Sasha today in its history.
Author: Sasha
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【Sasha Lecture Hall No. 1587】 (Lecture 509 of the Military Series)
The Russian army won numerous defeats: on June 24, 1812, Napoleon I crossed the Niman River with 400,000 soldiers and began to invade Russia.
Why did Napoleon's expedition to Russia fail?
Today, his failure seems almost inevitable.
Before Napoleon's military operations, it was still too smooth.
He defeated the third and fourth coalitions in a row, annihilated the main Prussian army at one point, severely damaged the Austrian and Russian armies, and fled in frustration.
However, Napoleon's involvement in the Spanish Civil War was taught a lesson.
From 1807, the French army was mired in Spanish civil strife and could not withdraw all its troops for seven years.
Nearly 300,000 French troops were caught up in the Spanish National War, which shows the weakness of the French army.
The main force fought head-on, and the French army was not afraid of any national army at that time.
For protracted warfare or even guerrilla warfare, the French did not have a good method.
In 1809, after Napoleon defeated the Fifth Coalition again, Austria ceded territory and offered the princess to submit.
In 1812, before the Russo-French War, Napoleon occupied almost all of Italy, controlled most of Germany, and formally controlled Spain and the Netherlands.
Austria and Prussia, the European powers, were repeatedly defeated and unable to confront France. Only Britain was left on the other side of the strait, but it did not dare to enter the European continent casually.
The other powers have succumbed, and only Russia is still fighting.
Napoleon ordered a naval blockade of England, with no trade to be carried out.
Russia did not comply with this decision and became a hub for Trade between Europe and Britain. Large quantities of British goods were transported to Russia, which were then sold in Europe as Russian goods. Napoleon thought this was impermissible and considered the complete overthrow of Russia and the realization of the sole hegemony of the European continent.
The Russian army was not very strong, and was defeated by the French army many times.
Napoleon estimated that Russia could bring up to 250,000 regular troops to fight, while the French and allies could come up with 500,000 troops, taking absolute advantage.
Napoleon believed that the French army was still able to defeat the Russian army in the case of outnumbered enemies, and of course it was not a problem at this time.
Although his marshals said that the Russian army was likely to follow the example of Spain and fight a protracted war. Napoleon believed that Tsarist Russia was still relatively backward, and the economy was concentrated in several core areas of Europe, such as St. Petersburg and Moscow.
As long as Moscow is occupied, the Russian army will not be able to continue to resist and must submit to soft negotiations.
Objectively speaking, Napoleon's judgment has a certain correctness. However, the premise of this judgment was that the French army could completely occupy the European territory of Tsarist Russia for a period of time. If it only occupies and leaves, Tsarist Russia will not be greatly affected and may not give in.
In order to invade Tsarist Russia, the French army concentrated up to 610,000 people, of which the first echelon was responsible for the main attack, with a total of 450,000 people. The second echelon, with 170,000 people, is responsible for receiving them. The French were well armed with 1,400 guns.
In comparison, the Russian army is much weaker, with only 240,000 regular troops on the western border and poor equipment.
Unfortunately, the French had a lot of problems.
One was that of the 450,000 troops in the main attack, the French army had only 350,000 men, Olidian and Prussia were forced to send 50,000 troops, and Poland sent 20,000 troops. These 70,000 people are very unreliable and may turn against the Russians at any time.
Then, only 350,000 of the main Attack troops of the French Army were their own. Compared with the 240,000 people of the Russian army, the French army did not have an overwhelming advantage, after all, the Russian army was a defensive side and did not need too many troops.
More importantly, after the French invasion, Tsarist Russia immediately increased its troops in an all-round way, recruited a large number of men into the army, and sent the quasi-military organization Cossacks to the battlefield.
In this way, the Russian army increased to 570,000 like balloons, which greatly exceeded the Number of French troops.
The harshness of Russia's climate and geography greatly exceeded Napoleon's expectations.
In the early 19th century, everything was still very backward, and all the weight of the French army had to rely on horse-drawn carriages.
Traffic in Tsarist Russia was extremely harsh, and there were not even decent dirt roads in many places.
In the event of rain and snow, the roads are almost impassable, and horse-drawn carriages are like waste.
In desperation, the French army could only use horses to carry supplies instead. The limited capacity of horses on their backs led to a serious shortage of supplies for the French from the start.
In fact, in the 20th century, Hitler's army, which already had railways, trucks and even transport aircraft, could not solve the problem of transportation in Russia.
The Russian Tsar Alexander I heeded the advice of the generals and adopted the method of retreating to the decisive battle and clearing the field.
On June 13, 1812, the French army crossed the Neman River and began to enter Russian territory.
The Russians did not mobilize the main force to meet the attack, but continued to harass the French army with small units and Cossack cavalry. The Russian commander, Count Barclays Detoli, was a master of strategy despite his limited command skills. He effectively destroyed everything of value on the French advance. Wherever the French went, they saw a scorched earth.
Napoleon anticipated problems with supplies and hoped to survive by capturing supplies from the Russians, but the basket was empty.
Many times, hundreds of thousands of French troops could not find even a well, and other materials did not have to think.
By June the French invasion, by September the main forces of the two armies had not yet fought a decisive battle, the first wave of French attack troops had been reduced from 290,000 to 160,000, losing nearly half.
These losses were mainly infectious diseases, diseases and starvation, ten times more casualties than Russian attacks.
If Napoleon had been more sane, he should have chosen to retreat decisively.
At this time, the French army still had some progress, and advanced to a place only 125 kilometers away from Moscow.
Tsar Alexander I, believing that a decisive battle was inevitable, dismissed Count Barclays Detoli, who had avoided the war, and replaced him with mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov, who was warlike.
Kutuzov was born into a military family, the son of a lieutenant general in the sappers.
He entered the military academy at the age of 13 and began to participate in several battles at the age of 21, including the Russo-Turkish War. He has been in the army for more than 50 years and has been experienced in hundreds of battles.
At the age of 29, Kutuzov was once again wounded, blind in one eye, and became a one-eyed general.
Kutuzov was a strong man, had fought against the French many times, and knew everything about the French army.
But he had a poor reputation in Russia, was considered not brave enough, timid and cowardly, and was not a true soldier.
In the Third Coalition, witnessing the crushing defeat of the Austrian army, Kutuzov commanded the Russian army to retreat 400 kilometers back, away from the battlefield.
This caused great dissatisfaction in Austria, and the Russian generals were also quite disdainful. Kutuzov believed that the Austrian army had been defeated miserably, that the Russian army had absolutely no good results in independent resistance to the French army, and that retreat was the only sensible way to preserve strength.
In 1811, when Kutuzov was the commander-in-chief of the Russian army against Turkey, he again resorted to the method of active retreat, luring the Turkish attack to deplete its strength.
The battle ended in a Russian victory, and Turkey was forced to sign the Treaty of Bucharest, losing large areas of eastern Europe and the Caucasus.
The Tsar, however, believed that the Russian army was clearly superior, and kutuzov did not need to fight like this, and was quite disgusted with him and did not reuse it.
This time the French army killed the Gate of Moscow, and the Tsar had no choice but to find Kutuzov again and let him fight.
After Kutuzov took office, he believed that the French army had penetrated more than 900 kilometers into Russia, and the supply was close to collapse. After a long and painful march, the French army currently has only 160,000 people, while the Russian army also has about 150,000, and the strength is balanced.
In fact, the 67-year-old Kutuzov did not advocate a decisive battle, believing that if necessary, he could directly abandon Moscow and drag the French army for several months.
It was September, and it was about to snow in Russia.
By the time winter came, the French might collapse without a fight.
The Tsar ordered Kutuzov to fight a decisive battle or be replaced, as was Count Barclays Detoli.
Kutuzov was helpless, chose a suitable area for defense, and fought the Battle of Borozino with the French army.
The Russians built a large number of fortifications ahead of schedule, concentrating more than 150,000 people and 640 artillery pieces.
The French had only more than 130,000 men and more than 500 artillery pieces.
At this moment, the French army still has the advantage of combat effectiveness and combat experience, and the Russian army is not an opponent at all.
After a day of fierce fighting, the Russian army, which had fortifications and superiority in manpower, was still defeated by the French.
In just one day, the Russian army lost more than 40,000 people, while the French army was close to 30,000, and the two armies suffered 70,000 casualties, which can be called a meat grinder.
Kutuzov believed that fighting in this way would only deplete the strength of the Russian army.
Ignoring the Tsar's orders, he retreated decisively and broke away from the battle.
After the war, the staff believed that the strength of the French army was also much worse than before, and the combat effectiveness was significantly weakened. In just 1 day of fierce fighting, the French army had at least 1 million rounds of ammunition and close to 100,000 rounds of shells. With the replenishment capacity of the French army, the ammunition will soon be exhausted.
Kutuzov felt it necessary to abandon Moscow and use Cossacks and small groups of troops to attack the French constantly. When winter comes, the French supply line will be completely interrupted, and it will inevitably fail.
Not long after, when the French army swung into Moscow, they found that the wooden city had been set on fire, all the buildings were burning, and the citizens fled.
Due to the excessive smoke in the city, the French could only garrison the outskirts to avoid suffocation.
At this point, Napoleon knew that the situation was not good and began to try to negotiate with Alexander I. At Kutuzov's advice, Alexander I resisted the temptation of Napoleon's treaty of relative tolerance and insisted on fighting.
On October 19, snow began to fall widely throughout Russia, with snow as deep as 1 meter in many places.
As a result, the French horses and carriages were completely trapped in the snow and could not move, and the supplies were about to be exhausted. The French army faced a terrible end that was completely destroyed
In desperation, Napoleon could only issue a general retreat order on October 19.
Kutuzov patiently followed the Russians in pursuit and did not fight a decisive battle. Cossack cavalry attacked and harassed everywhere, causing the French army a great headache.
In November, the French staggered 360 kilometers in a snowstorm and reached Smolensk.
At this time, Napoleon personally led more than 100,000 troops, only 50,000 soldiers and 40,000 non-combat transport personnel remained.
The Russians felt the time had come and launched the Battle of the Berezina River in November.
In this battle, Kutuzov dispatched 140,000 elite troops to fight a decisive battle.
Before the battle began, Kutuzov first attacked Minsk, where the defenders were Austrians, and they fled.
After the occupation of Minsk, the French supply line was cut off, and the retreat road was blocked, and it fell into a desperate situation. Napoleon had no choice but to cross the river from a tributary of the west bank of the Dnieper, Berezinna.
The Russian army had long been waiting, and the French army lacked the tools to cross the river. In this battle, the French used all their strength to build 2 pontoon bridges to retreat. After the Russians crossed the river halfway through the French army, they sent 60,000 men to attack fiercely.
The French army was defeated, and a large number of officers and men and mules and horses and vehicles crowded together, scrambling to cross the river to escape, and many people were pushed into the river and drowned.
Fortunately, the RearGuard of the French Victor was still stable and desperately blocked the Russian offensive.
The battle situation was too critical, and after Victor's army hastily crossed the bridge, it knew that there were more than 10,000 french troops on the other side of the river that had been disrupted, but still blew up the bridge. More than 10,000 people were either killed or captured.
In this battle, more than 80,000 French troops lost as much as 40,000 people, while the Russians suffered only 20,000 casualties.
By this time, the French army had collapsed, and when they fled to Warsaw, only 60,000 people were left with more than 60,000 troops.
More than 100 years later, Hitler relived Napoleon's mood.
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