French Head Quarters 1915-1918 by Jean de Pierrefeu

Author:Jean de Pierrefeu [Pierrefeu, Jean de]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, World War I, Europe, Great Britain, General, Germany, Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781782892175
Google: 2gFwCwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Published: 2014-06-13T05:00:37+00:00

CHAPTER II — The Mutinies

BY the irony of Fate, the Chief who was adored by the troops was at the outset of his reign to be put to the most searching test a leader can undergo, that of mutiny.

Suddenly, at the beginning of June, sinister news arrived at G.Q.G. A regiment ordered to the front line had sent delegates to their Colonel to inform him that they refused to obey. At the same time, similar incidents occurred in other units. In one place a collection of mutineers had fortified a village, formed a soviet, appointed a leader, and set up a sort of independent government. They took provisions from the shopkeepers by regularly drawn up requisition forms. Their delegates imposed conditions on the officers: increase of pay, regular leave periods, and assurances that assaults should not take place before the destruction of the enemy’s trenches and wire. In another place a general had been hustled and assaulted. Elsewhere, a regiment equipped with motor lorries, on which were mounted machine-guns, had been stopped in the attempt to march on Paris. They had stated their intention of going to the Palais-Bourbon and presenting their demands to Parliament. These manifestations of revolt were accompanied by seditious shouts of “Down with the war!“ “Down with incapable leaders!“ And the red flag was displayed.

In truth, the simultaneous outbreaks of these mutinies in a number of units made it seem as though we were confronted with a vast plot, secretly contrived and prepared beforehand. Many alarming details were adduced. In one division the officers had noticed nothing; the men had only congregated in groups of three or four. In another, the leaders of the mutinies had rigorously forbidden alcohol to their followers, in order that they should not be taken for delirious drunkards. The mutiny was carried out in an orderly manner, as though according to exact instructions. Nowhere was any bloodshed reported. The officers, although no longer obeyed, were still, with rare exceptions, respected. They were told: “You have fought as well as we; we do not wish you any harm, but we have had enough. The war must stop.” These scenes broke out in sixteen army corps, simultaneously or at short intervals.

The Third Bureau raged against the infamous political agitators, the syndicalists, and the Government, which was guilty of allowing the ringleaders to demoralize the Army, in spite of frequent warnings. On this subject I had a discussion with a young officer of the Bureau, which degenerated into a dispute. I fully admitted that the defaitist propaganda of the wretches who strove to discourage men on leave in Paris, in the workmen’s clubs, in stations and trains, and even in the regiments themselves, had influenced the mutinies, but that it seemed to me that the ground had been prepared by the fiasco of April 16th. Granted that this revolutionary propaganda was at its height at the time, I still maintained that action must not be limited to seeking for traces of a politico-revolutionary plot,

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