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Louis Franchet D'esperey

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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"LOUIS FRANCHET D'ESPEREY (1856-), French marshal, was born at Mostaganem, in Algeria, on May 25 1856, and was commissioned from St. Cyr to the infantry in 1876. As a junior officer he saw much service in N. Africa and Tongking. For a time he was aide-de-camp to Freycinet, then Minister of War and premier. He served also in the expedition to N. China in 1900, after which he commanded an infantry regiment at home. He became general of brigade in 1908 and general of division in 1912. For a time he commanded the troops in Morocco, but in 1913 he was appointed to the I. Corps at Lille. He commanded this corps in the V. Army during the battle of the Frontiers, and at Charleroi had the ungrateful task of protecting the right of Lanrezac's army during its deployment on the Sambre; brought up at last on to the battlefield to deliver a decisive counter-stroke, he was at the moment of attack withdrawn again to protect the right rear of the army, the force which had released him having failed to keep the line of the Meuse. In the difficulties of the retreat which followed it was the I. Corps and its commander which formed, according to Lanrezac's own testimony, the soundest element of the V. Arm y, and when that general was relieved of his command on the eve of the battle of the Marne, Franchet d'Esperey was his obvious successor.

Gen. Franchet d'Esperey commanded the V. Army during the battle of the Marne and the advance to the Aisne, and continued in command till the end of March 1916, when he was appointed to the eastern group of armies, in succession to Gen. Dubail. After holding this office for some eight months, he passed to the more active command of the northern group of armies, of which he was in charge throughout the campaign of 1917. In May 1918 he went to Salonika as commander-in-chief of the Allied armies in that theatre. His predecessor, Gen. Guillaumat, had worked out the main features of a general offensive on the Salonika front, and continued, in close codperation with him, to support the claims and needs of such an offensive in the councils of the Allied High Command at Paris. Men and material were sent out in adequate numbers, and though Franchet d'Esperey, even with Guillaumat's assistance, was only able to obtain the decisive authorization to attack a few days before the scheduled date, his energy was equal to the task of hastening on the last stages of preparation and on Sept. 15 an offensive was launched that carried all before it. Bulgaria surrendered, and the pursuit was pushed with hardly a check into and through Old Serbia. After the final victory he remained in charge of the Allied forces in European Turkey and Balkan. occupied territory, with headquarters in Constantinople. He was created a marshal of France early in 1921.