Between Mutiny and Obedience: The Case of the French Fifth Infantry Division during World War ILiterary and historical conventions have long painted the experience of soldiers during World War I as simple victimization. Leonard Smith, however, argues that a complex dialogue of resistance and negotiation existed between French soldiers and their own commanders. In this case study of wartime military culture, Smith analyzes the experience of the French Fifth Infantry Division in both pitched battle and trench warfare. The division established a distinguished fighting record from 1914 to 1916, yet proved in 1917 the most mutinous division in the entire French army, only to regain its elite reputation in 1918. Drawing on sources from ordinary soldiers to well-known commanders such as General Charles Mangin, the author explains how the mutinies of 1917 became an explicit manifestation of an implicit struggle that took place within the French army over the whole course of the war. |
Contents
The Theory of War Obedience and Military Authority | 3 |
Military Life in Rouen Before August 1914 | 20 |
The Pieces of Defeat Victory and Proportionality | 39 |
The Social World of Trench Warfare | 74 |
The 1915 Offensives at NeuvilleSt Vaast | 99 |
Verdun 1916 | 125 |
Les Eparges | 155 |
The Mutinies of 1917 | 175 |
June 1917November 1918 | 215 |
X Conclusion | 244 |
259 | |
269 | |
Other editions - View all
Between Mutiny and Obedience: The Case of the French Fifth Infantry Division ... Leonard V. Smith No preview available - 2014 |
Between Mutiny and Obedience: The Case of the French Fifth Infantry Division ... Leonard V. Smith No preview available - 1994 |
Between Mutiny and Obedience: The Case of the French Fifth Infantry Division ... Leonard V. Smith No preview available - 2016 |