What must it have been like to be a French soldier, when Napoleon

>>595448
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffeOvwBYkf4

>>595448
Well, you had to choose between a fat incompetent old king who had executed thousands of your fellow veterans for "treason" and had already managed to get the pleb butthurt at him in a few months of ruling, or the godlike Emperor who ruled the country in great fairness and lead the armies to glory countless times

>>595473
And yet many of the Marshals didn't return to his side.

>>595478
It was a matter of life or death for them; just look at Ney. The Royalists had a safer bet at surviving than the Bonapartists.

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>>595478
Because they knew it was hopeless
Ney did join him, and he died for that

>>595501
Would it have been so hopeless if more had rallied to him?

>>595501
nah he didn't
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Ney#L.27affaire_Peter_Stuart_Ney
His friends in the franc-maçons staged the execution and exfiltrated him to america where he was a teacher. Seems credible enough, plus his skeletton wasn't in his tomb in France.

>>595506
300,000 troops vs 1 millions

>choosing to live under dumbshit monarchy or die gloriously with glorious emperor
>implying it's a hard choice
Dying for Napoleon would be an honor.

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>>595543
he won worse. What killed him in the end was the lack of support from the french government. If they hadn't abandoned and undermined him he could easily have kept fighting, even after Waterloo.
Well, that and Berthier's death.

>>595558
Yeah, especially since he made these guys entire life. But some of these greedy cunts already were hooked on english shekels.

Would things have turned out differently if France had either gained or matched Britain's naval supremecy? Perhaps if they had a Horatio Nelson of their own?

>>595612
Or if the US paid their debts and allied with France fully? Would that have made any difference?

>>595612
Probably, because in that case he wouldn't have needed to set up the continental blocus in Russia, which means he wouldn't have had to invade it.
A good admiral wouldn't have cut it though, the brits spent too much money on their ships and France was not rich enough to get both the best army and navy in the world.

>>595627
nah the us weren't worth shit back then

>>595627

>paid their debts

what do you mean?

this nation had no debts to the regime of Bonaparte

>>595642
Technically true. But Jefferson and many others felt they still owed the French even after the fall of the monarchy. Perhaps even moreso in the spirit of revolutionary kinship.

>>595612
>>595632
The Napoleonic Wars were started and kept alive by Britain
Had Napoleon conquered Britain in 1805, he'd have had peace (and wouldnt have needed to conquer Europe in self-defense against British-funded coalitions)

>>595706
I know. But I don't think even with a similar navy it could have done.
I'm not an expert on the matter but the english army wasn't that weak, and it would have been pretty troublesome to get the Grande Armée through the channel.

>>595734
The British army was a fucking joke, it was seen by everyone as the weakest in Europe
It was so bad that being sent fight the British was actually considered a punishment for French generals as there was no glory in beating them
It happened to Bernadotte once

>The French forces were commanded by Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, who had just been stripped of his command after disobeying orders at Wagram. Dismissed from Napoleon's Grande Armée, Bernadotte returned to Paris and was sent to defend the Netherlands by the council of ministers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walcheren_Campaign

There's a reason why they essentially remained on their island and resorted to paying countries with decent armies (Russioa, Austria, Prussia) to fight France
The minute Napoleon would have managed to get the Grande Armee on British soil, he could consider Britain conquered

>>595764

>wah it's not fair you invested in a great navy, developed a world class officer corps, and were always at the cutting edge of technological innovations

Yep, keep the tears coming.

>>595781
Why are you getting angry
I merely explained you that the British army, unlike their navy, was utter shit, because you seemed to think the contrary
I never said they were wrong to invest in their navy instead of their army, it was actually pretty clever given their situation.

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>>595764
>The minute Napoleon would have managed to get the Grande Armee on British soil, he could consider Britain conquered

>algerians actually believe this

>>595804
That's true, and posting a pic of an historically inaccurate CoD-tier show wont change that

Sharpe and his ability to take out an entire cavalry unit all alone didnt exist in the actual British army of the time
That's why it took them 6 years to conquer a small country on a secondary theater France barely cared about

>>595786
Im speechless. You have provided a very different point of view, I’ve never heard that before, and I’d like to take some time to digest what you’ve said. I need to examine your notion from different angles to see how waterproof it is.

>>595764
>The minute Napoleon would have managed to get the Grande Armee on British soil, he could consider Britain conquered
What kind of stupid logic is this? For a comparison they did a simulation of Operation Sealion and within a week the Germans lost because the RN blocked the channel.

The only way the Grande Armee could effectively fight in Britain would be if they beat the Royal Navy and if that was beaten then Britain would have lost anyway.

It's true enough to say that if the Peninsular War was as important as Britain claims, Napoleon would have overseen it personally.

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>>595820
>in 7 wars, no french soldier ever stepped on british soil

>>595820

Maybe France should have not invade a secondary theater that France barely cared about

>>595786
>>595781 is not me (>>595734
but tbqh I know their army was shit, but simply disembarking in england seems to have as lot of issues that would make it impractical.

>>595848
He did go to Spain though to lead the troops.

>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Alexandria

>british army
>shit

>>595848

>After the surrender of a French army corps at Bailén[f] and the loss of Portugal, Napoleon was convinced of the peril he faced in Spain. Disturbed by news of Sintra, he said, "I see that everybody has lost their head since the infamous capitulation of Bailén. I realise that I must go there myself to get the machine working again." [59] While the allies advanced slowly, conscription and arms from the far reaches of the French Empire brought 100,000 veterans of the Grande Armée into Spain, led in person by Napoleon and his marshals.[60] With his Armée d'Espagne of 278,670 men drawn up on the Ebro, facing 80,000 raw, disorganized Spanish troops, the Emperor announced to the Spanish deputies, "I am here with the soldiers who conquered at Austerlitz, at Jena, at Eylau. Who can withstand them? Not your wretched Spanish troops who do not know how to fight. I shall conquer Spain in two months and acquire the rights of a conqueror".[61] Napoleon led the French on a brilliant offensive involving a massive double envelopment of the Spanish lines.[62] The attack began in November 1808 and has been described as "an avalanche of fire and steel".[63]

>>595871
Yeah, that was in 1808 before Britain even got involved
Then Britain stepped in and struggled for 6 years on this secondary theater while Napoleon and the Grande Armee were dealing with more frightening enemies in Central and Eastern Europe

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>>595874
Wow, defeating an heavily outnumbered enemy...
Meanwhile, look at all those time they tried to take the Netherlands and failed miserably

>>595884
Look at it another way. In central/eastern Europe the enemy is on the doorstep of France while in Iberia even if the Spain get their arses handed to them, he'd have time to move assets to either defend Spain or defend the south of France.

Spain could afford to be a secondary theatre for him.

>>595884
Actually, Britain was there at the time. He drove their army completely out of Spain. Crushed it in a humiliating rolling advance of victory after victory.

>>595895
Poland is farther from France than the Spanish-Portuguese border is
Yet, Napoleon would sooner go fight the Russians in Poland than the British in Spain
Why? Because the Russians were way more dangerous than the British could ever be, even when twice farther
Going to fight the Russians with the Grande Armee while leaving the Brits to disgraced generals and unexperienced or wounded troops was the best option

>>595916

>Going to fight the Russians with the Grande Armee while leaving the Brits to disgraced generals and unexperienced or wounded troops was the best option

As the great success of that strategy shows.

>>595925
His defeat is the result of invading Russia
Nothing to do with not caring about the Brits

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>You will never follow Napoleon until your last breath

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>>596061
>tfw born 250 years too late
>you will never sing Fanchon while getting drunk with Lasalle and the infernal brigade

>>595848
>hurr Napoleon was omniscient and knew the importance of everything

>>596069
"I love you like the smoke of tobacco and the chaos of battle" -Lasalle to his wife

"My heart belongs to you. My blood to the Emperor. My life to honor" -In his last letter.

;_;

>>595929
If he had finished things up in spain before going to russia, then even if that campaign and retreat went the same way he would have had the ressources to win in germany.

>>596061
I feel sad for you because you probably can't understand the lyrics of this song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uPKcEZ0PNM

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>>596819
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZfKUQ6VUQI

>>596819
>>596934
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGWB3MGz3aA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpOvMJ_XAsQ

>>596061
>>596069
>you will live a mediocre life as a middle class white collar worker and die without ever having served a living God

I wish I was dead.

>>595578
WHEN WILL THE ETERNAL ANGLO BE STOPPED?