European History Argumentative Essay

"Never before had a commander held greater power than the generalissimo in 1914! And never had a commander responded so weakly to the expectations placed upon him."

Henri MELOT, Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel MELOT,The Truth About the War

"The experience is conclusive. Victory is certain, I assure you of that. Germany will learn it at her expense."

Robert NIVELLE, the new generalissimo. December 15, 1916

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,.. I'ou (lOt used to it, but it still wasn't pretty to see what v,; fit" you'd Il10stlikely look like at the end of the day.

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"Allyour life, you keep ~ourtrap shut. The only time you getto open it IS when you die, LUCien said to me between ~ of bloody drool spewing I!romhis mouth and nostrils. Itwas near the "lost village of Vauquois,' as he lay dying inmy anns. He howled himself hoarse as he searched for his stomach, which was no longer there.

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The ~rmans were pulling back, bur onlg to shorten their line and sm",gthen thefr j>Ositions. Theg d done it before. On their wag ouf", theg leveled every last shed. All theg left behind was boobg-happed roads and poisoned wells. I'ou had to be f'ucking care{'ul where gou walked. And gou wanted to drink nothing bur wine.

So we were ~ace to face with the Bocnes again, onlg a bit f'urther down the road and a short while later. It was like this goddamn war was never going to end.

T1lere was slaughter at sea, too, or so we heard. The losses were recorded in tons. But from one periscope to the next,

... ,,~'" the target was alwags the same. It was alwags the same idea and the same poor bastard that was being obliternted in the nameof the fatherland., And we were all screwed, because every one of us was the child of a fatherland.

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(},Jer in theirm",ches, the Germans were getting wiped out 'forthe fatherland' as well. £><cepttheg were dging with emptg bellies. People were eatrng nothi~ but turnips in Berlin, bur since the Kaiser himself wasn't queuing up for potatoes get, the war went on.

We poured a shot of wine into a gug we'd tried to kill a few minutes earlier and who'd come ewer, wounded, to surrender. It was absurd, but it was in the cOlll/entions. Sapin would've soot him - a German I1I8Chine-gunner who'd taken out Frelon and L9nJanfin.

Sometimes we took no pnsooers. That wasn't bg the book, bur the fact that there were ang rules at all where we'd been put was a load"of crap to begin with. Itwas too late for etiquette.

One evening I saw him again - mg 80che from the little wood. He pulled me out of a hole I was stuck in. So he hadn't died in ~erdun after all. Here he was, along with the rest of us... We couldn'ttalk because we didn't speak the same language. What a shame.

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A ridge lined wiHl arlillery and blockhouses, t1lat was our target. We were supposed to charge up the hill _ strni'lht into enemg machine gunflire, r# course. It was going to be qUick and easg, under the April snow. This was the big victory offensive t1lat the old windb8g Nivelle had been promising for months. We were in Crnonne and gou can't imagine a worse place on earth.

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That was one steep rocking slope! If gou were luckg enough to get overthe b8rbed WIre, gou had to try and climb The grenades we threw were bouncing down onto our skulls, so we turned around (ast, onlg to be sent strni'lht back up.

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We went up again and again, withour ever 17ian<'l9in9to set l'oot on that damned rid9€. The valleg below was a sea ~ blue. Wewadedt1lrough spilled entrails. We'd been put in t1le hands ~ a pf9ile&1ed mcompetent - a bi9wi9 within t1le hierarchg ~ butchet5 .

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Paulet Fran~ois,who'd sun9 t1le Son9 ~ Craonne' alon9 with everybodg else, was ratted out.

WOt5eget, he'd rEf'used to rEtum to,t1le.l'ro!"", because ~ t1le strike. The court used t1le word muting, althou9h no officet5 had been abused bg t1leirmen.

~veryH,in9 Paulet said was used against him. He told t1lemhe couldn't take it ang morE. He told t1lem how discoura9€d and outra9€d he !'elt aftert1le useless and bloodg IIpril ~nsive. But what rEalig hurt hIS case was his ref'<Jsalto sag who had tau9ht hfm t1le words to t1le 5On9.

Whenhe stepped back into t1le classroom, he ~ hi~ ~ate was sealed ~rE he even opened hISmouth. Hf.Sjud9€S rold hfll1: 'YOU'rEnot wort1lg ~ bein9 FrEnch!' ...lIs if f1laf even matterEd!

Hidden in t1leir runnels. t1le Gennans let our assault waves wash overt1lem. waitin9 to ¢ us From behind.

"" We saw buddies rum black on t1le c1ot1leslines. othet5 called out Fer strEtchet5. t1leirmot1let5 ort1le ~rr91OMary. Butgou can berthat ang one ~.'em would have prEl'erred to see t1le 9€neral t1lerE IOStead. It was no wag to be t1llOkI09.Chalk it up to t1le a90ng ~ death _ it drove mencrazg.

TherE werE no miti¢in9 cirrumstances FerPaulet ... 0ftIet5 had been luckier. Havi",!> completed its unworthg task, t1le "tribunal' leFt with a clear conscience. proud to be a part of t1le FrEnch anng.

Theg locked Paulet into a cellar. Two policemen kept watch outside. He'd heard H,at 5Oldiet5 had killed a couple ~ cops aj'tert1leg'd sent a 9U9 to. be court-martialed For swipin9 booze. It warmed hISheart to t1llOkabout it. He rEf'used to see t1le chaplain and leFt t1le 100d t1leg brou9ht untouched. but'since t1leg'd let hinJkeep his tobacco. he rolled a c[~e as he waited Fort1le &g to brEak.

52 1 Anti-milftary sonq. composed in 191~.pOpolar .....ith ft,e froops. (See page 92,) 53

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At dawn, a detachJl1€nt led Pauletto a wall, where a wooden post had been erected.

I Theg stood in I'mnt of the troops four soldier; and a sergeant Flanked the condemned 1lIan. The drllJ7lsbeat a salute. It was all bg the book.

The Firin~ squad was lined up in two rows. It included Four sergeants, Four corporals and Four privates. Their ~uns had been loaded beFore the arrival oF the prisoner - bg the book.

One JI1€mberoF the court-maltial was on hand. There was also the chaplain, as well as a clerk who read Paulets sentence as he was bein~ tied to the post. Theg wanted to blindFold hinl - bg the book. I-Ie refused

fran,ois Paulet had lost interest in the sinister ceremong plagin~ out around him. I-lis thou~ts were wiNli«lse now, and wiNl the babg theg were expectin~. I-Iewas tellin~ himself that it made no sense to produce more cannon FodderForthe bloodthir;tg JI1€nin char~ oF llIis slau~hter.

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Theg'd dressed him up as a killer, and now he himself was bein~ killed For reFusrn~ to plag alon~. I-Iehoped llIe babg would be a girl so she'd be spared all llIis IF it was a bog, let him be stillborn.

The .p.latoon took position 2.0 Feet in Front oF the condemned 1lIan. The sergeant major a5SUJI1€dhis position Four paces to the n~t and two paces in Front oF hinl. I-Ie Iif'ted his sword. The twelve JI1€n took afmat the middle oF the pnsoner's chest - bg the book. Pauletwondered if' it was hue tlIat one oF the nFIes was loaded wiNl a blank round. The sergeant major ~e the Firin~ squad a moJl1€nt to line up their shots "Aimhue or he'll onlg suFFermore: fIR~~-r--i&::~~

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What we should've done is load our rifles and shoot our commander; instead. Now tlIat would've been a.muting worth writin~ hoJl1€about. lma~ine iFllIe Gennans had done llIe saJl1€llIing on tlleir side. Instead, we watched fran,ol5 Paulers e><ecution wiNlout moving a muscle. I wasn't proud oF mgselFat llIat mOJl1€nt

An NCO delil/ered tile coup de grace, placing tile banel oF his revolver above Paulers ear, an inch and a halF From his skull - bg tile book.

We all had to File past Paulers bodg. A Few oF tile men muttere& 'Pied For france. Wewill aven~ gou.· We all sang the Song oF Craonne under oer breatlIs.

General Nil/elle cut a helluva Fine Figure in uni- Fom. 8peciallg when gOO consider all llIe JI1€O who didn't, and who died Forhavrng worn one.

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Once the 'mutinies' ilad been squashed, the armg rations improved (salad, Grugere and chocolate), leave was re-established, the ~nernl was sacked, and we 1inallg captured t1lat 'lOddamn rid~. IHook us seven months. In 1916, t1le Germans would take itback

, injust twentg-four hour5!

The distance 110m Craonne to t1le Chemin des Dames isn't 1ar. But it took us a hell 01 a lon~ time to cover it and we lost a lot 01 buddies alon~ the wag. '

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The Russians stationed in frnnce didn't 1eellike 1i~htin~ ang more The o11icer5 lost control 01 the men, and soon we had to pull them 110m the lmnt and send t1lemto a camp in I..<J Courtine in the Creuse re~ion. Me, a lathe worl<erat l>iscorne, on Rue des Panogau>, I would have ~Iadlg' ~ne all the wag. to Moscow to see what a real revolution looked like. I sure didn't belon~ here, sin~in~ t1le Intemationale with the rest 01 them as we let oUr5elves be led to the slau~hterhouse.

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The war, which had been wa~d under~round at ~auquois, was bein~ 1o"~ht on the hei~hts 01 the Alps.

A vertical bat11e pitted the Italians a~inst the Austrians, who were starvin~ up in the mountains.

The Italians also sent mento the 1irin~ squad "to set an e>ample: I couldn't makeup mg mind which was more appalling: the minin~ war or the mountain war. And between an Italian ~nernl and a french one, 'wouldnrve known which one to shoot11r5t.

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Come September, the Brits were geHin<j slammed at Passchendaele, in 8e1<jian Aanders.

To make up for losses, the anny had dropped the hei<jht requirement for its ruture casuatfies to 51'eet, and special battalions of snort soldiers had been fanned since the start 01 the war. I'd seen some of tnem. 'Bantams' [S wnatthey called them, after a breed 01 small1ishtin<j roosters.

The Bantams, wno tired quickly, weren't cut out to be killers. They were treated as inferiors. Some were e>ecuted. I swear. I couldn't tell who were the bi<j<jer bastards, the British <jel1eralsor the french ones I still naven'tri<jured it out. .

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