The French Army in the First World War, a Discussion: Pt 1

Battles of the First World War Podcast

Mike Cunha

History

4.8 • 812 Ratings

🗓️ 22 January 2023

⏱️ 144 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This was so much fun to host–with the help of Alex Lyons, a fantastic group of WW1 enthusiasts were gathered for what will be the first of a multi-part series of discussions of the French Army and the French experience during WW1.

France went to war in 1914 as a country of 40 million people. Its army went to war in 19th century uniforms of dark blue tunics and red trousers, calling up 8.5 million Frenchmen over the next four devastating years. When the guns went silent in November 1918, the Adrian-helmeted and horizon-blue clad PCFs– pauvre con du front, or poor bastards at the front–had seen 1.4 million of their brothers fall on the field of battle, with another 4.2 million wounded–a million of those wounded significantly disabled for the rest of their lives.

Joining us for this discussion are:

Bart Debeer, who co-wrote a Dutch-language Western Front Guide for Beginners with a friend
Bryn Hammond, whose blog “Vingt Frong” aims to “awaken interest in the French experience of the First World War in an English-speaking audience,”
Alex Lyons, the man who spends his free time telling us the story of his Poilu great-grandfather on Twitter,
Steve Marsdin, a student and researcher of the 1914 Battle of the Frontiers and its effects,
Jim Smithson, author of “A Taste of Success: The First Battle of the Scarpe. The Opening Phase of the Battle of Arras 9-14 April 1917” and two guide books on the Arras battlefields,
Dr. Rich Willis, author of the forthcoming “Fighting for the Butcher: British Troops Fighting in General Mangin’s Xe Armée, July-August 1918”

I’m really excited to present this first discussion on these fascinating topics, and I hope you enjoy this first talk.

The BFWWP is on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/BattlesoftheFirstWorldWarPodcast.

Any questions, comments or concerns please contact me through the website, www.firstworldwarpodcast.com. Follow us on Twitter at @WW1podcast, the Battles of the First World War Podcast page on FaceBook, and on Instagram at @WW1battlecast. Not into social media? Email me directly at [email protected]. Please consider reviewing the Battles of the First World War Podcast on iTunes.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey folks, in the upcoming discussion, you'll hear me saying fantastic and awesome a lot, and I'm working on that.
0:12.0	You also hear me say later in the episode that I couldn't quite put into words what I was thinking at the moment.
0:21.4	That was as much due to the amount of Calvedos I had ingested by that point in the episode
0:26.4	as to the fact that I'm rarely good on the spot.
0:32.4	I've had time to think it out now, and what I was feeling was this burgeoning excitement. I was playing host
0:40.1	to an amazing group of First World War enthusiasts who were really passionate about the episode
0:46.4	topic. It is really inspiring when you meet a group of people who are as deeply interested
0:52.6	in the same subject you are,
0:58.1	and who are just so incredibly knowledgeable and articulate.
1:07.4	I am incredibly grateful that with all of our different schedules and time zones,
1:12.8	this amazing group of historians came together for what will hopefully be the first in a multi-part series. Having had that discussion in December with Alex Lyons on the experiences
1:21.5	of his grandfather, it has reawakened one of the motivations I had when I began podcasting, that of getting the story of the
1:30.8	French army in World War I out into the English-speaking world.
1:38.6	In the English-speaking world, we tend to see the First World War through the constraints
1:43.0	of language. So for a long time,
1:45.7	we've mainly seen the British-centric view of the war. Or we have seen the New Zealander view,
1:52.6	or the South African, Australian, Canadian, or American. Of course, books on the French experience
2:00.5	in World War I have been available, but it has generally
2:03.4	been much more limited than, of course, the British experience.
2:07.8	And that, naturally, is understandable.
2:11.0	In recent years, particularly during the years around the centenary of the Great War,
2:15.5	new and translated books have been published on the French Army and related topics, and more is being worked on.
	...

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