Description:

World War I
n.p., ca. 1918
World War I-Era Speech Draft Attributed to French General Describing Characteristics of New "Modern Warfare," Ex-Forbes
MD
A 6pp manuscript document in French, apparently a speech draft attributed to an unidentified French general. N.d. but probably 1918. N.p. The document is inscribed in one principal secretarial hand, with emendations in at least two additional hands. The working draft is heavily revised, with copious cross-outs, rewrites, and additions. Mathematical figures (troop movements?) in blue colored pencil appear on the reverse of one of the pages. Roughly paginated, although some pages may be missing. Expected wear including flattened paper folds and wrinkles, even toning, and isolated chipped edges. Isolated pin holes. Else very good to near fine. 8.5" x 12.5." Ex-Collection of Steve Forbes.

This fascinating manuscript dates from ca. 1918, based on a comment referencing "our war army of 1918" on page 3, and a statement in the next paragraph that the military should rely more heavily on aviation in 1919. As such, then, the speech draft was written during the last year of the bloodiest international conflict to date, with no end in sight. Fighting forces on both sides had learned significant lessons from the previous four years of brutal fighting: what worked and what didn't work in military theory, uniforms and equipment, and advanced weapons technology. The French general shows a keen awareness of such monumental changes and shifts. He purposefully differentiates between nineteenth-century warfare, like the type employed by the French in their most recent major military conflict, the Franco-Prussian War, and the new, frightening "modern warfare" ["guerre moderne"] of the present day.

He writes, "In modern battle, supreme power, of a crushing dimension in relation to all else, is fire power. The automation of weapons accentuated this sovereignty that 1870 [the Franco-Prussian War] had revealed, after Saderva. The use of smokeless gun powder renders it inaccessible (?) on the battle field, troops whose only value is their fire power. It cannot acquire superiority there if it does not have the superiority of fire power first. The bladed weapon is not more than a tool of different individuals, or of a final moral action. Individual firearms is a weak yield in the face of automatic weapons."

The French general contends that superior fire power through the use of automated weapons, primarily artillery, will make the ultimate difference in modern warfare. He views "l'arme blanche," or bladed weapon, as mostly a relic of the past. The French army quickly learned - mostly by consulting statistics of appalling casualty rates - that they needed to modernize nineteenth-century military dress and equipment. In 1914, French "poilus" dressed in sky blue coats, scarlet trousers, and leather helmets led bayonet charges. By 1915, there was outcry to make the uniforms less conspicuous, and the steel Adrian helmet was introduced. Soldiers sheltered in trenches instead of storming the barbed wire barricades of no-man's-land.

In 1918, modern weaponry is fully employed, examples of which are all mentioned in this speech draft: guns, machine guns, canons of all types and calibers, tanks, grenades, gas (chemical warfare), and airplanes. The French general notes on page 1 that infantry troops cannot withstand the "shaving fire and blinding destructiveness of enemy machine-gunners." This idea was reinforced by French casualty rates, and over the course of the war, French infantry forces decreased. Leadership realized that infantry could not compete with tanks, machine guns, and the chemical warfare characteristic of the worst of trench warfare. As a result, the numbers of French artillery forces and air force, or Service Aéronautique, increased.

The discussion of fighting units on page 3, as well as the page with figures on it, is sobering. In the speech draft, figures are in the thousands. By war's end, approximately 8.8 million French soldiers had been called up, including 900,000 colonial troops. French forces suffered horrendous casualties, with an estimated 1.4 million dead and 4 million wounded.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 8.5" x 12.5"
  • Medium: MD

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