At the start of the 1812-13 campaign against Russia, Napoleon’s army numbered 422,000.
He returned to Paris with fewer than 10,000 survivors.
Now, you can commemorate one of history’s greatest acts of folly with a poster!
The prints are reproductions of the original by Charles Joseph Minard and are available from graphic designer extraordinaire Edward Tufte’s webshop.
Minard’s genius was his simplicity. The pink coloured band shows the army’s march to Moscow and the dark coloured band the retreat. There and back. Along the way, he ties in information on statistics, temperature and so on.
(Thanks to Mr Kab for the link to Edward Tufte.)
Do you think anyone ever showed this to Hitler?
It’s a good point Ben. Silly, silly Hitler.