Three Bridges Over the Niemen

On June 24, 1812, Napoleon Bonaparte led the largest invasion force Europe had ever assembled across the Niemen River into Russia, confident he could force the Tsar to the negotiating table before winter arrived. He was wrong. What followed over the next six months was not a defeat so much as a slow unraveling: scorched earth, starvation, a burning Moscow, and a retreat through subzero temperatures that killed hundreds of thousands. This is the story of how half a million soldiers crossed a river, and how few of them ever crossed back.