The Mobilization of the French Army in 1914
The Armies of the First World War
Mobilization for the active (or standing) army simply means filling their ranks to war strength with the necessary number of reserves and preparing for concentration.
To fill the active regiments of cavalry very few reservists are necessary. Depending on the locality of the regiment, it might require from none to four or five men per platoon. The infantry and artillery mobilize with a larger proportion of reservists, ordinarily about fifty per cent.
Depending upon what use is to be made of them these troops are under different orders for concentration. Some know that they are to leave on the third, fourth, or a certain day of mobilization. Other troops are to get away with great urgency, a certain number of hours after orders for mobilization are received and are followed later by their reservists. These troops have sealed orders given them in time of peace which are to be opened only on receipt of instructions.
To be systematic and avoid confusion in getting away each troop has a table of events drawn up telling all that must be done in preparation for cleaving. These details are arranged in logical sequence dividing the time for preparation into hours, as “first hour,” “second hour,” etc., and stating what is to be done during each of these hours. The order for leaving gives the beginning of the first hour of preparation and to be ready in time each troop has only to follow its schedule.
The minutest details are covered in this plan. Each sergeant in charge of a platoon has a list posted up telling the successive steps he is to take with his platoon, what details he is to furnish, the number of men to run errands, etc., and the time and place they are to report. For example he will have marked to send a man to the orderly room at the third hour to get an order on Captain X for a horse. (Probably a staff officer keeping a troop horse at his house.) This order is already written on a card and filed with similar notes, the troop clerk has only to fill in the date and give it to the man.
In order to be thoroughly ready to leave in the designated time the troops have practice mobilization exercises. Twice during the year I saw the troop to which I was attached go through all the work of packing up, issuing new uniforms, bundling the old ones for turning over to the depot, closing the troop accounts, loading the wagons, saddling up and leaving the barracks. Once they completed the exercise by going to the station and loading horses, wagons and men on the cars.
In leaving for the war they only had to repeat what they had done in practice. No one was excited or rushing about. Every thing was done in its regular order, and the trains left at the hours first announced for their departure.
The general effect of mobilization is to place the entire country under military control. The civil authorities of the towns continue their functions under direction of the military. The railroad, telegraph, post office, and certain other designated employees continue their work under military control. Every other able bodied man within the age limit goes to the army. Under the new law every man physically fit serves three years in the active army and eleven years in its reserve, seven years in the territorial army and seven years in its reserve. This takes them up to the age of forty-eight if they enter at the regular age of twenty. The old law under which these men come takes them up to the age of forty-five.
Every man at the completion of his service in the active army is given what we might call an individual descriptive book in the back of which is pasted a leaf of instructions. This leaf tells him where he shall report in case of mobilization, what day of mobilization he shall be there, as first day, second day, etc., up to the sixteenth or last day of regular mobilization. In case he is to join by railroad, it tells him what route he shall take as the routing of trains is changed at such a time.
The first notification we had of general mobilization was a drum beating at a street corner in our quarter of the town about 4:00 P. M., August 1st, and a gendarme read the order for mobilization to the assembled people, announcing the next day, August 2nd, as the first day of mobilization. In a similar way, or by the ringing of church bells, etc., the news was announced in every little town and spread like wild fire over the land. The civil functionaries of every little precinct filled in the date on the mobilization orders that they had been holding, perhaps for years, and sent men out through the country to post them up and inform the inhabitants.
Officers of the army belonging to a department called “Train Service” took charge of the railroad stations and with the assistance of the regular civil officials directed the train service. The all important duty of the railroads for the first few days was to transport men to their places of mobilization and troops to their centers of concentration. Schedules with this end in view are prepared in time of peace and kept under seal at each railroad station only to be opened on receipt of orders for mobilization. Train service for the first few days was almost exclusively for soldiers; since that time it has gradually been becoming more nearly normal.
During the first days of mobilization hundreds of men departed from this town and hundreds arrived. There was the greatest system and order at the railroad station. The hordes of men arriving were formed into groups according to regiments, etc., before they left the station. It took an amazingly short time to rush these groups to their respective headquarters, then to the large storehouses where they were uniformed, armed and equipped. There seems to be an exhaustless supply of clothing, arms and equipments. No attempt is made to turn out smart looking soldiers but their clothing is comfortable and substantial and their arms are good.
The necessary horses, wagons and automobiles for the army are gotten by requisition. Every year a board of officers is convened in each little precinct to class and register the horses and rolling stock that might be needed in case of war. All proprietors are required to present their property to this board. The owner of a horse is told for example that he will in case of mobilization present him at that place, at such a time on, the third day, the horse is listed on the register as suitable for cavalry, artillery or draft as the case may be. In this way before mobilization is ordered the military authorities have a very good general idea as to what are the resources of each region.
The recent order for mobilization directed that all horses, etc., accepted at the last session of the commission be presented at the time directed by them, and that all horses, etc., not accepted by the commission or acquired since its last session be presented at the public square at 9:00 A. M., on the third day. On presenting their horses, wagons, or automobiles the owners were given by the commission an order for their estimated price of same. These orders were cashed on presentation to the pay department of the government in town.
The maximum price allowed for a horse was about three hundred and twenty dollars. Very few brought this price. On the other hand numbers were taken that cost their owners many times this amount. Race horses, hunters, and all other kinds must be presented. Automobiles brought proportionate prices, a limousine went like a delivery truck for the price of its running gear and engine without much consideration for the superstructure.
These prices however do not work the hardship on poor owners that might be imagined. The owners themselves are probably going to the war and it gives them ready cash to leave with their families and, in the case of horses, saves the expense of feeding them during the war when they would be little used. There are still enough stallions, old horses and ponies to do the necessary work.
During the days of mobilization the town was filled with soldiers and the benefits of martial law were in many ways apparent. The French soldiers are not addicted to drinking whiskey but there were a few cases of taking too much absinthe, accordingly its sale to soldiers was forbidden under penalty of having the offending cafe closed. This order I believe has become effective throughout France. All cafés were ordered closed at 8 P. M. These orders have been very effectively carried out. Consequently at about 9:00 P. M., the town is quiet, the soldiers asleep and ready to get up at five the next morning.
Other benefits of the martial law to every one were realized when gendarmes were stationed in the town market to prevent produce dealers from raising their prices on account of war conditions. These gendarmes also had instructions to prevent more than an ordinary amount of produce from being sold to any one person. Consequently during the days when the town was temporarily deprived of outside sources of supply every one had what he needed at the regular prices.
A most impressive effect of the military control is the self censorship they impose on the newspapers with reference to what they publish concerning movements, operations, etc., of troops. The government issues a bulletin each day stating the official news that the papers may publish. This news is posted a little later on bulletin boards in the towns.
Any paper publishing news of movements of troops, etc., not given in this official report and which might be of information to the enemy does so at the peril of being suspended from publication. I notice that a paper in one of the provinces was suspended by the military authorities of that region for having published news of movements of troops in that vicinity. The government has arranged to publish a daily statement of operations which is to be presented free of charge in newspaper form to the soldiers at the front who have no means of knowing what is going on in other theaters of operations.
The secrecy as to the positions of troops is so well guarded that letters addressed to soldiers are ordered addressed to their original place of mobilization where they are taken up by the military who handle their mails. Soldiers writing letters are not to give their locality. No postage stamps are put on letters to or from soldiers. No post marks are put on letters from soldiers.
The people would naturally like to know just where their soldiers are and what they are doing, but realizing the danger of these matters becoming generally known they loyally forego the satisfaction of knowing.
The French have never had a mobilization under the present system and were not certain themselves as to how it would operate. The unanimous opinion seems to be that its every detail has worked out as had been previously planned. Judging by what could be seen here this opinion must be correct.
It is true that the eastern frontier of France is only about five hundred miles from the furtherest point of the country west, north or south and that absolute control of the railroads in such a time is a tremendous factor for success. Nevertheless it is an awe inspiring lesson to be here and see the calmness and quickness with which they can form an army, ready to march out, of men who less than two weeks before were following their various pursuits with no thought of war.
This piece is a verbatim copy of an article written by Lieutenant Carl Boyd, an officer of the US Cavalry who was serving an exchange tour with a French cavalry regiment at the outbreak of the First World War. It was originally published in the Journal of the United States Cavalry Association, Volume 25, Number 104 (October 1914).