1812: The March on Moscow

Fantastic source that weaves multiple eyewittness accounts into an engrossing narrative. Much better than the Nafziger book by a mile. The intro was written by none other than David Chandler so that alone tells you everything you need to know about this book's quality.

This account of the 1812 campaign is like no other in the English language. Austin has combined descriptive prose with quotes from primary sources to produce a readable account. It is similar to the approach that was used by French historians such as Lachouque, Hourtoulle and Houssaye. By using present tense he brilliantly combines his own prose with extracts from memoirs and letters into a story-like telling of the history that transports the reader back two hundred years. We are there observing Napoleon throughout the campaign; we see what those around him and elsewhere in the Grande Armée saw and we `experience' what they experienced.This fabulous trilogy of the 1812 campaign has been re-released as the original three volumes.Book One, The March On Moscow begins with the an introductory chapter explaining the build-up to the campaign and how we have arrived here, in Poland in June 1812. We are then transported to the `present' and we experience the falling discipline as the army moves from fertile quarters in the western German states to the relative harshness and shortages of food and forage in East Prussia and Poland. Despite this, on the banks of the Nieman there is a sense of inevitable victory. An incident where the Emperor falls from his horse, re-mounting unhurt, has the superstitious among us worried, but who could resist a force of 350 000 combatants and 984 guns, their bright uniforms, silver and gold glistening in the midsummer's sun?This magnificent pen picture continues as we march deeper and deeper into Russia across the dry emptiness of Lithuania, which turns to mud with sudden summer storms. "Even the men who've served in Spain--and there are many--soon begin to feel depressed by its sombre aspect" (p. 59). Stragglers increase, men fall and some even commit suicide. "Most of Napoleon's campaigns had started in similar fashion" (p. 62), but this is Russia 1812 and everything is magnified doubly.We experience Bagration alluding the first envelopment, the bloody Battle of Ostrowno, the near perfect manoeuvre of the first battle of Krasnoe which, having missed, lead to the bloody assault on Smolensk, the Battle of Valutino (Lubino)--another missed opportunity--and the march through heat and dust to bloody Borodino.Thanks to Austin's use of eyewitness accounts, we are taken, as if by helicopter or as a "fly on the wall" to each point of the action. We are there when the guns open up, slowly at first and then "like an earthquake" we join Delzons' men as they drive the Russian Guard jägers from Borodino and across the Kolocha, only to be driven back by a Russian counter-attack. We join Compans' men in their first successful attack on the flêches, but they too are forced back by a Russian counter-attack. We `experience' each stage of the terrible battle, as seen through the eyes of those yet to be committed to the struggle. We see the troops resplendent in their full dress--none look finer than the veterans of the Imperial Guard. We are also there to observe Napoleon, static and almost aloof, laid low by illness. Finally we experience first-hand the capture of the Grand Redoubt in the last, desperate action of the day. At the conclusion of the battle we are taken across the battlefield to witness the "butcher's bill"...The first book of this trilogy ends with the entry into Moscow, "Eighty-two days have passed since the Grand Army crossed the Niemen.. it has marched 825 miles, fought two major battles... Only two-thirds of its effectives are still with it eagles... Yet Napoleon isn't an inch nearer to his objective--to force Russia back into the Continental System... And tomorrow he'll get the shock of his life--as Moscow, as if by spontaneous combustion, bursts into flame" (p. 356).

This is the first of three volumes in which a huge number of personal recollections have been carefully sifted and appropriate extracts selected, and then merged into a continuous narrative. The result is a masterpiece. "The March", the opening volume, describes a military machine and supporting administration unprecedented in human history, but just past the peak of its power, embarking on a vast undertaking that has been wholly underestimated in logistics, strategic and political terms. The most surprising revelation, for this reader at least, was the extent to which the disaster commenced almost from the moment that Napoleon's vast multi-national force crossed the Niemen into Russian Territory. Supply breakdowns and outright hunger were significant factors from the outset and the Grand Armee's route eastwards in summer heat was littered with the pathetic corpses of troops from a dozen countries who found suicide preferable to the continued misery of the march. The capture of Smolenko caused heavy losses, but these were minor compared with the hecatomb of Borodino, a horrific slugging match at which Napoleonic tactical genius was most notable by its absence. The first volume ends with the French entry into an eerily deserted Moscow. Readers who enjoy this volume - a feast for all Napoleonic and "War and Peace" enthusiasts - will want to go on immediately to the two subsequent volumes dealing with the occupation of Moscow and with the Retreat itself.

It takes a chapter or two to get Austin's writing style. After you get into it you start cheering for the various narrators. Borodino as told by eyewitnesses is truly horrific. It will be interesting to see how the different narrators (from journals and letters) fare in Moscow and the long winter road back. Two hundred years later it brings historic events and battles to a personal level.

Great book, which I read as I drove to Moscow.