6
- My Forums
- Tiger Rant
- LSU Recruiting
- SEC Rant
- Saints Talk
- Pelicans Talk
- More Sports Board
- Fantasy Sports
- Golf Board
- Soccer Board
- O-T Lounge
- Tech Board
- Home/Garden Board
- Outdoor Board
- Health/Fitness Board
- Movie/TV Board
- Book Board
- Music Board
- Political Talk
- Money Talk
- Fark Board
- Gaming Board
- Travel Board
- Food/Drink Board
- Ticket Exchange
- TD Help Board
Customize My Forums- View All Forums
- Show Left Links
- Topic Sort Options
- Trending Topics
- Recent Topics
- Active Topics
Started By
Message
Today marks 112 years since the bloodiest day in French military history...
Posted on 8/22/26 at 6:19 am
Posted on 8/22/26 at 6:19 am
August 22, 1914.
During the so-called Battle of the Frontiers, French divisions made suicidal frontal assaults against German positions in France and Belgium while carrying out their doomed operation called Plan XVII. In the Ardennes Forest, Charleroi, and other locations, French infantry units marched forward in linear formations only to be slaughtered in their thousands by accurate machine gun and artillery fire.
When the smoke had cleared at dusk, an estimated 27,000 French soldiers had been killed outright with tens of thousands more listed as wounded and captured/missing. By the time the Battle of the Frontiers came to an end at the close of August, the French army had sustained some 329,000 casualties of which 75,000 were KIA.
By the end of the year more than 300,000 Frenchmen would be dead on the Western Front. It truly is a miracle that they survived the opening shock and managed to defeat the Germans at the First Battle of the Marne in September.
During the so-called Battle of the Frontiers, French divisions made suicidal frontal assaults against German positions in France and Belgium while carrying out their doomed operation called Plan XVII. In the Ardennes Forest, Charleroi, and other locations, French infantry units marched forward in linear formations only to be slaughtered in their thousands by accurate machine gun and artillery fire.
When the smoke had cleared at dusk, an estimated 27,000 French soldiers had been killed outright with tens of thousands more listed as wounded and captured/missing. By the time the Battle of the Frontiers came to an end at the close of August, the French army had sustained some 329,000 casualties of which 75,000 were KIA.
By the end of the year more than 300,000 Frenchmen would be dead on the Western Front. It truly is a miracle that they survived the opening shock and managed to defeat the Germans at the First Battle of the Marne in September.
This post was edited on 8/22/26 at 6:20 am
Posted on 8/22/26 at 7:12 am to RollTide1987
Maybe this explains why the Germans rolled through there so easily the second time around.
Posted on 8/22/26 at 7:27 am to tigerinexile
quote:
Maybe this explains why the Germans rolled through there so easily the second time around.
That was certainly part of it. The French did not want to fight the Germans again in 1940 because the memories of the First World War were still fresh in everyone's minds. However, when the French and Germans did clash the former gave just as much as they took. What happened in France in May 1940 was more a failure of the French high command than it was the French fighting soldier.
The Allies had the Germans in the Ardennes dead to rights after air recon spotted their armored columns snaking their way through a massive traffic jam. Had French commanders reacted decisively to this information, the RAF and French air units might have decimated the right hook before it ever got going. Instead, they ignored the reports and continued to look for the main German effort elsewhere.
This post was edited on 8/22/26 at 7:28 am
Posted on 8/22/26 at 7:37 am to RollTide1987
When 19th century tactics meet 20th century weapons.
Posted on 8/22/26 at 7:43 am to RollTide1987
quote:
By the end of the year more than 300,000 Frenchmen would be dead on the Western Front.
I guess that's why it was 'all quiet', as one author Remarqued... Boo-Hiss
Posted on 8/22/26 at 7:51 am to RollTide1987
It was so bad that the Germans were even shocked.
Posted on 8/22/26 at 8:10 am to RollTide1987
quote:
Had French commanders reacted decisively to this information, the RAF and French air units might have decimated the right hook before it ever got going. Instead, they ignored the reports and continued to look for the main German effort elsewhere.
I haven’t studied WW1 as closely as some other conflicts.
Would you argue the the command deficiencies seen in France during WW1 which led to their early defeats and the near collapse late ever addressed going into WW2 or was it just that a viable defense strategy was defeated by a superior and emerging approach by the Germans?
With all the defeats and the “white flag” memes so to speak about them during that period it’s easy to single them out but from my reading was the French military command really any worse than British or Russian command during that era in your opinion?
Posted on 8/22/26 at 10:22 am to RollTide1987
The French army were hardly cowards. The command was way too conservative and stubborn in both WWs in the face of German innovation and tactics.
Posted on 8/22/26 at 10:49 am to RollTide1987
Spent this week in Belgium and France. We did Verdun for a whole day. Being able to walk the battlefields there was so powerful. I even went into some of the trenches they used during the war. Damn that was a crazy time.
Posted on 8/22/26 at 11:55 am to RollTide1987
quote:
bloodiest day in French military history
Did all of their periods sync up?
Posted on 8/22/26 at 12:00 pm to coolpapaboze
quote:
When 19th century tactics meet 20th century weapons.
This is what really made both world wars so devastating.
Perfect storm of old school tactics, a warrior mindset among young men who romanticized war, and cool new devastating weapons
Posted on 8/22/26 at 12:10 pm to RollTide1987
quote:Specifically the minds of French mothers & fathers who were asked to support sending their boys born immediately after Armistice Day to once again do what their fathers and uncles had horribly experienced.
The French did not want to fight the Germans again in 1940 because the memories of the First World War were still fresh in everyone's minds.
I wouldn’t ask (or, as much as possible, allow) my son to repeat the trench warfare experience had I been a veteran of it.
Page 1 of 1
Popular
Back to top
Follow TigerDroppings for LSU Football News