The red coats are not a mistake — Switzerland sold its soldiers, and these men served France. For centuries Swiss regiments had hired out to foreign kings, prized as steady, disciplined troops, and Napoleon kept four Swiss regiments in his pay. In 1812 they marched into Russia with him, and there they earned a tragic immortality. At the crossing of the Berezina in late November, as the Grande Armée fled over makeshift bridges, the Swiss formed part of the rearguard that held the west bank against the closing Russians so the army could escape. They held — and were all but destroyed doing it. Of the thousands who had marched east, only a few hundred came home, and the "Beresina Song" has mourned them ever since.

The eight-figure set advances in column — an officer, a drummer, and six grenadiers with bayonets fixed, in the red coats, white trousers and red-plumed shakos of the Swiss in French service. It belongs in a diorama of Napoleon's foreign regiments and the 1812 campaign. Fall it in beside the Neuchâtel Battalion and the Irish Legion, the other foreign units that marched into Russia, and set the white-greatcoated French Imperial Guard Grenadiers nearby as the rearguard of the retreat.

Tradition of London model 0729. 54mm, white metal, hand-painted in gloss enamel. Eight-figure set — an officer, a drummer, and six grenadiers advancing, 1812. Supplied in the Tradition Classic Red Box. Allow 2–3 weeks delivery.