Podcast Description

In the frozen winter of 1812, Napoleon’s mighty army — half a million strong — marched into Russia expecting glory, and instead met ruin. As the disastrous retreat from Moscow began, starvation, frostbite, and chaos turned Europe’s greatest force into a trail of ghosts staggering west. Yet, amid that horror, one forgotten man performed an act of impossible courage that saved thousands — and perhaps the Emperor himself.

This is the story of General Jean Baptiste Eblé, a quiet French engineer who built the impossible: two bridges across the icy Berezina River under enemy fire and in subzero temperatures. With his men dying around him, Eblé disobeyed direct orders, forged a miracle from frozen wood and iron, and gave Napoleon’s shattered army a path to survival. Then, exhausted and frostbitten, he paid the ultimate price.

The Man Who Outran Napoleon isn’t just a story of war — it’s a story of duty, sacrifice, and the power of one man’s faith in his work. Long before history forgot his name, Eblé proved that true heroism often comes not from those who command nations… but from those who build bridges between life and death.

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