Maurice Sarrail
Maurice Sarrail | |
---|---|
High Commissioner of the Levant | |
In office 1924–1925 | |
Preceded by | Maxime Weygand |
Succeeded by | Henry de Jouvenel |
Personal details | |
Born | Maurice Paul Emmanuel Sarrail 6 April 1856 Third Army |
Battles/wars | World War I Great Syrian Revolt |
Maurice Paul Emmanuel Sarrail (6 April 1856 – 23 March 1929) was a French general of the
At the start of the war, Sarrail commanded VI Corps then Third Army in the Ardennes and around Verdun, where his army played an important role in the final stages of the First Battle of the Marne and where he took the credit for holding Verdun (later the site of an important battle in 1916). He was dismissed for poor leadership, amidst political uproar, in July 1915.
The Salonika campaign – chosen out of several strategic options presented by Sarrail – was intended originally to support Serbia, with Bulgaria entering the war on the side of the Central Powers, and later (as the
He later played a role in the French suppression of the Great Syrian Revolt in the mid-1920s.
Biography
Early career
Sarrail was born at
In 1902 he was promoted lieutenant-colonel. From 1904 to 1906 he was Military Commandant of the
Unlike many French officers, Sarrail was a freemason and a Dreyfusard.[6] After a left-wing government came to power in 1914, he was due to be appointed Commander-in-Chief designate in Joffre's place in the autumn, but war broke out before this could take place.[7]
First World War: western front 1914–15
Battle of the Ardennes
At Virton in the Ardennes in August 1914 he commanded VI Corps, part of
On 30 August Sarrail was promoted to succeed Ruffey in command of Third Army.[10] In early September IV Corps was removed from his command and sent to
Fighting around Verdun
In early September Sarrail, along with
The Revigny Gap had opened up between the right of
Sarrail attacked on the morning of 6 September, his right pivoting on Verdun whilst the main body of his force, 20 km to the southwest, attacked in a roughly north-westerly direction. Joffre, the French commander-in-chief, had expected Sarrail to take the German Fifth Army on its eastern flank as it advanced south from the Argonne into the Revigny Gap, but instead Crown Prince Wilhelm was advancing south-east towards Bar-le-Duc, so his army and Sarrail's clashed head on. Sarrail's forces were again mauled by von Pritzelwitz's VI Corps, which had beaten the French colonials so badly at Rossigny, earning Sarrail (6 September) a blistering written rebuke from Joffre. Joffre criticised Sarrail's men for abandoning equipment and officers for poor leadership and demanded that he "re-establish order, taking whatever measures necessary".[14]
Beginning on 8 September, the Germans were also attacking around Troyon (south-east of Verdun), threatening the heights of the Meuse in Sarrail's rear. Combined with the chance of breakthrough in the Revigny Gap, there was a chance that Verdun and Third Army would be encircled altogether, allowing the Germans then to attack
The German Fifth Army made a final major attack on 10 September, running into heavy fire from the soixante-quinzes ("black butchers" as the Germans called them) of Micheler's V Corps and Verraux's VI corps. Moltke, increasingly concerned at the failure of the German attacks at Nancy, initially rescinded his permission for the final night attack until Wilhelm threatened to appeal to his father again. In the first ten days of September the German Fifth Army suffered 15,000 casualties, with some units suffering up to 40% officer casualties. At 9am on 10 September Lt-Col Hentsch, returning from ordering von Kluck and von Bülow to fall back from the Marne at the west of the German line, ordered Fifth Army to retreat also, an order which Wilhelm and his chief of staff Schmidt von Knobelsdorff refused to obey unless received in writing from the Kaiser or from Moltke. That day Sarrail was able to signal Joffre "situation satisfactory", whilst at 2pm Joffre was able to inform Millerand (War Minister) that the Battle of the Marne was now an "incontestable victory".[17]
Despite the German retreat, neither Third nor Fourth Army made much progress. Joffre rebuked Sarrail over the telephone on 13 September 1914, demanding a formal inquiry of how Sarrail had "not been informed" of the enemy retreat 48 hours previously, a demand which Sarrail sidestepped by having his staff telephone a routine progress report to Joffre.[18] To the south-east of Verdun the Germans took Fort Troyon on 13 September and Fort Camp des Romains on 26 September, creating the Saint-Mihiel Salient.[19] The salient cut off one of the railway lines supplying Verdun, which would force the defenders to rely heavily on road transport in the 1916 battle.[20]
Winter 1914–15
The railway into Verdun from Paris and Chalons, which passed through Aubreville, 20 km west of Verdun, was under shelling from the German occupied Heights of Aubreville, 7 km to the north. After attacks by French artillery, directed by aircraft, had failed to do the trick, Sarrail spent much of the winter of 1914–15 attempting to drive the Germans from the Heights. Third Army suffered 10,000 casualties alone in November.[21]
On 7 November Sarrail reported that in the previous month alone sixteen men of Third Army had been sentenced to death for self-inflicted wounds or for deserting their posts.[22]
Argonne and dismissal: 1915
Early in 1915 Sarrail's political allies touted him as a replacement for Joffre as commander-in-chief.[6]
The Germans attacked in the Argonne on 20 and 30 June and 12 and 13 July 1915. Joffre complained that Third Army had performed poorly and had "yielded the initiative to the adversary". Joffre transferred Third Army from
Joffre replaced Sarrail with Humbert on 22 July 1915, an act which created the war's first direct clash between politicians and soldiers in France. The resulting uproar on the political left nearly swept away the
Salonika
1915
Strategic options
On 31 August 1915
Allies occupy Salonika
The pro-German
By December Sarrail's force had grown to 150,000 men.[24] On 9 and 11 December Kitchener, Grey (British Foreign Secretary), Briand (French Prime Minister), Gallieni (French War Minister) and Joffre (French Commander-in-Chief, and who had just been given authority over Salonika also) met in Paris and agreed to hold Salonika. Joffre had humoured an impractical Russian proposal that Budapest be taken by converging Italian and Russian thrusts from the Isonzo Front and Galicia, along with a thrust of ten corps up from Salonika. Joffre also argued that 150,000 troops would be enough to hold the bridgehead, but sent Castelnau on a fact-finding mission. Castelnau reported to Joffre, Briand, Gallieni and Poincare on Christmas Day, criticising Sarrail for the same issues which had led to his relief from Third Army, and for his "grave mistakes" in remaining at Salonika and only visiting the front at Krivolak once. Joffre rejected Sarrail's plea for two more divisions, but after lobbying by Sarrail Gallieni directed him to send another division.[33]
1916
Spring
The Serb Army was evacuated from Albania in December and January by French and Italian transports, escorted by British and French warships. Some were evacuated to Bizerte, but most to Corfu which was occupied on 11 January, to the fury of the Greek government, by a battalion of chasseurs alpins. The Serbs on Corfu were then organised into six divisions of 20,000 men apiece under French General Piarron de Mondesir.[31]
In January 1916 Sarrail was granted command of all
On 10 March Joffre wrote to Sarrail that his presence at Salonika was intended as a bluff to tie down Central Powers forces, whilst at the same time aiming to draw Greece and Romania to the Allied side, but at the same time he was to make "real preparations" for a major offensive. At the Allied conference on 12 March Russia and Serbia pushed for a major offensive from Salonika, but this did not meet with Anglo-French approval. Joffre gave Sarrail permission (20 April) for a "demonstration", but five days later wrote to Robertson proposing a major offensive. This did not meet with British approval.[37]
On 13 April 1916, whilst in Salonika, the British 85th Brigade performed a ceremonial parade when General Sarrail was invested with the Grand Cross of St Michael and St George. The location of this ceremony is not given.[38]
Summer
Early in 1916 Sarrail ordered his forces up 70 km from Salonika to form a larger perimeter from the Vardar to the Gulf of Strymon. In May 1916 he extended his line west to Florina. The refitted Serb divisions were transported into Salonika, escorted by a French naval squadron which had based itself at Argostoli, again to the fury of the Greek government. 122,000 Serbs arrived in May. In May Greek forces surrendered the fortress of Rupel on the Struma without a fight, and in early June Sarrail used alleged collaboration between the commandant of a Greek frontier fortress and the Bulgars as an excuse to proclaim a state of siege in Salonika and Allied jurisdiction over the area occupied by his troops. The French took control of rail, postal and telegraph services, whilst Sarrail sent a naval squadron to threaten Athens. French Prime Minister Aristide Briand supported this, but British suspicions were further raised, particularly by local French entrepreneurial activity and the opening of French schools. Under Allied political pressure King Constantine dismissed Prime Minister Skouloudis on 22 June, but refused to disarm the Greek troops at Salonika. By mid-July the Serb divisions had moved into position on the left of Sarrail's front, with the British, whose government were still lukewarm, on the right. On 23 July Sarrail was placed in command of all Allied forces at Salonika, although they retained right of appeal to their governments. A brigade of Russians arrived in late July. By early August there were 382,728 Allied soldiers at Salonika, and an Italian division arrived in the second week of August, bringing the total up to 400,000 men. Given the effects of malaria and the need to detach troops to build and guard transport links, he lacked reserves. His British forces lacked artillery, although he was given 40 French aircraft and some French passenger liners to use as hospital ships.[39][40][41]
Joffre and Robertson were urging attacks, whilst at the same time wanting to keep the focus on the Western Front. In June and July Joffre (who was keen to keep Sarrail out of France) once again carried out a charade of seeking British approval for a major offensive at Salonika, with the British suspecting that he was merely going through the motions. The Italians were a source of friction, whilst the Greek government attempted to obstruct supply and Greek Army reservists committed sabotage.[36][37] As part of Romanian entry to the war, Sarrail was at last ordered to commit to a major offensive. Lloyd George, who had just become British War Secretary in June, agreed to commit the British troops at Salonika to such an offensive.[42]
The British General Milne (letter to Robertson 20 July) thought Sarrail "A strong man with big ideas and outlook with great brain power but of a conceited, excitable, impetuous and unscrupulous nature … Possibly a good strategist but not a great tactician … His mental calibre far and away above his Staff".[43] On 1 August Sarrail set up a "Commercial Bureau for French Importations" with links to French Chambers of Commerce at Grenoble, Marseilles, Lyon and Dijon, and on 3 August Sarrail wrote to Briand "We ought to prepare for after the war by immediately imposing our products and trademarks on places regained by our armies". Sarrail was suspicious of the Italians under General Pettiti, believing (wrongly) that Italy also had colonial designs on the region.[44]
An Allied offensive was planned for 1 August, but on 25 July Romania requested a delay. Eventually on 17 August it was agreed that Sarrail should attack on 20 August, and the Romanians on 28 August. Victor Cordonnier, chosen by Sarrail from Joffre's shortlist of three, arrived at Salonika on 11 August to command the French contingent.[31][40][45] But the Bulgars struck first on 17 August, reinforced by two German divisions brought from the Vosges to the River Vardar.[46] With Bulgarian morale crumbling, further German battalions were brought from Champagne, Poland and the Vosges, as well as some heavy guns from Verdun. The Bulgars began a major offensive against Sarrail's right and left – initially successful on the latter. Sarrail's forces held off the offensive with difficulty by 28 August and Sarrail recast his plans to avoid attacking the Germans on the Vardar.[47][48][49]
Autumn
On 27 August 1916 Colonel Zymbrakakis, a local hero of the Balkan Wars, established a "Committee of Public Safety" in Salonika with Sarrail's open support, and pledged to establish a "National Army" which would fight the Bulgars harder than the Royalist officers who had surrendered their positions in May. Some Royalist Greek forces defected, whilst others were coerced by Venizelist Greeks into changing sides.[49][50] In September, an Allied naval force arrived off Piraeus, but King Constantine rejected its most important terms. On 10 September an Allied counteroffensive began. On 12 September Serb troops, supported by French artillery, attacked Mount Kajmakcalan, capturing and holding it over a fortnight of fighting. Two French divisions and a Russian brigade attacked towards Kenail and the British up from the Struma Valley, at each point meeting trenches dug under German supervision. By 17 September Zouaves and the French Foreign Legion occupied Florina.[34][49][51]
With French help, Venizelos escaped from Athens on 27 September. After gathering support in Crete he reached Salonika on 9 October, where Sarrail greeted him at the quayside. Venizelos established a
On 1 December 3,000 French soldiers and British marines were landed in Athens, seeking to recover ten batteries of mountain artillery, but they were withdrawn under cover of naval gunfire after they had suffered 212 casualties, including 54 deaths, at the hands of Greek troops and hostile crowds. King Constantine remained in power to continue his policy of attacks on the Allied lines of communications.
The fall of Bucharest (6 December) not only ruled out a Russo-Romanian attack on Bulgaria, but also made possible a Central Powers attack on Salonika. One of Joffre's last official duties (11 December) was to order Sarrail to cease his offensive and establish a strong defensive position, from which further offensives might be launched in the future. General Roques, Minister of War, had been on a fact-finding mission to Salonika after Britain, Italy and Russia had pushed for Sarrail's dismissal. To Prime Minister Briand's and Joffre's surprise, Rocques returned recommending that Sarrail's forces be built up to thirty divisions ready for an attack on Bulgaria. He did not specifically praise Sarrail, but recommended that Sarrail no longer report to Joffre. Coming on the back of the disappointing results of the Somme campaign and the fall of Romania, Rocques' report further discredited Briand and Joffre and added to the Parliamentary Deputies' demands for a closed session. On 27 November the Council of Ministers met to debate rescinding the decree of 2 December 1915 which had placed Sarrail under Joffre, thus beginning the political manoeuvres which led to Joffre's resignation.[58]
The failure of the Allied offensive on the Macedonian front was bitterly resented by the Romanian troops, who ironically chanted: "O Sarrail, Sarrail, Sarrail,/ Noi ne batem și tu stai!" (Oh Sarrail, Sarrail, Sarrail,/ We're fighting and you stand still!). Nevertheless, Romania also partially contributed to the failure by not dispatching 150,000 troops towards Bulgaria, in conjunction with Sarrail's offensive, as agreed upon in a military convention on 23 July in Chantilly.[59]
The British still hoped for a reconciliation between the Greek factions and hoped that a monarchist Greece would be less under French influence than a republic. However, on 21 December London and Paris recognised the Provisional Government in Salonika.
1917
On 3 January 1917 Sarrail and Milne arrived at the Rome Conference, independently of one another. Hankey thought Sarrail "a man of quite exceptional charm". Lloyd George, now British Prime Minister and keen to avoid a repetition of the Battle of the Somme, thought him "a remarkable, fascinating character, handsome, impulsive, full of fire", although fearful about the effect on US opinion he rejected Sarrail's suggestion that he be given a fortnight to crush the royalists in Athens. Sarrail was confirmed as "Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Army of the Orient" with the national contingent commanders having right of appeal to their own governments.[60]
By January 1917 Sarrail's force at Salonika included British divisions, eight French divisions (including fifteen Senegalese battalions, some of which were used in front line combat), six Serbian divisions, two Russian brigades and an Italian division.
Sarrail launched a general offensive between 22 April and 23 May 1917, to coincide with
Morale suffered badly and friction broke out amidst the different Allied nationalities, with troops having had no home leave in a year, or nearly two in the case of men who had been at the Dardanelles. Unlike the
Sarrail launched another offensive, this time into Albania, between 27 August and 25 October. In September 1917 he ordered a small force to take Pogradec, and recognised the former Turkish general Essad Bey Pasha, seen as little more than a bandit, as "President of the Provisional Albanian Government". He had thus infuriated Italy (who saw Albania as her sphere of influence, and lobbied Paris to have the incursion stopped), Serbia, whose Prime Minister Pasic came to Sarrail's headquarters to complain, and Greece, whose Prime Minister Venizelos complained to the Supreme War Council about Sarrail. In September Regnault replaced Grossetti in command of the French troops under Sarrail, and was then in turn succeeded by Henrys.[65][66]
Dismissal
With France narrowly surviving political and military crisis in 1917, Sarrail's association with the socialist politicians Caillaux and Malvy, now suspected of treasonable contacts with the Germans, sealed his fate.[67]
On becoming
A press release on 11 December announced that Sarrail "has had to contend with great difficulties and has rendered great services".[67] There were no political consequences from his dismissal, and he took no further part in the war.[3]
He participated in the political cabal against General Joffre which led to his fall in December 1917. A controversial general officer of limited competence, he moved to the reserve on 6 April 1918 for the remainder of the war.
Later career
Sarrail went into retirement at his country home at Montauban to write his memoirs.[67] This account of the Salonika operations was published soon after the end of World War I under the title Mon Commandement en Orient.[5]
When his
He was fired because of his violent way of redressing the situation during the Druze revolt. He is responsible for the deaths of 10,000 Syrians, mostly civilians, and 2,500 to 6,000 French soldiers.
He became a Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour in November 1914 and was awarded a Grand Cross of the same Order in January 1916. He was given the Médaille militaire in September 1917.[5] Serbia awarded him Order of Karađorđe's Star with swords and Order of the White Eagle.[72]
He died on 23 March 1929 in Paris, a few days after Marshal Foch.[1][70] Two mountain peaks in the Canadian Rockies were named in their honor, Mount Sarrail and Mount Foch stand side by side.
References
- ^ a b "Gen. Sarrail Dies. Held Verdun Forts". The New York Times. 24 March 1929. Archived from the original on 23 January 2023. Retrieved 11 January 2014.
Former High Commissioner in Syria Did Not Know His Chief, Foch, Died Before Him. Storm Centre in Politics. His Radical Beliefs and Actions Against the Druse Brought Censure From Chamber. One of War's Great Leaders. A Political Storm Centre. Relieved of Command at Front. France today lost another of her great military geniuses by the death of General Maurice Sarrail, whose name stands forever famous for his determined and perhaps decisive defense of Verdun at the outbreak of the war in 1914. ...
- ^ Haythornthwaite, pg. 345
- ^ a b "First World War.com - Who's Who - Maurice Sarrail". www.firstworldwar.com. Archived from the original on 27 January 2023. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
- ^ Clayton 2003, pp 186–7
- ^ a b c d One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1922). "Sarrail, Maurice Paul Emmanuel". Encyclopædia Britannica (12th ed.). London & New York: The Encyclopædia Britannica Company.
- ^ a b c d e f Palmer 1998, pp 38–40
- ^ Prete 2009, p 31
- ^ Herwig 2009, p 148
- ^ Tuchman 1962, p 376
- ^ Herwig 2009, p 195
- ^ Herwig 2009, p 227
- ^ Herwig 2009, p 287
- ^ Herwig 2009, pp 295–6
- ^ Herwig 2009, p 296
- ^ Doughty 2005, p 95
- ^ Herwig 2009, p 297
- ^ Herwig 2009, pp 297–8
- ^ Herwig 2009, p 305
- ^ Clayton 2003, p 58
- ^ Sumner 2012, p 34
- ^ Doughty 2005, pp 113–4
- ^ Sumner 2012, p 38
- ^ a b Doughty 2005, pp 187–8
- ^ a b c Clayton 2003, p 187
- ^ a b Doughty 2005, pp 211–4
- ^ Kitchener had vetoed a proposal by Curzon to this end as recently as 17 June, on the grounds that it would require "at least five divisions"
- ^ Palmer 1998, p 41
- ^ Doughty 2005, pp 218–20
- ^ Salonika harbour was still controlled by a company registered in Paris while the region had been under Turkish rule prior to the Balkan Wars. (Palmer 1998, p 29)
- ^ Kitchener, losing influence in the British Cabinet, had been sent on a tour of inspection of the Mediterranean, in the hope that he could be persuaded to remain there as Commander-in-Chief
- ^ a b c Clayton 2003, pp 187–9
- ^ Doughty 2005, pp 222–8
- ^ Doughty 2005, pp 236–8
- ^ a b c Palmer, Alan (24 February 2014). Victory 1918 (Kindle Locations 1394–1395). Endeavour Press. Kindle Edition
- ^ Doughty 2005, pp 240–1
- ^ a b c Clayton 2003, p 189
- ^ a b Doughty 2005, pp 241–3
- ^ War Diary of 3rd Royal Fusiliers - The National Archives WO 95/4921
- ^ Clayton 2003, pp 187–90
- ^ a b Doughty 2005, pp 241–3, 246–9
- ^ Palmer 1998, pp 63–4, 72
- ^ Palmer 1998, p 63
- ^ Palmer 1998, p 66
- ^ Palmer 1998, p 64
- ^ Palmer 1998, p 63, 72
- ^ The Central Powers on the Macedonian Front had now been brought under the command of the German von Below (mirroring the formation of the Central Powers Supreme War Command – OKL – under Hindenburg).
- ^ Palmer 1998, pp 66, 69, 72
- ^ a b Doughty 2005, pp 246–9
- ^ a b c d e f g h Clayton 2003, p 190
- ^ Palmer 1998, p 70–72
- ^ Palmer 1998, pp 7, 72
- ^ a b Palmer 1998, pp 70–71
- ^ Clayton 2003, p89
- ^ Palmer 1998, p 67
- ^ a b c d Palmer 1998, p 72
- ISBN 978-960-213-371-2, archivedfrom the original on 29 April 2023, retrieved 16 January 2011,
On 10 December 1916, Colonel Henry Decoin, the commander of French garrison, proclaimed with the consent of Serrail – the "Albanian Republic of Korytsa"
- ISBN 978-99927-31-37-6, archivedfrom the original on 29 April 2023, retrieved 4 October 2016,
Shpallje e prefektit të policisë, Themistokli Gërmenjit
- ^ Doughty 2005, pp 318–20
- ISBN 9781107511583, archivedfrom the original on 29 April 2023, retrieved 3 October 2020
- ^ Palmer 1998, pp 76–80
- ^ Allied leaders were by then preoccupied with the fallout from the Calais Conference at which Lloyd George had attempted to place the British forces under the command of the French General Nivelle and the growing problem of the U-boats, whose sinking of Allied shipping reached a peak in the spring of 1917
- ^ Palmer 1998, p 78
- ^ Palmer 1998, p 86
- ^ Palmer 1998, p 88
- ^ a b c Clayton 2003, p 191
- ^ Palmer 1998, pp 157–8
- ^ a b c Palmer 1998, p 157
- ^ Doughty 2005, p 403
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-957048-5. Archivedfrom the original on 4 April 2023. Retrieved 19 March 2023.
- ^ a b Palmer 1998, p313
- ISBN 0-292-70680-4.
- ^ Acović, Dragomir (2012). Slava i čast: Odlikovanja među Srbima, Srbi među odlikovanjima. Belgrade: Službeni Glasnik. p. 641.
Further reading
- Cassar, George H. (2011). Lloyd George at War, 1916–18. Anthem Press, London. ISBN 978-0-857-28392-4.
- Clayton, Anthony (2003). Paths of Glory. Cassell, London. ISBN 0-304-35949-1.
- DiNardo, Richard L. (2015). Invasion: The Conquest of Serbia, 1915. Santa Barbara: Praeger. ISBN 9781440800924.
- Doughty, Robert A. (2005). Pyrrhic Victory. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-02726-8.
- Greenhalgh, Elizabeth (2005). Victory Through Coalition. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-09629-4.
- ISBN 1-85409-102-6
- Herwig, Holger (2009). The Marne. Random House. ISBN 978-0-8129-7829-2.
- Palmer, Alan (1998). Victory 1918. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-84124-6.
- Prete, Roy (2009). Strategy And Command, 1914. McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 978-0-7735-3522-0.
- Sumner, Ian (2012). They Shall Not Pass: The French Army on the Western Front 1914–1918. Pen & Sword. ISBN 978-1-848-84209-0.
- Tuchman, Barbara (1962). August 1914. Constable & Co. ISBN 978-0-333-30516-4.