The Germans reach Borodino Field

20 October 1941: The historic 1812 battlefield and key Russian military monument is captured - but what does it portend?

The Russian Imperial Guard - the Leib Guard - attacks at Borodino, N.S. Samokish

Almost 130 years earlier the bloodiest battle of the Napoleonic Wars had been centred on the fields around the village of Borodino. Napoleon invaded Russia with nearly 300,000 troops in June 1812 and marched throughout the summer towards Moscow. On the 7th September 1812 the…