Louis

Franchet d'Esperey

Franchet d'Esperey - photo Henri Manuel.jpg

Born 25 May 1856

Mostaganem, French Algeria

Died 8 July 1942 (aged 86)

Saint-Amancet, Vichy France

Allegiance France

Service/branch French Army

Years of service 1876–1920

Rank Marshal of France

Commands held 5th Army

Allied Army of the Orient

Battles/wars Boxer Rebellion

World War I

Awards Marshal of France

Field Marshal of Yugoslavia (Honorary)

Grand Cross of the Légion d’honneur

Louis Félix Marie François Franchet d'Espèrey (French: [lwi feliks maʁi fʁɑ̃swa
fʁɑ̃ʃɛ dɛpɛʁɛ]; Serbo-Croatian: [frǎnʃe deperê(ː)]; 25 May 1856 – 8 July 1942)
was a French general during World War I. As commander of the large Allied
army based at Salonika, he conducted the successful Macedonian campaign,
which caused the collapse of the Southern Front and contributed to the armistice.


Contents

1 Early years

2 First World War

2.1 1914

2.1.1 Corps commander

2.1.2 Army commander

2.2 1916-1917

2.3 1918 victory in Salonika

3 Later life

4 Assessment

5 Decorations

6 See also

7 References

8 External links

Early years

Franchet d'Espèrey was born in Mostaganem in French Algeria, the son of a

cavalry officer in the Chasseurs d'Afrique. He was educated at Saint-Cyr and
graduated in 1876. After being assigned to a regiment of Algerian Tirailleurs
(native infantry), d'Espèrey served in French Indochina, in China (in the Boxer
Rebellion in 1900, during which his cousin the German plenipotentiary Clemens
von Ketteler was killed); and subsequently in Morocco. Franchet d'Espèrey then
commanded various infantry regiments in France. He received command of I
Corps in 1913.

First World War

1914

Corps commander

In 1914, Franchet d'Espèrey did well as a corps commander at the Battle of

Charleroi. On 23 August, the third day of the battle, with the German Second
Army pressing the French centre, Franchet d’Esperey saw an opportunity for his
I Corps to counterattack from the French right. Despite repeated pleas from
10am onward, Lanrezac refused him permission to do so.[1] On 23 August Fifth
Army was attacked again, this time also on the flanks, by Bulow’s German
Second Army to the north and Hausen’s German Third Army against Franchet to
the right.[2]

At the Battle of Guise (29 August), the day was won by a successful attack by
his I Corps in the north: leading his men on horseback, he is said to have called
out "how do you like this advance, Mr Staff College Professor?" to Colonel
Philippe Pétain, who was commanding an infantry brigade.[3] At that battle, he
was ordered to rally III Corps on his left and X Corps on his right.[4]

Army commander

On the eve of the First Battle of the Marne, Franchet d'Espèrey was given
command of the Fifth Army. When asked by Joffre whether he was willing to
accept the command he replied equivocally "the same as another". He added that
the higher a man is promoted the more staff he gets. Despite being a naturally
kind man, he affected a tyrannical demeanour to galvanise his officers. Edward
Spears, then a lieutenant liaising between the BEF and the Fifth Army, wrote
than he physically resembled a howitzer shell and of the "galvanic effect" that he
had on his staff on taking command. He ordered that any man not doing his duty
was to be shot, including staff officers. When General de Mas Latrie protested at
an order, Franchet d'Esperey took the telephone from the staff officer Hely
d'Oissel and told Latrie marchez ou crevez (march or die) before putting the
phone down on him. He would break up roadblocks by firing his revolver out of
the window of his car. President Raymond Poincaré noted that Franchet
d'Esperey was "a stranger to depression".[5][6][7]

His predecessor, Charles Lanrezac, had had poor relations with the BEF
commander, Sir John French, so Franchet d'Espèrey immediately sent the British
commander a telegram signed "Franchet d’Esperey KCVO" promising
cooperation.[7] On 4 September Joffre asked Franchet d'Espérey and Ferdinand
Foch, who was commanding the newly formed Ninth Army, if they would be
willing to give battle in a day or two. Franchet d'Espérey met with Henry
Hughes Wilson (BEF Sub Chief of Staff) and George Macdonogh (Head of BEF
Intelligence) at Bray (simultaneous with Joseph Gallieni and Michel Maunoury's
meeting with the BEF Chief of Staff Archibald Murray). Franchet d'Espérey's
plan reached Joffre at 6.30pm as he was eating his dinner with two Japanese
officers.[8]

He impressed Joffre by presenting a plan for a concerted attack by the Allied

armies on 6 September if Maunoury's Sixth Army reached a certain position on
the Ourcq at a certain time ("if not the British will not march"). If not, he would
retreat a little further, south of the Grand Morin with the Sixth and the BEF l,
striking Alexander von Kluck's 1st Army in flank. That was to become the basis
for Instruction Générale No 6, the Allied plan of attack at the Marne.[9][10]

When asked by Franchet d'Espérey be ready to attack on 6 September, General

Hache of III Corps "looked as if he had been hit on the head with a club". De
Mas Latrie was sacked and replaced by Maud'huy, from Noël Édouard, vicomte
de Curières de Castelnau's Second Army. Fifth Army had seen replacement of
three out of five corps commanders and seven out of thirteen division
commanders, and a similar proportion of brigade commanders.[11]

1916-1917

By March 1916, Franchet d'Espérey was in command of the Eastern Army

Group and by January 1917 the Northern Army Group. He was badly defeated
by the Germans at the Battle of Chemin des Dames in May 1918.

1918 victory in Salonika

Removed from the Western Front, he was appointed commander of the Allied
Army of the Orient at Salonika.[12]

Further information: Macedonian front (World War I)

Between 15 and 29 September 1918, Franchet d'Espèrey, in command of a large

army of Greeks (9 divisions), French (6 divisions), Serbs (6 divisions), British (4
divisions) and Italians (1 division), staged a successful offensive in Macedonia
that ended by taking Bulgaria out of the war.[13] General Franchet d'Espèrey
followed up the victory by overrunning much of the Balkans and by the war's
end, his troops had penetrated well into Hungary. That collapse of the Southern
Front was one of several developments that effectively triggered the November
1918 Armistice.[14]

Later life

Although it is often stated in history books that on 8 February 1919, Franchet

d'Espèrey entered Constantinople on a white horse, emulating Mehmed II's
entrance in 1453 after the Fall of Constantinople and thus signifying that
Ottoman sovereignty over the imperial city was over, this has recently been
shown to be a myth.[15][16]

After World War I ended, Franchet d'Espèrey directed operations against the
Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919. He was made a marshal of France on 19
February 1921 and was given the honorary title of Voivoda (equivalent of Field-
Marshal) by the Yugoslavian monarchy on 29 January 1921.

In 1924 Franchet d'Espèrey was appointed inspector-general of France's North

African troops, who had made up a substantial portion of the French forces
serving under him on the Macedonian Front. He subsequently became interested
in the strategic potential of the "grand axis" north-south route across the Sahara.

He joined a trans-Saharan expedition led by Gaston Gradis that left Colomb-

Béchar on 15 November 1924 in three six-wheel Renaults. Other members were
the journalist Henri de Kérillis, commandant Ihler, the brothers Georges Estienne
and René Estienne, three Renault mechanics and three legionnaires.[17] The
expedition reached Savé in Dahomey on 3 December 1924 after a journey of
3,600 kilometres (2,200 mi).[18] The expedition leaders took the train south, and
reached Porto-Novo on the Atlantic on 14 December 1924.[19]

Franchet d'Espèrey represented France at the coronation of Haile Selassie of

Ethiopia in Addis Ababa on 1 November 1930. He was elected to the Académie
française on 15 November 1934.

He died in Albi on 8 July 1942 and is interred at Les Invalides.

Assessment

He had drive and great energy and his victories against Bulgaria and the
remnants of the German and Austro-Hungarian Armies were independent of the
situation on the Western Front, demonstrated by the fact that they came before
the main assault on the Hindenburg Line and against a still-capable army that
offered strong resistance to the British and the Greeks in the Battle of Doiran.


As a consequence of his generalship, Bulgaria signed armistice on 29 September,

thus becoming the first Central Power to sign an armistice. In terms of
personality, he was vain and pompous, if able. In terms of politics, he was a
nationalist ultra-royalist whose loyalty to France outweighed his loyalty to the
Bourbons.

British troops, unable to pronounce his name properly, nicknamed him

"Desperate Frankie."

Several French cities and towns have boulevards and roads named after him such
as in Dijon, Reims, Saint-Étienne, Versailles and Lorient. The Belgian city of
Dinant has an Avenue Franchet d'Esperey. A boulevard Belgrade, Serbia, is
named after him. In Greece, Salonika has a street named after him.

Decorations

Légion d’honneur

Knight (21 August 1886)

Officer (29 December 1904)

Commander (31 December 1912)

Grand Officer (30 December 1914)

Grand Cross (10 July 1917)

Médaille militaire (1918)

Croix de guerre 1914–1918 with 3 palms

Médaille Interalliée de la Victoire

Médaille commémorative du Maroc

Médaille Commémorative de la Grande Guerre

Colonial Medal with bars "Tonkin" and "Maroc"