Grande Armée

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The Grande Armée (pronounced [ɡʁɑ̃d aʁme]; French for 'Great Army') was the primary field army of the French Imperial Army during the Napoleonic Wars. Commanded by Napoleon, from 1804 to 1812 it won a series of military victories that allowed the First French Empire to exercise unprecedented control over most of Europe. Widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest fighting forces ever assembled, it suffered catastrophic losses during the disastrous French invasion of Russia, after which it never recovered its strategic superiority. The Hundred Days in 1815 which culminated in the total defeat of France, put a permanent end to its campaigns. The Grande Armée was formed in 1804 from the Armée des côtes de l'Océan (Army of the Ocean Coasts), more commonly referred to as the Armée d'Angleterre (Army of England), the French field army of over 100,000 men Napoleon had assembled for his planned invasion of the United Kingdom. He subsequently led the field army to Central Europe and defeated Austrian...

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