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Maurice Gustave Gamelin (20 September 1872 - 18 April 1958) was a French general. Gamelin is best remembered for his unsuccessful command of the French military in 1940 during the Battle of France and his steadfast defense of republican values.
The generalissimo of the French armed forces in World War II, Gamelin was viewed as a man with significant intellectual ability. He was respected, even in Germany, for his intelligence and "subtle mind", though he was also viewed by some German generals as stiff and predictable. Despite this, and his competent service in World War I, his command of the French armies during the critical days of May 1940 proved to be disastrous. Historian and journalist William L. Shirer presented the view that Gamelin used World War I methods to fight World War II, but with less vigor and slower response.1
Gamelin served with distinction under Joseph Joffre in World War I. He is often credited with being responsible for devising the outline of the French counter-attack in 1914 which led to victory during the First Battle of the Marne. In 1933, Gamelin rose to command of the French Army and oversaw a modernization and mechanization program, as well as the completion of the Maginot Line defenses. Edouard Daladier supported Gamelin throughout his career due to his refusal to allow politics to play a part in military planning and promotion, and his commitment to the republican model of government—not a trivial concern at a time when Communists on the left, Royalists and Fascists on the right were openly advocating regime change in France.
The French army had pioneered the use of motor transport in the first world war but during the 1930s went back to relying on the railways and horses
Few French generals inspected their troops. Gamelin rarely set foot outside his headquarters in a chateau Vincennes. It was linked by radio or by teleprinter to the outside world. All communication was by hourly motorcycle despatch riders. Morale in the French troops was low and drunkenness was rife, even before the Germans attacked in 1940.
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Role in World War II
When war was declared in 1939 was already 68 years old. A few French units crossed the German border in the Saar Offensive but only travelled 8km. not even penetrating Germany's unfinished Siegfried Line even though there were no German tanks on the western front. According to General Siegfried Westphal, German staff officer on the western front, if France had attacked in September 1939, German forces could not have held out for more than one or two weeks. However Gamelin ordered his troops back. Gamelin preferred to wait until French and British could build up their forces and was not planning a major offensive until 1941. Bombing the industrial areas of the Ruhr was prohibited in case the Germans retaliated.
Gamelin's vision for France's defense was based upon a static defense along the Franco-German border, which was reinforced by the Maginot Line. The Maginot Line was only 87 miles long and stopped 250 miles short of the English Channel. During the cold winter of 1939/40 work on the extension to the Maginot Line was halted. Gamelin viewed the Ardennes as impenetrable and chose to defend it with ten of his weakest, least-well equipped and least well trained divisions. According to General von Manteuffel, the German Panzer commander France had more and better tanks than Germany but chose to disperse them.
The defensive approach of the Maginot Line became out of step with Gamelin's own views and he favoured an aggressive advance northward into Belgium and the Netherlands to meet the attacking German forces as far removed from French territory as possible. To this advance, which fitted with Beligan defence plans and British objectives was known as the Dyle Plan. Gamelin committed much of the motorized forces in the French Army and the entire BEF to this approach.
When the Germans attacked, Gamelin insisted on moving 40 of his best divisions, including the British Expeditionary Force, northwards straight into the trap that the Germans had planned. Despite reports of the build up of German forces and even knowing the date of the Germans attack, Gamelin did nothing stating that he would "await events". The French mobilisation had inadvertently called up many essential workers and this disrupted vital French industries in the first weeks of the campaign.
Much of the air force was attacked on the ground. The rest of the air support was concentrated on the French advance rather than attacking the exposed 150km column supplying the German advance. Quickly the French and the British became fearful of being outflanked withdrew quickly from the defensive lines drawn up across Belgium without holding them properly. Even then they did not pull back fast enough to prevent them being outflanked by the German Panzer divisions. All the crossings over the Meuse were destroyed by the French, except one weir, 60km north of Sedan, which was lighly defended and was quickly captured and exploited. French guns limited their firing in case they ran out of ammunition.
The wing of the German attack occurring further south was fortunate to be able to cross the River Meuse faster than anticipated aided by heavy Luftwaffe aerial bombardment. On this front Colonel-General Heinz Guderian disobeyed orders and forged ahead. Gamelin withdrew forces in this area so that they could defend Paris, thinking this was the German's objective, rather than the coast. Thinking he had been betrayed rather than blaming his own tactics, Gamelin then sacked twenty of his front line commanders, almost at random.
Further north, Major-General Erwin Rommel also kept pushing on quickly, against commands from his superiors and so came to the sea to the West of the BEF trapping the forces that had been sent into the Low Countries around Arras and Dunkirk. The speed of this advance, German air supremacy and the inability of the British and French to successfully counter-attack undermined the overall Allied position to such a degree that Britain abandoned the conflict on the continent, pulling out the second BEF that had been landing in Normandy in mid-June. The Dutch surrendered in five days of being attacked, the Belgians in a little over two weeks and the French were left with only a rump of their former army to defend their nation. Gamelin was removed from his post on 18 May 1940 by Paul Reynaud, who had replaced Edouard Daladier as Prime Minister earlier in the month. The 68 year-old Gamelin was replaced by the 73 year-old Maxime Weygand who immediately tried to launch counter-attacks but the British forces by then were keen to evacuate from France; 40,000 French troops left with the British through Dunkirk.
After fall of France
Gamelin was both preceded and succeeded as generalissimo by Maxime Weygand. During the Vichy regime, Gamelin was arrested and unsuccessfully tried for treason along with other important political and military figures of the Third Republic (Edouard Daladier, Guy La Chambre, Léon Blum and Robert Jacomet) during the Riom Trial. At this trial, Gamelin refused to answer the charges against him, instead maintaining a dignified silence. He was later deported to Germany. After the war he published his memoirs titled Servir... .
References
- ^ William L. Shirer The Collapse of the Third Republic 1969
Further reading
- Martin S. Alexander, The Republic in Danger : General Maurice Gamelin and the Politics of French Defence, 1933-1940, Cambridge University Press, 1992.
- Maurice Gamelin, Servir..., Paris, 1946.
- Lieutenant-Colonel Pierre Tissier, The Riom trial, with a foreword by General Charles de Gaulle, London, G. G. Harrap, 1942.
- http://www.info.dfat.gov.au/info/historical/HistDocs.nsf/(LookupVolNoNumber)/3~249
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 19 November 2008, at 09:44.
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