Music Man

We are celebrating the final defeat of Napoleon at the battle of Waterloo in 1815, but the Russians will argue that the beginning of the end for Napoleon was three years earlier, when he led his army into Russia. Realising that if they engaged in pitched battle they would be annihilated, the Russians embarked on a strategy of "scorched earth", pulling back and as they did so destroying crops and anything else which might be of use to the invaders.  So Napoleon's supply lines became more and more stretched, and this, coupled with the severity of the Russian winter eventually forced Napoleon and his army to retreat back to France. And this victory is remembered musically in Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" - one of his most popular pieces.