Jean Jules Henri Mordacq
Jean Jules Henri Mordacq (12 January 1868 – 14 April 1943) was a French general. During his early years as a captain he was the sabre champion of the French Army's officer corps. In World War I, he was a frontline commander of initially the , then the 90th Brigade, and finally the , in the process being wounded twice on the battlefield. In 1918 and the Paris Peace Conference, he was a close aide to Clemenceau. Early career Mordacq's military career began as a lieutenant in French Algeria before joining the Foreign Legion's 1st Foreign Regiment in French Indochina in 1893. Fighting off the remaining pirates in Tonkin, he became an intelligence officer during the ''Colonnes du Nord'' in 1896 where he met Joseph Gallieni and Hubert Lyautey. He returned to Algeria for a year and then studied in Paris at the ''École de guerre'' to become a staff officer. He then became known for his military writing advocating reforms from the military schools to tactical warfare. He became chie ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Clermont-Ferrand
Clermont-Ferrand (, ; ; oc, label=Auvergnat (dialect), Auvergnat, Clarmont-Ferrand or Clharmou ; la, Augustonemetum) is a city and Communes of France, commune of France, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regions of France, region, with a population of 146,734 (2018). Its metropolitan area (''aire d'attraction'') had 504,157 inhabitants at the 2018 census.Comparateur de territoire: Aire d'attraction des villes 2020 de Clermont-Ferrand (022), Unité urbaine 2020 de Clermont-Ferrand (63701), Commune de Clermont-Ferrand (63113) INSEE It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture (capital) of the Puy-de-Dôme departments of France, department. Olivier Bi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hubert Lyautey
Louis Hubert Gonzalve Lyautey (17 November 1854 – 27 July 1934) was a French Army general and colonial administrator. After serving in Indochina and Madagascar, he became the first French Resident-General in Morocco from 1912 to 1925. Early in 1917 he served briefly as Minister of War. From 1921 he was a Marshal of France. He was dubbed the ''French empire builder'', and in 1931 made the cover of ''Time''. Early life Lyautey was born in Nancy, capital of Lorraine. His father was a prosperous engineer, and his grandfather a highly decorated Napoleonic general. His mother was a Norman aristocrat, and Lyautey inherited many of her assumptions: monarchism, patriotism, Catholicism and belief in the moral and political importance of the elite.Aldrich 1996, p134 In 1873 he entered the French military academy of Saint-Cyr. He attended the army training school in early 1876, and in December 1877 was made a lieutenant. After graduating from St Cyr, two months holiday in Algeria in 1 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Race To The Sea
The Race to the Sea (; , ) took place from about 1914 during the First World War, after the Battle of the Frontiers () and the German advance into France. The invasion had been stopped at the First Battle of the Marne and was followed by the First Battle of the Aisne a Franco-British counter-offensive. The term describes reciprocal attempts by the Franco-British and German armies to envelop the northern flank of the opposing army through the provinces of Picardy, Artois and Flanders, rather than an attempt to advance northwards to the sea. The "race" ended on the North Sea coast of Belgium around 19 October, when the last open area from Diksmuide to the North Sea was occupied by Belgian troops who had retreated after the Siege of Antwerp (28 September – 10 October). The outflanking attempts had resulted in a number of encounter battles but neither side was able to gain a decisive victory. After the opposing forces had reached the North Sea, both tried to conduct offensiv ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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First Battle Of The Marne
The First Battle of the Marne was a battle of the First World War fought from 5 to 12 September 1914. It was fought in a collection of skirmishes around the Marne River Valley. It resulted in an Entente victory against the German armies in the west. The battle was the culmination of the Retreat from Mons and pursuit of the Franco-British armies which followed the Battle of the Frontiers in August and reached the eastern outskirts of Paris. Field Marshal Sir John French, commander of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), began to plan for a full British retreat to port cities on the English Channel for an immediate evacuation. The military governor of Paris, Joseph Simon Gallieni, wanted the Franco–British units to counter-attack the Germans along the Marne River and halt the German advance. Entente reserves would restore the ranks and attack the German flanks. On 5 September, the counter-offensive by six French armies and the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) began. By ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Vosges
The Vosges ( , ; german: Vogesen ; Franconian and gsw, Vogese) are a range of low mountains in Eastern France, near its border with Germany. Together with the Palatine Forest to the north on the German side of the border, they form a single geomorphological unit and low mountain range of around in area. It runs in a north-northeast direction from the Burgundian Gate (the Belfort–Ronchamp– Lure line) to the Börrstadt Basin (the Winnweiler– Börrstadt–Göllheim line), and forms the western boundary of the Upper Rhine Plain. The Grand Ballon is the highest peak at , followed by the Storkenkopf (), and the Hohneck ().IGN maps available oGéoportail/ref> Geography Geographically, the Vosges Mountains are wholly in France, far above the Col de Saverne separating them from the Palatinate Forest in Germany. The latter area logically continues the same Vosges geologic structure but traditionally receives this different name for historical and political reasons. From ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Battle Of The Frontiers
The Battle of the Frontiers (, , ) comprised battles fought along the eastern frontier of France and in southern Belgium, shortly after the outbreak of the First World War. The battles resolved the military strategies of the French Chief of Staff General Joseph Joffre with Plan XVII and an offensive adaptation of the German deployment plan by Helmuth von Moltke the Younger. The German concentration on the right (northern) flank, was to wheel through Belgium and attack the French in the rear. The German advance was delayed by the movement of the French Fifth Army (General Charles Lanrezac) towards the north-west to intercept them and the presence of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the French left. The Franco-British troops were driven back by the Germans, who were able to invade northern France. French and British rearguard actions delayed the Germans, allowing the French time to transfer forces on the eastern frontier to the west to defend Paris, culminating in the Fir ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Louis Archinard
Louis Archinard (11 February 1850 – 8 May 1932) was a French Army general at the time of the Third Republic, who contributed to the colonial conquest of French West Africa. He was traditionally presented in French histories as the conqueror and "''Pacifier''" of French Soudan (today Mali). Archinard's campaigns brought about the end of the Tukulor Empire. He also spent a large amount of energy fighting Samory Toure. Archinard was succeeded as military commander of the Sudan in 1893 by Eugène Bonnier, who left from Bordeaux on 5 August 1893 to take up his new command. Bonnier had no instructions and decided to follow Archinard's advice, use his own judgement and seize Timbuktu. He was killed on 15 December 1893 by a force of Tuaregs. In 1897 Archinard was reassigned to French Indochina. In World War I, he commanded in August 1914 the 1er Group of Reserve Divisions, and in 1917-1918 the Polish Legion in France. Decorations *Légion d'honneur **Knight (25 August 1881) **Off ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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École Spéciale Militaire De Saint-Cyr
The École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr (ESM, literally the "Special Military School of Saint-Cyr") is a French military academy, and is often referred to as Saint-Cyr (). It is located in Coëtquidan in Guer, Morbihan, Brittany. Its motto is ''Ils s'instruisent pour vaincre'', literally meaning "They study to vanquish" or, more freely put, "Training for victory". French cadet officers are called ''saint-cyriens'' or ''cyrards''. France's other most senior military education institute is the ''École de guerre'' (EdG) (School of Warfare), located in the ''École militaire'' complex, in Paris. French students who enter Saint-Cyr as cadets are about 21 years old, and undergo three years of training. All ESM cadets graduate with a Master of Arts or a Master of Science and are commissioned officers. The academy was founded in Fontainebleau in 1802 by Napoleon. It was moved in 1806 to the buildings of the former ''Maison Royale de Saint-Louis'', in Saint-Cyr-l'École, west of Pa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Adolphe Messimy
Adolphe Marie Messimy (31 January 1869 – 1 September 1935) was a French politician and general. He served as Minister of War in 1911–12 and then again for a few months during the outbreak of and first three weeks of the First World War. Having begun his career as an army officer, he returned to the Army and successfully commanded a brigade at the Battle of the Somme, and later a division. Defeated for re-election to the Chamber of Deputies in 1919, he served as an influential senator from 1923 until his death in 1935. Early and personal life Born in Lyon on 31 January 1869, Adolphe Messimy was the eldest son of notary Paul Charles Léon Messimy and Laurette Marie Anne Girodon. He married Andrée, the daughter of Victor Cornil, whom he divorced in 1921. His second marriage, in 1923, was to Marie-Louise Blanc (née Viallar), a widow. He had two children from each marriage. Tuchman described him as “an exuberant, energetic, almost violent man, with … bright peasant’s eye ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ferdinand Foch
Ferdinand Foch ( , ; 2 October 1851 – 20 March 1929) was a French general and military theorist who served as the Supreme Allied Commander during the First World War. An aggressive, even reckless commander at the First Marne, Flanders and Artois campaigns of 1914–1916, Foch became the Allied Commander-in-Chief in late March 1918 in the face of the all-out German spring offensive, which pushed the Allies back using fresh soldiers and new tactics that trenches could not withstand. He successfully coordinated the French, British and American efforts into a coherent whole, deftly handling his strategic reserves. He stopped the German offensive and launched a war-winning counterattack. In November 1918, Marshal Foch accepted the German cessation of hostilities and was present at the Armistice of 11 November 1918. At the outbreak of war in August 1914, Foch's XX Corps participated in the brief invasion of Germany before retreating in the face of a German counter-attack and succ ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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10th Infantry Division (France)
The 10th Infantry Division (10e DI) was an infantry division of the French Army which took part in the Napoleonic Wars, First World War, and Second World War. At the beginning of the First World War, it was mobilised in the 5th Military Region and formed part of the 5th Army Corps from August 1914 to November 1918. The division was reconstituted, mainly of troops of Parisian FFI/ Francs-Tireurs and Partisans (French Communists) origin, on 1 October 1944, in the Nevers region under the command of General Pierre Billotte. Originally, it was to include: * Three infantry regiments: ** 5th Infantry Regiment - Lieutenant-colonel Emblanc ** 24th Infantry Regiment - Lieutenant-colonel Bablon ** 46th Infantry Regiment * 32nd Regiment of Artillery, * 18th Regiment of Dragons. The 46th Infantry Regiment was quickly replaced by the 4th Demi-Brigade de Chasseurs of Commander Petit, made up of the 4th BCP and the 1er BCP of Paris. It was later integrated into the 1st Army of Gener ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Georges Picquart
Marie-Georges Picquart (6 September 1854 – 19 January 1914) was a French Army officer and Minister of War. He is best known for his role in the Dreyfus affair, in which he played a key role in uncovering the real culprit. Early career Picquart was born in Strasbourg. He began his military career in 1872, graduating from the '' Ecole Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr'' as fifth in his year. Picquart served as an infantry officer in France before seeing service in Indochina. He subsequently studied at the General Staff Academy (''École d'État-major'') where he was second in his class, after which he became a lecturer at the War Academy (''École supérieure de guerre''). One of his students at the latter institute was Alfred Dreyfus. Picquart and the Dreyfus Affair Picquart was then appointed to the General Staff in Paris. As a staff officer he acted as reporter of the debates in the first Dreyfus court-martial for the then Minister of War, Auguste Mercier, and the Chief of ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |