You're made commander of the French Army in 1914.
What would you change? What would you do differently when the July Crisis arises and the Great War subsequently breaks out?
>>425374
>What would you change?
I'd not have gotten involved in the war.
Of course that is an ez pz answer. I'd invest much more heavily in howitzers. Not just Mademoiselle Soixante-Quinze.
I'd also make this book mandatory reading.
http://www.amazon.com/Steel-Wind-Colonel-Bruchmuller-Artillery/dp/0275947505
(Or at least attempt to teach the lessons from it)
>What would you do differently when the July Crisis arises and the Great War subsequently breaks out?
I would revise plan 17. We need more defensive fires. Mo trenches, mo machine guns, mo artillery. By not losing the main coal and iron producing regions of France early in the war, I'd make France's war effort go much smoother.
This will be an industrial war, not a quick war. Coming to the battle with that attitude will do more to help than anything.
Use our elan for spirited counter-offensives to retake critical terrain if captured by the enemy.
Appoint Marshal Fayolle as my chief of staff.
Pic related will be our savior
>>425374
>What would you change?
Absolutely nothing, because every general would have a crying fit the moment I tried to do anything. Assuming they don't have their head stuck up their ass, I would start designing tanks, gas masks, and giving proper fucking uniforms to the troops instead of bright blue shit.
>>425734
>i'd create new technologies faster than they appeared in reality !!!11
Video games: the post
>>425374
The french army was full of block-headed generals. I don't see how one general could have changed anything.
Hell, it was the same thing in 1940 : You had de Gaulle crying everywhere that France needed tanks and new global war strategies, and no one listened to him.
>>425374
I change the uniforms so all the cute boys wear skirts like your picture OP
>>426159
>what would you, a person with prior knowledge of the war, do differently were you placed in a leading position
>surprised when the answer is "get the important tech ready first"
>>425734
>tanks
Tanks had a negligible effect for much of the war because they were generally unreliable until near the end.
>gas masks
you should probably convince them to produce gas shells first. And maybe some large-caliber artillery to launch it with instead of the 75.
>>426232
>you should probably convince them to produce gas shells first. And maybe some large-caliber artillery to launch it with instead of the 75.
This shit right here
Well seeing as the French and the allies had won the war an argument could be made for not changing much. Ultimately these people weren't stupid, on the whole they knew what they were doing.
You can't mobilize sooner because the government will shut you down. You can't really meet the enemy closer or sooner because of the same reasons.
Maybe get those dudes who have developed infiltration type tactics in 1915 and explain to them the hypothetical situation that would have arisen in the real timeline and led to this development, so your boys figure it out like six months earlier. But even then that's not a big change.
Perhaps the most realistic while at the same time most useful change would be, with the knowledge of the German attack, anticipate the developments of the frontline so the miracle on the Marne is less of a miracle and more of a planned thing, and so that the race to the sea ends up with you in ever so slightly better positions... but off the cuff I don't know just how feasible that would be.
>people going on about uniforms
These were in the process of being replaced already.
>people going on about getting mo money for mo big guns
This ^^^
>>425374
Continue the mass production of medium sized surrender flags
>>426811
>French
>1914
>surrender
haha you jester
>>425374
>Reinforce Belgian border obviously
>coordinate with England to ensure quicker dominance of the North and Baltic seas
>Establish a beach head around Kolburg and Danzig in november to support the Russian at Łódź
Is there even much I can do? It's not like I directly control the production of new equipment. I would focus more on defence, but I'd end up just being fired for not being aggressive enough anyway.
>>425374
>>425374
Man portable radios are the only right answer.
The main problem with WW1 combat was that no one could accurately communicate anything to their commanders. Even when said commanders started getting their shit together around 1915 they wouldn't be able to exploit any victory because they wouldn't know about it until it was too late.
Messenger pidgeons be damned.
>>426865
is that something that is feasible? i cannot find a decent history of (portable) radios but what few things i found point to them being interwar kind of thing?
>>425374
Completely defensive trench lines until I can mobilize national industry and field a proto ww2 army.
>>426890
they were a WWI thing they were just too expensive and fragile for common useage. Mind you that even one with a 100-200 yd range would have been a vast improvement over pidgeons, runners, or bikers.
>>426902
They launched attacks because they recognized that being on constant defensive was destroying morale faster than casualties were
>>426865
>>426890
>>426924
This is what I generally think of when I think of WW1.
There were a lot of incidents where units achieved breakthroughs in the Western Front, but the communication wasn't there to take advantage of them until it was too late.
If I were France, I'd make some sort of DARPA equivalent and tell them to get me some damn radios, stat.
I want company commanders calling in fighter pilots to strafe a machinegun nest, while the fighter pilot calls in artillery strikes and an armored commander adjusts the fire for accuracy.
Combined arms, and as much communication as possible.
>>426940
I don't think you had flight capable radios yet that had enough range to let them communicate with bases on the ground yet.
>>425693
>I'd not have gotten involved in the war.
Fucking retard
Germany attacked France, there was no choice to get involved or not
Fucking German apologists with their revisionism...
>>425374
Invade Belgium before Germany
>>426956
That's why I'd want a DARPA imitator.
I want better radio technology, and I want it yesterday.
It would make offensive warfare infinitely more effective.
>>425374
Just let the Germans fuck my shit up because France is the root of all evil.
>>425693
>I'd not have gotten involved in the war.
That's what they literally wanted to do (not get involved). Too bad it was kinda taken out of their hands...
>>425374
Once I got the commander shit, i'd make myself a refugee and sent myself either in the Antarctic or at the deepest jungle in South America.
>>425693
>I'd not have gotten involved in the war.
So you'd have just ignored the German troops invading France?
>>425693
>I'd not have gotten involved in the war.
For fuck's sakes, Germany asked France to hand over Toul and Verdun just to prove that they were neutral. Unless you're ready to hand over two of France's most important fortress cities you're going to war whether or not you like it.
>>425374
Push for tanks as hard as fucking possible.
>>425374
tell the french that marching in plain view with bright clothing is a bad idea
tell them that mass charges in front of maxim guns is a bad idea
just those two things would preserve massive amounts of French manpower that was just thrown away in the first months of the war and would have put a dent in German morale simply by holding on and not dying by the tens of thousands by the outset
>>427586
Enjoy your shitty St. Chamonds.
>>425374
Lose to the Germans.
>>425374
[x] Capitulate
>>427600
>tell the french that marching in plain view with bright clothing is a bad idea
Yeah but it's stylish as fuck. Is that who you want to be anon? The man who killed style?
>>425374
Start issuing heavy artillery and machine guns to my front-line divisions as soon as possible.
Give my infantrymen/engineers enough shovels and construction materials that my defensive positions aren't flooded, unsanitary hellholes.
Get somebody to kill John French so the Brits have someone competent in charge of the BEF.
>>427034
>>427494
>>427500
Two fortress towns of limited strategic value or buy more time to rearm and properly equip my army? Jeez, I wonder what is a better option.
They would have maintained control of the all important iron and coal fields allowing them to produce arms and equipment.
>"The resulting German-occupied territory held 64% of France's pig-iron production, 24% of its steel manufacturing and 40% of the total coal mining capacity"
The French army's reform plans to better train its reservists and get more NCOs would have had time to go through. France may have even had time to introduce weapons like this (assuming that I'm in control as the scenario says or the French government is competent)
>In 1913, a semi-automatic rifle was selected to be adopted as a replacement for the Lebels and Berthiers in the army's inventory.
A semi-automatic rifle with time to put into production and refine plus a better NCO corps.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusil_Automatique_Mod%C3%A8le_1917
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQan6gn37A4 [Embed]
That sounds like a worthwhile trade to me. Thats just the French government's plans. Imagine if they also used that time to build up more heavy howitzers without war attriting their total down. Britain has time to properly arm as well.
Would Russia and Serbia be sacrificed? Yes.
Is it a worthwhile trade? In my opinion also yes.
Its much better basically losing those zones proposed to be lost anyway.
Plus you get to keep the initial million men in casualties during the first battles of WW1. The British Expeditionary Force can be used as a cadre for the proper British Army to be built up.
>>428917
>Two fortress towns of limited strategic value
Yeah it's not like it guards a strategically vital river in Northern France or anything.
>By not losing the main coal and iron producing regions of France early in the war, I'd make France's war effort go much smoother.
You do know that Verdun is behind all those important industrial areas, right? By giving up the Meuse you've already lost those vital industrial areas, especially given your strategy seems to be completely defensive in nature.
>>428917
>Two fortress towns of limited strategic value or buy more time to rearm and properly equip my army? Jeez, I wonder what is a better option.
The Third Republic, being a democracy and all in a nation very, very mad about the last war, might not see things the same way. Enjoy your court martial.
>>428917
your post is so big and long and even has a fancy map yet you have failed to look at where exactly the industrially important region of longwy-briey is especially with regard to its position to the fortresses you would be giving up
fortresses you would be giving up to an enemy who could then in the case of a war bear his entire might upon you without russia to help alleviate your front, and also occupy the exact same areas he had in the real timeline, except much easier now
but hey you would have better small arms in a war where artillery was by far the most potent killing fighting branch so its a worthwhile trade
>>429000
>but hey you would have better small arms in a war where artillery was by far the most potent killing fighting branch so its a worthwhile trade
To be fair he does mention heavy artillery in >>425693, though he is still retarded in thinking that he could give up Verdun without giving up all the land to the north and east of the Meuse.
>>428537
>Give my infantrymen/engineers enough shovels and construction materials that my defensive positions aren't flooded, unsanitary hellholes.
The poor saps on the front line will always be in flooded, unsanitary hellholes. The whole point of the front lines in a trench are to be completely indefensible from your side, so even if your forces get forced back to the rear trenches you can immediately launch a counterattack to push them out again.
>>426223
>gas masks are important, although gas shells don't exist yet
>>428312
why
>>429550
Frenchies deserve no better, not to mention Austria-Hungary might've survived.
>>428350
French always have the best uniforms.
