Posted on 09/08/2023 7:05:12 AM PDT by CheshireTheCat
One hundred years ago today, during the Battle of the Marne, seven French soldiers were shot without trial for retreating. Most of the resources about this Gallic tragedy are in French, and so are most of the links in today’s post.
All were enlistees of France’s 327th Infantry Regiment. On the night of September 6, German shelling panicked their sister 270th Regiment into a disorderly retreat away from the front lines. That rout ran right into the 327th, behind them, and panicked that regiment too.
Further in the army’s rear, the hubbub awoke from his farmhouse bivouac division commander Gen. Rene Boutegourd. Boutegard had a simple solution, and ordered seven of the soldiers caught away from their posts to be executed the next morning by way of example. While the war’s later years would feature notoriously unfair courts-martial with predetermined sentences, Gen. Boutegourd didn’t even see the need to pay that much tribute to procedural regularity in this case.
The Battle of the Marne was still ongoing, and the situation in the field, pre-trench warfare, was fluid. Shoot them out of hand and be done with it! Then, the rest of the division will understand the consequences of unauthorized retreat.....
(Excerpt) Read more at executedtoday.com ...
If you get a chance watch “ A very long engagement”.
In french with subs, incredible cinematography, great acting.
follows several french soldiers, tried for cowardice, who are sent into no man’s land to be killed and the search by their
loved ones for what happened...and justice.
Excellent film!!!
Speaking of The Great War.
This is the best series on it. They are also fantastic with WWII.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB2vhKMBjSxO1lsrC98VOyOzfW0Gn8Tga
I don’t particularly care for the ones they did, since Indy left.
If France wasn’t allied with Russia, then the war would have been just between the Germans and the Russians.
Because of France’s alliance, Germany felt they had to knock out France first, to get to Russia.
The Czar wasn’t worth saving.
Bookmarked.
Is he the same narrator as did the “Sabaton History” videos?
Yes, that’s him.
I haven’t watched to Sabaton History videos yet. But it’s on my To-Do List.
I’ll have to check these movies out—thanks!
They’re good. His WWI and WWII videos are now on my list.
And listening to Sabaton is always on my list.
And since France is much smaller than the US it was a much larger percentage of their population - almost 5% of the total population died, which is a huge percentage of military aged males. You do what you want but i would not make that joke.
The Battle of the Marne may have been -the- most pivotal battle of WWI, as the German failure to advance and cut-off the French defenders made it impossible to fulfill the Schlieffen plan. The French dug in and after falling back, the British did also, starting the line of trenches that would define the war. My great-grandfather served all four years in WWI, with a year off to go chase after natives who revolted in North Africa during the festivities in Europe. He was mentioned in dispatches in 1918 for pontoon bridges put in place under heavy German artillery fire as the Germans retreated.
I have the play station video game Verdun. It has several WWI battle scenarios. I’ve played the game 1000s of times. I get killed every time. Then, if you retreat without orders, you get shot in the back by an officer as a coward.
I think they only laid down their arms when deceased.
“If those sweethearts won’t face German bullets, they’ll face French ones”
Classic Kubrick
“The Czar wasn’t worth saving.”
Nor was Russia.
The Complete Military History of France
* Gallic Wars - Lost. In a war whose ending foreshadows the next 2000 years of French history, France is conquered by of all things, an Italian (Julius Caesar).
* Hundred Years War - Mostly lost. Saved at last moment by schizophrenic teenaged girl, who inadvertently creates The First Rule of French Warfare: “France’s armies are victorious only when not led by a Frenchman.”
* Italian Wars - Lost. France becomes the first and only country to ever lose two wars to the Italians.
* Wars of Religion - France goes 0-5-4 against the Huguenots
* Thirty Years War - France is technically not a participant, but manages to get invaded anyway. Claims a tie on the basis that eventually the other participants started ignoring her.
* War of Devolution - Tied. Frenchmen take to wearing red flowerpots as chapeaux.
* The Dutch War - Tied
* War of the Augsburg League/King William’s War/French and Indian War - Lost, but claimed as a tie. Three ties in a row induces deluded Frogophiles the world over to label the period as the height of French military power.
* War of the Spanish Succession - Lost. The War also gave the French their first taste of a Marlborough, which they have loved every since.
* American Revolution - In a move that will become quite familiar to future Americans, France claims a win even though the English colonists saw far more action. This is later known as “de Gaulle Syndrome”, and leads to the Second Rule of French Warfare: “France only wins when America does most of the fighting.”
* French Revolution - Won, primarily due the fact that the opponent was also French.
* The Napoleonic Wars - Lost. Temporary victories (remember the First Rule!) due to leadership of a Corsican, who ended up being no match for a British footwear designer.
* The Franco-Prussian War - Lost. Germany plays the role of drunk Frat boy to France’s ugly girl home alone on a Saturday night.
* World War I - Tied and on the way to losing, France is saved by the United States.
* World War II - Lost. Conquered French liberated by the United States and Britain just as they finish learning the Horst Wessel Song.
* War in Indochina - Lost. French forces plead sickness, take to bed with the Dien Bien Flu
* Algerian Rebellion - Lost. Loss marks the first defeat of a western army by a Non-Turkic Muslim force since the Crusades, and produces the First Rule of Muslim Warfare; “We can always beat the French.
"Peace to them all. A worse fate awaited any of them than the most vindictive fag among us could have wished. Ypres and the Some are up most of them. They were happy while their good days lasted."
That was P.J. O’Rourke, wasn’t it?
Wow. I’ve never heard that before, and (at least to a combat vet) it’s pretty powerful stuff…
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