"The French Mutinies of 1917 " Topic

"They were coined as "acts of collective indiscipline".

Various units with very good fighting records had come back from the blazing [Chemin des Dames] front in a state of moral disintegration toward the end of April [after the failed Nivelle Offensive]. On 29 April the first mutiny was reported by the 2nd Battalion of the 16th Infantry Regiment. They had been reduced from a nominal 600 men to only 200 by the morning after the assault and were marched back to their miserable billets in Soissons where their comfort was generally ignored. So they drifted, unwanted, and with the rumors floating that they would be transferred to a "quiet" front in Alsace. On 29 April they were ordered back to the front. They refused but after midnight were somehow led back to the front by the colonel appealing to them "On behalf of your mates already at the Front". The military police picked out a number of men reputed to be ringleaders, and in short order the majority were sentenced to imprisonment in French Guyana — a death sentence in that disease-ridden place. Five men were sentenced to be shot, and sentence was carried out on 12 June.

Notwithstanding the speed at which this mutiny was suppressed, others immediately followed it, these actions accelerating into May with no end in sight. At this time there were about 1000 battalions in the French Army, and it was eventually thought that at least half of them could not be trusted to go into action, although it was thought they would hold the trenches — but no more. In my personal opinion these "acts of collective indiscipline" were brought about by the many broken promises to the troops, bad battle management leading to frightening losses amongst the infantry ever since 1914, and senior staff incomprehension of the living conditions of the French private soldier (the Poilu) or of their need for comfort when in rest and out of the line. Nivelle was acrimoniously fired after accusing his senior army commanders of mismanagement despite their advising him previously of their fears for the campaign…"
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Amicalement
Armand

Read "Dare call it treason" by Richard Watt. It was not a mutiny, it was a "soldiers strike". Fascinating is that the Germans never got wind of it, and Petain became famous as the man who finally got them back in the fight by reasoning and not by bloody punishments.

I'd second Dare Call It Treason. One of the best history books I've ever read.

Yes, I think the same about the Germans.
What a good oportunity lost!

Amicalement
Armand