The Men Who Brought the Doctrine of the Offensive à Outrance to the French Army

The Siege of Paris, 1871 by Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier

By Charles W. Sanders, Jr.

The Disgrace of Sedan

The search for doctrine was a major occupation of the best minds in the French Army at the turn of this century. Intelligent, dedicated and experienced French officers in major commands, on the faculty of the Ecole de Guerre and on the General Staff read, studied the histories of past conflicts and the likely characteristics of future ones, thought, debated various options and in near consensus developed and promulgated a clearly defined doctrine which was splendidly executed by French soldiers in the opening battles of the Great War. Unfortunately, it was exactly the wrong doctrine for the French Army to employ in 1914. It was a doctrine which very nearly resulted in the death of France. . .

The search for doctrine by the French Army did not begin in the glamour and swirl that was France at the turn of the century. It began in 1870. In that year, the dull, gray Prussian mass crushed the descendants of the great Bonaparte in a war which lasted just six weeks. The completeness of the disgrace and bewilderment of the nation which considered itself to be the premiere warrior race of Europe was epitomized by Louis Napoleon himself, trailing sick and defeated through Metz, jeered by old soldiers along the route, on his way to captivity in Germany. 

The disgrace of the defeat was surpassed only by the harshness of  Prussian peace terms. France was to surrender Lorraine and Alsace two of her richest provinces, and pay reparations to the Prussians on a scale never before demanded. There was even to be constructed on the Siegerstrasse in Berlin a Victory Column topped with the mighty figure of Germania victorious. The column was to  be garnished with scores of captured French cannons--dipped in captured French gold. All this was for the French Army, too much to bear. The degradation would not be forgotten. The spirit of revanche was born.

The French recovery from the war was as rapid and complete as the war had been terrible. The stale, inhibiting monarchy of the Second Empire was expunged and, by the time of the Paris exposition in 1878, the Prussian Army of Occupation had departed. The hated reparations payments were being paid off ahead of schedule and Paris again was a city of light, gaiety, and excitement. A new sense of confidence was in the land. Nowhere was this sense of confidence more evident than in the Army. In response to the poor showing of the French General Staff during the war significant reforms had been enacted. The Ecole de Guerre had been established in 1875. Selection for attendance was by merit.

Graduates, following the German model, would form the État Major de 1'Armee (the General Staff) and would alternate assignments between line and staff positions." The "fops" of the Second Empire were replaced by dedicated young officers who sought to learn from the past and possessed a passion for the study of the profession of arms Gone were the days when MacMahon had threatened to "remove from the promotion list any officer whose name I read on the cover of a book."  Many old Army values and standards changed as well. But the thirst for revenge remained.

George Gilbert

Part and parcel of the new spirit in the Army was the grim determination to set right the damage done to its honor. French officers, whose forefathers were at Austerlitz, Jena, and Friedland, awaited impatiently the opportunity to redeem their honor, to dispel the clouds of 1870 and to show that theirs was again a first class army. 

This preoccupation with things military extended beyond those in uniform. The government, after great debate, voted to spend considerable treasure to construct a barrier of forts to replace the natural barriers of the Rhine and the Vosges lost in 1870 along with Alsace and Lorraine. In the arts, the paintings of de Neuville and Detaille (unlike the painting at the top of this page) depicted in beautiful detail the bravery, sense of duty, sacrifice, and above all, the gloire of the French soldier.  The poetry of Deroulede exalted "the bugler who sounds the charge." A government sponsored committee was established to recommend a program of military and patriotic education in French schools. Deroulede, selected as a member, saw the job of the committee as one of converting "the youth of our schools into a legion of brave Frenchmen" who would "follow the cult of the flag" and develop a true "taste for arms." Al1 of this was underpinned by the popular philosophy of Henri Bergson with its emphasis on élan vital. 

By the nineties,  Captain George Gilbert, a member of the first graduating class of the new Ecole de Guerre, who had retired from the army due to medical problems, had become a highly visible commentator on military affairs. Prior to his  illness, Gilbert was considered a future leader of the Army.  His message was uncomplicated. He taught the that the primary responsibility for the defeat of 1870 lay in the French Army's defensive state of mind, which had h allowed the Germans to gain and maintain moral superiority throughout the war. This, quite simply, was the reason for the loss and the problem could be easily corrected.

Gilbert spoke and the Army listened. He told his eager listeners that defensive thought and defensive action alone had cost France the victory. His words were calming and soothing to an army that desperately wanted to believe in itself and to be told that everything was all right. Gilbert's ideas became the ideas of the Ecole de Guerre. He coined the phrase furia francaise and the initials "G.G." were the the most famous in all military writings of the time.  But Gilbert was no longer on the active list. A serving officer of  some influence was needed to preach the ideas within the Army. This officer would have to be a soldier of considerable intellectual stature, and he would need an official forum from which to preach. The perfect officer for this role turned out  to be Ferdinand Foch. His forum was to be no less that the Supreme War College, the Ecole de Guerre.

Ferdinand Foch

Foch attended the Ecole de Guerre in 1885 and, only nine years later, in 1894, was assigned to the school as Professor off Strategy and Tactics. He served as an instructor for six years and was easily one of the most popular instructors at the school. Dapper, full of daring ideas and a fiery speaker, he rapidly attracted a devoted following of the brightest students at the college.  In 1901 he ran afoul of the post-Dreyfus "catholic bashing" of Minister of War Louis Andre and was relieved of his post. He would return to the college a scant six years later, this time as  commandant.

In his lectures Foch, who had always dealt extensively in mystique, now blended the spiritual views of elan and esprit as expressed by Gilbert with the teachings of the philosophers Joseph de Maistre and Kolmar von der Goltz. "Victory = Will" was the centerpiece of his teachings. He told his students that battle was a struggle between two wills  lost  and the only time a battle was when one believed it was lost.  Therefore, battles could  be won as long as one did not believe himself beaten. Modern battle, even  with its new weapons of great destruction, would be no different. From a narrow reading and interpretation of the works of Du Picgq, Foch took the notion that "No enemy awaits you if you are determined and never are there two equal determinations." He conveniently ignored Du Picq's admonition that in any equation of wills the will of the enemy should not be forgotten.

Foch did not teach that the "blind offensive" was the answer in all cases. In his two books, The Conduct of War and Principles of War, he wrote extensively of flexibility, security, and economy of forсе. He believed that the commander who immediately went into action at all points upon sighting the enemy would rapidly face stalemate because he would have no reserve forces with which to exploit the situation as it developed. Rather, he said, the commander should economize his forces and strike with his reserve at the point of enemy weakness. This would maintain the "will to conquer" of his men.

Some historians today argue that Foch never intended to become the "priest" of the offensive à outrance  which he in fact became at the Ecole de Guerre. Indeed, he himself later maintained that his thoughts had been misinterpreted, and in the midst of the slaughter of the initial battles of the war he cried out that all this was not what he  intended. History, however, can be a cruel judge, and the fact is that it was Foch who started the fire at the Ecole de Guerre.

 Louis Loyzeau de Grandmaison

The impact of the teachings of Foch was enormous. By 1914 the  majority of the hundreds of students he had taught at the Ecole de Guerre, the best and the brightest of the French Army, commanded divisions and brigades or held senior staff positions. Among these was a favorite pupil, Major Louis Loyzeau de Grandmaison.   In 1906 de Grandmaison, predictably, was assigned to the General Staff. In the same year he published a book, his second, entitled Dressage de L'Infanterie en vue du Combat Offensif (Infantry Training for Offensive Combat). Using both his experiences as a commander in combat and his own study of the recently completed Russo-Japanese War, de Grandmaison concluded that the direct offensive was still the best tactic and that the primary reason  [for its outcome was] the Japanese offensive spirit.

The argument has been made that there was another, more prudent side to de Grandmaison and that crediting him as the chief disciple of  the offensive à outrance  is unfair. While it is true that he, on occasion, displayed a more logical and realistic approach to tactics, de Grandmaison did not display this aspects of his thought for general public consumption.  The words that did reach the public [and most of the army] were unequivocal: "For the attack, only two things are necessary; to know where the enemy is and to decide what to do. What the enemy intends to do is of no consequence. " The mission of the French forces was simple. They were to "...charge the enemy with the bayonet in order to destroy him (realizing that)...this result can be obtained only at the price of bloody sacrifice. All other conceptions should be rejected as contrary to the very nature of war. What of plans? No plans were needed. One had only to locate and then "fly at the throats of the enemy." What of security? De Grandmaison answered that "imprudence is the best security.  To Liddell Hart it was a theory "based on the sentimental assumption that Frenchmen were braver than Germans." "The strategy of the matador," he said, "had been replaced with the strategy of the bull."

Stil1, the ideas of the offensive à outrance spread slowly until February 1911 when, in a single stroke, de Grandmaison was able to wed the French Army irrevocably to its fate. In that year General Victor Michel, Commander-in-Chief of the French Army, proposed a radical change in Plan XVI, the existing French war-fighting plan. Without getting into the specifics, to the disciples of the school of the offensive, this proposal was completely unacceptable for two reasons. First, it proposed the use of reservists in front-line assignments. The spirit of the old long service professional army was still very much alive and the regulars harbored feelings of both distrust and jealousy toward reservists "Citizen soldiers" were seen to be "unfit" for the furious offensive operations planned by the General Staff.  They lacked the unquestioning zeal needed to wage war with the bayonet. Anyway, they would not be required. The war, although sure to be bloody, was going to be a short one decided in the first violent battles by regular troops attacking always and everywhere.

Second, the proposal called for the abandonment of large portions of the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, lands which had assumed an almost mystical quality since they had been "stolen" by the Prussians in 1870.

De Grandmaison, now a Lieutenant Colonel, and the Chief of the Troisieme (operations) Bureau in the war ministry, seized upon the debate  surrounding   Michel's proposed plan to precipitate the rebellion of the "Young Turks." He scheduled and delivered two lectures at the new Center of Higher War Studies in which he called not only for the rejection of Michel's plan, but for Army-wide acceptance of the offensive à outrance doctrine as well. He argued passionately that what France needed to fight the Germans was a doctrine which had as its what centerpiece the straightforward offensive, an offensive to the bitter end, , to be conducted simultaneously and everywhere. There was no further need for complex movement of forces, and no need for the use of reservists. Instinct was superior to intelligence. 

The effect of de Grandmaison's lectures was electric and he succeeded in his aims beyond his greatest hopes. Not only was Michel's plan defeated, but Michel himself, long held by the "Young Turks" to be an impediment to the new ideas sweeping the Army, was sacked. General Gallieni refused to serve as his replacement on the grounds that he had helped unseat Michel. General Pau, the government's second choice, was an ardent Catholic and therefore unacceptable to many of the deputies in the government. 

Joseph Jacques Césaire Joffre

By default then, the position went to Joseph Joffre, the government's third choice as Commander-in-Chief and an enthusiastic supporter of the new doctrine. De Grandmaison, selected for command of the 153rd Infantry Regiment at Toul, could depart for his command knowing that there would be no turning back now. Doctrine and supporting regulations and plans would be rewritten. The way was clear for the doctrine of the offensive à outrance to become law. 

All that now remained was for the new doctrine to be codified and institutionalized within the Army. This was accomplished by the release three important documents in 1913 and 1914: The Regulations for the Conduct of Large Units (28 Оctober 1913), The Decree on the Service of Armies in the Field (2 December 1913) and The Regulations for Infantry of  Maneuver (20 April 1914).

Joffre brought these about following his dissatisfaction with the army's grand maneuvers of 1913. He assessed the Army to be in a poor state  of readiness in several key areas.  What was needed, he felt, were regulations that were more prescriptive and left no room for misinterpretation or doubt. Further, the new regulations should reflect the new mood in the Army, the mood best expressed by de Grandmaison. Under the new regulations, old ideas were to be discarded: "The passive defense is doomed to certain defeat; it is to be absolutely precluded."  He approved a new war strategy, "Plan XVII", based on the new principles.

When war came in 1914, the French soldiers fought exactly as they had been trained. Upon meeting an enemy force, they attacked, full of the furia francaise, and regard of the enemy situation. During a single day (22 August 1914) the French Army suffered 27,000 fatalities, more than the British Army on the legendary "First Day of the Somme."  Major General Edward Spears, then a British liaison to Joffre's staff, was present at the slaughter of August 1914. He wrote later: "The senses of the the tragic futility of it will never quite fade from the minds of those who saw these brave men, dashing across the open to the sound of drums and bugles. . . During August 1914 the French army suffered over 300,000 casualties (a conservative estimate of killed, wounded, and captured),   in the spirit of  offensive à outrance.  

Après le Déluge 

What of those individuals most responsible for the failed Doctrine of the  offensive à outrance?

• Former Captain George Gilbert lived until until 1901 (?), but I've not discovered anything  online or in my personal library comparing the actual events of the war with his theories.  Possibly, this is due to the broad discrediting of his ideas.

• Colonel Ferdinand Foch after some early stumbling provided brilliant leadership during the Battle of the Marne, quickly discarding the ideas that had failed during August.  After serving with distinction throughout the war, he would be called upon to coordinate the Allied victory offensive of 1918.

• Since his intervention in the war planning had been generally favorably received, Lt. Colonel Louis de Grandmaison rapid career advancement continued when he returned to line service.  He was  commander of the 153rd Regiment when war broke out and managed to get wounded three times within 24 hours. Nevertheless he was promoted next to the command of the Fifth Army Reserve Group. On February 18, 1915, while inspecting front-line trenches near Soissons, Grandmaison was struck in the head by shrapnel from an exploding German artillery shell. He died the following day at the age of 54, becoming a casualty of the brutal, high-firepower trench warfare that his prewar tactical doctrines had deemed impossible.

• General Joseph Jacques Césaire Joffre, continued to serve as Commander-in-Chief of French forces from the start of World War I until the end of 1916. His reputation today remains stellar because of his undeniably brilliant leadership in changing the course of the war at the Battle of the Marne.  His subsequent Western Front operations of 1915, however, showed he still had faith in Élan, and an underappreciation of the killing power of artillery. In 1915 alone, the French Army suffered approximately 349,000 deaths, its worst year of the Great War.

Source:  Excerpted from "NO OTHER LAW: HE FRENCH ARMY AND THE DOCTRINE OF THE OFFENSIVE," Charles W. Sanders, Jr., March 1987, RAND Corporation

Eyewitness: "I Saw Rheims Cathedral Burn"

 Click on Images Below If Reading on Small Device

The Cathedral Today

Source:  The Great War, "I Was There" – Undying Memories of 1914-1918

Remembering a Veteran: Captain Robert Gee, VC, MC, 2nd Battalion Royal Fusiliers, MC, VC

Born on 7 May 1876 in Leicester (England), Robert Gee  was orphaned at age nine and lived in a workhouse and orphanage until he joined the 4th Queens Own Hussars in 1893. However on 18 October he went Absent Without Leave and the next day under an assumed name (Sydney Evershed)  he enlisted with the 2nd Battalion Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment). He reverted to his real name later in the year after being tried for fraudulent enlistment. Despite this poor start, Robert rose through the ranks rapidly, from lance corporal in 1896 to warrant officer by 1911. He was finally commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in 1915.  

On 5 September 1915, Robert joined the 2nd Battalion in Gallipoli. Within a few days he found himself an acting captain. Robert survived the flooding at Suvla Bay on 26 November, which killed many men (both British and Turkish) who were drowned in their trenches or died of frostbite as the temperature dropped rapidly. [After the war, he published a dramatic account of this episode.]  On 5 January 1916 the Battalion was evacuated and withdrawn to Egypt.

The November 1915 Storm at Gallipoli Featured Both Frost and Flooding

Gee’s next significant action was on the Somme. On the 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, the 2nd Battalion attacked Beaumont Hamel. Robert was severely wounded in the thigh and—also suffering from shell shock—was evacuated to the UK. His actions during the attack had been noted and he was subsequently awarded the Military Cross. His citation for this award reads:

For conspicuous gallantry in action. He encouraged his men during the attack by fearlessly exposing himself and cheering them on. When wounded he refused to retire, and urged his men on till, after being blown in the air by a shell, he was carried in, half unconscious. 

He returned to France in February 1917 and was wounded again during August but returned to duty within a fortnight. Captain Robert Gee would next be awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest recognition in the British and Commonwealth Armed Forces, for his bravery during the Battle of Cambrai (1917).  

It was there that, after the enemy succeeded in capturing his brigade's headquarters and ammunition dump, Captain Gee found himself a prisoner of the German troops. He managed to quickly escape, however, and organize a party of the brigade staff with which he attacked the enemy. Closely followed by two companies of infantry, Gee cleared the locality and established a defensive flank. Then, finding an enemy machine gun still in action, with a revolver in each hand, he went forward and captured the gun, killing eight of the crew. He was wounded but would not have his wound dressed until the defense was organized. The image of Gee with one revolver in each hand charging at an enemy machine gun was probably an epic sight for everyone that witnessed that moment.  

British Infantry at Cambrai, 1917

His Victoria Cross citation reads:

For most Conspicuous bravery, initiative and determination when attacked by a strong enemy force pierced our line and captured a Brigade Headquarters and ammunition dump. Capt. Gee finding himself a prisoner killed one of the enemy with his spiked stick and succeeded in escaping. He then organized a party of the Brigade Staff, with which he attacked the enemy fiercely, closely followed by two Companies of Infantry. By his own personal bravery and prompt action, he, aided by his orderlies, cleared the locality. Capt. Gee established a defensive flank on the outskirts of the village, then finding that an enemy machine gun was still in action, with a revolver in each hand and followed by one man, he rushed and captured the gun killing eight of the crew. At this time he was wounded, but refused to have the wound dressed until he was satisfied that the defense was organized. 

It was only after the action that Gee allowed himself to be taken to an aid station to receive treatment for the gunshot wound. He returned to France during April 1918 but was evacuated home suffering from his previous injuries.  On 11 November 1920, Robert was one of 100 service men and the only Royal Fusilier chosen to form the Honor Guard at the internment of the Unknown Warrior at Westminster Abbey.

Captain Gee Shows His Victoria Cross to the Boys of Cottage
Homes Orphanage Where He Had Been Raised

After unsuccessfully studying for The Bar, Gee decided to pursue a career in politics, initially  narrowly defeated in December 1918 for the seat representing Consett, Co. Durham. On 2 March 1921, he ran again, defeated future prime minister Ramsay MacDonald and became Unionist Member of Parliament for Woolwich East. He lost his seat in 1923 but won another election in 1924. Gee remained in politics until 1927 when he resigned his seat as M.P. for Bosworth, Leicestershire, although by this time he had already migrated to Western Australia. He died in Perth, Western Australia, aged 84.

Source: The Fusilier Museum London; The Great War: Personal Stories

The German Army's Massive Logistical Support for Its Verdun Operations

Concrete 380mm Artillery Position Built at Duzey 17 Miles from Verdun

During the long and careful buildup for their Verdun offensive, Operation Gericht (Judgment), the Germans had 14 railways at their disposal and managed to concentrate seven army corps and extraordinarily powerful artillery, comprising at least 3,000 guns of all calibers with  654 heavy artillery pieces over 100mm, including 30 over 210mm, for attacking the French. Mounting the intentionally attritional offensive required the supply of  stupendous amounts of artillery ammunition over a prolonged period. This presented unique challenges for Germany's planners. Their response was remarkable.

A German Daimler Marienfelde Truck
They Had a Tough Time at Verdun

Army logistics at the Battle of Verdun would rely heavily on a multi-faceted rear area construction program and the use of main line railroads and a moveable system of narrow-gauge rail lines inside the initial operational sector—the fortress sector on the eastern heights of the Meuse.  The distinction between the operational and rear areas is a little murky for the 1916 Battle of Verdun. Much of the artillery of the German Army, including most of its heavy's remained some distance from the infantry operations and the logistical operations extended all the way back to Germany.  For purposes of this article only, the map below shows the distinctions we are making.

Black Line – The Opening Front Line of February 1916
Grey Shaded Area – Infantry Operations, East and West of Meuse
Within Red-Dots – Logistical & Support + Concentrated Artillery
Note Multiple Rail Lines 

A secondary issue for the offensive was the long-term care of its troops which were to be assigned full-time to the sector rather than rotated regular as their opposing forces in the French Army would be.  Roughly 30 to 40 percent of the total manpower allocated to the Fifth Army at Verdun was strictly dedicated to rear-area support rather than frontline combat. So, for the duration of the battle, logistical operations were intermingled in the fighting area as major artillery units were firing away from the rear, i.e. the area north and east of the French fortress zone.

Surviving German Barracks (Location Uncertain)

This  German rear area at Verdun during the fighting would serve as the logistical and structural lifeline for the Fifth Army. Known as  Etappengebiet (staging/rear areas), these zones were designed to withstand heavy French artillery, keep troops physically fit for the brutal "meat grinder" of Verdun, and manage a massive influx of casualties.  It was highly organized, featuring elaborate trench networks, concrete emplacements, and an excellent localized railway network and light trench railways that moved troops and supplies to the battlefront. Moving millions of heavy artillery shells required massive labor forces. This included thousands of wagon drivers, horse handlers, and specialized mechanical transport units operating trucks to move supplies from depots to the front.  This infrastructure allowed the Germans to conduct 300 days of intense artillery fire. 

Surviving Structures at Camp Marguerre

German engineers created a number of permanent (concrete rather than canvas) structures to support operations at Verdun.  The most famous surviving example is Camp Marguerre (located in the Spincourt Forest, about 12 miles behind the front lines). Built under the direction of Captain Hans Marguerre, it was classified a Special Concrete Factory Department and also served as a premier rest, refit, and training camp.  Another priority was for amenities and hygiene for the troops. The men  rotated out of the trenches, to camps that offered running water, bathhouses (Badeanstalten), barbers, and regular athletic events. Regimental bands played, and the command even sanctioned official brothels nearby to keep the troops jolly.

A Clubhouse for the Troops

The scale of medical support was similarly extensive. Advanced Dressing Stations (Verbandplätze) were located roughly 800 yards to a mile behind the trenches and were heavily reinforced concrete bunkers. They were designed with blast-shielded windows facing away from the enemy line to let in natural light so doctors could triage and perform emergency amputations safely under fire.  Field Hospitals (Feldlazarette) were positioned roughly 10 to 15 kilometers (6–9 miles) behind the front. These stationary facilities typically cared for 200–300 patients at a time. Many were constructed directly into the hillsides or utilized reinforced local schoolhouses and churches in occupied towns.

A Field Hospital Bunker

A notable feature of the battle was the extensive light, narrow-gauge rail network developed by the German Army at Verdun.  Known as the Heeresfeldbahn (Army Field Railway), it featured assembled portable steel rails mounted to gauge on steel ties. These track sections could be handled by a few men, laid directly onto flattened dirt or mud without extensive ballasting, and quickly bolted together like a giant model train set. If a section was destroyed by French shellfire, it could be unbolted and replaced by German railway troops in a matter of minutes. The workhorse of the Verdun network was the Brigadelokomotiven (DFB), a heavy-duty, 0-8-0 steam engine designed specifically for the field army. It was built to burn low-quality coal or wood and could reach speeds of up to 25 km/h (15 mph) while pulling dozens of wagons. For the transporting the wounded, specially modified, four-wheeled narrow-gauge wagons were fitted with layered stretcher racks and protective canvas covers . Incidentally, these smaller railroads play a prominent role in Arnold Zweig's classic novel, Education Before Verdun.

A Light Rail (Narrow Gauge) Line

The major shortcoming of the German logistical  network at Verdun  was the lack of reliable, well-maintained rear-area roads. These were devastated by French artillery firing from the west side of the Meuse, eventually causing the German high command to expand the battle across the river.  They never developed a reliable motorized transport system to match the French Army's Voie Sacrée.

Sources:  Historical Analysis of the Battle of Verdun, USAF Air Command and Staff College; German Rear Area at Verdun, Picryl; The Battle of Verdun - Phase 1 The preparations before the battle, wereldoorlog1418.nl; Exploring an Abandoned German Camp of Verdun | History Traveler (video); "The Battle of Verdun and German Offensive Tactics in 1916", Dr. Robert Foley, Defence Studies Department, King's College London.

  

The History of the Doughboys' Campaign Hat (Video)

The Saga of the Irish Canadian Rangers in the Great War

By James Patton

At the start of the First World War, some Canadians wondered how their large population of Irish immigrants would respond to the Dominion’s call for volunteers. Irish Nationalist sentiment was fairly widespread and it was thought that many had left the homeland to avoid British domination. The answer came just a month after the declaration of war when a committee was formed in Montréal to create an all-Irish regiment in the Canadian militia. Behind this was a 36-year-old lawyer, H.J. Trihey (1877–1942). A graduate of Loyola College (Montréal), he had captained the Montréal Shamrocks team that won the Stanley Cup in 1899 and 1900.

The committee received approval at the end of August. Trihey was named the commanding officer and he designated the unit as the 55th Regiment, The Irish Canadian Rangers. Its badges would be distinctly Irish, with a shamrock on the cap and a harp on the collar. The Regiment specified “Irish descent” as a required qualification, but religion wasn’t specified.

Harry Trihey

There was another distinctive feature about Trihey’s Rangers: as militia they would not be sent overseas. The response to the first recruiting campaign was positive and the four authorized companies were soon filled. However, only the Adjutant, Major John Long, had any military service (Trihey had attended an officers school in Halifax). In mid-1915 the Rangers contributed “C” company, 60th (Victoria Rifles of Canada) battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF). This company was commanded by a Ranger, Dublin-born Capt. E.H. Knox-Lee, and. Major Long became the 60th ’s adjutant.

The Rangers also supplied volunteers to the Montréal Home Guard, a “composite” battalion made up of men from local militia regiments who had not volunteered for the CEF. These men guarded strategic infrastructure like locks on canals. In the winter of 1915-16 the Rangers were ordered to raise a whole overseas battalion, to be called the 199th Irish Canadian Rangers. All those willing to serve were discharged from the militia and enlisted in the CEF.

First they needed officers. Trihey was made a a lieutenant colonel and put in charge. He drew almost all of the officers from his 55th Militia Regiment. Most were Irish Catholics but born in Montréal. Four were also Loyola "old boys" They came from business, finance and the professions. Only one had any military experience, the now-Major Knox-Lee, who had returned from service in the 60th CEF.

The next task was recruiting and training NCO’s. There were many volunteers; most of whom had prior military experience, some in Imperial service, one with the U.S. volunteers in the Philippines and one even claimed to have fought with Pancho Villa. By the spring of 1916, the 199th was ready to begin general recruiting. The plan was to emphasize that all the Irish in Canada lived in unity. A recruiting poster featured a map of Ireland emblazoned with “All in One.” The Montréal Gazette said “that the 199th Irish Rangers were the Canadian exemplification of this new United Ireland.” This ideal was expressed by the motto “Quis Separabit,” (Who Shall Separate Us? ) which was shared with many other Irish formations, originating in 1793 with the 88th Foot, known as the Connaught Rangers.

By coincidence, the 199th began their recruiting on 24 April, Easter Monday, 1916, the very day of the Dublin uprising. For the next three months, while Irish Canadians were being called on to enlist, the newspapers carried stories of the uprising, its brutal suppression, of martial law and executions.

There was also a newsworthy scandal: the Quartermaster was caught selling the men’s civvies instead of storing them, and also embezzling the proceeds from the sale of leftover food. So, after all of this bad publicity, six month’s of effort had yielded a battalion that was still 100 men short, and a Montréal paper declared, “it has been a complete failure.” With the ranks not full, the recruiters had to range farther afield, stalking the Richelieu and Châteauguay valleys, the Eastern Townships and even places in Ontario.

This last move piqued the Mayor of Toronto, who declared that anyone from his city who joined a Montréal battalion would lose the insurance policy paid for by his city. In August 1916 the 199th gained a royal patron, an honor shared by only five other Canadian formations. The Prussian-born HRH Princess Louise, the Duchess of Connaught (1860–1917), the wife of the Governor-General (and the mother of THE Princess Patricia of the Canadian Light Infantry regiment) bestowed the honor. The 199th became The Duchess of Connaught’s Own Irish Canadian Rangers, thus acquiring distinctive new insignia. The Duchess herself embroidered the flag, and when it was presented, the salute was taken by the Duke (the third son of Queen Victoria). His concluding message was “You have one of the finest battalions I have ever reviewed in Canada.”

Despite the royal patronage, the spiffy badges and the Duke’s rhetoric, the battalion still couldn’t get up to full strength. The decline in recruiting seen in Montréal in the last half of 1916 was experienced in every military district of Canada. Many men who wanted to fight had already joined up. Others were distracted by the rising industrial wages of a war economy. Many of the volunteers were in poor physical condition; after three months of recruiting, about 1,000 men who had tried to enlist with the 199th had failed to pass the medical boards. In some weeks as many as three out of four were rejected.

Nevertheless, at the end of November, the 199th was inspected prior to deployment. The Inspector-General’s report didn’t echo the governor-general’s glowing praise. The 199th was 200 men short and 66 were absent without leave. Lt. Col. Trihey was allowing a company sergeant major who was under arrest to parade under arms. The report’s conclusion: “On the whole the unit is only fit for drafts [backfill] and will require a lot of work to make them fit at that.”

Despite this, the 199th still prepared to depart. In a farewell address, their honorary Colonel, the Minister of Justice C.J. Doherty (1865–1931), repeated the recruiting campaign theme, “you show that in this country all races and creeds live together in amity.” It was decided to show off this feature of Canada in the 199th’s first and only "tour" of duty overseas. It was literally a tour—of Ireland. The Canadian-born British Colonial Secretary, Andrew Bonar Law (1858–1923), requested it of Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden (1854–1937), “With a view of helping recruiting in Ireland.” After the  Easter Rising and its aftermath, Irish recruitment had collapsed and, of course, conscription was off-limits. Some in Whitehall thought that Irishmen might be more receptive to serving in the Canadian Army, since it was more egalitarian than the British,  and the Canadian pay scale was very attractive—CD$1.10 per day—over four times the value of the British one shilling per day. Some estimate that 300 to 400 Irishmen did volunteer for the Canadian Army as a result of the parades.

The 199th left Halifax on 21 December 1916 and arrived in Liverpool on New Year’s Eve. During the voyage Trihey turned thirty-nine and his residence in Westmount burned down, and that was not to be the only bad news. The 199th had been assigned to the 15th Brigade in the new 5th Division, but on 5 January 1917, at the urging of Maj. Gen. Arthur Currie, the decision was made to stand down the 5th Division, and the 199th was assigned to the 23rd (Reserve) battalion CEF, which backfilled the 5th Brigade, 2nd Division. For its brief life thereafter, the 23rd would carry the honor The Duchess of Connaught’s Own.

The Rangers had not been singled out, but Trihey and Doherty believed theirs to be a special case, since the former Minister of Militias Sir Sam Hughes (1853–1921) had promised them that the 199th would serve together with its own officers, but the decision stood. Trihey and his second in command then resigned and Lieut. Col. John O’Donahoe, a veteran officer with 15 months of service with the 87th CEF, was appointed commander.

The Irish Rangers Marching in Cork

However, the recruiting tour of Ireland was still on. From 25 January to 2 February 1917, the 199th visited Dublin, Belfast, Armagh, Cork, and Limerick. Splendidly housed, the men were feted everywhere by the municipal corporations and local dignitaries.

They were inspected by the Lord-Lieutenant Ivor Guest, Baron Wimbourne (1873-1939) and blessed by Cardinal Michael Logue (1840–1924), the Catholic Primate of Ireland. The seemingly endless orations repeated the themes of unity and sacrifice for a just cause. Here is one example, from Sir James Gallagher( 1860–1925), the Lord Mayor of Dublin:

It is a great gratification to me to see such a fine body of men who have responded voluntarily to the call of duty and donned the uniform of the King in order to defend those rights and liberties which we so dearly love. I understand you are Irish by birth or descent, and that you embrace amongst your ranks men of all shades of religious and political opinion. You have set a fine example of what Irishmen can do if they only come together for one cause — the cause of liberty and humanity.

On 14 March the 199th lost their royal patron. To many her death was the symbolic end   f the 199th, which had been the only all-Irish battalion in the CEF, compared to 47 Scottish battalions, although many weren’t exclusively populated with Scots. It is reported in a contemporaneous writing that men who began service with either the 55th or the 199th were awarded one Military Cross five Distinguished Conduct Medals and 36 Military Medals, but I can’t verify this. The 55th Regiment was re-designated in the militia as The Irish Canadian Rangers on April 1st , 1920, and the battle honors Hill 70, Ypres 1917 and Amiens were bestowed due to the first battalion, which perpetuated the 199th .

The colors of the 199th were eventually laid up in the Loyola College Chapel (now part of Concordia University) in 1933. The Irish Canadian Rangers were disbanded in 1936.

Sources include:

Canada to Ireland: The Visit of the Duchess of Connaught’s Own, Drysdale, A.M., London 1917; The Montreal Irish and the Great War by Burns, Robin B. (Bishop’s University), CCHA Historical Studies, 52 (1985), 67-81, from the University of Manitoba website; Digital Collections, McGill University Library. Great War Forum 2004 thread.

 

Her Privates We

By Frederic Manning

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013

 Andrew Roberts, Reviewer

British Attack at Neuve-Chapelle

Originally Presented at the Hoover Institution Blog, 9 August 2016

Frederic Manning was an expatriate Australian aesthete-turned-journalist-turned-soldier who wanted his readers to understand was it was like to have fought in the trenches of World War One. His haunting autobiographical novel became an international bestseller in the 1930s and no less an authority than Ernest Hemingway described it as “the best and noblest book of men in war that I have ever read. I read it over once each year to remember how things really were so that I will never lie to myself nor to anyone else about them.” Manning wrote under the pseudonym “Private 19022” and perfectly reproduced the authentic slang of his comrades in the King’s Own Shropshire Rifles. (The book’s title is a lewd pun on the lines from Hamlet: “On Fortune’s cap we are not the very button … Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of her favours? … Faith, her privates we.”) 

It was not until 1977 that an unexpurgated edition was published, in which the swear words of the original manuscript were reinstated, and “beggar,” “cow,” and “muckin” were returned to their baser originals. The obscenities do not seem at all out of place, however, in the context of rats eating corpses in shell holes, human beings being ripped apart, and all the other horrors of the Somme Offensive in which Manning had fought. 

Yet Her Privates We is not antiwar per se: Despite being written at the height of the political movement that sought to characterize war as a crime, Manning instead presented it as merely a horrible but unavoidable part of the human condition. Nor did the book contain a denunciation of the British officer class, indeed some of the most sympathetic characters are the harassed but honorable captains and lieutenants trying to do their best for their men in impossible circumstances.

Order HERE

Editor's Note: We have drawn on Manning's writings several times over the years.  Some representative excerpts can be accessed HERE. MH

The Funeral of Edward VII Marked the End of an Age: Ten Who Were There, Part II

 

By Assistant Editor, Kimball Worcester

It was just noon when the purple-draped train carrying the coffin and its of mourners moved out of Paddington station, while all the troops presented arms. In striking contrast to the usual din of a railway terminus, Paddington had for upward of an hour resounded only with the tramp of marching men and the wail and throb and crash of the dead march. King George gave his arm to his mother as she left her coach to board the train. On the arrival at Windsor the gun-carriage which bore the royal coffin was drawn to St. George's Chapel by seamen of the Royal Navy and followed on foot by the royal mourners. At this part of the proceedings Theodore Roosevelt and M. Pichon, representatives of the sister Republics of the United States and France, walked at the end of the long line of royal Princes. Mr. Roosevelt was carrying his overcoat over his arm and wearing evening dress.

Ten Who Were There, (6–10)

6. Stéphen Pichon, Minister of Foreign Affairs, France (1857-1933) 

The representative of France at the funeral was the French politician of the Third Republic, Stéphen Pichon. An associate of Georges Clemenceau, he served several times under Clemenceau and others as minister of foreign affairs, a role in which he proved amiable, but not particularly effective. His most notable service was under Clemenceau during the latter part of the First World War and the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, but, like most of the other foreign ministers at the conference, Pichon was largely sidelined by the more forceful figure of his head of government.

7. Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich Romanov (1878 - 1918), Tsar Michael II (1917) 

Grand Duke Michael of Russia appeared in the cavalcade of royalty in Edward VII's funeral cortege as the representative of his brother and sovereign, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. He and Nicholas were the King's nephews. Two years later, Michael married morganatically and set himself outside the social and royal pale of the time. He settled abroad with his wife, Countess Brasova, and son, George. It was the Great War that brought him back to his country and, ultimately, his execution. Michael served with distinction in the war, commanding the "Savage Division" (Caucasian Native Cavalry Division, made up of Muslim volunteers) on the Galician and Carpathian fronts as well as in the Brusilov offensive of 1916. 

Michael was technically Tsar Michael II for several days in 1917 upon the abdication of Nicholas and his son, Alexei, but he chose to reign only as a freely elected monarch under a constitutional government, which was not forthcoming. It was Grand Duke Michael who arranged through his Danish royal relatives the passport enabling Alexander Kerensky to escape westward from the Bolsheviks in November 1917. In the early hours of 13 June 1918 Michael was shot, together with his loyal British secretary, Nicholas Johnson, outside Perm, Russia, by a Bolshevik execution squad. Their bodies were never found.

8. Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States (1858-1919)

The former president of the United States was America's special envoy at the funeral. His greatest impact on the coming war was a result of his attempt to regain the White House in 1912. In splitting the Republican vote by forming a third party, the Progressives (or "Bull Moose"), he assured the election of little-known Princeton University president Woodrow Wilson. When the Great War began, he was an early advocate for U.S. preparedness and participation. 

After America joined the fray, all four of Roosevelt's sons and one of his daughters saw service overseas. His youngest son, Quentin, was killed in action while flying with the 95th Aero Squadron, probably the most famous casualty of the war for the nation. Quentin's death shattered him. He seemed to be well positioned to regain the presidency in 1920, but his health deteriorated rapidly after the loss of his son, and he died in 1919.

9. Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria (1869-1955) 

Crown Prince Rupprecht's lineage gave him a curious link to the English throne by virtue of his descent from James II -- had the Jacobite succession continued in England, he could arguably have been Robert the First of Great Britain. 

Rupprecht may have attended Edward's funeral as second-tier royalty, but he was certainly of premier military caliber and can be assessed as the most able of the German royal commanders in the field during the Great War. His skillful maneuvering of the Sixth Army during the Lorraine campaign thwarted France's beloved Plan XVII, drawing French troops farther east as the Schlieffen plan tried to unfold in the west. Rupprecht also held the defense of the Hindenburg Line in 1917/18. Late in the war he voiced his displeasure at the Hindenburg/Ludendorff stranglehold on command and was one of the first generals to realize the need to make peace. 

Between the wars, Rupprecht was strongly anti-Hitler, and when the Second World War broke out in Europe in 1939, he and his (second) wife and children fled to Italy. In 1944 his wife and children were caught and interned in Sachsenhausen and Dachau until the end of the war. His wife died not long after the end of the war, effectively from her treatment in the camps. Rupprecht died at his family estate, Schloss Leutstetten, near Munich ten years later. 

10. Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany (1859-1941) 

Whole libraries have been written on the Kaiser and his role in World War I. We recommend:

     The Roads to the Great War Archive "Kaiser Wilhelm II" READ HERE

Part I of this article was yesterday's entry on Roads to the Great War.

Source: Over the Top, November 2010

The Funeral of Edward VII Marked the End of an Age: Ten Who Were There, Part I

By Kimball Worcester, Assistant Editor

In her classic work The Guns of August, historian Barbara Tuchman begins her exploration of the opening of the Great War with the funeral of King Edward VII of Great Britain. Tuchman believed, as do we, that the ceremony's grandeur and conspicuous participation by nine kings and long list of royals (some of whom were doomed to be deposed or murdered) was symbolic of the passing of a soon to vanish "Old Order" that had led Europe and the world for a millennium. Today, Roads to the Great War begins  a two-part series of biographical sketches of ten of the attendees at  the 20 May 1910 funeral who would play roles in the First World War of varied degrees and character. 

Ten Who Were There (1–5)

1. Albert I, King of the Belgians (1875-1934)

He would become the most accomplished of any of the royals who attended the funeral during the Great War. Albert succeeded his uncle, Leopold II, as king of the Belgians, in 1909. He would become the most beloved monarch in Belgium's two centuries of existence through his determined war leadership, his rebuilding of the nation afterward, and his recognition of Flemish citizens' status.

During the Great War he would save his army from destruction and eventually link up with Allied forces to close and hold the Western Front on the English Channel for the war's duration. He attempted to remain independent of the Allied war aims merely seeking to  protect Belgium's territorial integrity. In 1918, however, he modified his views and took the offensive, commanding the Flanders group of armies that included Belgian, British, French, and even two American divisions. King Albert was killed in a climbing accident in 1934 and was succeeded by his son, the less stalwart Leopold III.

2. Edward, Duke of Cornwall (1894-1972) 

The grandson of Edward VII had not yet been invested as Prince of Wales at the time of the funeral. That would come a year later, with the ceremony held in Wales for the first time in centuries, in a ceremony designed by Welshman David Lloyd George. When the First World War (1914-18) broke out, Edward had reached the minimum age for active service and was keen to participate. He had joined the Grenadier Guards in June 1914, and although Edward was willing to serve on the front lines, Secretary of State for War Lord Kitchener refused to allow it, citing the immense harm that would occur if the heir to the throne was captured.

Despite this, Edward witnessed trench warfare firsthand and attempted to visit the front line as often as he could, for which he was awarded the Military Cross in 1916. His role in the war, although limited, made him popular among veterans of the conflict. When his father died 1936, Edward became king. He remained popular with the country until he announced his intention to marrying the American Wallis Warfield Simpson, who was suing her second husband for divorce. Edward insisted that he had the right to marry the woman of his choice, despite -- with his being head of the Church of England -- her marital background making her unsuitable. The government, headed by Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, saw a challenge to constitutional procedure and forced his abdication in 1936. 

Edward was designated Duke of Windsor and married Wallis Warfield in 1937. His pre-World War II conduct included a controversial flirtation with Nazism and support of appeasement. During the war he was effectively exiled as Governor of the Bahamas. The Duke and Duchess of Windsor spent the rest of their lives as minor celebrities.

3. Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia, Duke d'Aosta (1869-1931) 

The son of King Amadeus of Spain (where he had been the crown prince) and a cousin of Italian King Emanuele III, the Duke of Aosta was a professional soldier in the Italian Army. During the war he would command the Third Army, the most important Italian formation along the lower Isonzo River sector, where Italy mounted eleven, costly and mostly failed offensives, 1915-1917. 

His finest moment as a military commander may have been after the Caporetto fiasco, when he arranged an orderly retreat, saving his army for the subsequent successful defensive and, later, offensive operations against Austro-Hungarian forces. At Caporetto, the Third Army on the upper Isonzo -- Aosta's left flank -- had been utterly shattered in the opening attack. After the war the duke was named a marshal by Mussolini's government. He was buried in a crypt at the Third Army Memorial at Redipuglia, surrounded by the remains of 100,000 of his men. 

4. Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria-Este (1863-1914) 

Franz Ferdinand became heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne through two untimely deaths. The first was of the Emperor's son, Crown Prince Rudolph, who killed himself (and his 16-year-old mistress) in 1889. The second was the death of Franz Ferdinand's father, Archduke Charles Louis, in 1896. Considered more flexible in matters of military and domestic affairs than his uncle Emperor Franz Josef, he was a reformist with new ideas to be put into practice when he ascended the Hapsburg throne. One of these ideas was "trialism" - the reorganization of the dual monarchy into a triple monarchy by giving the Slavs an equal voice in the empire. This would put them on an equal footing with the  Magyars and Germans living inside the Austro-Hungarian borders. These politics were in direct conflict with those of the Serbian nationalists. 

The archduke and his wife, Sophie, were assassinated in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914 (their 14th wedding anniversary) by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip. The archduke's role of inspector general of the Austrian Army had brought him to Sarajevo for the summer maneuvers. Neither Emperor Franz Josef nor the Kaiser saw fit to attend the funeral. His death, however, would set off the series of diplomatic misjudgments known as the July Crisis of 1914, the immediate cause of World War I.

5. George I, King of the Hellenes (1845-1913) 

The Danish-born King of Greece was elected king after the 1862 deposition of his predecessor, Otto I. He introduced a democratic constitution to Greece and expanded its territory in his near-50-year reign despite a disastrous defeat in the Ottoman War of 1897. 

Never excessively concerned about personal security, George was assassinated by a socialist on the streets of Salonika in 1913. He would be succeeded by his son, Constantine I, who was also in attendance at Edward's funeral as Duke of Sparta. Constantine's reign would prove utterly tumultuous during the war. He opposed the Allies in World War I and was forced to abdicate in favor of his second son, Alexander. He was restored after Alexander's death, but in 1922 a military rebellion forced him to abdicate again.

Part II Tomorrow