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1、. 4Unit1 The Icy Defender 1 In 1812, Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French, led his Grand Army into Russia. He was prepared for the fierce resistance of the Russian people defending their homeland. He was prepared for the long march across Russian soil to Moscow, the capital city. But he was not
2、 prepared for the devastating enemy that met him in Moscow - the raw, bitter, bleak Russian winter. 2 In 1941, Adolf Hitler, leader of Nazi Germany, launched an attack against the Soviet Union, as Russia then was called. Hitlers military might was unequaled. His war machine had mowed down resistance
3、 in most of Europe. Hitler expected a short campaign but, like Napoleon before him, was taught a painful lesson. The Russian winter again came to the aid of the Soviet soldiers. Napoleons Campaign3 In the spring of 1812, Napoleon assembled an army of six hundred thousand men on the borders of Russia
4、. The soldiers were well trained, efficient, and well equipped. This military force was called the Grand Army. Napoleon, confident of a quick victory, predicted the conquest of Russia in five weeks. 4 Shortly afterwards, Napoleons army crossed the Neman River into Russia. The quick, decisive victory
5、 that Napoleon expected never happened. To his surprise, the Russians refused to stand and fight. Instead, they retreated eastward, burning their crops and homes as they went. The Grand Army followed, but its advance march soon became bogged down by slow-moving supply lines. 5 In August, the French
6、and Russian armies engaged at Smolensk, in a battle that left over ten thousand dead on each side. Yet, the Russians were again able to retreat farther into Russian territory. Napoleon had won no decisive victory. He was now faced with a crucial decision. Should he continue to pursue the Russian arm
7、y? Or should he keep his army in Smolensk for the approaching winter? 6 Napoleon took the gamble of pressing on to Moscow, 448 kilometers away. On September 7, 1812, the French and Russian armies met in fierce battle at Borodino, 112 kilometers west of Moscow. By nightfall, thirty thousand French an
8、d forty-four thousand Russians lay dead or wounded on the battlefield. 7 Again, the Russian army retreated to safety. Napoleon had a clear path to Moscow, but the occupation of the city became an empty victory. The Russians fled their capital. Soon after the French arrived, a raging fire destroyed t
9、wo-thirds of the city. Napoleon offered a truce to Alexander I, but the Russian czar knew he could bide his time: We shall let the Russian winter fight the war for us. 8 Napoleon soon realized he could not feed, clothe, and quarter his army in Moscow during the winter. In October 1812, he ordered hi
10、s Grand Army to retreat from Moscow. 9 The French retreat turned into a nightmare. From fields and forests, the Russians launched hit-and-run attacks on the French. A short distance from Moscow, the temperature had already dropped to minus 4 degrees Celsius. On November 3, the winters first snow cam
11、e. Exhausted horses fell dead in their tracks. Cannon became stuck in the snow. Equipment had to be burned for fuel. Soldiers took ill and froze to death. The French soldiers dragged on, leaving the dead along every mile. 10 As the Russian army was gathering its strength, the French had to flee Russ
12、ia to avoid certain defeat. At the Berezina River, the Russians nearly trapped the retreating French by burning the bridges over the swollen river. But Napoleon, by a stroke of luck, was able to build two new bridges. Thousands of French soldiers escaped, but at the cost of fifty thousand dead. Once
13、 across the Berezina, the tattered survivors limped toward Vilna. 11 Of the six hundred thousand soldiers Napoleon had led into Russia, less than one hundred thousand came back. The weakened French army continued its retreat westward across Europe. Soon, Britain, Austria, Russia, and Prussia formed
14、a powerful alliance and attacked these stragglers. In March 1814, Paris was captured. Napoleon abdicated and went into exile, his empire at an end. Hitlers Invasion12 By early 1941, Adolf Hitler, leader of Nazi Germany, had seized control of most of Europe. To the east of Hitlers German empire was t
15、he Soviet Union. On June 22, 1941, without a declaration of war, Hitler began an invasion of the Soviet Union that was the largest military land campaign in history. Confident of a quick victory, Hitler expected the campaign to last no longer than three months. He planned to use the blitzkrieg, or l
16、ightning war, tactics that had defeated the rest of Europe. The invasion had three broad thrusts: against Leningrad and Moscow and through the Ukraine. 13 Caught off guard by the invasion, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin instructed the Russian people to scorch the earth in front of the German invaders. Farms and factories were burned, destroyed, or rendered useless. During the fi
