I am indy neidell and welcome to another
exciting episode of out of the ether
where I read some of the best or most
controversial comments that we get on
this channel now this week you guys had
a lot to say about the French High
Command
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these are just two of the many comments
we got number one fear leave rights at
long last the lunatic imbecile Joffrey
is given the boot well for as much stink
as von hötzendorf and hey get at some of
the worst generals of the war in my book
none of them surpass Joffrey his ideal
that courage and fighting spirit could
overcome anything including being
outnumbered and superior weaponry were
always unrealistic but the fervor with
which Joffrey clung to such ideals even
when it was demonstrated time and time
again they account amounted to nothing
feel to my modern history student brain
like nothing short of either pants on
head stupidity nice term inexcusable
ignorant inconceivable incompetence or
raving and sanity they didn't work by
1916 he surely must have known they
didn't work so why did he continue to
spout such blatant nonsense right to the
end and continue to do so in the
speaking tours he would make to the US
after the French government fired him
yes I understand that much like has been
said of Haig he was dealing with
situations for which there was no
precedent no reference for what else to
do but unlike Haig jofre had been in
this from day one he watched trench
warfare evolved it seems that he did not
evolve with it
he learned nothing from the failures of
these first three years and continued to
try to use the same tactics that had
been shown to be fatally futile over and
over again good riddance to him I say
it's only a tragedy that he wasn't let
go a year ago before things got really
bad for France Wow okay I'll read the
second one too and then maybe I'll say a
little bit about my opinion on the
French High Command I have a cold
Arthur Brogdon writes a couple of
additional points about niveles
Offensive only one managing the sixth
army was in favor of it out of the four
army commanders who would be involved
Patong was actually opposed also the day
before the offensive the weather broke
for the entire first week the attacking
front would be deluged by heavy rain and
sleet this had two effects first to
increase the speed of advance the
assault divisions had been stripped of
the
heavy coats and rain capes and within 48
hours huge numbers became ineffective
shivering masses caught in no man's land
under German fire
additionally the weather prevented
French aerial artillery spotting of
German batteries on the reverse slopes
of the chemin de Dom itself the
commitment of the French tanks was an
utter fiasco they were deployed in two
long columns nose to tail soon a French
infantry officer described them as a
line of torches blazing fitfully in the
twilight well the troops who suffered
the greatest with the three colonial
divisions in the first exelon of margine
6th army unused to the cold and
ill-equipped for it the rain and
freezing sleet during the night rendered
them inert and thousands died of
exposure
I knew that yep we did mention something
like that ok worst of all nibel was so
confident of a rapid breakthrough that
the medical services were not available
to handle the enormous casualty loads
that actually occurred ironically the
small numbers of casualties that
initially came back encouraged Nivelle
to believe he was succeeding the reality
was the wounded were rapidly dying of
exposure before the inadequate number of
medical teams could reach them Nivelle
despite his repeated promises of 48
hours and out would continue the battle
till May 6 by then the mutinies had
already begun and the French army would
enter the darkness for a detailed
account of all of this I highly
recommend breaking point of the French
army David Murphy 2015 available on
Kindle for an extended video the Great
War BBC 1964 episode 15 available on
YouTube that whole series is actually
really good this disaster was so great
and the events that follow the mutiny is
affecting all or parts of 62 French
divisions that the French government
would seal all records of it for a
hundred years yet what is now becoming
available makes clear many unit Diaries
are missing they were almost completely
certainly deliberately destroyed not
just regimental but division and Corps
Diaries aren't in the preserved records
all the papers of niveles chief of staff
Colonel DeLong Kong are missing as well
before the attack the French government
had also begun to express grave
reservations pile of a the Minister of
War met repeatedly with noble and his
subordinate commanders but having
engineered the sacking of Jafra in
December and having promoted Novello
were a number of senior generals in the
end went along based on the 48 hours or
quit novella promised catastrophe was
set in motion that's funny because
somebody also wrote a comment it wasn't
a long thing for out of the ether but
comment how they felt that novella bore
no responsibility for any of the
mutinies and that his name has been
unnecessarily disgraced over the years
by his association with with the events
that happened during and after his
offensive I think that Nivelle could not
have done a better job of disgracing his
own name had he tried remember after you
know the first five days of in offensive
not 48 hours and out with a hundred
thousand casualties
Pinal of a didn't make him stop the
offensive for the time being until until
what was it April 25th and that's when
he was removed from from from power but
he refused to leave he refused to leave
his post even when the Tom was appointed
Neville said no I'm not leaving and he
blamed absolutely everybody except
himself except himself he took no
responsibility for the catastrophe of
the Nivelle offensive even though
everybody had warned him this is not
going to work this it's not going to
work this is not going to work
he even blamed one of his generals who
had been against it to the point of
insubordination and it almost been
punished for insubordination for saying
don't do this don't do this this is a
bad idea and Nivelle tried to blame him
he certainly blame managing machine was
dismissed
yeah as for Jeffrey I I don't feel quite
as strongly as you do about Jeffrey
being view of the worst general of the
war I do feel there were plenty of worse
generals and Joffrey symbolism also did
count for something now I thought we'd
have to go into specific battles and
stuff to really analyze that it don't
have time here I'll tell you what why
don't you guys in the comments address
the Joffrey issue more because Nivelle
we've already got a plenty of comments
about Neville but I haven't heard
anybody write that much of a scathing
indictment of Joffrey ever on this
channel so your opinions on Joffrey will
be very very
very gladly received okay well this was
really fun we enjoy well-written comment
from you guys but remember the more
controversial your hypothesis is the
more sources we will demand for you to
prove it if you want to learn more about
a less controversial French general you
can click here for our episode about
ferdinand porsche do not forget to Like
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see you next time