SEPTEMBER 14, 1812

After a series of victories against the Russian army, Napoleon’s Grande Armée enters Moscow.

But on arrival, they found the city abandoned, and it was soon ablaze. Napoleon stayed for five weeks, waiting for a peace offer which never came.

Finally Napoleon gave the order to leave, but was forced to take the same route out of Russia with burnt-out towns and farms already stripped of food that he had used for his invasion. Starvation and hypothermia took its toll, and the army lost around 400,000 men.