[ricpic]

It took a Grand Alliance (Great Britain, Prussia, Russia, Austria-Hungary) to defeat Napoleon.

The French army was formidable in the first decades of the 19th Century.

In WW I, of course, the tables were turned. It took the British, the French, and the Yanks to stop Germany. But the French fought ferociously. Think Verdun.

[MattinNJ]

Kudos to Napoleon for accomplishing what he did with a largely French army. I think it adds 20% to the degree of difficulty (Although he may get some points deducted because a lot of his troops were actually Prussian mercs).

[weikel]

Germany had WWI won. They had everyone beat right when we entered the war. It was too bad we did the only people who benefited from Germanies defeat in WWI were the French and the Bolsheviks.

[xJones]

True, true. Of course the Germans whipped the French under Napoleon III in 1870. And the French Army in 1917 came very close to mutiny, although with their generals it's hard to blame the troops. And the French did suffer the greatest losses in WWI, 1.8 million casualties. That great blood-letting seemed to have taken all the fight out of them for WWII.

It is sad though, that Napoleon's wars alone drained millions of the finest and strongest young Frenchmen. Then WWI removed 1.8 million more of their best. That's one awful drain on a country's vitality.