All armies, ancient and modern, have relied on specialist troops to build bridges so they can cross rivers, but perhaps no army has ever needed such men more than Napoleon’s Grande Armée on 26th November 1812. It had fought its way to Moscow, but then begun a long and difficult retreat in increasingly bitter weather, and by late November it faced a major obstacle – crossing the Berezina River. Existing bridges were either destroyed or blocked, but usually at this time of the year the river would be frozen over, allowing relatively easy crossing for people and animals, and perhaps even vehicles. However, a thaw had set in on the 18th, making roads into mud tracks and adding to the misery of the men, and by the time the army reached the river it was flowing freely, with large chunks of ice drifting downstream. The retreat had already been terrible by this stage, with large losses, including many horses, and as a result the order had been given a few days earlier to abandon and burn some wagons, including those carrying the bridging equipment. Now the army was stuck, so around 400 pontoniers with a few sappers scavenged wood and nails from local houses and wagons, and plunged into the icy waters to construct a temporary trestle bridge. Senior officers, including Napoleon himself, watched as the men worked, knowing as did everyone that they were giving their lives so the army could pass. In a few hours, two bridges were constructed, but over the course of the next two days the bridges broke several times, requiring the men to go back into the water to make repairs. By the end of the 28th, all the formed units had successfully crossed, but with Russian forces approaching, the bridges were burned early on the 29th, leaving thousands of stragglers on the far bank. The French lost an estimated 50,000 people that day, killed or captured, including a great many camp followers, but of the 400+ workers who built the bridges, barely 10% survived to continue the retreat.

As many will doubtless already know, pontoniers were not engineers, but instead a part of the artillery. In addition, many of those men on the Berezina were not technically French – many were Dutch, and there were some Poles there too, although the army of the Kingdom of Holland had been incorporated into the French Army in 1810 when France annexed that country, so the distinction is perhaps moot. As a result of this, and earlier heavy French influence, the men wore uniforms much the same as those of the French, which is very handy for anyone making models of them today. However, with particular reference to events on the Berezina, as clearly referenced on the box, the whole army was by this stage already in a sorry state, with little recognisable uniform and a vast array of civilian clothes, blankets and anything else being worn in an attempt to keep warm. It would be very difficult to recreate that shambolic scene, which would in any case be only appropriate for that one event, so in this set the designer has given all the men standard uniforms. Some of the men wear long-tailed coats closed at the chest, and others wear just their waistcoat. All wear working trousers, and all also sport the bonnet de police cap, so this would have been fairly typical appearance for these men in happier circumstances, but not for the Berezina, where their mostly clean-shaven appearance would also seem highly unlikely. The clothing looks to be well done except for the caps, where the designer seems not to have understood its basic construction, and so all the caps here are of a weird pattern which just does not work, probably because they have been badly drawn in the artwork on the box. The big issue is the man half in the water and pulling a rope. When the pontoniers had to go into the water, they naturally stripped to their drawers. Had they gone in fully clothed like this man, their clothes would not have helped them in those freezing waters, but they would not have had dry clothes to put on when they got out, which would have been a death sentence, and even in much warmer conditions, such men would still strip off before diving in, simply to have dry clothes when they finished.

The two single officers are in completely typical dress, one wearing a surcoat, and both with breeches and boots. Again, for the Berezina we might have expected warmer clothing, but they do at least make good generic officer figures. The mounted officer is particularly interesting, and is at least dressed more for the cold. He wears a colback and a greatcoat with a cape, which obscures the rest of his uniform.

The poses of these figures are an interesting bunch, all clearly engaged in building the bridge. They all look to be based on the artwork used on the box, and we see an array of men pulling on ropes, with one holding a piling and another apparently using a pole as a lever. Some of the poses make more sense when arrayed on the bridge rather than by themselves, as illustrated on the back of the box with a rather dark photograph of the intended finished diorama seen here. The kneeling figure is very strange though, as he appears to be about to hit something with the back of an axe. The question is, why? Surely he should have been given a hammer, or else had the axe blade facing the right way. The third figure in our second row causes us to use a term normally used for model boats – he is a waterline figure. i.e., only that part of him above the level of the water is showing, which is unusual but effective in this case. The mounted officer is the same, and it is worth mentioning that the Berezina was exactly this sort of depth for much of its width – deep enough for a horse to walk or to reach the chest of a man, with only a channel down the middle that required men or beasts to swim. Apart from the kneeling figure therefore, we thought all the poses were terrific.

And so to the bridge, or rather the bits of a bridge we find in this set. As we said, the two bridges were very much temporary and ramshackle constructions out of necessity, but here we find all the components for building a rather nice trestle bridge with suitable materials. There are two large trestles, consisting of a thick plank resting on pairs of legs fashioned from logs, and two smaller examples of the same thing, but with one leg pair separate. This is to reflect the box image, where such a trestle is being constructed, although if you choose to complete the trestle with the separate legs, then the legs that are joined to it are not flush with the ground. The extra legs are a good idea, and we have a couple more thick planks and eight thin planks for the decking. The Berezina bridges were not nearly as smart is this, but these are good components for building a trestle bridge when all the proper materials were to hand.

The ‘boat’ next to the mounted officer is a controversial inclusion. As we have said, the pontoons were long destroyed by the time the army reached the Berezina, so the bridges had to be trestle types. It is plausible that the pontoniers found some local boats to help them build them, but the model here is of a very rectangular construction, so would have been a terrible craft for the water. To us it looks more like a pontoon (though still not exactly hydrodynamic), of which there were none at Berezina, but for other scenarios this is a useful inclusion which does at least provide more options for modellers. Despite some later exaggerated claims, at the time the Berezina was about 20 to 30 metres across, and not very deep in most parts, but both banks were very marshy after the thaw, so to allow artillery and wagons to cross, the bridges had to be about 100 metres in length. Were you to build a bridge of that sort of size of course, then you would need many copies of this set, which would be very expensive, so the bridge parts here are only representative, but certainly add a great deal to its appeal.

The creation of this set seems to be an exercise in reproducing the painting used on the box. This painting was done by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, and is pretty inaccurate in several respects, which has not helped the accuracy for this set. The quality of the sculpting is wonderful as usual, except for the poorly realised caps. The 3D printing means there is no flash, and some lovely, complex poses can be produced with no assembly or compromise. The man leaning forward and holding a rope while smoking his pipe is probably our favourite, but all the figures have the air of quiet stoicism as professionals get on with their job despite the terrible circumstances.

Despite short shifts in the water, most of the pontoniers at the Berezina succumbed to the cold during their efforts, and everyone, including them, knew this would be the case. They have often been described as heroes, and while that is an overused epithet, it certainly seems fitting in their case. In the event their efforts merely allowed the army to continue its retreat, for the weather got colder from then on, and in the end much of the Grande Armée perished anyway. As a reflection of the painting this set is excellent, as a reflection of French pontoniers at work on a trestle bridge, this set is very good, and as a depiction of the actual events at the Berezina it is much too romanticized. However, that ‘perfect’ appearance applies to many sets of figures, and many customers like it that way, so while the accuracy will always depend on how exactly you want to use them, these figures are for the most part beautifully made and offer something very different from the normal fighting men. It is an unusual subject which will certainly make for an unusual but attractive diorama.