History Student Reacts to Napoleon's Invasion of Russia 1812 by Epic History TV

Today we react to Napoleon's Invasion of Russia 1812 by Epic History TV.

[CMY]

“Bernadotte’s basically turned against him.”
While Bernadotte and Napoleon mutually disliked each other, Bernadotte at the very least was honest and upfront with the Emperor, and had warned him that as the Crown Prince of Sweden, he cannot guarantee that Sweden would always remain an ally of the French Empire.

[LightxHeaven]

More men died during the summer advance than during the winter retreat.

[LightxHeaven]

Unfortunately Napoleon, like so many other military and business leaders throughout history, fell for the trap we call “sunk fallacy cost”. The mistaken belief that because you’ve put so much time, money and effort into a project, that you have to see it through even though you are aware of how costly it has continues to be.

[CMY]

“I did not know that the initial invasion itself was also so catastrophic.”
This is not only a common belief of many regarding Napoleon’s invasion, but also of Nazi Germany’s invasion of the USSR; the Axis invasion force lost more than half its tanks even before winter 1941, and also suffered heavy losses in spring and summer 1942 due to ferocious Soviet resistance and counter-offensives.
Also, like Napoleon’s campaign in 1812, the Axis force actually outnumbered the Soviet military in 1941 and early 1942.

[MicahsIntellectualCorner]

The 200, 000 would have just made for more stragglers and dead on the roads and Battle field....He needed those men at Aspern-Essling and Leipzig more than anything.

[MrHnm]

I don't think the extra troops from Spain would have changed practically anything. I think it would even have been worse, because if they already had supply problems with almost 600, 000 soldiers who went with Napoleon to Russia, 200, 000 more soldiers would have been an even greater catastrophe, leaving him even weaker. What if it had served to counterattack in 1813 more effectively and not depend almost exclusively on young inexperienced conscripts. And from here you will see an element that will be Napoleon's nightmare not only in Russia, but in the rest of the war in Europe: the Cossacks. These irregular horsemen will cause all kinds of problems for the French Emperor: attacks on his supply lines, lack of information on the movements of the Coalition armies, attacks on his rear and troops separated from the army, shield protection against french cavalry. They will be his thorn in everything.

[LightxHeaven]

It was actually the Swedes who wanted Bernadotte and Napoleon let him go without much fuss, thinking it would save him a lot of trouble. As we will see in the coming episodes that was a huge mistake.

[MrHnm]

Marshal Berthier, Napoleon's chief of staff, did a tremendous job coordinating all these invasion troops. Nothing like this had ever been done before in Europe, and without having a telephone, internet, etc. It was a superhuman feat.

[shakya]

I don't think the french troops tied down by the Peninsular war would have made a great difference, since Napoleon didn't have a lack of men. He started the russian campaign with an army double the size of the russian one but, since the russian army only retreated and made the scorched earth tactic it didn't matter much if the enemy army was the double, triple of their army or whatever size. More than 200 000 more men, means hundreds more mouths to feed, more shelter needed, more equipment, more horses, etc..When you army's logistics already suck, that the enemy does a scorched earth tactics and your men are already starving and dying on mass. Not sure it would have helped. It is likely that it would have ben worse even..worse !

[davelinab]

Yes, the French advance into Russia was much more devastating.

[cujkqxw]

I don't think those troops tied down in Spain would have helped Napoleon on his russian campaign as the massive size of his army was one of it's greatest weaknesses as mentioned in this video. The Grand Army lost it's mobility due to it's massive size and was slowed down even more by the Russians sabotaging it's massive supply lines which the army entirely depended on. So as i said, i highly doubt those extra troops would have helped in Russia... BUT they would have definetly helped tremendously in his later campaigns when the Coalition was closing in on him from all sides. We saw how effective and unbeatable Napoleon was in 1814 in his 6 day campaign. Just imagine if he had those extra 200k troops! At the very least it would have delayed the end of the war by many years. And maybe even a favourable peace deal for Napoleon could have resulted if he was able to stack up some more victories with those extra troops.

[enzonicolas]

The Russians plan of scortch earth strategy was planned from 1811 by General Barclay de Tolly (minister of war) who reorganize the Russian army after Friedland 1807. Napoleon was made aware of this military tactic by Bernadotte (in his effort to have peaceful relations with France) and by the French ambassador in Saint-Petersburg (le Marquis de Caulaincourt, but he doesn't care (I don't understand why).

[enzonicolas]

As an introductory quote I would have put Napoleon's sentence "From triumph to fall, it is often only a step"/"Du triomphe à la chute, il n'est souvent qu'un pas".

[RoydeanEU]

18:40
misconception about the Russian campaign: Napoleon actually lost more men of the Grande Armee in the summer heat on his way into Russia then he did in the winter retreat.

[LightxHeaven]

If you look at the French conquest of Algeria you will get the sense of how stupidly long it would’ve taken to pacify Spain. It took them 45 years to complete that annexation and the death toll was catastrophic on both sides. Spain is multiple times larger than that. You get my point.

[ddc]

Suchet in Russia would have been extremely interesting. Ditto for Waterloo. The guy is such a crazy what-if figure in the Napoleonic Wars. Everywhere he was put, he found success. Wish he’d seen more of the major engagements.

[CMY]

In my opinion, this was where Napoleon committed the worst mistake of not only the campaign but also his entire life; to even try to invade Russia in the first place.

[CMY]

There is a discussion on another reactor’s videos on EHTV’s Napoleon videos that I find interesting: what could have happened if the Persians had chosen a strategy of retreat and scorch-earthing instead of giving battle to Alexander the Great.

[enzonicolas]

Alexander tried to approach the Polish nobility (Prince Poniatowski) trying to get their support in the future war with France promising them a Polish kingdom (if he became their king) as well as the Prussians who approached Napoleon in 1811 ( Frederick William III even think or suggest to join the Confederation of the Rhine despite the desire for revenge ) and the Austrians.

[Halcon_Sierreno]

If I was Napoleon I would've used the Grand Armee to finally subjugate Spain instead of marching on Russia.