Military Machismo and the Collapse of the Imperial French 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.

All internet images removed from this post, sorry.

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.

The chaotic mobilization can be largely attributed to the machismo culture of the French Army. Staff officers were looked down upon as military clerks and time-servers. Organizations widely deemed incompetent tend to attract those types.  French officer Ardant du Picq’s writings are immersed in his front-line experience without a word on staff work.

The usual tale of the bungled mobilization tells of recruits riding trains hither and yon across France before finally reaching their destinations. This must have had unfortunate effects on morale. But there was worse. Adriance’s “To the Last Gaiter Button” tells the story of how the bungled mobilization continued to plague the French for critical weeks after.

In comparison the Prussian mobilization looks like a well-oiled machine. It was not without errors, but it functioned.  Officers in the Prussian general staff served some years on the staff and then rotated into the line for some years. There might be friction but line and staff knew each other. Staff officers had meetings with civilian railroad executives from time to time long before war broke out. They discussed plans and again knew each other. Prussian railcars had bills of lading attached to their exteriors, in transparent waterproof covers. These mundane details aided victory. More to the point, ignoring them opened the door to defeat.

The French Army had been fitting out expeditions to invade and create colonies in North Africa and other places. Sending a division or two always involved a lot of improvisation. This had been dignified with the term “se debrouillier”, loosely translated as “we’ll muddle through somehow”. It was further mockingly noted as “le Systeme De”, or System D. Last minute planning sufficed for forces of 20-40,000 troops being sent against tribal enemies. Improvisation would be found woefully lacking for deploying a quarter million troops and their equipment against the Prussians. Mobilization weaknesses had been detected in the 1859 war against Austria, but were ignored after the French managed to defeat the hapless foe. The Prussians looked through their 1866 win against the same enemy and corrected mistakes.

Why were French troops begging for food in the streets of their own towns? French farmers could grow enough food. French railroads could provide enough trains. The French General Staff’s improvisation could not load those trains properly or unload all the equipment that was forwarded.

Orders of battle for this period show French units weaker than Prussian ones. They actually had similar strengths but the flawed build-up could not deliver full strength units to the front. The railroads provided enough cars for 1,000 strong battalions but the staff was unable to coordinate all troops being present at loading times. This resulted in trains that could hold 1,000 being sent to the front with 750 troops. Priority was given to combat troops. Horse drawn supply wagons and teams waited for later trains. In most cases, that meant they did not arrive at all before combat broke out. Understrength units were deposited at the front without their supply wagons. Once they marched away from the railhead, they had no more food or ammunition than they carried. That is why the troops begged for food in the streets. Each French unit commander was dealing with an existential crisis before the enemy came within view. This would have been of little importance if the Prussians gave them time to recover. But the enemy did not. This also helps explain the inability of French Corps to come to each other's aid during the frontier battles. They were immobilized by lack of supplies.

What supplies were forwarded were not loaded by a uniform system. They did not have a bill of lading. The only way to know what a car contained was to unload it. When Metz finally fell, the rail sidings had 30,000 cars loaded with mystery cargo. Mundane mistakes like this, the indecision of Napoleon III and the basic functionality of the Prussians combined to bring the Second Empire down.

The Republic didn’t have a miraculous improvement by the staff, but the prolonged resistance of the garrison of Paris allowed them the time to assemble their poorly trained (but better led) armies. Later in the war when they attempted a lightning strike east with Bourbaki’s army, the mobilization was just as haywire, compounded by frigid winter weather. In addition to being poorly equipped and so late the element of surprise was lost, the troops were racked with illness.

The lesson was finally learned. Though the term “Systeme De” continued in use to describe the usual foul-ups in any large army, the French Army of 1914 was mobilized with full strength units that had their supply elements present. The staff was able to rapidly move an entire army by rail from the eastern wing to form the Sixth Army outside Paris. This derailed the German Schlieffen Plan, saving France. A large modern army needed its “clerks”, and those clerks needed to be as well trained and drilled as any combat troops.