10 Things You Didn't Know About Napoleon

It seems strange that over 150 years after Napoleon’s death, one of his biggest dreams for French access to Britain came true. When plotting his approach for the Battle of Trafalgar, Napoleon wanted to use a huge array of transportation and the latest cutting edge technology to defeat the British.

Although that clearly didn’t work out for him, one of his grand ideas was a tunnel that led underneath the English Channel towards Britain, which could transport foot soldiers and munitions to help the invasion effort. However, Napoleon’s plan was dropped when the proposed design included chimneys sticking out from the tunnel that led to the water's surface so the tunnel could get fresh air. This becomes an obvious problem when you realise a well placed British cannonball could crack a chimney and get all the occupants of the tunnel very wet.

Also, the Channel is much deeper than the designer of the tunnel had accounted for, meaning the French would have needed an incredible amount of time and resources to complete it.