men fought valiantly and repelled attack after attack, so that the crossings
went on without interruption until the afternoon's debacle with the large
bridge. Only at dusk did the sounds of battle fade away. The exhausted
Eble told the non-combatant stragglers to cross to the western bank
under cover of darkness, but apathy won the day; they remained
obstinately huddled round small fires on the eastern bank. Eble could do
no more. He and his 400 engineers were the great heroes of Beresina.
Hardly any of them survived, for those who did not perish of frostbite,
exposure and hypothermia were swept downstream in the ferocious
current or were scythed down by enemy fire while they were repairing
the bridge.
Thus far Napoleon could congratulate himself on a superb feat of
ingenuity and courage. But the pendulum swung against him during the
night of 27-28 November when General Partoneaux's division of Victor's
corps lost its way in a heavy snowstorm and blundered into the Russian
lines, where they had no choice but to surrender. This loss tore a gaping
hole in Victor's thin defensive line in the rearguard. After an ominous
lull, at about midday on the 28th the Russians on the east bank brought
heavy guns to bear on the bridges, causing a panic-stricken repeat
performance ·of the previous day. Once again terrified men fell to an icy
death in the Beresina as the artillery bridge collapsed a second time,
brought down by a combination of Russian shells and the sheer weight of
fleeing soldiers. Once again the rearguard performed prodigies of valour,
and the astonishing accuracy of their artillery at last pushed the Russians
back out of range. For the second day the rearguard fought unaided, for
on the western bank French units were engaged this day in a grim do-or
die struggle. Oudinot and Ney covered themselves in laurels by personal
bravery. Oudinot by his personal charisma and courage prevented a rout,
while Ney inflicted 2,ooo Russian casualties by leading a charge by
Dumerc's cuirassiers. It was a second Krasnyi: like Kutusov before him,
Tshitsagov fell back in alarm at the ferocity of the French fightback.
The last stage of a brilliant operation was completed when the
rearguard finally crossed to the western bank at r a.m. on 29 November
but the stragglers still refused to follow them. Shellshocked and
demoralized, the camp-followers seem in a very real sense to have been
afraid of the dark. At any rate, they ignored warning after warning from
Eble that this was their last chance since in the morning he would be
detonating charges to prevent a pursuit by Kutusov's contingents. At 9
next morning, as promised, Eble blew up the bridges. Now at last, when
it was too late, the non-combatants began to rush fo r the bridges, only to
be consumed by an inferno. Some ro,ooo perished, some in the flames
marcin
(Marcin)
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