7/31/2023 0 Comments Theofil levinski caropines![]() ![]() On March 16, 1915, the tribunal was convened under the auspices of the 60th Infantry Division. Such courts martial were abolished on April 24, 1916. Sentences were carried out very quickly, usually the day after the judgement. The code also established war-time tribunals that employed a panel of three judges who would decide the case. discipline being the main strength of armies, it is important for every superior to receive subordinates' entire obedience and submission at all times. la discipline faisant la force principale des armées, il importe que tout supérieur obtienne de ses subordonnés une obéissance entière et une soumission de tous les instants. The trial was based on the interpretation of the French Army's Code of Military Regulations, which was implemented on September 6, 1914: On March 15, Réveilhac announced that all 24 men would be court-martialed as an example to the others. Its company commander, Captain Equilbey, was ordered to produce a list of names that included six corporals and 18 enlisted men chosen from the two youngest members in every squad. With the failure of the assault he had ordered, Réveilhac demanded that action be taken against the soldiers of the 21st company. The divisions's commanding artillery officer, Colonel Raoul Berube, refused to obey without a written order, but Réveilhac did not issue one. On hearing that the troops were refusing to attack, General Réveilhac ordered his divisional artillery to bombard their positions to force them out of their trenches. The remaining soldiers of 21st Company, who were both exhausted after days of front line duty (in 1915, French Army troop rotation was much slower than later in the war) and demoralized by failure, refused to leave their trenches. When the first wave of troops started " going over the top," most became casualties of the undamaged enemy machine guns. That also ploughed up the ground over which the assault troops were ordered to cross. However, on the morning of the planned assault, a preceding artillery barrage dropped shells on the French trenches instead of the German lines. General Géraud Réveilhac making a medal presentation in 1915. Several unsuccessful attacks had already left this part of No Man's Land strewn with French dead. ![]() A bayonet assault would begin at 5 am on March 10 against a stretch of enemy trenches that was heavily defended by machine guns and barbed wire. ![]() After two recent unsuccessful attacks, the 21st Company of the 336th Infantry Regiment (part of the 60th Infantry Division) was ordered by Général de division Géraud Réveilhac to retake positions captured by the Germans north of the village of Souain in the Marne. In March 1915, units of the French Army holding a section of the Western Front through Champagne had seen no tangible results despite two months of fighting. The events inspired the 1935 anti-war novel Paths of Glory by Humphrey Cobb, later adapted for film by Stanley Kubrick. The executions, which occurred in the vicinity of Souain on 17 March 1915, are considered to be the most egregious and most publicized military injustice during World War I in France. The Souain corporals affair ( French: Affaire des caporaux de Souain) was an incident where four corporals in the French Army were shot by firing squad as an example to the rest of their companies during the First World War. ![]() The memorial to the four executed corporals at Sartilly, in Normandy ![]()
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