"Military Machismo and the Collapse of the Imperial French" Topic

…Army in 1870

"The cream of the regular French Army was captured in the first few months of the Franco-Prussian War, either at the debacle of Sedan or virtually in the surrounded fortress of Metz. Most accounts lay all the blame to incompetent French generalship. While Napoleon III was quite guilty and it trickled on down, there is more to the tale. Most accounts tell of the chaotic French mobilization. Then the French deploy at the frontier, the battles commence and we assume the problems of the mobilization are done and gone. But they continued to plague the French, something glossed over in most accounts and ignored by most gamers.

An item caught my eye some years back while re-reading Howard's "The Franco-Prussian War". French troops deployed near the border were going through the streets of nearby towns begging for food. This indicated a serious problem. Then Wawro's account of the war noted that French troops of the I Corps were told to fill their knapsacks or saddle bags with any supplies from the railroad trains before moving up to the front. French troops were going hungry in their own country, before hostilities began…"

Main page
link

Amicalement
Armand

If you can find a copy of To the Last Gaiter Button, it details the supply and logistics debacle. Even worse than
in Wawro or Howard's books. Railcars unloading supplies and food with troops nowhere close and the food sits there and rots. I don't remember who made the comment…Wars are won by logistics, not battles. or something like that.

oops…just read the link and it covers the above.

thanks as usual, Armand!

Sam

"The amateurs discuss tactics: the professionals discuss logistics." Napoleon Bonaparte.

Not just misdirected supplies, but railcars with no bills of lading, so the receiving unit had no idea what was inside or where to find what they needed. Also, next to no organic transport (wagons), so if the quartermaster DID find rations or ammo, he had no way to get the goods to his unit. To the Last Gaiter Button is indeed revealing of the French army's logistical problems.

IIRC, it also details the chaotic mobilization which resulted in units arriving at the front badly understrength and under-equipped, with the railroads overwhelmed by the ridiculous cross-traffic.

Thanks!

Amicalement
Armand

I understood absolutely nothing about the justification of a so totally ridiculous title…
maybe it is probably because, contrary to the French Army, the rest of the Armies of that time in Europe and Americas had only battalions of cantinières and squadrons of amazons coming from their well-known matriarchal societies, who knows…
it is true that the British in particular with their regiments clothed with skirts and their regimental titles with names of queen and princesses were usually and heavily recognized for their attested effeminate identity seen from Continental Europe

Thanks Glengarry5 for the exact quote and author. I am surprised it was Napoleon Bonaparte! Had figured it was either Moltke the elder or one of the ACW generals.

Thanks again for the info. Always great to learn new stuff.

Sam