts from annexed territories)
108 thousand Poles (Duchy of Warsaw, Imperial Guard, Legions and fresh recruits from Russian occupied Poland)
112 thousand from the Confederation of the Rhine (12 thousand from Wurttemburg)
27 thousand Italians
8 - 16 thousand Swiss
4 thousand Spanish
2 thousand Portugal
8-10 thousand "Illyrians" (modern Slovenia, Croatia)
20 thousand from Prussia
35 thousand "Austrians" (about 2/3 were from occupied nations)
There is ofcourse debate about the exact numbers but those are the most often listed that I found.
Join the grand armee and see the world they said, all I found was my grave.
This battle gave Napoleon pain in the ass, literally as he had hemorrhoid.
anxiety and constipation
I'm from Württemberg and we still got to this day many, many horse staples. Especially in the northern black forest area, like the Landkreis Freudenstadt.
Hehe i'm French and my girlfriend is from Württenberg ! Lovely region, People and traditions ! 😍
Wütenberg alone can not provide 1/3 of the infantry and half of the cavalry of a 680.000 army. The hole confederation on the Rhine did
Yeah it's incredible they asserted such a thing. Württemberg contributed with 12,000 soldiers...
The Confederation of the Rhine contributed with 110,000 soldiers, which is still far from 1/3 of the infantry and 1/2 of the cavalry.
One of the few moments Napoleon went forward to see for himself what was transpiring was when he received reports from front line cmdrs that the Russians were near total collapse and required one final push to seal their fate - so it is likely that Napoleon despite his reservations seriously considered moving forward his last reserve against an enemy on verge of near total route. Quite to the contrary however, through the confused smoky haze, he saw lines of plenty Russian infantry STILL (Ney couldn't believe it either) holding their ground in good order opposite Semyonovskaya ridge. Napoleon and the French realized that it would need another day to reorganize for another assault. What they did not know, was that the Russians would totally withdraw overnight - then abandon Moscow! - and thus the great opportunity to crush the Russian main army once and for all would be lost. Had that have been known, Napoleon would have likely deployed the Guard immediately against a vulnerable point to prevent the orderly withdrawal of Russian forces as he would have nothing left to lose then. But that possibility wasn't even considered. They thought the Russians would fight to the death to very the gates of Moscow. Credit to the Russians for throwing a monkey wrench in French plans.
Lets go! We need more Napoleonic History videos!
I think you should've mentioned that bagration wounds were mortal and would later die a couple weeks later. Could've also showed the famous painting.
I love your content. You’re are the reason why I love learning European History. Love you keep it up 👍
Overall this was a good video, but there's one thing that has been bothering me, you said the Kingdom of Wurttemberg's troops made up 1/2 of his cavalry and 1/3 of his infantry, which is not true at all. In fact the entire Wurttemberg contingent amounted to no more than 12,000 men and the entirety of the Grande Armee's contingent of ethnic Germans no more than 151,000 of his 680,000.
well, there were Spaniards and Dutch, Italians and Swiss, almost the whole of Europe
You mentioned the background of Barclay but completely ignored the fact that Bagrationi was a Georgian general.
Mom once took me to Borodino for couple of days to visit recreation of events and walk around rhe place. There are still remains of fortifications left there, although obviously, very damaged after 200 years.
Despite the reputation Napoleon lost at Borodino I still think he was an admirable general for his conduct during it
I agree (also nice to See you Here). In Most batlles that Napoleon lost He was in a Bad physical and Psychological conditon.
@@vinz4066 Although he won that one. In most if not all battles Napoléon lost, he was completely outnumbered. Can't do miracles.
Napoleon won at Borodino. Russians retreated.
Borodino is french victory.
It isn't a tactical victory since france couldnt force a overkill win
Funny fact:
In 1789, Napoleon applied for service in the Russian army, but after learning that there were career restrictions for foreigners, he abandoned this idea.
Really
@@Thefrogking234 that sounds very unlikely
@@mikestauffer7033 it said it's possible but unlikely
@@Thefrogking234 i doubt it very much, he was boosted to join french officer college, i don't see why he would want to join the russian army, especially during the revolution, considering his name, i call it BS
@@mikestauffer7033 well the Russians were hiring foreign officers to fight the ottomans and he was having a tough time due to the debt when his father died which he had to take care of and the French army kept discharging him so he tried to join the Russians but as you can see they didn't let him in
Borodino might have been the last "triumph" of Napoleon, but there were still impressive victories ahead, for instance:
The 6 days campaign in 1814:
~30 k French VS ~50-56 k Prusso-russians led by Blücher.
French victory (despite MANY unexperienced very young conscripts).
Napoleon inflicted an important amount of casualties to his opponents while losing only minimal casualties himself (the Prusso-russians had between 6 and 10 times more casualties than the French).
--
Battle of Dresden in 1813:
~100,000 French (w/ a few Saxons) VS ~200,000 Austrians, Russians and Prussians.
Result: French victory
etc....
I love finding comments like this. It’s so easy to forget about the remaining battles of the napoleonic wars. Too many people just think Borodino, retreat, exile then Waterloo!
@@robnixon8832 And there's also just before Waterloo, Quatre-bras won by Ney against Wellington, ans Ligny, led by Napoleon against Blücher and that almost reverse the cours of the war because Blücher fell from his horse and it was only luck that the french cavalry didn't found him under his dead horse. In fact, in the whole campagne of Belgium, only Waterloo was a defeat, thanks for the intervention of Blücher and the determination of Wellesley to hold the line.
Wrong, because both campaigns in 1813 and 1814 ended in total DEFEAT! There was nothing brilliant about the 6 Day Campaign when Napoleon foolishly went on the offensive and was out of position to defend Paris, that fell easily to the coalition. Nor the campaign in 1813 where Napoleon was trapped and smashed at Leipzig. Both campaigns were utter failures by Napoleon.
It is no coincidence that as the French military got weaker, Napoleon did not look as "brilliant" anymore. Especially after Borodino, which was the point in time the French military became second-rate. And if you look at the retreat from Russia, the Leizpig Campaign, 1814 France, and the Waterloo Campaign, you will see four of the most poorly led campaigns in the history of warfare. If history was being honest, people would see that Napoleon had four consecutive terrible losing campaigns, four straight years as the French army was second-rate.
It is clear that those early military successes France had more to do with the might of the French military, in spite of Napoleon. Even the French Revolutionary Wars ended in victory. And in the case of the War of Second Coalition, in spite of Napoleon, not because of him. Not with the disaster at Egypt and the near disaster at Marengo.
to Hazel Mel: _"both campaigns in 1813 and 1814 ended in total DEFEAT!"_
I said: _"there were still impressive victories ahead"_ . How amazing victories in battles won against all odds couldn't qualify as "victories" will remain a mystery. You just needed a pretext to spew your venom.
_"There was nothing brilliant about the 6 Day Campaign"_
You're funny. Somehow you missed the fact that the French tiny "army" was totally outnumbered and somehow miraculously trounced the Russo-Prussian army, inflicting to it an (literally) incredible number of casualties.
It was a desparate attempt and there was nothing to expect except defeat. It was nothing short of a miracle that Napoleon and his young unexperienced little army was able to to do anything at all - let alone ridiculizing his mighty opponent. He should have been smashed right away.
You're an extremely dishonest and biased individual.
_"was out of position to defend Paris, that fell easily to the coalition"_
There was nothing to do to win. And somehow the tiny army defending Paris managed to inflict way more casualties to the huge coalition army attacking it, before having to surrender.
_"Nor the campaign in 1813 where Napoleon was trapped and smashed at Leipzig"_
This tend to happen when you're so much outnumbered - a fact that you couldn't ignore.
The manpower of France was reduced by ~ one GENERATION of constant wars (1792-1813 (1815 in total)). France was exhausted on account on fighting the major powers of Europe for so long and had to rely more and more on unexperienced very young conscripts. The quality was bound to decrease and yet Napoleon still managed to win impressive victories, somehow.
I wonder from which country with such a fantastic military history you are - that you can allow yourself to (try to) belittle such impressive achievements.
@@krips22 Both 1813 Germany and 1814 France were pathetic military campaigns by Napoleon, which followed up the disastrous 1812 Russia campaign. And you want to defend that, what a disgrace......
The way Napoleon got smashed at Leipzig was way harder than any smashing Napoleon ever did, by far. But you want to be dishonest and tell only half the story, and you do not mention that whatever Napoleon did in 1813 Germany led to him getting trapped and smashed at Leipzig as Napoleon wasted away another entire French army, his second in two years in 1812 and 1813.
In 1814 France, you want to give Napoleon credit for taking MEANINGLESS pawns in the Six Days Campaign, and getting himself out of position as Napoleon foolishly went on the offensive and lost Paris easily, checkmate Napoleon, your king Paris was taken while you went after meaningless pawns.. So bad was Napoleon's incompetence in 1814 France, that his own Marshalls fired him for incompetence as Paris fell.
But you don't want to mention that, you want to make it seem like Napoleon was "brilliant" in the Six Days Campaign when it was a counter-productive, meaningless, waste of time and resources offensive campaign that ended in Napoleon being dismissed by his own Marshalls as Paris fell easily.
And for the last time, stop ignoring the pathetic military results, which absolutely matter. In fact, results are the most important part of any war. When foreign troops capture your capital, occupy your territory after you ran your powerful military off a cliff like Napoleon, those are garbage military results.
You could mention about Poles in the begging French force. In Napoleon Grand Army marching into Russia was 100 000 polish solder. V korp of the Napoleon army was sometimes named polish,and was under command of great polish Commander prince Josef Poniatowski. He fought on się of Napoleon to his death in" battle of nation".
fun fact: There were 2 purely polish corps at the start of the invasion of russia
We need more napoleonic videos please love the animation and the narrator
Armchair Historian, I am learning and find it interesting to know more about History from you.
-Love your videos from The Philippines.
Here's a good idea for a video: What was Japan like during the Cold War?
I find the napoleonic wars as the most exciting time in European history from a historic perspective. This was an amazing video.
But I do not know much about early colonial times in the Australian continent. (Since I’m Australian), would be cool if you made a video covering some of those topics
Im australian too. Nothing of much interest happened down under until WW2 unfortunately. Even nowadays, we are lucky to be geographically isolated but also means not much history is produced in Oceania..
@@mexicomax77 China is rising so you will get your history soon enough.
I mean it was a Penal colony. So it was probably miserable. Had a few fights with the natives probably.
You think that when a thug hijacks a powerful military from a lost and confused nation and wages war on Europe, that is exciting? Let me guess, you are 12 years old, right?
Lets not forget, the Cossacks main strength was harrassing french supply lines
"It ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward;
how much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!”
- Rocky Balboa
Borodino
Battle of Stalingrad
Russian's ability to absorb all those damages and bounce back is crazy !!
A Armchair Historian upload on my birthday! Brightens my day a bit after over half my friend forgot about it
EDIT: thx guys!
Happy birthday fellow virgoat 🐐🥳💜
Happy Birthday
Happy birthday!
Napoleon: Peace rests in Moscow
Alexander: Yes, eternal peace.
xD
thats so bloody cold
@@vermilion6966 When he invaded it was very hot, when he was leaving he and his army was freezing to death all the way back to France though. I would know, i am a Moscow native. )
@@russkayaimperiya4918
I wonder how napoleon wouldve redrawn your country if you didnt keep retreating until general winter arrived
@@smal750 All i have to say is two Russian proverbs: “A man who threatens with the sword will die by the sword.” And “A Russian can only control Russia, as Russia is already impossible to rule by a Russian himself.”
I hope we can see more of the Napoleonic Wars soon!
THE quality of the animation has imporved so much keep it up
😄
Tactical win for Napoleon, strategic defeats for him
Хочу сказать, что я русский и знаю Бородинское сражение почти наизусть, и я могу сказать, что здесь есть грубая ошибка, так как на одном участке с Наполеоном было 2 армии численностью около 180.000 человек, а у Вас сказано будто больше половины миллиона. Русская армия может в те времена и достигала таких размеров, но силы которые могли оказать сопротивление Наполеону были размером в 180000 человек, именно поэтому 2 армии и отступали из-за такого огромного численного перевеса Наполеоновских войск. Однако я ещё хочу добавить, что на Бородинском поле присутствовало примерно по 150000 человек с обеих сторон
про полмиллиона никто не говорил, он поминал, что в Россию вошло 400 с чем-то тысяч. точное число войск при Бородино у него есть. и там 130 на 125 или типа того
@@MisanthropyFerret я говорю не про Бородино, а про общую численность войска
я бы ещё отметил, что не упомянут тот факт, что Москва не была столицей (и уже несколько лет как на тот момент имела меньше населения, чем Питер). здесь же мы слышим что взятие Москвы "логически" привело бы к сдаче всего и вся царём
I'm currently reading war and peace and I'm amazed that you just uploaded this!, it's great to see Kutuzov and Bagration in action
Borodino was one of the most significant battles of the Russian imperial era, the USSR march "we are the army of the people" featured the notation of its chorus
Keep up the awesome work Griffin you're doing a damn fine job.
I have a interesting theory that Napoleon did not take Davout's advice on a flanking manuever because he was psychologically affected and unnerved to crush the Russians while they are weak, he was partially right to not authorize a monumental flanking manuever until the Russian reserve divisions have been deployed. But I am interested to see what would have happened if the flanking plan had gone into affect, with Ney and Murat pinning down the bulk of the Russian units sent to outmanuever the flankers.
It would be difficult for large French forces to break through rough terrain of the Utitsa forest without being noted by Russians. In this case it is likely that Kutuzov would retreat from the battle field another time
Napoleon was a master, thus he had good reason to analyze and ultimately decide against Davout's flanking plan. Maneuvers are not that easy. They were already DEPLOYED at Borodino, and to maneuver at such a scale would be very hard to keep a secret. It wasn't like at Ulm, or at Austerlitz where the Allies were aggressive. And the Russians have reserves to match Davout's maneuver. A frontal attack was logical to Napoleon - the Grand Armee had superior artillery, plenty of infantry and cavalry, and he was confident they matched the Russians.
And so, the battle of Moskova was bloody.
@@napoleoncorneliusscipio5141 I agree, good luck trying to move 50k worth of troops through thick woods and ravines. Perfect targets for sharpshooters and skirmishers as well. His best chance i think would have been to skirmish in front of the Redoubt and Fleches while simultaneously sending a huge column in between the two fortifications with the hope of cracking the center as he had so many times before.
10:10 body flip 😂
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE YOUR VIDEOS!
If you want a good series on this battle with a top down view.
Watch epic histories Russia campaign.
This is the video I was waiting for. Thank you!
this was a very intense battle
Man I’d love to see this channel do a video about Squadron 201 (Aztec Eagles)
Will like to see Battle of Austrelitz : Napoleon's finest victory
I'll never forget those damned Unicorn guns in Napoleon Total War.
I went to highschool with Griffen Johnson, the guy was always such a creep. He followed my little sister in the bathroom one time and almost got expelled. Ive got the restraining order and everything to prove it. Strange hes making history videos now.
Show me the proof.
ok bro
he does look like a creepy wuss
YOU DONT UNDERSTAND, I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR AN ARMCHAIR HISTORIAN NAPOLEONIC BATTLE VIDEO, ESPECIALLY A BORODINO ONE! THANK YOU!
You missed so much about why Russian high command let Moscow be taken and next manuvers that Kutuzov did and also I don't believe that Kutuzov was far away from a fight he positions his headquarters that way that he can see the battle
Awesome video as always, although I'd like to point out two minor inaccuracies:
- at 4:40 it almost sounds as if the armies that met at Borodino were significantly smaller than they were at the start of the invasion due to casualties, whereas in reality this was mostly due to the fact that the French advance went on various fronts, not just towards Moscow, and that the French had to use a considerable number of soldiers to protect their long supply line. The Russians had to deploy their own army accordingly.
- at 17:12 you mention that the Grand Armee "wintered" in Moscow, although Napoleon left Moscow as early as October 19, due to the fact that the city was in rubbles and it couldn't sustain his army. Napoleon was desperately seeking a decisive victory against the Russians before winter, because he knew he was running out of supplies. When he couldn't, he had no other choice other than withdrawing as winter approached.
yes, they were smaller due to casualties. The hot summer, exhaustion and typhus had by that point killed about 60% of the original invading force. The other fronts, mainly the Corps of Saint-Cyr, Macdonald, Reynier and Schwarzenberg amounted to less then 100,000 men
Any chance we can get a video on the Sack of Rome in 1527? I'd love to see a video on the Last Stand of the Swiss Guard.
This helped me get an A on a Borodino presentation in a History class👍
Can you do the evolution of Italian uniforms?
I really like how this video specifically looked, especially the transitions
Good video. Could you make a video about the battle of the Hürtgen forest please?
Pollacks, Frogs, Krauts, now Burgers. They never learn.
Neat, I only recently even heard of the battle of Borodino. Somehow, I thought the Russians barely fought back against Napoleon, using the land and winter instead (and no, not because of bad history memes; I know Napoleon invaded in June and left Moscow before winter).
"Hey lads! Is Moscow not behind us?
By Moscow then we die
As have our brethren died before!"
Mikhsil Lermontov "Borodino"
Please more napoleonic videos! Great work yet again!
"gg ez brb" sounds like a very reasonably thing to say when your line is defending well
600.000 at the beginning and only 30.000 got back
More about 100,000, many garrisons survived, also his far away flanks, but those saw little fighting
Your Channel is my favourite history channel
You forget a lot of Napoleon's forces were guardung his flanks so all of them were not deaths he had to cover his flanks because there was Russian armies in the North and the South trying to cut off his supply lines so this is not true about all the deaths until the retreat back to Poland
Please do more napoleonic war videos like austerlitz,Waterloo,jena and Leipzig
I love the Nepolionic wars!
Great animation work but I just couldn't help laughing at 10:08 when the dead body magically flipped around
The French did not winter in Moscow. They left her before the onset of winter
Thank you for this great video 📹! This was very informative and interesting video to talk about the Napoleonic Wars.
Then, it got cold, stupid cold.
14:53
"Bitter melee has indeed"
A vid on the Soviet-Afghan War would be so awesome
Yes
Peoples always want world war two or one shooters when it comes to historical shooters.. but tbh musket warfare is pritty fucking scary and cool as well..
Why Napoleon didn't bother with a grand flanking maneuver when he could still perplexes me.
He was several times outflank by cossaks. He couldnt risk to be stretch too thin.
He thought that everything would solve itself with Steiners attack
It would be difficult for large French forces to break through rough terrain of the Utitsa forest without being noted by Russians. In this case it is likely that Kutuzov would retreat from the battle field another time.
Would this include the *"Retreat from Moscow?"*
I bet your narration and animation would be epic in that👌
Скажи-ка, дядя, ведь не даром
Москва спалённая пожаром,
Французу отдана?
Ведь были ж схватки боевые,
Да,говорят, ещё какие!
Не даром помнит вся Россия
Про день Бородина!
Михаил Юрьевич Лермонтов,
«Бородино»