Fighting the Russians in Winter: Three Case Studies

The Russian winter defeated Napoleon, as every Frenchman knows. It
also defeated Hitler, as most Germans know. Many Americans share that
“knowledge”-which is false in both cases! Those popular myths illustrate
the uncritical acceptance and perpetuation of rationalizatiobe notedns designed to
obscure the fact that those “invincible” Western military paragons were
humbled by the “‘inferior” Russians.
This paper wiI1 not discuss either of those ill-fated campaigns in detail.
However, in regard to the claims of “General Winter,‘” it should
that the main body of Napoleon’s Grande Arm&e, initially at least 378,000
strong,’ diminished by half during the first eight weeks of his invasion”-
before the major battle of the campaign. This decrease was partly due to
garrisoning supply centers, but disease, desertions, and casualties sustained
in various minor actions caused thousands of losses.3 At Borodino on 7
September 1812-the only major engagement fought in Russia-Napoleon
couId muster no more than 135,000 troops and he lost at least 30,000” of
them to gain a narrow and Pyrrhic victory almost 600 miles deep in hostile
territory. The sequels were his uncontested and self-defeating occupation of
Moscow and his humiliating retreat, which began on 19 October, before the
first severe frosts later that month” and the first snow on 5 November.7