Woodrow Wilson was the twenty eighth president of the United States. He committed his country to the First World War in April 1917, following three years of neutrality and at the end of the war strove for the reconciliation of the European countries, which earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919. Woodrow Wilson was the son of a Presbyterian pastor who raised him with strictness and commitment to his values. Following studies in law at Princeton University, he became a lawyer (Atlanta 1882-1883) and professor of political sciences at various institutions (1890-1910). Elected Democrat Governor of the State of New Jersey in 1910, he was chosen by the Democratic party as its candidate for the presidential elections of the 5th November 1912, which he won thanks to the rift between his republican opponents, Theodore Roosevelt and William Taft. Wilson was in favour of strong executive power and set in place an ambitious democratic and economic programme. He reduced customs rights, reformed the banking system by creating a federal reserve facilitating credit and strengthened the antitrust law authorising strike and boycotting action by workers. On a political level, he had a law voted in banning child labour, introduced the woman's right to vote, established income tax and a pension system for federal employees and reduced the working day to 8 hours.

In overseas politics, Wilson was not in favour of interventionism but nevertheless expanded active diplomacy and strengthened American dominance on the continent by trying to impose American style democracy there. But he did not want the United States to become involved in European conflicts, as per the Monroe doctrine, which prevented the United States from intervening in Europe and meddling in international problems. On the 4th August 1914, he declared American neutrality in the conflict by stating "this war is not ours". He would, however, be re-elected for a second term in November 1916, most notably because "He kept us out of the war", indicating nevertheless in his inauguration speech that this position would probably be very difficult to maintain. So, falling victim to the all-out submarine warfare waged once again by the Germans - it had been suspended following the death of a hundred American citizens in the torpedoing of the liner Lusitania, on the 7th May 1915 - and outraged by German manoeuvres to coax Mexico into war against the United States - a telegram from Zimmermann, the German Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs - President Wilson asked Congress for permission to enter into the war against Germany, a request that was approved on the 6th April 1917. A month later on the 18th May, he reintroduced compulsory military service which had been abolished at the end of the American Civil War (1865).
Wilson coordinated the war effort and provided the Allies with equipment and military and moral support (In October 1918, around two million American soldiers under the command of General Pershing landed to fight in France). He also sought to take political control of the coalition and defined the Allies' war aims. On the 8th January 1918, in a speech to Congress, he set out a fourteen point defining the peace objectives. These Fourteen Points advocated the end of colonialism, the abandonment of economic barriers between nations, the guarantee of freedom of the seas, nations' rights to self-determination and the creation of a League of Nations with a view to providing "mutual guaranties of political independence and territorial integrity for both large and small nations". Some of the points in his programme would serve as the basis for the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.
On returning to the United States, Wilson himself presented the Treaty of Versailles for ratification by Congress, but he ran up against a powerful isolationist tide that refused to sign a treaty obliging them to intervene in a new conflict. Congress twice rejected the Treaty of Versailles, in November 1919 and in March 1920, and declared itself against joining the LON. Repudiated by Congress and the majority of the American people, Wilson thus witnessed the ultimate irony of seeing his own country refuse to join the League of Nations, whilst his efforts at reconciling the countries of Europe nevertheless earned him the Nobel peace Prize in 1919 (received in 1920). Physically exhausted by the effort he had put into establishing peace, he suffered a stroke which left him practically paralysed. He would remain shut away in the White House until 1921, after the crushing victory of the conservative republican candidate, Warren Harding. He then retired to his home in Washington where he died on the 3rd February 1924. He is buried in Washington cathedral.

Militaire et homme d'État français, Philippe Pétain est né le 24 avril 1856 à Cauchy-à-la-Tour (Pas-de-Calais), d'une famille de cultivateurs. Pensionnaire dans un collège de jésuites à Saint-Omer, il intègre ensuite l'école des Dominicains d'Arcueil. Très impressionné par les récits de son oncle qui avait servi dans la Grande Armée de Napoléon, et très marqué par la guerre de 1870, alors qu'il n'avait que 14 ans, il décide d'être soldat et entre à Saint-Cyr, en 1876. Il y est admis parmi les derniers (403e sur 412) et en sort en 1878 (Promotion De Plewna), dans un rang toujours très modeste, 229e sur 336, prélude à une carrière militaire qui s'annonce peu brillante. Il est affecté comme sous-lieutenant au 24e bataillon de chasseurs à pied (BCP) de Villefranche (Alpes-Maritimes). Lieutenant à l'ancienneté, il rejoint le 3e bataillon de chasseurs à Besançon en 1883 où il reste cinq ans, ne participant donc à aucune campagne coloniale.

Il est admis en 1888 à l'École Supérieure de Guerre dont il sort breveté d'état-major en 1890. Promu capitaine la même année, il est affecté à l'état-major du 15e corps d'armée, à Marseille avant de revenir au 29e BPC puis à l'état-major du gouverneur de Paris, aux Invalides.

En 1900, il est promu chef de bataillon et est nommé instructeur à l'École normale de tir du camp de Châlons-sur-Marne. Son enseignement et ses idées personnelles de commandement diffèrent alors de ceux de l'École, notamment sur l'intensité du tir qui doit primer, selon lui, sur la précision.

Il est muté en 1901 au 5e régiment d'infanterie (RI) à Paris où, en qualité de professeur-adjoint à l'École supérieure de guerre, il est chargé des cours de tactique appliquée à l'infanterie. Il s'y distingue par ses idées tactiques originales, rappelant l'effet meurtrier du feu et préconisant la défensive et la guerre de positions quand les théoriciens officiels prônent la guerre à outrance.

Nommé lieutenant-colonel en 1907, il est affecté à Quimper au 118e RI.

Promu colonel le 31 décembre 1910, il quitte alors l'École de guerre et prend le commandement du 33e régiment d'infanterie à Arras, où le sous-lieutenant Charles de Gaulle est affecté à sa sortie de Saint-Cyr et où se produira leur première rencontre, le 8 octobre 1912.

En juillet 1914, le colonel Philippe Pétain a 58 ans et s'apprête à prendre sa retraite. Lorsque éclate la Première Guerre mondiale, le 3 août 1914, il est à la tête de la 4e brigade d'infanterie et se distingue en Belgique, dans la province de Namur. Promu général de brigade le 27 août 1914, il reçoit le commandement de la 6e division qui atteint le canal de l'Aisne, après la victoire de la Marne. Le 14 septembre, il est général de division et le 22 octobre, il prend officiellement le commandement du 33e corps d'armée avec lequel il réalise des actions d'éclat, notamment dans les batailles de l'Artois en 1915, tout en se montrant soucieux d'épargner la vie de ses hommes.

Le 21 juin 1915, il reçoit le commandement de la IIe armée.

En février 1916, lorsque les Allemands déclenchent leur offensive sur Verdun, Pétain est désigné par Joffre pour prendre le commandement de ce front et organiser la défense aérienne et terrestre. Il parvient, en quelques jours, à stabiliser la situation et met en place une noria continue de troupes, de camions de munitions et de ravitaillement sur la petite route de Bar-le-Duc à Verdun qui va devenir la "Voie sacrée".

Unanimement reconnu comme "le vainqueur de Verdun", il ne reste pourtant qu'à peine plus de deux mois sur ce front avant de remplacer le général de Langle de Cary à la tête du Groupe d'Armées du Centre et d'être lui-même remplacé par le général Nivelle dont l'étoile de cesse de monter depuis le début de cette bataille pour aboutir à sa nomination, le 25 décembre 1916, de commandant en chef des armées à la place de Joffre. Le général Pétain est quant à lui nommé chef d'état-major général, poste spécialement crée pour lui.

Opposé aux méthodes brutales du nouveau généralissime qui envisage, dans l'Aisne, un assaut mené "jusqu'au bout de la capacité offensive" des unités, c'est-à-dire sans égard aux pertes, il ne peut s'opposer aux menaces de démission qui assurent en dernier lieu à Nivelle la confiance du gouvernement. La bataille du Chemin des Dames, déclenchée le 16 avril 1917, se solde rapidement par un échec très coûteux en vies humaines. Le mécontentement des soldats gronde et des refus collectifs d'obéissance se manifestent dans de nombreuses unités.

Nivelle est remplacé par Pétain qui est nommé, le 15 mai 1917, commandant en chef des armées françaises. Chargé de réprimer les mutineries et de ramener la confiance des troupes, il impose de dures mesures disciplinaires mais réduit au minimum les exécutions prononcées par le Conseil de guerre (49 exécutions pour 554 condamnations à mort), met fin aux offensives mal préparées et améliore les conditions de vie matérielles et morales des soldats, en attendant "les Américains et les chars".

En octobre 1917, il reprend aux Allemands, grâce à des offensives à objectifs limités et ne gaspillant pas la vie des soldats, une partie du terrain perdu du Chemin des Dames (le fort de la Malmaison).

Il développe parallèlement ses idées sur la nouvelle importance de l'aviation dans les batailles et sur son utilisation combinée avec les chars. Sa directive n° 5 du 12 juillet 1918 s'oriente ainsi nettement vers la guerre de mouvement : "la surprise tactique sera obtenue par la soudaineté de l'attaque à la faveur d'une préparation par l'artillerie et l'aviation de bombardement aussi brève et aussi violente que possible, soit sans préparation à la faveur de l'action de rupture des chars d'assaut ouvrant la voie à l'infanterie et à l'artillerie. Le rôle de l'aviation est de la plus haute importance".

Il prépare également une grande offensive en Lorraine, prévue pour le 14 novembre 1918, qui doit mener les troupes franco-américaines jusqu'en Allemagne. Mais elle est abandonnée car, contre son avis et celui du général Pershing qui souhaitaient que la signature de l'armistice n'intervienne pas avant que l'ennemi ne soit rejeté au-delà du Rhin, Foch, nouveau général en chef, et Clemenceau, président du Conseil, acceptent l'armistice demandé par les Allemands à la date du 11 novembre alors que les territoires français et belges ne sont pas encore tous libérés et que les alliés sont encore loin de la frontière allemande.

Bénéficiant d'une popularité considérable à la fin du conflit, véritable légende vivante, Pétain est élevé à la dignité de maréchal de France le 19 novembre 1918 et reçoit le 8 décembre suivant, à Metz, son bâton étoilé des mains du président Poincaré.

Reconduit dans ses fonctions de commandant des troupes françaises en juillet 1919, il est également nommé, par décret du 23 janvier 1920, vice-président du Conseil supérieur de la guerre et par décret du 18 février 1922, Inspecteur général de l'armée. Il se consacre durant toute cette période à la réorganisation de l'armée française.

En 1925, il est envoyé au Maroc pour combattre la rébellion de tribus aux ordres d'Abd-el-Krim, chef de l'éphémère République du Rif. Cette campagne s'achève en mai 1926 par la soumission d'Abd-el-Krim.

C'est la dernière campagne du maréchal Pétain et son ultime victoire.

Entré à l'Académie Française le 22 janvier 1931, il est nommé, le 9 février suivant, Inspecteur général de la défense aérienne du territoire. Son immense popularité, en particulier dans les milieux de gauche qui voient en lui le modèle du militaire républicain, lui permet d'accéder, en 1934, au poste de ministre de la guerre dans le gouvernement Doumergue, poste qu'il occupe jusqu'au renversement du cabinet, le 8 décembre 1934. Au cours de ce bref ministère, il travaille essentiellement à doter les forces françaises des moyens indispensables à la conduite d'une guerre moderne, offensive et audacieuse, grâce à l'emploi combiné de l'aviation et des chars. Mais il est confronté à des contingences politiques et financières qui ne lui laissent guère de moyens d'actions. Il préside par la suite le Conseil supérieur de la guerre où sa politique de guerre défensive s'oppose aux idées du colonel de Gaulle, partisan de la concentration de chars dans des divisions blindées.

Le 2 mars 1939, il est envoyé par Daladier comme ambassadeur de France en Espagne pour négocier la neutralité du régime de Franco en cas de guerre européenne et superviser le rapatriement à Madrid des réserves d'or de la Banque d'Espagne et des toiles du musée du Prado, mises à l'abri en France durant la guerre civile espagnole.

Le 17 mai 1940, Pétain, qui a alors 84 ans, est rappelé d'urgence en France par Paul Reynaud pour occuper le poste de vice-président du Conseil dans son gouvernement. Le général Weygand est nommé à la tête des armées en remplacement du général Gamelin mais il est déjà trop tard. Le gouvernement s'installe à Bordeaux et des centaines de milliers de Français et de Belges prennent les routes de l'exode pour fuir les troupes allemandes. Le 16 juin, Reynaud présente la démission de son gouvernement et propose de confier la Présidence du Conseil au maréchal Pétain, considéré par beaucoup comme l'homme providentiel.

Jusqu'en 1940, Pétain était avant tout et essentiellement un soldat. Après 1940, il doit gouverner au lieu de commander.

Le 17 juin, il prononce son premier message radio-diffusé et annonce aux Français son intention de demander l'armistice qui sera signé à Rethondes, le 22 juin après avoir été approuvé par le Conseil des ministres et le président de la République, Albert Lebrun. Le 29 juin, le gouvernement quitte Bordeaux et s'installe à Vichy où, le 10 juillet, une loi votée par les deux assemblées (569 voix pour, 80 voix contre et 17 abstentions) confie au Maréchal les pleins pouvoirs avec pour mission la promulgation d'une nouvelle constitution.

Mais Pétain décide de ne rien promulguer tant que la France ne sera pas libérée. Il institue donc un État provisoire, l'État français, pour le temps de l'occupation.

Dès lors commence la période la plus controversée de sa vie. Devenu chef de ce nouvel État, Pétain suspend les libertés publiques comme les partis politiques et unifie les syndicats dans une organisation corporatiste du travail. Il instaure un régime autoritaire, antiparlementaire, anticommuniste et anticapitaliste qui veut réaliser la "Révolution Nationale" avec pour devise "Travail, Famille, Patrie" et pour ambition le "relèvement de la France" qui passe d'abord par le rapatriement des réfugiés, le ravitaillement mais aussi le maintien de l'ordre et de l'unité nationale.

Il fait promulguer, anticipant les exigences allemandes, des lois d'exclusion contre les francs-maçons et les juifs qui les excluent de la plupart des activités et fonctions publiques.

Alors que le général de Gaulle, parti à Londres, appelle tous les Français à résister à l'ennemi, le maréchal Pétain s'engage officiellement dans la voie de la collaboration après son entrevue avec le chancelier Hitler dans la ville de Montoire (Loir-et-Cher), le 30 octobre 1940. Il poursuivra cette politique tout au long de la guerre dans l'espoir de faire de la France le partenaire privilégié du Reich dans une Europe durablement sous hégémonie allemande. Son choix collaborationniste exclut toute rébellion ou simple protestation contre les exactions de l'occupant et implique au contraire de dénoncer tous les actes de résistance intérieure ou extérieure et les opérations alliées contre des civils comme des "crimes terroristes". Il encourage les formations para-militaires, fer de lance de la Révolution Nationale et du régime et soutien des troupes allemandes sur le front russe.

Après le débarquement allié en Afrique du Nord le 8 novembre 1942 et les ordres que donne le Maréchal à ses généraux sur place de combattre les alliés, après la dissolution de l'armée d'armistice et le sabordage de la flotte française dans la rade de Toulon le 27 novembre 1942, après la dissidence de la plus grande partie de l'Empire et la fin de la "zone libre", le régime de Vichy ne dispose plus que d'un pouvoir illusoire face aux Allemands et le Maréchal perd, en France, une grande partie de la popularité dont il bénéficiait depuis 1940. De plus en plus affecté par son grand âge qui ne lui laisse plus, selon ses proches collaborateurs, que quelques heures de lucidité quotidiennes, il maintient néanmoins sa politique de collaboration et accepte le durcissement de la répression jusqu'en août 1944 où il est emmené contre son gré à Sigmaringen, en Allemagne, avec de nombreux dignitaires de son régime. Refusant d'y constituer un gouvernement fantoche, il traverse la Suisse et se rend aux autorités françaises le 26 avril 1945.

Traduit devant la Haute Cour de justice, son procès débute le 23 juillet 1945 et s'achève le 15 août suivant en le déclarant coupable d'intelligence avec l'ennemi et de haute trahison. Il est alors condamné à mort, à la dégradation nationale et la confiscation de tous ses biens mais la Haute Cour demande la non-exécution de la sentence, eu égard à son grand âge. Le général de Gaulle accède à cette demande, en raison peut-être également des mérites passés du Maréchal mais aussi de leurs anciens liens, et commue la sentence de mort en peine de réclusion à perpétuité.

Interné quelques mois au fort de Pourtalet, dans les Pyrénées, il est transféré au fort de la Citadelle, sur l'île d'Yeu, en novembre 1945. Il y décède le 23 juillet 1951, à l'âge de 95 ans, et est enterré au cimetière de Port-Joinville.

Joseph Doumenc (Born Grenoble, 16 November 1880 – Died Massif du Pelvoux, 21 July 1948):

After graduating from the Polytechnique, a prestige engineering school, and then enrolling at the School of Applied Artillery in Fontainebleau, Joseph Édouard Aimé Doumenc joined the École Supérieure de Guerre, a French institution for military higher education, in 1907. A captain in the armed forces staff of the 19th Army Corps, he served at the border between Algeria and Morocco before being posted to the 60th Artillery Regiment in Troyes. During the First World War, as deputy to the director of the automobile section before being promoted to director in 1917, he earned a reputation for arranging the road transportation of supplies and relief troops during the Battle of Verdun in 1916. Furthermore, between November 1916 and March 1917, he, along with General Estienne, was a pioneer in the development of the first tanks. He was appointed commander in 1918. After serving on a military campaign in Morocco in 1925, he was made commander of the 1st Infantry Division then commander of the 1st Military Region. In 1938, he was appointed to the Conseil Supérieur de la Guerre (the Higher War Council or CSG). In 1939, after being promoted to army general, he was sent to Moscow as head of the French delegation tasked with negotiating a military agreement with the USSR, but a German-Soviet was signed and his mission was terminated. When war was declared, he was put in charge of the Anti-Air Defence for the country before holding the post of Major General in January 1940. He left the service in 1942. He died in a mountaineering accident in the Alps in 1948.

General Doumenc was made a Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour. He was also awarded the Croix de Guerre 1914-1918 with nine bronze star attachments, the Croix de Guerre for overseas theatres of operations and several foreign decorations.

Publications: Commandant Doumenc Les transports automobiles sur le front français 1914-1918 (1920).

Sylvain Eugène Raynal was born on the 3rd March 1867 into a protestant family of artisans from Bordeaux, from whom he inherited his work ethic and deep patriotism. He enrolled at the school of Saint-Maixent, after an education at the high school in Angoulême, which he left with the same (thirteenth) grade as when he arrived. He then went on to serve in a garrison. Posted to headquarters in Paris, he served under Guillaumat and was then posted to Algeria with the 7th regiment of tirailleurs in Constantine, where he learned that France had entered into the war in the summer of 1914. He was wounded in the shoulder by a machine gun bullet in September 1914 and following the bombardment of his command post in the December he spent ten months in hospital before returning to action on the 1st October 1915. At the end of 1915, the German offensive focussed on the Verdun sector under the command of the Kronprinz, the oldest son of the Kaiser. A 300 day long stand-off followed, which would give birth to a contemporary military movement: Bois des Caures, Froideterre, Mort-Homme, Douaumont, Fleury, etc. and Vaux. On the 4th March 1916, German High Command gave the order to scale down the deadlock at Verdun and push on to Paris.

An advanced outpost, the Fort de Vaux was defended by the 300 remaining men of the 142nd infantry regiment commanded by Raynal of the 96th R.I. He had volunteered to serve at Verdun, despite just finishing his convalescence after sustaining shrapnel wounds, which earned him a promotion to Officer of the Légion d'honneur. Between the 2nd and 7th June 1916 Commander Sylvain Eugène Raynal held out with his men against the German attacks of the 39th infantry regiment. "Heroism is sometimes born from the most humble background" (Fleuriot de Langle, in Le Ruban Rouge (The Red Ribbon))... Completely cut off, on the 4th June he sent his last carrier pigeon, "Vaillant" (registration number 787-15) carrying the following message: "We are still holding out, but are subject to attacks of gas and highly dangerous fumes; it is urgent that we get out of here. Please send us a visual signal via Souville, as they are not responding to our calls. This is my last pigeon. Raynal." Having received no reply, with no drinking water remaining and unable to see how their position could be relieved by reinforcements, the commander and his men finally surrendered. Brought before the Kronprinz, he held out a bayonet belonging to an ordinary soldier to the crown prince, as his sword could not be found in the ruins of the fort, saying to him: "Prince, this weapon is worth an officer's sword". The Prince would inform him, following the interception of a message from the French High Command, that he had been awarded the red cravat of the Légion d'Honneur., Having accomplished its mission, his messenger was to receive the award of the ring of honour - the Post Office Museum in Paris still has its body to this day. As a prisoner Raynal was detained in Mayence from the 11th June 1916 until November 1917 and then for 3 months in Stressburg on the Polish border in Eastern Prussia and finally in Interlaken in Switzerland from the 30th March 1918 until his release on the 4th November. After the war Sylvain Eugène Raynal retired to 36 rue Denfert-Rochereau in Boulogne-Billancourt (Hauts-de-Seine département) where he would live until his death on the 13th January 1939. A plaque was mounted there in 1966 on the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Verdun.

Noël Marie Joseph Edouard de Curières de Castelnau, (24th December 1851: Saint-Affrique, Aveyron - 19th March 1944: Montastruc-la-Conseillère, Haute-Garonne)

Edouard de Castelnau came from an old Catholic monarchist family from the Rouergue. He studied at the Saint-Gabriel Jesuit College (Saint-Affrique), leaving with a Bachelor of Sciences degree before preparing for Saint-Cyr. As a student at St-Cyr, he first saw action in the war of 1870. Graduating in 1869 from the Special Military School (Ecole Spéciale Militaire), he left with the rank of Second Lieutenant on the 14th August 1870 and was posted to the 31st infantry regiment (régiment d'infanterie or RI). Unable to join his unit in time due to the disorganisation of the services behind the front line, he was appointed to the 36th Foot Regiment of General d'Aurelles de Paladine's Loire army on the 2nd October; he was promoted to Captain twelve years later. Edouard de Castelnau fought at Tusey, Sainte-Maxime, Chambord, Gué-du-Loir and le Mans. In 1871, he lived in Versailles and took part in the repression of the town under the command of Colonel Davout d'Auerstaedt. Demoted to Lieutenant by the grade review commission, he was not promoted back to Captain until 1876.

His long military career then followed a more traditional route, with garrisons in Bourg, Givet, Ham and Laon. He started at the War Academy (Ecole de Guerre) in 1878, where he graduated in 1880 before being transferred to the 59th RI in Toulouse. He was a trainee at the headquarters of the 17th corps and then appointed to that of the 34th division, returning to the 126th RI and the 17th corps in 1888. On the 6th May 1889 he became Head of Battalion, receiving the Cross of the Legion of Honour in 1891 and then joining General de Miribel at the premier bureau of general headquarters in Paris in 1893. He became a Lieutenant Colonel on the 10th September 1896 and was promoted to Second in Command and then Commander of the premier bureau, being made an Officer of the Legion of Honour in 1899. With the arrival of General André in the War Department, he was removed from the management of the premier bureau. Promoted to Colonel, he left to head the 37th regiment in Nancy between 1900 and 1905. Described as a "Jesuit sympathiser", the army corps served the General as a means of displaying his opinions: during a parade dedicated to the history of the French army, he made his men act out scenes from the Old Regime through to the Republic, without making any differentiation between them. He became the General Michal's High Commander and Superior Commander in the defence of Belfort. He was made Brigade General on the 25th March 1906, commanding the 24th brigade at Sedan and the 7th at Soissons Becoming Division General on the 21st December 1909 - he had once been excluded from the promotions board by General Sarrail, then in charge of the infantry -, he then commanded the 13th division at Chaumont. Recalled to headquarters at Joffre's special request, he was promoted to Deputy First in Command of the General Staff under his command on the 2nd August 1911. That same year he was promoted to Commander of the Legion of Honour. At the end of 1913, he started at the Upper War Council. In 1914, he commanded the 11th Lorraine Army during the Battle of Morhange. Advancing methodically in conjunction with Dubail's first army, he reached the Barouville beacon, beyond Dieuze and the lake district. He saved the town of Nancy by blocking the march of Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria using a flanking manoeuvre on the 25th August. On this occasion he made a votive offering to the Virgin Mary: "To Our Lady of Prompt Succour, eternal gratitude. Nisi Dominus custoderit civitatem frustra vigilat qui custodit eam [If the Lord does not protect a city, those who watch over it guard it in vain. (Psalm 118)]", on the 12th September 1914. There then followed a fierce battle which lasted until the 10th September: Castelnau extended his victory in the Marne to the East with that of the trouée de Charmes, which prevented the French armies from being turned to the right, making it possible to regroup. He was then promoted to Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour (18th September). Then the "race for the sea" began: Castelnau moved his 11th army along the left hand side in order to surround the enemy who were retreating into the Nieuport dunes. He carried on fighting with determination at Roye and then on to Arras.

In June 1915, Castelnau, promoted to Commander of the Central group of armies, led the Champagne offensive of the 25th September 1915: in a few days he took 25,000 prisoners, seized 125 canons and took control over an area of German land several kilometres wide. Following this victory he was promoted to Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour (8th October 1915) and became Generalissimo Joffre's Deputy. Castelnau's popularity in public opinion was such that the Lyon Express - similar comments were made in the foreign press, including the Manchester Guardian - made the following comments about his promotion: "It is a promotion that is nothing short of being undeniably deserved, because his loyalty to the Catholic faith has kept him away from it for a long time. It is well known that under the Masonic denouncing regime of Combes and General André, General de Castelnau was a General who was refused any kind of promotion" (23rd December 1915). His opponent, General Von Kluck would say of him: "the French opponent with whom we instinctively felt the most empathy, because of his great military talent and chivalry, is General de Castelnau. And I would like him to know that". In February 1916, following a trip to Thessaloniki to study the potential organisation of the place, his recommendations for the Meuse defence had consequences for the Battle of Verdun and meant that right bank was not lost to the enemy. General de Castelnau was sent on a liaison mission to Russia on the 18th January 1917. On his return in March, he took command of the Eastern armies and, having been awarded the military medal in September, took part in the great victory offensive of 1918, arriving triumphantly in Colmar and then in Strasbourg. Despite the services he gave to the Nation, he never rose to the rank of Marshal. The Republic remained suspicious of the military following the Dreyfus affaire and his contacts in rightwing traditionalist circles and his militant Catholicism, which would earn him the nickname of the "fighting friar" from Clémenceau, revived the ghost of the law of 1905 - the First World War would claim his three sons! He carried on working beyond retirement age and specially employed, though never taking command, he presided over the national commission for military graves, which was in charge of the large national cemeteries.

In 1919, at the age of sixty eight, he was elected as MP for the Aveyron on the ticket of the Bloc national and was to be highly active in the Chamber's Army Commission. Marginalised because of his extreme rightwing militancy and his confirmed warmongering, he succeeded Barrès in 1923 at the head of the League of Patriots (Ligue des Patriotes). Beaten in the 1924 elections, the following year he founded the National Catholic Federation (Fédération nationale catholique or FNC), a movement encouraged by Pius XI to thwart the Leftwing Coalition's anticlerical project. Well established in the parishes (in less than a year he set up an enormous pyramid organisation comprising between 1.5 and 2 million members) and organising mass demonstrations, most notably in Alsace-Lorraine, in the West and the Massif Central region, the Federation forced Herriot's government to do a U-turn. The FNC, a real breeding ground of retired officers such as Tournès, Margot, Navel, de Reynies, de la Bussières, Picard, de Maitre d'Allerey, Etienne, Amiot, Mazurier and Keller, was also an important pressure group which, in addition to its role as arbitrator during elections, kept its eye on parliamentary life, not hesitating to publish in the media a list of MPs who had voted for or against such and such a government bill, especially in those areas that were in keeping with its values, such as education, the family and religious freedom and suggesting others through the intermediary of its representatives in the Chamber. In addition, General de Castelnau had access to a soap-box, the Paris Echo, an influential rightwing newspaper in which he fought anticlericalism as well as the policy of Franco-German reconciliation championed by Briand. Castelnau's political influence diminished during the 1930's. Anticlericalism no longer dominated thoughts, Catholicism found other battle grounds and the nationalist values of the Federation receded in the face of the reactionary movements of the Leagues and pro-fascist movements. In 1940, in retirement at his home in the Hérault, although in favour of the national values of the Revolution, he showed deep mistrust towards Pétain and expressed disapproval of the armistice. He died at the château de Lasserre in Montastruc-la-Conseillère in 1944. He was buried in the new family vault in Montastruc. Although forgotten by history, General Edouard de Castelnau was a key public figure at the time. A man of the world and well-read, he was the Maintainer of the Toulouse Floral Games, a member of the Institute, founding member of the Mutual Aid Association of the French Nobility and member of the Aveyron Sciences, Arts and Letters society. His courage and mastery of the military art elevated him to the International Dignities of the War Cross, the Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, of Saint Gregory the Great, of the White Eagle, of Saint Stanislas and Saint Anne of Russia, of Saint Alexander Nevski, of the Order of Victoria of England, of the cavalier of the Virtuti militari of Poland and of the Grand Cross of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem.

Born in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, in 1852, Charles Louis Marie Lanrezac was an unusual military personality of the Great War as a general who played one of the most controversial strategic roles. Although he was replaced by Generalissimo Joffre just before the First Battle of the Marne, during his thirty-two days of effective command in August of 1914 he kept the French Army from being annihilated.

Victor Lanrezac was from a creole family from Guadeloupe and the son of an officer who rose up through the ranks. His father, Auguste, had fake ID papers made under the name of Lanrezac, anagram of Cazernal, to remain anonymous, Charles Louis Marie Lanrezac came from a family of the lesser nobility in Toulouse and whose ancestor, Augustin Théreze de Quinquiry d'Olive, from a Tolouse family of the lesser nobility, had had to sell his belongins at a place called "Cazernal" – an erroneous transcription of "du Cabanial” – before emigrating to Hamburg to escape the Reign of Terror. From garrison to garrison, the modest Lanrezac family lived in Cherbourg when, with a scholarship granted by the Prefect of the Manche department, Charles was admitted to the Special Imperial Military School of Saint-Cyr ranking 75th out of 250, after having been kicked out of the Prytanée Militaire de La Flèche in September 1869. Barely one year later, on 14 August 1870, Second Lieutenant Charles Lanrezac took up his first assignment at the 13th Infantry Regiment.

On 20 September, the Second Empire had fallen and the Government of National Defence decided to continue the struggle by raising new armies. This young soldier was assigned to the 15th Army Corps, the future Army of the Loire, commanded first by General de la Motte Rouge and then by General d'Aurelle de Paladines. When the enemy broke through the French positions around Orléans, the army had to evacuate the city starting on 11 October. At the Battle of Coulmiers (9 November), and during the fighting north of Orléans (24 November), Lanrezac demonstrated his great courage and was temporarily promoted to the rank of lieutenant and decorated with the Legion of Honour on the battlefield. In January 1871, his unit joined General Bourbaki’s Army of the East to try to bring relief to Belfort and to take the Prussians from behind in Alsace. The undertaking was in vain. Lieutenant Lanrezac took part in the fighting at Héricourt (15-17 January), stayed with his unit at Besançon to provide cover for the army’s retreat, and just barely avoided internment in Switzerland after the Battle of Larnod on 20 January.

Once the war was over, Lanrezac completed his officer training at Saint-Cyr and joined his new unit, the 30th Infantry Regiment in Annecy. Thus he began a perfectly traditional military career. In 1873, he married Félicie Marie-Louise Dutau, his mother’s cousin from Réunion Island, in Paris. Promoted to captain on 21 February 1876 at the 24th Infantry Regiment, he obtained his military staff certification in 1879 and was named assistant professor of military arts at Saint-Cyr, before joining the occupation brigade staff headquarters in Tunisia at the 113th for five years. His brilliant record and his command skills earned him a place as a professor at the École Supérieure de Guerre and then a promotion to battalion leader through seniority in July 1892.

From 1896 to 1899 he was at the 104th Infantry Regiment in Paris. At the same time, he taught military history, strategy and general tactics at the military school. A hard worker with a colourful personality (which had already led to a few comments) and an exemplary teacher, his classes were quickly met with his students’ enthusiasm and was highly appreciated by the staff. Promoted to lieutenant colonel, he was appointed assistant director of studies at the École Supérieure de Guerre in 1898. Three years later, he had earned the rank of colonel and was put in command of the 119th Infantry Regiment in Paris, where he "turned out to be as good a corps leader as he was an eminent professor", his superiors noted.

In March 1906, he took on the interim commandment of the 43rd Brigade in Vannes and in May was promoted to Brigadier General. His superiors recognised his worth and he held the position of chief of staff of an army during the mobilisation exercises in the Vosges in 1908. His rise continued in 1909 – in May he became commander in chief of defence of the Reims group, for which he was appointed governor, and he became a member of the Army Staff Technical Committee, a consultative body under the Minister of War, in August. In 1911, he commanded the 20th Infantry Division in Saint-Malo, becoming a major general in March. And soon, at the height of his glory, Lanrezac was noticed by General Lyautey – "when an army has a leader of his value, he should be at the top," he wrote on 13 November 1911 – adding the departments of Finistère, Loire-Inférieure (now Loire-Atlantique), Morbihan and Vendée to his command in 1912. It was on his suggestion that he left his command on 10 April 1914 to join the Supreme War Council. He replaced General Galliéni at the head of the 5th Army on 24 April 1914 and, just before the war, was promoted to the rank of Commander of the Legion of Honour at the age of sixty.

When the war broke out, Lanrezac took command of the 5th Army after a short meeting of the army chiefs of staff that he found disappointing due to General Joffre’s apparent lack of a strategy. Familiar with the German language and press, he presented the generalissimo with a report on 31 July 1914 in which he stressed the importance of the sector of the Meuse; the document received no follow-up. He had 300,000 men under his orders, with 800 cannons, 110,000 horses and 21,000 vehicles. In the first half of August he set up his headquarters at Rethel and concentrated his troops between Vouziers and Aubenton before moving toward the northeast border. On 6 August, he received the order to provide support to the Belgian troops on the Meuse, while the Germans had been in Belgium since 3 August, laying siege to the city of Liège. Lanrezac received authorisation to move one of his units to the north, forward on the river, and managed to push back a German cavalry corps in the Dinant sector on 15 August. This episode led the generalissimo to deploy Lanrezac’s army on the northern border (toward Jeumont and Charleroi) where, with the British under Field Marshal French, the allied armies covered the northern and eastern fronts all the way to Maubeuge. From 21 August, Joffre decided to focus the offensive on the Belgian front and the Ardennes, against the 5th and 6th Armies of the Reich, von Bülow’s 2nd Army and von Kluck’s Army. From 21 to 23 August, the fighting around Charleroi, at Tamines, Roselies and Mons did not go well for the Franco-British forces which, following orders from Army Headquarters, desperately attacked an entrenched, hidden enemy. The French army was threatened with encirclement and therefore with annihilation. On 23 August, Lanrezac decided to totally override the generalissimo’s combat instructions and ordered a retreat, escaping the German armies and confirming his abandonment of the XVII attack plan two days later. This bravado earned him the enmity of the officers in Joffre’s entourage, with the general seeking to go without his services. The same attitude reigned leading up to the Battle of Guise between 26 and 29 August 1914. Before receiving the order to turn the attack to the north to assist the British 2nd Corps which had been taken by surprise at Le Cateau, Lanrezac was given one day to give his army a rest and to prepare his attack. On 29 August, he squared off his troops: the 10th Corps to the north-northwest on the south bank of the Oise, toward Guise, the 3rd and 18th Corps rounded out with reserve troops slipping along the river and coming up to the Germans from the west.

The joint attack backed up by batteries of 75-mm guns surprised the German army staff, which abandoned the Schlieffen plan. Paris was saved. Von Bülow decided not to pursue Field Marshal French and continued on the heels of the 5th Army. The 5th had won a defensive victory, but the German 1st and 2nd Armies still had the initiative and tried to surround Lanrezac and his men, with their flanks unprotected and still in retreat. The French reached the Marne, crossed it and set up their headquarters at Sézanne. At 5 pm on 3 September, Lanrezac was relieved of his command and replaced by General Franchet d'Espérey... Two days later, the First Battle of the Marne began.

There were many reasons for his dismissal: the stubbornness of a leader whose only interest was his troops, his tendency to disobey, his poor relationship with Field Marshal French while the French army staff was doing everything it could to deal carefully with this ally, his implicit recognition of the Germans’ strategic superiority – their action plan (the Schlieffen plan) was mobile and played offense whereas the XVII plan was just a plan for troop concentration, the need to blame someone to explain the “debacle” of the first engagements. Lanrezac later wrote, "In General Joffre’s position, I would have acted just like him; we didn’t have the same way of seeing things, neither from the tactical point of view nor from the strategic point of view; we couldn’t agree... I had decided not to attack the generalissimo, because I had no right to judge his acts on other parts of the battlefield."

Lanrezac was put under the orders of General Galliéni, military governor of Paris, who sent him to Bordeaux where the Government had taken refuge. Starting in the month of October, Lanrezac was entrusted with temporary missions: inspector of the teaching centres for the students at the Saint-Cyr military school in October 1914, inspector of the École Normale Supérieure and the École Forestière in 1915, inspector general of the infantry depots and camps for the 19th and 20th regions in February 1916, etc. At the end of 1916, the Generalissimo was dismissed. The Staff Headquarters and the Government sought to repair the injustice by offering him positions that were worthy of his skills. Lanrezac refused and got General Lyautey to appoint him to the position of inspector of infantry instruction. Pétain, now promoted to Generalissimo, raised him to the dignity of Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour on 3 July: "through his military science and his skill at executing one of the most difficult manoeuvres in which he was highly successful and rendered the most eminent services to his country". On 1 August 1917, Charles Lanrezac left active service for health reasons.

Efforts to rehabilitate the general then began. In 1917 and 1918, several articles in "Le Correspondant" by Engerand, MP from the Calvados department, questioned the basis of his dismissal. General de Maud'huy, in an article published in "Le Gaulois" in 1920, wrote that Lanrezac had saved France at Charleroi. General Palat, in his "Histoire de la Grande Guerre", informed the French public of the respect his former adversaries, von Bülow and von Hausen, had for him. In 1922, the disgraced General Lanrezac was decorated with the Grand Cross of the Crown of Belgium with the War Cross with palm for Charleroi. On 29 August 1924, the anniversary of the Battle of Guise, he was awarded with the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour. This rehabilitated the general’s memory. He was presented with the army insignia on 6 September at Neuilly-sur-Seine by Maréchal Pétain and the Minster of War, General Nollet.

Charles Lanrezac died on 18 January 1925. His tomb at Montmartre cemetery bears the inscription: "A celui qui, en août 1914, sauva la France" (To the man who saved France in August 1914).

In the highest form of rehabilitation and national recognition, General Lanrezac’s remains were transferred to the Invalides in 1933.

Lieutenant Colonel Driant is famous for having died at Verdun, on the 22nd February 1916 at the battle for the bois des Caures. But he had previously followed a literary career, under the pen name Captain Danrit, and a political career as an elected MP for the 3rd constituency of Nancy from 1910. Emile Cyprien Driant was born on the 11th September 1855 in Neuchâtel (Aisne) where his father was a notary and justice of the peace. A pupil at the Reims grammar school, he received the top prize for history in the national competition. Affected by the defeat of 1871 and witnessing the Prussian Troops passing through, Emile wanted to become a soldier, going against his father's wishes for him to succeed him. After receiving an arts and law degree, in 1875 he enrolled at Saint-Cyr at the age of twenty. He left four years later to begin a most worthy military career: "though small, he is sturdy, with unfailing good health, very active and always ready; a strong horse-rider and a very strong interest in equestrianism and very intelligent, he has a great future ahead of him" one of his superiors was to write. He served in the 54th infantry regiment in Compiègne and then in Saint-Mihiel.

Promoted to Lieutenant in 1883 with the 43rd infantry regiment, he was posted to Tunis where General Boulanger, then governor general of Tunisia, appointed him as Ordinance Officer - he gave him the hand of his daughter, Marcelle in marriage. Promoted to Captain in 1886, he followed Boulanger, who was then appointed Minister for War, to Paris. Preferring action to political matters, he returned to Tunisia with the 4th zouaves - the Boulangiste affaire would earn him the mistrust of his entourage and a posting far from Tunis, to Aïn-Dratam on the Algerian border. The Driants returned to Tunis and set up home in Carthage where they moved in the Catholic circle of Cardinal Lavigerie, then Primate of Africa. Driant used this lull in his career to write under the pseudonym of Danrit. Success was forthcoming and novels followed: La guerre de demain, La guerre de forteresse, La guerre en rase campagne, La guerre souterraine, L'invasion noire, Robinsons sous-marins and L'aviateur du Pacifique, etc. Along with Louis Boussenard and Paul d'Ivoi Captain Danrit was one of the main writers of the Journal des voyages. His tales were inspired by the Verne style of adventure novel, but retold through the defeat of Sedan and French colonial expansion. The discovery of the world and its wonders evoked the riches that could be drawn upon and the threats to avoid; the extraordinary machines, that for Verne had allowed travel through the air and across the sea, were now primarily the vehicles of war for destroying the enemy. His work is typical of the colonial adventure novel of the 19th century, more specifically of the way of thinking during the years leading up to the First World War. In his writing, a great deal of time was devoted to the army. It confirmed his admiration for great men and his mistrust of members of parliament. It reflected general public opinion, obsessed with the threat of war. It also followed the daily discussions in the press, ever conscious of international incidents (Fachoda in 1898 and the Moroccan crisis provided the narrative framework for L'Alerte in 1911), and of the risk of unrest that they brought in themselves and of the obsession of the decline of France and Europe. Thus, in L'invasion jaune, it is the avaricious capitalist Americans who allow the Asian countries to arm themselves, by selling them guns and ammunition. He also imagined how current arms could be used in great numbers in a worldwide war: deadly gas, aeroplanes, submarines, the role of each invention is considered using the perspective of a large-scale offensive. Officer and fiction writer merged when he wrote his historical trilogy of educational work aimed at young people: Histoire d'une famille de soldats (Jean Taupin in 1898, Filleuls de Napoléon in 1900 and Petit Marsouin in 1901). Captain Danrit thus wrote close to thirty novels in twenty five years.
Recalled to France, the "soldier's idol" was appointed as an instructor at Saint-Cyr in 1892, basking in the glow of his prestige as a military author and visionary: his writings heralded trench warfare. In December 1898, he was made Head of Battalion in the 69th infantry division in Nancy following a four year return to the 4th zouaves. After a short stay in the city of Nancy, he fulfilled his wish to command a battalion of chasseurs. He took command of the 1st Battalion of Foot Chasseurs stationed in the Beurnonville barracks in Troyes. His determination and bravery led him to risk his life on the 13th January 1901 when he intervened to reason with the deranged Coquard in the suburb of Sainte-Savine. Despite his brilliant service record, Driant's name was not on the list for promotion. Politically engaged in right wing Catholicism, he suffered the counter-blows of the prevailing anticlericalism during the years of the law of separation of the church and state, and found himself implicated in a business involving staff records, where officers were graded according to their religious views. A press campaign accused him of having organised a service at the cathedral in Troyes for the festival of Sidi-Brahim and of trying to compromise his men's freedom of conscience by forcing them to attend the service. Suspended for a fortnight, he requested his retirement and decided to enter politics in order to stand for the Army in Parliament; he was then fifty years old.
Beaten in Pontoise in 1906 by the liberal Ballu, he made the most of his collaboration on L'Eclair, in which he published a number of anti-parliamentary diatribes, to take a trip to Germany. As a result of his observations on the large-scale manoeuvres in Silesia, he published a book with the premonitory title, Vers un nouveau Sedan, whose conclusion was most eloquent: "a war that would set us against Germany tomorrow would be a disastrous war. We would be beaten like in 1870, only more comprehensibly than in 1870". These words that first appeared in seven articles just before the elections of 1910, earned him his election in Nancy opposite the radical Grillon. A regular at the sessions of the Chamber of Deputies, mixing Mun's social Catholicism with the thinking of Vogüé and Lavisse, he intervened to pass the bill for military funding, supported Barthou during the vote on the "Salute Bill" which raised national service to three years and protested against the declassification of border strongholds - he managed to save that of Lille in 1912 -. Pre-war he took a keen interest in the brand new military aviation industry. Driant opposed the arguments of Briand and Jaurès, drawing on examples from events in Russia. The army had to play an essential role, above all as a means of educating the working classes and, where applicable, as a counter-revolutionary tool. That was the concept of the military school and social apostolate, which was in keeping with the camp of Dragomirov, Art Roë and Lyautey. He thus became interested in social struggles, in so far as they could compromise national defence. He supported the independent so-called "yellow" trade-unionism founded by Pierre Biétry with support from the industrialist Gaston Japy. They advocated the association between labour capital and money capital. Driant's bills defended the principle of liberty through individual ownership, by means of the progressive participation of workers in the capital of businesses. During the legislature of 1910-1914, the principal ballots of MP Driant included resolutions such as the ten hour day, pensions, freedom of trades unions and various social aid measures.
When war was declared, he asked to return to service and was assigned to the headquarters of the Governor of Verdun to General Coutenceau's department. He requested and was granted command of the 56th and 59th Battalions of Foot Chasseurs of the 72nd Infantry Division, which was made up of reservists from the North and East, 2,200 men in total. He was in charge in the Argonne and the Woëvre. Tested in the fighting in Gercourt, a village in the Meuse that Driant took back from the Germans, his troops did not take part in the first battle of the Marne but were responsible for defending the Louvemont sector. They took back and strengthened the bois des Caures sector. "Father Driant", knew how to listen to his chasseurs, distributed the finest cigarettes and cigars and attended in person the funerals of his heroes at the Vacherauville cemetery. A member of the Army Commission, he was responsible for the bill that led to the creation of the War Cross in the spring of 1915. It was notably he who announced the imminence of the German offensive on Verdun and the lack of human resources and equipment on the 22nd August in a letter addressed to the President of the Chamber, Paul Deschanel: "we think here that the hammer will strike along a line from Verdun to Nancy... If the Germans are prepared to pay for it, and they have proved that they are capable of sacrificing 50,000 men to take a place, they will get through". Despite a visit by MPs, an inspection by Castelnau in December 1915 and a question posed to Joffre by the Minister for War, Galliéni, nothing was done. Moreover, on the 21st February 1916, whilst the army of the Reich concentrated its action on the Verdun sector, only Driant's 1,200 men and 14 batteries faced the attack by 10,000 soldiers and 40 batteries. The Chasseurs held out heroically for more than 24 hours and sustained heavy losses, allowing reinforcements to arrive and maintain the front line. The position of the bois des Caures, held by Driant and his men, was pounded by 150, 210 and 300 mm canons for two days. On the 22nd February at midday, the Germans launched an assault on the chasseurs' positions. Grenades and flame throwers finally overcame the French resistance. Driant gave the order to retreat to Beaumont. Hit in the temple, Driant died at the age of sixty one.
On the evening of the 22nd February 1916, there were only 110 survivors from the 56th and 59th regiments. The announcement of the disaster gave rise to a great deal of emotion. Alphonse XIII of Spain, an admirer of Emile Driant, asked his ambassador in Berlin to carry out an enquiry into his disappearance. They wanted to believe he had been injured, taken prisoner or escaped abroad. A letter from a German officer who had taken part in the fighting at Caures to his wife, provided by his mother, Baroness Schrotter, put an end to the rumours: "Mr. Driant was buried with great care and respect and his enemy comrades built and decorated a fine grave for him, so that you will find him in peace time" (16th March 1916). His sacrifice was used by the press and war publications to galvanise the troops. The Chamber of Deputies officially announced his death and his funeral eulogy was read on the 7th April by Paul Deschanel and on the 28th June Maurice Barrès' League of Patriots held a formal service at Notre-Dame (Paris) led by cardinal Amette. The military man was thus reunited with the novelist ... He was buried by the Germans close to the spot where he fell, although his personal effects were returned to his widow via Switzerland. In October 1922, Driant's body was exhumed. A mausoleum chosen by ex-servicemen, including Castelnau, has been erected there. Each year a ceremony is held there on the 21st February in memory of colonel Driant and his chasseurs who died defending Verdun.

Born on the 2nd February 1889 in Mouilleron-en-Pareds, in the Vendée, into an old aristocratic family from French Flanders, Jean-Marie de Lattre de Tassigny received a first class education at Saint Joseph's college in Poitiers.

Military career

From 1898 until 1904 he trained at the naval School and was accepted by Saint-Cyr in 1908. He took classes at the 29th Dragoons in Provins. He was a pupil at Saint-Cyr from 1909 until 1911, in the "Mauritania" class where he came fourth in his year. In 1911 he attended the school of cavalry in Saumur. In 1912 he was posted to the 12th Dragoons in Pont-à-Mousson and then to the front. During the First World War he was captain of the 93rd infantry regiment and ended the war with 4 injuries and 8 commendations. He was then posted to the 49th infantry regiment in Bayonne from 1919 to 1921. In 1921 he was sent to Morocco to the 3rd bureau and to the headquarters for the Taza region until 1926. From 1927 to 1929 he took courses at the French war college with the 49th class. He married Simone de Lamazière in 1927 and they had a son in 1928. In 1929 he became Head of Battalion to the 5th infantry regiment at Coulommiers.

In 1932 he was promoted to the high command of the army and then to that of General Maxime Weygand, Vice-President of the Upper War Council, as Lieutenant Colonel. In 1935 he became Colonel, commanding the 151st infantry regiment at Metz. Between 1937 and 1938 he took courses at the centre of higher military studies and in 1938 became the governor of Strasbourg's Chief of Staff.

Second World War

Promoted to Brigade General on the 23rd March 1939, by the 2nd September 1939 he was Chief of Staff of the 5th army. On the 1st January 1940 he took command of the 14th infantry division, which he commanded during the confrontations with the Wehrmacht at Rethel, where his division held out heroically, as far as Champagne and the Yonne, miraculously maintaining its military cohesion in the middle of all the chaos of the debacle. From July 1940 until September 1941, he was deputy to the Commanding General of the 13th military region at Clermont-Ferrand and then became Division General, commanding troops in Tunisia until the end of 1941. He subsequently commanded the 16th division at Montpellier and was promoted to General of the army corps. When the Free Zone was invaded by German troops, he refused to obey the order not to fight and was arrested. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison by the State tribunal of the Lyon section. Managing to escape from Riom prison on the 3rd September 1943, he went to London and then on to Algiers, arriving on the 20th December 1943, after promotion to the rank of Army General by General de Gaulle on the 11th November 1943. In December 1943 he commanded the B army, which became the first French army. He landed in Provence on the 16th August 1944, took Toulon and Marseille, headed back up the Rhone valley and then the Rhine, liberating the Alsace, entering Germany and advancing as far as the Danube. He represented France at the signing of the armistice on the 8th May 1945 in Berlin at the headquarters of Marshal Joukov.

After the war

Between December 1945 and March 1947, he was Inspector General and Commander in Chief of the army. In March 1947 he was Inspector General of the army and then Inspector General of the armed forces. From October 1948 until December 1950, he was Commander in Chief of the western European armies at Fontainebleau. He became High Commissioner and Commander in Chief in Indochina and Commander in Chief in the Far East (1950-1952) and established a national Vietnamese army. Exhausted by the strenuous workload to which he had been subjected throughout his career, which had not been helped by the injuries he had received in 1914, deeply affected by the death of his son Bernard, killed during the Indochina campaign and suffering from cancer, he died in Paris on the 11th January 1952, following an operation. He was posthumously promoted to the dignified position of Marshal of France at his funeral on the 15th January 1952. He is buried in his home village of Mouilleron-en-Pareds.

Sentenced to death by the Germans in 1916 for espionage, the distribution of clandestine press and participation in the extraction of soldiers, Gabrielle Petit, “Gaby”, is an iconic figure in the history of the contribution of Belgian women during the First World War.

Gabrielle Aline Eugénie Marie Petit was born to working class parents in Tournai, Belgium. She was raised in a Catholic boarding school from the age of five following her mother's death. Gabrielle and her sister Hélène were placed with the Dames du Sacré Coeur, in Mons, abandoned by their father. The young girls were then collected by a cousin who sent them to live with the Soeurs de l’Enfant Jésus in Brugelette, where the two young girls finally found the intellectual and emotional fulfilment required. At 17, Gabrielle was ordered by her father to return home. The difficult living arrangement came to end after several months. The young women decided to move to Brussels where Hélène found work as a governess for a Mrs. Butin.

At the outbreak of war, Gabrielle Petit was 21 years old. She was engaged to a professional soldier, Maurice Gobert, who she’d met two years earlier. He was injured in Hofstade (near Liège). Captured by the Germans, he escaped and rejoined Gaby who then reached the front by joining the Red Cross in Molenbeeck-Saint-Jean. The couple, cut off from the Belgian army, were forced to hide in their attempt to cross the Dutch border.

When she returned to Belgium, she enlisted with the intelligence services. She was trained in England, in July 1915, and quickly made a name as an active spy. Now called Mrs. Legrand, she worked in the Ypres sector in Maubeuge, living among enemy troops, assuming many false identities, collecting information on the movements of German troops, strategic points, armament conditions and the rail network on behalf of the Allies. She was also responsible for distributing a clandestine newspaper (La Libre Belgique), assisted an underground mail service to captive soldiers and helping soldiers imprisoned behind German lines cross the Dutch border.

However, in autumn 1915 the German counter-espionage services stepped up their operations. Gabrielle Petit, who had already raised suspicions several months earlier, was placed under surveillance. She managed to escape from her pursuers a first time through the narrow streets of Molenbeek. Arrested in Hasselt, she escaped from the hostel where she was being detained. The vice tightened in December. The German secret services arrested and replaced the mailman in her network by a Dutch traitor who delivered the messages to the Kommandantur for over a month. Trusting no-one, Gaby left absolutely no clue that would allow anyone to identify the members of her team.

She was arrested on 20 January 1916 by police officer Goldschmidt and secretly detained for five days at the Kommandantur. Neither her interrogator nor a destructive search of her apartment unearthed any proof. The prisoner was then transferred to Saint-Gilles Prison in Brussels on 2 February. There, resisting harsh interrogations and conditions at the prison, she proved the innocence of the family of her landlady, Mrs Collet, and put in place a system for imprisoners to receive supplies and communications. She refused to betray her fellow agents despite offers of amnesty.

Gabrielle Petit was sentenced to death on 3 March 1916. On 8 March her sister made a plea for clemency, written by Mr. Marin, director of the Saint-Gilles Prison and backed by the Apolistic Nunciature and Legation of Spain, to the Kommandatur which refused to repeal its decision. On 1 April, the sentence was carried out by the firing squad in Schaarbeek. Her body is buried there at the execution field. Her story not attracting the notoriety of Louise de Brettignies or Edith Cavell, her execution remained unknown to the public until 1919 when she received her just honours at a national ceremony presided over by Queen Elisabeth of Belgium, Cardinal Mercier and the Prime Minister Delacroix. On 27 May, her body was exhumed and displayed for two days in the Salle des Pas-Perdus of the municipal hall before being buried in the cemetery in the town of Schaarbeek. 

A statue was dedicated to her in Brussels and a square named after her in Tournai.

Emile Antoine Bourdelle was born in Montauban on 30 October 1861 to Antoine Bourdelle, a cabinet-maker who would introduce him to working with materials at the age of thirteen, and a mother who would teach him the essential values of a simple and rustic lifestyle. The fauna statuette he created that adorns a mill caught the attention of two local personalities, Hyppolite Lacaze and Emile Pouvillon, who encouraged him to enrol in the course offered by the municipal art school then directed by Achille Bouis. In 1876, Bourdelle was granted a scholarship to study at the Beaux-Arts de Toulouse. He used the solitude of his years as a student to complete his first masterpieces: Les Trois Têtes d'Enfants, the portrait of Achille Bouis and the portrait of Emile Pouvillon. In 1884 he went to Paris, where he began working at the Falguière workshop at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. In 1884, he set himself up in a modest workshop in Impasse du Maine. In 1885, the young sculptor sent the La Première Victoire d'Hannibal to the Salon des Artistes Français, for which he received a merit. Exhausted, the sculptor was hospitalised. After a period of convalescence in Montauban, Bourdelle, convinced of the futility of the teaching and prize he had been given, distanced himself from the Ecole before leaving in 1886, the year he created L'Amour Agonise.

In 1888, a recurring theme would appear in Bourdelle's work: the portrait of Beethoven. In 1891, the sculptor would exhibit his work at the exhibition of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts for the first time. Bourdelle would again find new masters, who rather would be companions for him: he visited the workshop of Dalou, in Impasse du Maine, and in 1893 would form a collaboration with Rodin at the Falguière workshop. In 1897, the city of Montauban commissioned him to create the Monument to the Defenders of 1870. In 1900, he founded with Rodin the Institut Rodin, a free school for training in sculpture. During this period he created among his growing list of requests Les Nuées, a relief to be placed on the stage of the Musée Grévin. Works such as Le Ménage Bourdelle, L'Ouragan and M. et Mme Bourdelle Par Temps d'Orage, bore witness to a particularly tumultuous domestic life. His circle of close friends consisted of Félicien Champsaur, Marie Bermond, Jean Moréas, Elie Faure and even Jules Dalou. 1902 was the year the artist became known to the wider public, when he inaugurated the monument to the dead of Montauban. In 1905, Bourdelle held his first exhibition at the gallery of the foundry owner Hébrard. That year, he exhibited a Pallas in marble at the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. He made a number of overseas trips which bore witness to the interest he had created outside his own country. In 1907, he visited Berlin and Geneva, while in 1908 he visited Poland as a member of a panel of judges for the erection of a monument to Chopin.

It was at this time that the sculptor began to mature, and he and Rodin went their separate ways. He began to teach in 1909, giving courses at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, where his understudies included Giacometti and Germaine Richier. These years were also the most intense for the master in terms of production: in one night, he completed models for the façade of the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées while at the same time working on the Dying Centaur, the Statue de Carpeaux and the monument to Auguste Quercy. In 1910, Bourdel completed his masterpiece: the Archer Heracles. This work was displayed at the Société Nationale des Beaux Arts, with the Bust de Rodin. A year later, Bourdelle unveiled the plaster cast of Pénélope and completed the maquette of the monument to Mickiewicz. In 1913, the site of the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées was completed. With its low-reliefs and friezes of subjects inspired by mythology, Bourdelle realised his ideal of structural art, an art form in which decor is subject to the laws of architecture. His research into the monumental continued with the order for the monument to Alvear, the most important he had ever received, followed in 1919 by those for the monuments of Montceau-les-Mines and Vierge for the offering to the hill of Niederbrück. Prior to his death, Bourdelle would create numerous other models but would not have time to complete these monuments (monuments to Daumier, Marshall Foch, etc.).

1914 was notable for success at the Venice Biennial and the presentation of the Dying Centaur to the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. His success was soon confirmed: in 1919, the sculptor was appointed Officer of the Legion of Honour. His circle of acquaintances also began to feature new faces, such as André Suarès, Anatole France, Krishnamurti and Henri Bergson.

While continuing to exhibit at the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, in 1920 Bourdelle established the Tuileries exhibition with Besnard and Perret. He exhibited the Naissance d'Aphrodite at the Tuileries exhibition, then at the International Decorative Arts Exhibition (Sapho, Masque de Bourdelle) in 1925, in Japan and the United States. The bronze statue of the Dying Centaur was shown at the Tuileries exhibition. The last years of Bourdelle's life were marked by his experimentation with polychromy. In 1926, he made his first polychrome sculpture models, the Reine de Saba and the Jeune Fille de la Roche-Posay. While La France was put on display at the Tuileries exhibition, the monument to Alvear was inaugurated in Buenos Aires. A year before his death, Bourdelle was triumphant: the first Bourdelle retrospective was proposed for the inauguration of the Palais des Beaux-Arts of Brussels (141 sculptures and 78 paintings and drawings). On 28 April 1929, the monument to Mickiewicz was inaugurated in the Place de l'Alma. Bourdelle died in Vésinet on October 1 at the home of his friend, the foundry owner Rudier.

Emile Bourdelle's talent has helped perpetuate numerous memorial sites: - in Montauban, Bourdelle fashioned the Monument aux Combattants et Défenseurs du Tarn-et-Garonne 1870-1871 and the Monument à la Mémoire des Combattants de 1914-1918; - the Victoire du Droit, at the Assemblée Nationale ; - the Archer Heracles at the Temple du Sport in Toulouse; - the Monument de la Pointe de Grave, to commemorate the entry of the United States in World War I in 1917 ; - the Monument aux Morts at the school of Saint-Cyr (Coëtquidan), a bronze initially erected in 1935 in Algiers; - the mould that was initially used in the creation of the bronze of the Monument des Forces Françaises Libres; - the Figures Hurlantes of the Monument de Capoulet-Junac (Ariège) ; - the stele of Trôo (Eure-et-Loir) ; - the monument of Montceau-les-Mines (Saône-et-Loire), one of the faces of which was named "Le Retour du Soldat".