1812: The Great Retreat tells the story of the end of the
most famously disastrous campaign in history, using the words of
the survivors to describe their desperate withdrawal from Russia. Napoleon's campaign had
begun with more than a
third of a million men setting out on what was to be a long and terrible march to the
glittering city of Moscow. Only
100,000 were to reach it. Forced to turn back in the face of winter's onset, almost
nothing of the drastically reduced army
lived to recross the Niemen River. The author's previous books on the
campaign - 1812: The Mardi on Moscow and 1812: Napoleon in Moscow - brought
the Grand Army to the head-on battle at Malo-Jaroslavetz after withdrawing sixty miles
from the burntdown capital, and
for the first time in his meteoric career Napoleon had to order a retreat. 1812: The Great
Retreat follows the army's
withdrawal through 800 miles of devastated countryside, crossing the horrific relics of
the Borodino battlefield, fighting
its way through the Russian General Kutusov's successive attempts to cut it off, and
winning, against overwhelming
odds, the three-day battle of the Berezina crossing. First-hand narratives, many published
in English for the first time,
describe Marshal Ney's astounding achievement in holding together the rearguard until he
himself, musket in hand, was
the last man to rccross the Niemen into Poland.
Using the words of 160 of the participants themselves, Paul Britten Austin brings
unparalleled authenticity and
immediacy to his unique account of the end of Napoleon's dramatic and tragic 1812
campaign.
KEY POINTS:
Epic story of the end of Napoleon's 1812 campaign
Many participants' accounts in English for the first time
Self-contained final book in a highly applauded trilogy on the campaign
REVIEWS:
'...Already heralded as a classic... The text is enriched with first-hand accounts which
bring the whole narrative to life
with an air of stark realism... Britten Austin's account of the army's withdrawal from
Moscow is compelling. It is alive
with detail and colour that tells of the disorganised exodus in which food and provisions
were abandoned in preference
to plunder ... The author spares us none of the horror. Some first-hand accounts are
gruesome in the extreme, vividly
telling of this ill-fated army in full retreat... Britten Austin's trilogy truly ranks as
a masterpiece, representing all that is to
be admired in a research based work. Thoroughly readable, the lively text fully conveys
the magnitude and drama of the
events of 1812.' - John S. White, Waterloo Journal
'...Napoleon's 1812 campaign in Russia, the turning point of the Napoleonic Wars, has
finally found its best
chronicler...Austin shoots his entire tale almost entirely in the literary equivalent of
maximum close-up, using numerous,
lengthy narratives...For Napoleonic history in general and the 1812 campaign in
particular, this is as good as it gets.' - Ian
Thompson's Military Bookshelf, Daily Republic
'...Vivid and compelling...The most detailed account of the disaster yet to become
available in English.' - Dr Charles
Esdaile, University of Liverpool, R.U.S.I. Journal
'...A splendid close to a splendid trilogy.' - Military Modelling
AUTHOR NOTES:
Paul Britten Austin has written many books on a variety of subjects, both in English and
in Swedish. He holds an
honorary D.Litt and a Swedish knighthood of the Order of the North Star. His three books
on the 1812 campaign arc the
result of twenty-five years of research, and together constitute his magnum opus.
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