France- The Rat That Roared

[Mike Irwin]

I'm still looking through my references for an order of battle for the First Battle of the Marne, but I think your characterization of Joffre is absolutely and totally incorrect, Vladimir.

There is no way in hell that any French general would have allowed Paris to be taken, especially not by Germany, without a serious, and protracted fight.

Had Joffre not planned on standing before Paris, he simply would have ordered Gallieni to move his troops out of the city -- Joffre was commander in chief of the French army, Gallieni was subordinate.

As it originally panned out, the French initially were preparing to hold Paris against siege, if necessary, but when the French struck, and stalled the German envelopment advance outside Paris, the defending troops were moved from defense to offense.

At that time only the French government had moved out of Paris, to Bordeaux, in case of a siege or envelopment of the city.

 

[Mike Irwin]

Interesting document I just found on the Web...

Part of Joffre's official report on the development of the First Battle of the Marne

http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1914/joffre.html

 

[moa]

Motorep, those are some good'uns. Hehe.

 

[CatsDieNow]

This was sent to me today:

 

[Vladimir Berkov]

I am going by the information given in "The Guns of August." Joffre was planning a retreat to a defensive line in order to regroup for a counter-attack. It was not his idea, however to defend Paris or to counter-attack at the Marne. Joffre was notoriously indecisive and conservative. He was known for not taking telephone calls because he was afraid his words were being written down for future reference on the other end.

It was not just the French government which fled Paris. Many people just fled, and it was generally expected that that capital would fall without a fight, as had many other French towns.