GENERAL GAMELIN

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 September 1939, Page 10

GENERAL GAMELIN

CAREER} OF FRENCH LEADER. i A sturdy, chubby little boy, with a drum hanging over his dark pleated dress, and the drum-sticks in his firm ijittle fists ... so a photograph taken by his mother shows the 20-months old Maurice Gamelin, in whose cradle fate seems to have laid a marshal’s baton. I Maurice Gamelin-was born in Paris on. September 20, 1872, the son of an officer and descendant of a family which had already given France many excellent soldiers. Notwithstanding his early dreams of drawing, painting find water-colours—he wanted to- be a painter—his birth and destiny impelled him towards a soldier’s career, and finally made him the foremost soldier of the Republic. . Maurice' Gamelin first attended the Stanislaus College in Paris and then the world-famous military school at .St. Cyr. At the age of 21 he came out top of the school and was drafted to Africa, as a sub-lieutenant in the Algiers Rifles. When 24 he was made a lieutenant, trusted with geographical surveys in Algiers and Tunis. Three years later he was taken in charge by the military academy and had as teacher for tactics and history a. lieutenant-colonel—by the name of Foch. He finished this course of instruction two years later with the official mention “very good.” As a captain he was sent to join the staff of the Fifteenth Army Corps; in 1904 he commanded a company of infantry chasseurs, and in 1906 became orderly officer to General Joffre, who at .this time was commanding the Sixth. Infantry Division in Paris.

And so there came into Gamelin’s life the personality who was to decide his future military career, and, bound by the. ties of mutual respect, and sincere friendship, ■ from whom he was never more to break, away. General Joffre put Gamelin at the head of his Cabinet. Then, when he himself was appointed head of the staff, he admitted' him to the Supreme Council, of War. In accordance, with the regulations, Gamelin at times took over the command of ■ a battalion of chasseurs Alpins but joined Joffre again on the expiration of the two prescribed years. Then the Great War broke out. It would be necessary to write the whole history of the Great War if one wished to show Maurice Gamelin’s part in every important decision of those days. Gamelin had long ago foreseen the invasion of Belgium by German ■troops, and as. an experienced strategist had calculated the difficulties "of defending it.

PREPARED VITAL PLAN. And when in the last days of August, 1914, the French armies of the north were in full retreat and I the van of the first German army was already at the gates of Paris, Gamelin drew up the. plan by which, .the advance of the German troops and the retreat of the French were to be brought to a halt, and at the same time the offensive prepared, which, on the morning of September 6, opened the memorable battle of the Marne, whoso result, even then decided the end of the war. Three months later, in December, 1914, Gamelin became LieutenantColonel, and chief of the bureau of operations. tn It.tlti, as Colonel, lie commanded the 3rd and then the 2nd brigade of infantry chaseurs in Alsace: in December, 1.916—at the age of 44—he was made Brigadier-General and was soon after appointed again by Joffie as head of his staff. Pu r tiie collaboration did not last much longer. Joffre gave up the open battlefield as commander of chief

of the Army, and General. Gamelin went out again into the 9th Division. In whatever posts he was placed Gamelin revealed his especial virtues in the carrying out of command —his adaptability, strength,, good will and humanity, coupled with his keen vision and spirit of iron determination. Alter the war General Gamelin did not remain idle for long. He led the French military mission -which was invited to Brazil. It was a delicate task and one which demanded careful handling. German influence was strong in the country, but Gamelin’s tact, his supple judgment and integrity helped him to surmount the difficulties of his task. “Sometimes,” he would say,, “one must not command at all, one must convince.” In September, 1925, he went to Syria to put down the bloody Druse rising. Open revolt had already broken out in the month of July. The Shiek Seitan el Atrache, with his Arabs, had fallen on a column of French soldiers who had. gone out to, look for some lost airmen, and had then occupied Sueidra and besieged Damascus. His warlike bands, which had been joined by Fellahs and Bedouins, were laying waste the countryside.

The French colonial troops in Syria had dwindled to a mere handful in the constant fights, but after a year of struggle Gamelin succeeded in quelling the rebels and in re-establishing peace in Syria. In 1927 General Gamelin returned to France as Commander of the troops of the Levant. Two years later he took over the command Of the 20th Army Corps; in 1930 became first Deputy Chief of Staff; and in February, 1931, Chief of Staff. In 1935, as the successor of General Weygand, he became Vice-President of the Supreme Council of War. ' On January 23, 1938, three laws were published, providing for a closer union of the different factors which make for the defence of the French Empire. The Ministry of the Marine and the Air Ministry .were placed under the Ministry for National Defence, whilst, at the same time the

supreme command of the army, navy and air force was united, in the hands of the chief of the military staff. With this step General Gamelin, who has thus been elected supreme chief of the united French and British troops in the case of war, has reached the highest military rank in FranceOnly on two previous occasions—under Louvois and Napoleon—has the command of the French army and navy been united in one person. i Dressed as an ordinary citizen, it | is General Gamelin’ delight to j wander through the quiet, street's and alleys of Paris. Now and then he will stop before .the windows of an antiquarian’s shop, faithful to his love of old pictures and old books. His brilliant military career, with its re- . peated successes has not changed his fundamental character and tastes.