French Army in World War I
Bismarck's diplomatic maneuvering, and France's maladroit response to such crises as the Ems Dispatch and the Hohenzollern Candidature led to the French declaration of war in 1870.
France's subsequent defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, including the loss of its army and the capture of its emperor at Sedan, the loss of territory, including Alsace-Lorraine, and the payment of heavy indemnities, left the French seething and placed the reacquisition of lost territory as a primary goal at the end of the 19th century; the defeat also ended French preeminence in Europe.
As a result of the arms race, all European powers were ready for war and had time tables that would send millions of reserves into combat in a matter of days.
[12] Following the heavy losses at the Battle of Verdun and the Somme, and the defeat of Romania, Joffre was replaced by Robert Nivelle and effectively relieved of his duties on 12 December 1916.
[17] The main part of the offensive, the Second Battle of the Aisne, was largely unsuccessful, extremely costly in terms of manpower and led directly to the 1917 French Army mutinies.
[20][21] Due to his success in defending against German attacks the Second Battle of the Marne, he was awarded the Médaille militaire, France's third highest military honour.
[citation needed] The Battle of the Frontiers consisted of five offensives, commanded and planned by French Commander-in-Chief Joseph Joffre and German Chief-of-Staff Helmuth von Moltke.
General Charles Lanrezac's retreat probably saved the French Army, but Joffre blamed him for the failure of Plan XVII, even though the withdrawal had been permitted.
[30] Germany marched through neutral Belgium as part of the Schlieffen Plan to invade France, and by 23 August had reached the French border town of Maubeuge, whose true significance lay within its forts.
[32] In a 2006 web article, Didier Lodier wrote that 1,300 French troops had been killed and 45,000 men (including 3,000 wounded) were captured along with 400 guns (most damaged) for 2,500 German casualties.
De Langle was ordered quickly to make several limited attacks but Joffre told Poincaré the French president, that a war of movement was a long way off.
Despite the change from attempts at continuous battle to methodical attacks, with pauses to reorganise and consolidate, the French took less ground, fewer prisoners and suffered more casualties.
French casualties had been higher but the original German objective of taking Verdun while destroying the defending army through a battle of attrition had not succeeded.
War Minister Hubert Lyautey, General Philippe Pétain and Sir Douglas Haig were all opposed to the plan, although Aristide Briand supported the "Nivelle Offensive".
The more serious episodes involved only a few units; the mutinies did not threaten complete military collapse, but did make the high command reluctant to launch another offensive.
These included the occupation of the German colonies of Togo and Kamerun in West Africa,[73] participation in the Dardanelles[74]and Palestinian[75] campaigns against the Ottoman Empire and a diversionary offensive in the Balkans[76] carried out in conjunction with other Allied forces.
On 29 March 1918, Jean César Graziani became commander of the 12th French Army Corps, amounting to the two remaining divisions stationed in Italy, and helped to repulse in June the Austrian offensive during the Battle of the Piave River.
The biggest French training deployment to help an ally was the mission to Romania, led by Henri Berthelot, during the second half of the war.
[81] The heavy field artillery was rather limited in 1914, especially compared to its German counterpart: the fault lies in the disagreements between the services, the lack of financing and the domination of the 75 mm.
This weapon allowed for mowing and rapid changes of target, and had an accuracy equivalent to a machine gun up to 600 or 700 metres, after which the dispersion of fire was greater.
From February 1915 onwards, the high-powered trench mortars were entrusted exclusively to the artillery (organised in batteries of twelve pieces), while the low-powered ones were left to the infantry.
Given the contempt of the other artillerymen for these units, the personnel assigned to the trench artillery (TA) initially included convicts with suspended sentences from courts-martial coming from all the branches of the army.
German chemical companies BASF, Hoechst and Bayer (which formed the IG Farben conglomerate in 1925) had been making chlorine as a by-product of their dye manufacturing.
In cooperation with Fritz Haber of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry in Berlin, they began developing methods of discharging chlorine gas against enemy trenches.
This was superseded by the ARS (appareil respiratoire spécial), a copy of the German GM15 gas mask, with charcoal filter, which was adopted in January 1917, but was only issued in significant numbers from February 1918 onwards.
[105] In January 1916 Colonel Jean Baptiste Eugène Estienne persuaded Joffre to begin production of French tanks ("land ships").
[112] Adolphe Messimy who was briefly Minister of War in 1911-1912 stated that "This stupid blind attachment to the most visible of colours will have cruel consequences"; however, in the following year, one of his successors, Eugène Étienne, declared "Abolish red trousers?
The adoption of the blue-grey uniform (known as "horizon-blue" because it was thought to prevent soldiers from standing out against the skyline) had been approved by the French Chamber of Deputies on 10 July 1914[115] but new issues had not been possible before the outbreak of war a few weeks later.
[120] The horizon-blue uniform and Adrian helmet proved sufficiently practical to be retained unchanged for the remainder of the war, although khaki of a shade described as "mustard" was introduced after December 1914 for the troops of the (North African) 19th Military District serving in France.
[123] In 1915 the bonnet de police (or "calot") generally replaced the kepi for other ranks during the remainder of the First World War, because of its greater convenience when the Adrian steel helmet was issued.
