Word: gallieni
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Some busses were commandeered for the refugees, and others were packed with soldiers and sent off to the front, in imitation of Gallieni's great taxicab army which helped to save Paris in 1914. Streetcars stopped running and subway service was heavily reduced. Food cards were stretched for an extra week and the potato ration...
...Focus appears almost casually as Gallieni, the sharp, sickly Minister of War, sends Gurau to drop a word to the Commander in Chief about the weak de fences at Verdun, so far an inactive part of the front. Gurau is charmed by the apple-cheeked, comfortable Joffre, reassured at lunch but beset by doubts later. The French Intelligence has positive proof that the Germans plan no offensive at Verdun: they have prepared enormous dug outs there but no assault trenches. Nevertheless . . . from that moment the reader is treated to an extended, coolly elaborated piece of such dramatic irony...
...amateur watchmaker, once produced an invention of his own in the garden of the Palais-Royal: a cannon rigged with an adjustable burning glass over the touchhole to go off just at noon each sunny day. From 1786 to August 1914, when it was silenced by General Joseph Gallieni lest it frighten war-worried Parisians, the meridian gun barked on. Fortnight ago Minister of Education Anatole de Monzie decided Louis' idea was still a good one. Reconditioned, the meridian gun will bark noon again in the Palais-Royal garden. But since Paris is on daylight saving time, it will...
With Paris safe, Generals Gallieni and Sarrail began a campaign to undermine Joffre's prestige which lasted some two years. As time passed and Joffre did not win the War, as rumors flew that he had not properly laid out the defenses of Verdun, and as the Allied offensive on the Somme failed at frightful cost, Joffre was "promoted" (retired) from the post of Commander-in-Chief to something created on the spot called "Adviser to the Government in Matters Concerning the Direction of the War." Finally this sop was replaced by the baton of Marshal. To "Papa" Joffre...
...Embassy Mr. Herrick was personally warned by General Gallieni, then charged with the immediate defense of Paris. "Your Excellency!" cried the distracted General, "The German plan is to blow up Paris, section by section, until the French Government surrenders...