Word: gamelin
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...secret of Gamelin's military success lay largely in his old mapmaker's and landscapist's instinct for geography. Not only was he able to take the maximum advantage of terrain so as to conserve manpower, but his shrewd disposition of fire power constantly enhanced the offensive quality of his command. His many citations praised his "highest qualities of method and of inspection" and his ability to carry his objectives "in the course of a general offensive at the cost of minimum losses." The French soldier did not like him less for that and the present French...
Brazil to Syria to Home. In 1919 General Gamelin headed the French military mission to Brazil, a job requiring the greatest tact since the old German pre-War influence in the Brazilian Army was still strong. In 1925 he was recalled and soon sent to Syria to help put down the Druse revolt, a suppression which he later succeeded in accomplishing alone with considerable bloodshed on the part of the Druses. He was on hand when French planes and artillery wiped out 1,456 civilians in the native quarters of Damascus, thus proving that Maurice Gamelin had no particular interest...
...France's No. 1 Soldier, Gamelin has continued the Maginot Line to the sea, mechanized the Army to a point below Germany's but at which he thinks it can be most effective, extended the conscript period from a year, to 18 months, to two years-this over the bitter opposition of most French politicians. He has confidence in the Army he has built. During the Munich crisis he believed the French Army was ready to fight, and General Gamelin quietly went to London to tell the statesmen so. He got about the same attention that...
...plans are not war plans once they have been made public, and General Gamelin's are not exceptions. Nobody but the French high command knows what the French Army intends to do if & when it comes in conflict with the Axis. Best semiprofessional guess suggests it would try to knock the spots off Italy's northern industrial area by air, call up all its 5,000,000 reserves, sit tight behind its Maginot Line and see what happened. A hint in favor of the last course comes from a remark General Gamelin made when asked if the French...
Benevolent Formality. Maurice Gamelin is generally characterized as colorless. That, however, is the way the French have learned to like their generals best. Napoleons I and III had plenty of color but they did not pay off at the finish. In 1889 colorful General Boulanger came close to seizing the country. The colorful military cliques of the century's turn-on one' side the Catholics and reactionaries; on the other the Radical Socialists and Freemasons-gave France its Dreyfus case. Nowadays no French soldier votes and on the subject of politics the Army is known as la grande...