Witness to a Century by George Seldes

Author:George Seldes [Seldes, George]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780307775429
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2011-04-27T00:00:00+00:00

General de Castlenau disobeys orders (from Marshal Joffre), resists on the Grande Couronne, saves Nancy. General Sarrail gives battle before Verdun despite orders to retreat. He saves Verdun. I take the offensive before Paris while G.H.Q. are moved far to the rear at Chatillon.

These were actions independent of the will of the Commander-in-Chief, carried out by commanders of army corps, but premeditated by G.H.Q.?—jamais!

Joffre was replaced by Foch. Pershing arrived and won the war for him. Castlenau fought and won great honors. Gallieni was the hero of a hundred cabaret songs despite the fact that about seventy-five percent of the story of “the taxicab army that saved Paris” is a myth. (Most of his army came in other vehicles, mostly trucks.) These three generals saved France by disobeying orders. Two of them received the highest honors. One was treated shabbily. Sarrail, who saved Verdun, and therefore could be called the greatest hero of World War I, was demoted. He was “exiled” to a command in Salonika, Greece.

Why was General Sarrail deprived of honors and justice? In 1925 when I talked to him in Damascus, it was not impudent to ask. He replied:

“I was always anti-clerical in a country where the clericals controlled the army at all times and the government a large part of the time. Moreover, I was a socialist—I do not mean a member of the Socialist Party of France, but my views were socialistic. This combination was fatal.”

Nevertheless, here he was, governor of the mandated territory of Syria, and commander of the French Army in the Near East. How did that happen?

“In 1924 there was a political upset. The Radical Socialist Party—which, as you may know is neither radical nor socialist, but a truly liberal party, was elected to power. Edouard Herriot was premier. One of his first acts was to recall General Weygand and give me this post.”

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