Word: gamelin
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...Minimum Losses." Not only was Gamelin a gifted staff officer; the number and quality of his citations in the field make him stand out in the Wartime company of blunderers and butchers like Sir Galahad at a gang shooting...
During the next four years he had various field commands and in 1906 he became orderly officer to General Joffre, then commander of the 6th Infantry Division in Paris. In 1912, when Joffre was promoted to the Supreme War Council, Gamelin was chosen as Joffre's chef de cabinet, or military secretary. During this time the French General Staff was discussing (but only discussing) the possibility of a German violation of Belgian neutrality to attack France. Gamelin made a study of it and wrote out a defense of such an attack. That was the germ of Joffre...
During those critical days General Joffre, who had called Gamelin "one of my red blood corpuscles," came to admire his little aide's unfailing composure as well as his swift and incisive tactical foresight. Paraphrasing Abraham Lincoln, he observed: "If this is philosophy, it is time all generals were philosophers...
...motion, and advancing columns stretched back 45 miles behind the German lines. On a 75-mile front the Allied lines gave way as the British lost 150,000 men and British and French liaison was broken. The French VI Army Corps was sent in to plug the gap and Gamelin's 9th Division, first in position, faced six German divisions rolling forward under the tremendous momentum of their advance...
Fighting defensively on a six-to-twelve-mile front, Gamelin's 9th fell back slowly, until on March 26, when the German advance had traveled 28 miles, it was almost isolated as units on both flanks gave way. Gamelin was faced with two possible movements: he could withdraw at once and take heavy losses, or counterattack on his flanks and, risking annihilation, take the chance of pulling his people out in comparative safety that night. He prepared to attack, moved his headquarters to the front, casually invited some British generals in to dinner-it was just before the emergency...