10 Things You Didn't Know About Napoleon

Apart from a channel tunnel, Napoleon had a whole list of cunning plans and unusual schemes which he thought would help claim the victory against his arch nemesis, Britain. One of the more unusual pieces of equipment that Napoleon wanted to utilise was hot air balloons.

The bane of his existence at military school had come full circle in a strange way, as hot air balloons had the chance to help him conquer Britain. To make this full circle story even stronger, he employed the expertise of Jean-Pierre Blanchard’s wife to help strategize his approach. That’s right, after Napoleon nearly killed her husband years earlier, she was now helping him conquer Europe one step at a time.

Sadly for Napoleon, the hot air balloon approach never came to life, as it was concluded that the wind direction would be too unpredictable and steering a fleet of hot air balloons across the Channel in those conditions would be too risky. Napoleon instead attempted foot soldier transport via barges, which were also scrapped after several sank in a test run, causing dozens of soldiers to drown.