Word: gamelin
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...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...
...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...
...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...