It was to be Napoleon Bonaparte's greatest adventure; an invasion of Russia with an army of more than 650,000 men, the largest the world had yet seen. The Emperor's irresistible progress into the vast Russian interior saw many brutal conflicts including the Battle of Borodino, one of the bloodiest day's fighting in military history. Napoleon would not be defeated in battle but by Russian guile and the savages of winter snows. To this day the infamous retreat from Moscow epitomises the suffering of ordinary soldiers.

This documentary is a powerful record of one of history's greatest military disasters, and features period imagery, dramatised "eye-witness" accounts, expert analysis, and extensive footage from the Oscar-winning Russian film "War and Peace".