Building a Mid-War French Force for Through the Mud and the Blood

French infantry in the trenches. (http://www.151ril.com)

Les Poilus!

One of my chum's sons, already an avid wargamer, has expressed an interest in playing a Great War miniatures game, with a particular interest in the French. Or some other options (he likes the underdogs), but since I'm learning and blogging about the great Verdun campaign just now, I seized on his interest as an opportunity to build a French force for Through the Mud and the Blood.

He's OK with either early war or something later. But , although they would look glorious in les pantalon rouges, the early war French would be at best a platoon of 58 corporals and riflemen with a three sergeants and a solitary lieutenant as platoon commander. Not much chance of one of the regiment's two machine-guns, even.

But by 1916, though drabber in the horizon bleu, the platoon becomes much more interesting. A greater range of infantry armaments and more complex tactics to use them effectively created a more diverse platoon organization. Still commanded by l lieutenant and three sergeants, the platoon now consisted of 40 men, including 4 dedicated rifle-grenadiers (with two ammo carriers), 2 automatic-riflemen (with 2 ammo carriers and 2 assistant gunners), and a squad of 8 grenadiers (including throwers, ammo carriers, and assistants).

I also (since this was my delayed tax-refund splurge, and I was buying from Old Glory 25s and thus using my discount from their Army Member programme), got some support elements. The platoon will be able to call on some Hotchkiss HMG support, a 37mm infantry gun, and some trench mortars, if needed. There are some special figures to represent any trench-fighting party they may send out at night to recce the enemy lines to to grab a prisoner or two. And they will have some extraneous chappies hanging about: some spotters for the divisional artillery,

I'll be going through all my old Lardy Specials as well as delving into the M&B forum to see if any ideas crop up that might be useful. But undoubtedly of most value will be all the posts on the excellent Roundwood's World blog about his Verdun Project. I'm also finding the website of the 151e Régiment d'Infanterie de Ligne (a living history group) invaluable.

As a starter, I'd like to portray an attack and a counterattack from the fighting over the Bois des Corbeaux (like my mum, I love the corbies) on the left bank of the Meuse, part of the beginning of the second stage of the Verdun campaign in March 1916. But first I need to do some painting!

French field kitchen and baggage. (http://151ril.com)

Primary Source Teaser and book report: Foch

I was going through boxes and boxes of old family photos, most of them from 1980-2010, I came across one box that had old, old photos, clearly from circa 1900-1950. Among the other things in the box, an amazing find: a collection of about half a dozen letters from my grandfather in the AEF to his sister back in the US! Other materials include some poems he wrote (I can hear Richard Clarke scoffing now :-) and a rather starry-eyed essay about the dedication of American fighting men to defeating Imperial Germany. I'll be transcribing all of these and sharing them here.

I should also add that, in the long time since my last posts, I finished reading Michael Neiberg's brief biography of Ferdinand Foch (Foch: Supreme Allied Commander in the Great War, Brassey's, 2003). It's a workmanlike piece, only about 125 pages. It describes his early training and professional development, laying out some of the factors that would underpin both his success and his challenges during the war. Most of the book is devoted to his war service. Neiberg depicts him as a pragmatist, a Catholic but not a political Catholic, and a man willing to recognize and learn from his mistakes while sticking to his principles. His contention is that Foch never lost faith in the pre-war doctrine of the offensive, but sought to refine and reinterpret (almost reinvent) that belief in the face of the army's wartime experiences. Instead of following the early pattern of an unsophisticated, unrelenting, infantry-based tactical offensive, Foch became a supporter of complex, combined-arms operations that used intelligence preparation of the battlefield, planned and sophisticated artillery fires, and evolutionary tactics to create, develop, and maintain the operational offensive in pursuit of clearly defined ad realistic strategic goals.

Neiberg does go into some detail concerning the difficulties Foch and other officers found in coalition warfare, and he shows the growing tension between Foch and Clemenceau that led, as the war was ending and in the immediate aftermath, to outright conflict between many of the French Army's senior officers on one side and their civilian leaders on the other. Foch did not directly challenge the civilian government, though he came close to doing so, and he did not take the advice of many of his supporters and leave the Army for politics, but he continued to be frank, outspoken, and even combative over France's future safety until his death in 1929 at the age of 78.

The book is a quick read; it is clear, well written, and informative. I don't know the state of historiography on the marshal's life, but I would think on the surface this appears to be a solid, basic introduction to the professional life of one of France's most famous military officers and the man who, as much or more than any other, guided the French Army to victory in the Great War.