Henri Berthelot | |
|---|---|
 Berthelot in 1920 | |
| Born | 7 December 1861 (1861-12-07) |
| Died | 29 January 1931(1931-01-29) (aged 69) |
| Allegiance |  France Romania |
| Years of service | 1883–1926 |
| Rank | _OF-8_(unofficial).svg) Général de Division holding higher command |
| Commands | French Military Mission in Romania Fifth Army (France) |
| Battles / wars | |
| Awards | SeeAwards and honors |
Henri Mathias Berthelot (7 December 1861 – 29 January 1931) was a French general duringWorld War I. He held an important staff position underJoseph Joffre, the French commander-in-chief, at theFirst Battle of the Marne, before later commanding a corps in the front line. In 1917 hehelped to rebuild the Romanian Army following itsdisastrous defeat the previous autumn, then in summer 1918 he commandedFrench Fifth Army at theSecond Battle of the Marne, with some British and Italian troops under his command. In the final days of the war he again returned to Romania, helping fight the Hungarians during theHungarian–Romanian War and then briefly commanded French intervention forces in southern Russia in theRussian Civil War, fighting the Bolsheviks inBessarabia (1918).
Appointed a member of theConseil supérieur de la guerre, he was among the supporters of the decision to build theMaginot Line.
In 1883, after graduating from theSaint-Cyr military academy, Berthelot saw service inAlgeria,Tonkin andAnnam.[1]
In 1907, he was assigned to the FrenchGeneral Staff. During this period Berthelot worked together with GeneralJoseph Joffre on the French war plan calledPlan XVII.
At the outbreak of war in 1914 he was Joffre’s First Sub Chief of Staff (underMajor-General (a French term - not a rank but equivalent to the English language title "chief of staff") Emile Belin). Berthelot was in charge of the Second (Intelligence) and Third (Operations) Bureaux; First Bureau (Personnel & Transport of Materiel) and theDirection de l’Arriere (lines of communication) reported to the Second Sub Chief of Staff (General Deprez, replaced in mid-August by ColonelMaurice Pellé, former military attache in Berlin).[2]
The British Commander-in-ChiefSir John French visited GQG on 16 August as British troops were marching towards Belgium, and was impressed by Berthelot’s calm and confidence.[3] Tuchman wrote that Berthelot was “quick and clever, (and) like his British opposite numberGeneral Wilson, was an inveterate optimist. He weighed over 230 pounds”. Berthelot discarded his uniform jacket to work in shirt and slippers in the August heat.[4] Like Joffre, Berthelot underestimated German strength. He thought that a German thrust into Belgium would play into French hands by weakening their centre in the Ardennes, where Joffre planned to attack, and even then thought reports of German strength in Belgium greatly exaggerated (20 August).[5]
Berthelot noted British keenness to retreat in his diary (26 and 28 August 1914, after theBattle of Le Cateau), at the very moment the British were bemoaning the French lack of support.[6] Although Berthelot advised waiting a little longer before launching the counterattack which became theFirst Battle of the Marne,Joseph Gallieni (Military governor of Paris) forced the issue on 4 September by orderingSixth Army to move into position that day, so that evening orders were sent out for an attack on 6 September.[7] Berthelot complained that British aircraft had been better than French aircraft and cavalry at delivering intelligence.[8]
Like many Allied leaders, Berthelot believed after the victory at the Marne that the war was as good as won. He told Wilson (13 September) that the Allies would be in Elsenborn on the German-Belgian frontier in three weeks (Wilson thought four).[9]
In November 1914, Berthelot was given the command of the reserve forces atSoissons, then later the command of the 53rd Division.
Early in 1915 Berthelot was serving inMaunoury’s Sixth Army, which was holding the front from Soissons to north of Compiegne, withSecond Army on its left andSarrail’sFifth on right. All these armies fired diversionary barrages to distract German attention prior to the offensives in the Argonne, Lorraine and the Vosges. Sixth Army also launched a diversionary offensive north of Soissons and the Aisne, solid defensive ground where the Germans had halted their retreat in September 1914. A French attack under Berthelot captured Hill 132 west of Crouy after a battle between 8 and 11 January 1915, but by 14 January German counterattacks had regained all the lost ground and pushed the French further back from where they had started. 5,200 French prisoners were lost in exchange for 5,529 German casualties; the French had 12,411 killed, wounded and missing, 40% of the effectives which had been committed. This German success so close to Paris prompted the first stirrings of political criticism of the Generals’ conduct of the war. War MinisterMillerand rebuked Joffre, who rebuked Maunoury, who in turn passed the blame on to Berthelot who was relieved of command along with two division commanders. There was an angry debate in the French Parliament, just reconvened (12 January) after its return from Bordeaux.[10]
Berthelot later commanded XXXII Corps at theBattle of Verdun but his corps was pulled out of the line for rest in mid June 1916. He was to be redeployed to theBattle of the Somme, but was instead called to GQG on 20 September for his mission to Romania.[11]
Romania entered the war on the side of the Allies in August 1916. Joffre’s first choice to head the French military mission wasGeneral de Langle de Cary, but the suggestion was rejected by the French Minister there,Charles de Saint-Aulaire. Instead, Berthelot was appointed, arriving atIași on 15 October and formally taking up his position the next day.Central Powers forces underGeneral von Falkenhayn had alreadybroken through the Transylvanian passes on 11 November, and swiftly conqueredWallachia andDobruja.[11]
Just as France had reconstituted the Serbian Army (now based atSalonika) after her conquest in the winter of 1915-16, between January and June 1917 Berthelot supervised the reorganisation and retraining of the Romanian Army. Themilitary mission was built up to almost 400 officers and 1,000 men. 7475mm guns were sent (with another 102 "under consideration") and 120 old 120L heavy guns, but Britain was asked to supply howitzers.[11] On the way home from his visit toPetrograd in early 1917, shortly before theFall of the Tsar,General de Castelnau stopped off for talks with Berthelot, and was told that the Romanian army could not be ready before 15 May.[12] In August 1917Foch sent GeneralAlbert Niessel (a Russian speaker and formerly commander of IX Corps), on a mission to Russia (by then a republic under theProvisional Government) in the hope of repeating Berthelot’s success there.[13]
By summer 1917 Romania had reconstituted ten fully equipped divisions and had five more needing only artillery. Berthelot lobbied successfully for more munitions and 100 medics to defeat the spread oftyphus.[14] The results of the reorganisation and resupply of the Romanian troops were seen in August 1917, whenAlexandru Averescu's army broke the front atMărăști. The Central Powers' major counter-offensive underMackensen, aiming to occupy the rest of Romania (Moldavia) and the port ofOdessa, was stopped atMărășești andOituz.US Army Chief of StaffGeneral Hugh Scott praised Berthelot as “a brilliant general”[14]
However, when theBolsheviks took Russia out of the war, Romania, left surrounded by the Central Powers, had little choice but to sign anarmistice on 9 December 1917, followed by apeace treaty on 7 May 1918. The French military mission had to leave the country. At Berthelot's suggestion, Britain and France issued a statement that Romania had fought hard and had been overcome by circumstances beyond her control and that the imposed peace treaty would be disregarded by the Allies.[15]
In June 1918 Berthelot was sent on a mission to the USA, then on 5 July he was appointed commander of theFifth Army. He replaced Buat, who had briefly succeededMicheler but who had to replaceAnthoine (thought “too pessimistic” after the near catastrophe of theThird Battle of the Aisne) as Chief of the General Staff at GQG).[16]
On 16 JulyPetain (French Commander-in-Chief) reinforced Berthelot's army with two more divisions.[17] Fifth Army attacked on 18 July on the right flank of the Marne salient, between Dormans and Prunay.[16]
On 20 July Berthelot renewed the offensive quicker than had been planned by putting theBritish XXII Corps straight into the line, throughAlbricci's tired Italian II Corps, rather than effecting a standard relief. The British were ordered to attack up the Ardre Valley in the direction of Fismes where the Ardre runs into the Vesle.Godley, the British commander, was angry at being “hustled in, in a great hurry”, without artillery, but later conceded that Berthelot's decision had been correct “in the circumstances” and had been “justified by the event”.[18] Berthelot praised the bravery of the British XXII Corps (as didFayolle, commander of Army Group North); privately he thought less well of the British, writing “a certain number of hours’ work, then a rest, and, if it gets too hot, you move further back!”[19]
Berthelot was recalled to Paris afterLouis Franchet d'Espèrey’s victory on theSalonika front at the end of September 1918, which put Bulgaria out of the war. The order reached him on 1 October 1918 to take command of a new Army of the Danube, drawing supply from Salonika but (to Franchet d'Esperey's irritation) reporting directly to Paris, to advance through Bulgaria and draw Romania back into the war. Berthelot hoped to achieve spectacular success against Austria-Hungary but she dropped out of the war just before this could happen. However, he persuaded Romania to rejoin the Entente just in time (10 November, a day before its end in Western Europe).[15]
He advanced on Bucharest and entered Giurgiu, where streets were named after him and the two French soldiers who died crossing the Danube, on 15 November. He helped fight the Hungarians during theHungarian–Romanian War and the Russian Bolsheviks inBessarabia (1918).[15]
On 11 November 1919, during the victory parade of the Allied forces inParis, General Berthelot told General Foch at the sight of the Romanian detachment:
Foch, saluez! C'est la famille. ("Foch, salute! It's [our] family.")
After the armistice Berthelot was sent with a French division to southern Russia. The French presence was withdrawn fromOdessa in the spring of 1919. Berthelot's return to France was enlivened by a revolt on board several ships.[20]
From 1919 to 1922, Berthelot served as military governor ofMetz, and from 1923 to 1926, as military governor ofStrasbourg.
From 1920 to 1926, Berthelot was a member of theConseil Général de Guerre (Supreme War Council), and was involved in the decision to build theMaginot Line.
He died in 1931 and was buried inNervieux (Department ofLoire).
Grand cross of the Légion d'honneur
Officier d'Académie
Commander of the Order of Agricultural Merit_Chevalier_ribbon.svg)
Knight of the Order of the Dragon of Annam
Médaille militaire
Croix de guerre 1914-1918 with tree palms
1914–1918 Inter-Allied Victory medal
1914–1918 Commemorative war medal
Tonkin Expedition commemorative medalKingdom of Romania:
Order of Michael the Brave, 1st class
Grand Cross of the Order of the Star of Romania
Officer of the Order of the Crown of Romania
Grand Cross of the Order of Ferdinand I
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Grateful for the French army's contribution to the liberation of Romania, and in particular, Berthelot's role during theWorld War I Romanian campaign, theRomanian Parliament awarded him honorary citizenship of Romania and KingFerdinand rewarded the general with lands located in the Transylvanian village of Fărcădin, confiscated from theNopcsa family. The property included a manor house, some arable land, an orchard and a forest.
In 1923, the local council decided to rename Fărcădin to "General Berthelot". In 1926, Berthelot was elected an honorary member of theRomanian Academy. In his will he left all his properties in Fărcădin to the Romanian Academy.
During thecommunist dictatorship, the castle was sacked and eventually turned into asilo. In 1965 the village's name was changed to "Unirea" (Union). In 2001, afterCeaușescu's downfall, a local referendum approved the renaming of the village and the commune back to "General Berthelot". Several schools, streets and boulevards bear his name in Romania.
On 17 June 2024, theFrench Army camp located inCincu hosting the deployment onMission Aigle received the name "Camp Général Berthelot" in honor of General Berthelot. Initially the camp was named "Cherry Hill".[21]
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