Attrition warfare against Napoleon

4 min readMay 19, 2021

The attrition warfare against Napoleon began on 24 June 1812 when Napoleon’s Grande Armée crossed the Neman River into Russia and ended on 14 December 1812 with the total defeat of the Grande Armée. A visual representation is given by the drawing of Charles Joseph Minard. Elements of the Russian attrition warfare interfered with Napoleon’s military logistics and won the war without a decisive battle.[1]

Attrition rate[edit]

To estimate the attrition rate[2] the numbers of soldiers of the Grande Armée are roughly taken from Minard’s Map that were based on estimates too. The detachments are subtracted from the main army until they have left it. Finally the results are rounded to a multiple of 10,000. By that the numbers are comparable with each other to assess losses. Caused by this correction Napoleon started at Kowno with ≈340,000 men and not with ≈422,000 according to Minard’s map. The number of French soldiers in the headings should give only a feeling for the development of the war for the Grande Armée that left Russia with less than 5,000 soldiers.

Kowno≈340,000 men[edit]

The Grande Armée crossed the Neman River depending on the preparations Napoleon had made. His logistics were based on water transport of supply for the troops up to Wilna. The food consisted mainly of an immense supply of brandy, flour, and biscuit.[3] As the invasion started in the summer, the troops should provide the fodder for the horses from the fields ready for harvest. Supply of water for men and horses was not planned.[4]

Wilna≈330,000 men[edit]

The Russian army retreated into the interior of Russia eastwards and fought no major battles. The Russians set fire to immense magazines and the first main problem for the French army was the feeding of the horses as it was not possible to find enough fodder in sufficient quality for all of them as they passed a poor countryside. As a result thousands of their horses died and the capacity of the transport units decreased.[4]

Wilna was made the base for supplies and gigantic magazines were created and filled using boats over rivers.[3] But the second big problem became the quality of the roads from Wilna onward that had not been taken into account by Napoleon. The weather changed from extreme heat to very severe cold to heavy rain and thunderstorms. The bad roads turned into mud and further decreased the speed of the supply trains. As the speed of the supply trains had to be higher than that of the marching army to reach them, the transport from Wilna to the advancing troops nearly collapsed because of the bad roads and the decreasing number of horses.[4]

The heat increased and together with rapid marches required even more water for soldiers and horses. Waterborne diseases like dysentery became the third main problem as the soldiers drank every available water from the dirty streets and had no brandy left to purify it as the supply trains could not reach them fast enough.[4]

Attrition warfare against Napoleon

Contents

Attrition rate[edit]

Kowno≈340,000 men[edit]

Wilna≈330,000 men[edit]

Written by Jacap