How French soldiers became Cossacks.

The uniforms of the infantry regiments of the Great Army were distinguished by their amazing diversity. Even among purely French units, one could sometimes find the most bizarre combination of the type of shako and the color of the cuffs, not to mention the peculiarities of the uniform of the armies of France's allies. Nevertheless, it is possible to highlight the general, most characteristic features and features of the infantry uniform of the French army. These are the ones we will look at in this article.

Soldier and officer of the line infantry 1808-1810. On the fusilier's shako we see a red etiquette. In 1812, this element of the uniform was officially abolished, but in practice continued to be found in many companies and battalions of the line infantry.

Line infantry uniform
Uniform- This is the main element of the uniform of any army. In the French army, the uniform was predominantly blue. The cut and shape of the French infantry uniform varied greatly both by branch of service and by the time of tailoring. Until the beginning of 1812, the uniforms of the French line infantry had long tails and a slit on the chest. A uniform of this type was very common in Europe and was called “French”. But since 1812, a shortened uniform without a cut on the chest was introduced. The coattails have become very short - only 32 cm, and the decorations on them are strictly regulated. On the tails of the Fusilier's uniform was embroidered the blue letter "N" topped with a crown. The coattails of the grenadiers were decorated with red grenades, and the voltigeurs were decorated with yellow hunting horns. The lapels of the line infantry were white. The lapels of the line infantry uniform were uncut and also white. The uniforms of corporals and non-commissioned officers differed from the uniforms of privates only in yellow stripes on the sleeves.

Since 1806, line infantry soldiers were required to wear shako as a headdress. But since the headdress could only be changed when the old one was completely worn out, many soldiers continued to wear old-style hats. By the start of the 1812 campaign, all line infantry regiments wore shakos. Exceptions were some grenadier regiments, which continued to wear bear fur hats.

Light infantry 1808-1810 (Officer, huntsman and voltigeur). Voltigeurs wore a red and yellow plume on their shako and epaulets of the same color.

On the shakos of the line infantry there was an insignia - badge. It could be diamond-shaped or eagle-shaped. The badge was one of the elements of regimental distinction. As a decorative element on the shako there was an etiquette - a knot with a pigtail. By the beginning of the War of 1812, etiquettes were formally abolished in the line infantry, but many regiments retained them. The serial number of the company of any line infantry battalion was determined by the color of the pompom on the shako. The first company of the battalion had a green pom-pom, the second had a blue one, the third had an orange-yellow one, and the fourth had a purple one. On the pompom was a number indicating the number of the battalion in the regiment.

On their legs, the soldiers wore long white trousers tucked into short leggings.

The equipment of the line and light infantry did not differ from each other, and consisted of a backpack, a cartridge pouch, a cleaver worn on a belt, and a bayonet with a scabbard.

Private, sergeant and officer of the foot grenadiers. 1805-1806 Line infantry grenadiers retained their traditional headdress - fur hats.

Light Infantry Uniform
The uniform of the light infantry regiments differed from the uniform of the line infantry regiments. The main feature of all French light infantry uniforms was peaked lapels.

The uniforms of the light infantry soldiers were entirely blue, with scarlet collars and cuff flaps. The edgings are white, as are the buttons. The vest is blue, as are the pants. Unlike line infantry regiments, shakos appeared in light infantry back in the Directory era. The shako of the Carabinieri companies was decorated with a red plume and etiquette. In addition, the carabinieri wore red epaulettes. And also red in the carabinieri companies were grenades on the lapels of the coattails, a lanyard of a cleaver or half-saber and trim on the gaiters. In the Jaeger companies, all of the above elements were green. For voltigeurs these elements were yellow, yellow-red or yellow-green. The equipment and weapons of the light infantry were the same as those of the heavy infantry.

A sultan was placed on the shakos of light infantry soldiers. For the huntsmen it was completely green, while for the voltigeurs it was green below and yellow at the top. The uniform of the huntsman and voltigeur also differed in the shape of the badge on the shako. The huntsman's badge was diamond-shaped, and the vaulter's badge was in the form of an eagle. The trousers and gaiters of the light infantry soldiers did not differ from the uniform of the line infantry soldiers.

Line infantry 1808-1813 The fusilier pictured on the right is uniformed in strict accordance with the regulations. A shako without an etiquette, with a blue pompom, a badge on the shako in the shape of an eagle, white lapels and lapels.

Uniforms of line and light infantry officers of the French army

The uniforms of officers were even more varied than those of enlisted men. In general, officers wore uniforms similar in cut and color to those of privates, but made from higher quality cloth. The main difference of the rank were the epaulettes. The buttons of the officer's uniform were gold or silver, and the decorations on the lapels were embroidered with gold thread. Edged weapons were decorated with a gold lanyard. Instead of gaiters, officers wore short boots. Light and line infantry officers differed only in their epaulettes. In the line infantry they were gold, and in the light infantry they were silver.

In general, fashion had a very important influence on the uniforms of the armies of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. That is why individual elements of uniforms could change almost every year. In the period from 1789 to 1814, France waged constant wars, in which compliance with regulations and instructions was completely impossible. Therefore, among the infantry units that took part in the campaign against Russia in 1812, it is impossible to identify general regulations regarding uniforms.

Chronicle of the day: The battle at Solovyevo continues

First Western Army
On the night of August 21, the French sent mounted skirmishers to the right bank of the Dnieper, to the village of Pnevo, where part of the Russian Cossack rearguard troops were located. A skirmish ensued, during which the French tried to force the Cossacks to retreat beyond the Dnieper, but the actions of Russian artillery stopped the enemy’s advance. The battle lasted about two hours, the rearguard held its positions.

Meanwhile, the fighting near the village of Solovevo, which began the day before, continued. On the right bank of the Dnieper there were the Mariupol and Sumy Hussars, as well as the Polish Uhlan regiments. At 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the French opened artillery fire and forced the Russians to retreat slightly north of the Solovyova crossing. At this position the rearguard entrenched and held the line until 6 pm, and retreated after the bridges over the river were destroyed.

Fighting also took place on the opposite, left bank near the village of Solovevo. General Rosen's rearguard cavalry operating there destroyed bridges across the river. A very important role in the battles of August 21 was played by the Russian 6th Horse Artillery Company, strategically located on the left bank of the Dnieper. After the bridges were destroyed and the rearguard began to withdraw, she stopped the French attack. As dusk fell, the fighting stopped. At 9 pm the First Western Army broke camp near the village of Umolye and headed towards Dorogobuzh.

Third Observational Army
In the town of Divina, Tormasov’s army was joined by a detachment of General Khovansky, who replaced Chaplitsa and formed a new rearguard of the army. The army was still pursued along the Kobrin road by the Schwarzenberg corps, and along the Brest-Litovsk road by the Rainier corps. The newly formed rearguard of Khovansky entered into battle with the enemy vanguard near the town of Knyazha Gura. In this battle, the 1st Combined Grenadier Battalion of the 9th Infantry Division distinguished itself.

First separate building
Wittgenstein's corps, defeated near Polotsk, retreated along the Polotsk-Sebezh road beyond the river. Driss to the village of Sivoshino. Near the town of Arteykovichi, the army organized a bivouac and was attacked by the troops of General Wrede. The Bavarian offensive was repulsed.

Person: Efim Ignatievich Chaplits

Efim Ignatievich Chaplits (1768-1825)
Efim Ignatievich has a very revealing biography, inconvenient for those who like to inflate Polish-Russian contradictions. After all, his faithful service to Russia and the unconditional authority of an honest and brave officer once again show that not all Poles hated the Empire.

Czaplitz came from an ancient Polish noble family and began serving in the Polish army. However, back in the early 1780s. Efim Ignatievich went into Russian service, took part in the siege of Ochakov, the capture of Bendery and Izmail, and was noted by Suvorov as an extremely brave officer.

During the Polish “revolution” T. Kosciuszko, Lieutenant Colonel E.I. Chaplitz was sent to the rebels for negotiations, but the Poles attacked him and captured him, while he received a severe shell shock.

In 1796, Chaplitz participated in the Zubov brothers’ project to conquer all of Western Asia and personally delivered the keys to the captured city of Baku to Catherine II, for which he was awarded the rank of colonel. Naturally, these favors under Paul I led to Chaplitz being dismissed from the army until Alexander’s accession to the throne.

In 1801, when reinstated in the service, Efim Ignatievich received the rank of major general, and from 1803 he was a member of the sovereign's retinue. He took part in the Austrian and Prussian campaigns, where he distinguished himself in a number of battles and received the Order of St. George, 3rd degree.

Since 1806, Chaplitz was listed as the chief of the Pavlograd Hussar Regiment, at the head of which in July 1812, being part of the 3rd Reserve Observational Army, defeated a detachment of Saxons at Kobrin, capturing many prisoners. It was Chaplitz who commanded the rearguard of Tormasov’s army, which delayed the increasingly intensified attacks of Schwarzenberg and Rainier.

During the counter-offensive of Russian troops, Efim Ignatievich was in the vanguard of Chichagov’s army, commanding an infantry corps. At the same time, he dispersed all the newly formed Lithuanian regiments, took Vilna, participated in the operation to encircle Napoleon near the Berezina and, despite a shell shock to the head, continued to fight. After the end of the campaign, he wrote a note justifying Chichagov’s actions near the Berezina.

During the campaign abroad, Chaplitz commanded the allied Polish forces and distinguished himself in a number of battles. After the war he commanded a hussar division. In 1823, due to old age, he was appointed to serve in the cavalry.

At the beginning of the 19th century, overcoats became uniforms for combat.

actions in winter not only in the Russian army, but also in other European armies, including

including French. French overcoat of the 1812 model, like the Russian overcoat

soldier, was made from factory cloth, but with a differentiating feature,

necessary to distinguish between “friends” and “foes” during the battle was the color of clothing.

yes. Unlike Russian soldiers, the French wore blue overcoats: “

He looked at

an Armenian family and two French soldiers who approached the Armenians. One of

these soldiers, a small, fidgety man, was dressed in a blue overcoat, belted

with a rope. He had a cap on his head and his feet were bare

"[Tolstoy, 2010, 2, 393];

A little behind, on a thin, thin Kyrgyz horse with a huge tail and mane,

howling and with bloody lips, a young officer in a blue French tire rode

whether

[Tolstoy, 2010, 2, 522]. The blue color of the overcoat was associated exclusively with

soldiers of the French army, even the commander-in-chief and marshals wore uniforms

the same color - "

Napoleon stood somewhat ahead of his marshals on a small

a swarm of Arabian horses, in a blue overcoat, the same one in which he did the Italian

campaign

"[Tolstoy, 2010, 1, 334]. It is noteworthy that before the campaign of 1812 the French

Tsuz overcoats were beige and dark brown in color. In January 1812

regulations approved by Napoleon for uniforms and equipment of troops pre-

wrote gray overcoats for line regiments, and dark blue for the guards, but

only a few regiments of the French army managed to receive new uniforms the day before

campaign in Russia, thereby being forced to use the gray uniform of the old

sample. Due to a shortage of overcoats, soldiers of the French army sewed their own

manually or put on the uniforms of soldiers of defeated armies, so often

the overcoats were gray-brown and did not comply with the regulated

flowers [Gorshkov]; [Napoleon's Army 1812]

Those who imagine the French infantry of the Napoleonic Wars era constantly operating in bright uniforms, snow-white trousers, culottes with black leggings, shakos decorated with colored plumes, etiquettes, etc., fall into a beautiful but deep misconception. Unlike the “immortal” Guard, which practically did not fight and received the nickname “immortal” Guard for this in the linear units, army soldiers rarely took out their ceremonial uniforms from their backpacks. The uniform was an expensive part

uniforms, and they tried to protect it by wearing it on special occasions or before battles, and even then, only if Napoleon himself commanded the troops. As a rule, the outerwear of an infantryman in the camp and on the march was a cloth overcoat, which the soldier received in the regiment, purchased with his own funds, “borrowed” from the local population, or took from the enemy as a trophy. It's this thing

determined the general appearance of the French infantry during numerous campaigns.

For the first time in the years of the French Republic, the army was content with what it confiscated or could find on the “terrain.” In the engravings of those years, quite often among the infantry uniforms one can see the redingotes of officers and the greatcoats of soldiers, which at that time were not yet mandatory elements of the uniform. Often, overcoats, along with forage hats, were the only items of uniform for infantrymen and presented a very colorful sight. Judging by modern iconographic sources, outer clothing was not only arbitrary in cut, but also in color - there could even be striped patterns! (see, for example, the “Dutch” manuscript of Gauk) One should also not forget the peculiar “fashion” of the French infantry, which they borrowed from the British troops in the North American colonies - sewing overcoats from old blankets. But if the British had blankets that were uniform in size and gray in color, then one can imagine what happened in war-torn France...

..."...As for the units of the Old Guard, the grenadiers were first issued overcoats in December 1804, that is, two years before their official recognition as statutory outerwear for the rest of the army. The surviving samples are sewn from dark blue cloth , double-breasted and fastened with brass buttons of the guard type, 8 pieces in each row, on the back of the overcoat there are two pocket flaps (two buttons on each) and a two-piece strap fastened with a button, on each cuff there are two small buttons.

The grenadiers of the Old Guard, starting around 1809, began to sew scarlet edging onto the collars of their greatcoats. Epaulets on overcoats are similar to those on uniforms; they are fastened with braided counter-epaulets and a small button. Dutch Grenadiers (3rd Grenadier Regiment) in 1806-1809. continued to wear their dark blue overcoats, issued to them in the Royal Dutch Army. The same color was confirmed by decree in April 1811. Guards rangers received overcoats only in December 1805. They are similar to the grenadier samples, with the exception of the epaulettes corresponding to the unit ... "

So the guys - the reenactors followed this data and...

At first, an overcoat was sewn to participate in the reconstruction of the Borodino battles in the style of a coat-redingote:

(naturally, my work is 90% manual labor. Thin cloth, linen.)

But subsequently, uniform reenactors began to adhere to the strictest rules for sewing and wearing overcoats on the field.

Overcoat: cloth with round cuffs, collar and shoulder straps of the main color; fastens on the chest with 5 cloth-covered 22 mm buttons; The bottom of the overcoat is cut at a distance of 324 mm (12 Parisian inches) from the floor, the cut at the back is 202.5 mm (7.5 inches).

In the center of the back and along the seams there are two large pocket flaps with covered buttons along the edges; two tabs are sewn horizontally at the level of the top button of the pocket flaps - one has a button, the other has a loop. A horizontal pocket was made on the left side of the overcoat's side lining. At the bottom of each overcoat there are loops at an angle

crowbar 45° for fastening on the go to the bottom buttons of pocket flaps. Straight shoulder straps, rounded at the shoulder, made of a double layer of cloth. The buttons and loops are located so that a soldier can fasten his overcoat on both the right and left sides (at the historical period under study, there was no difference in fastening on the so-called “female” and “male” sides). According to the regulations, the straps are rectangular with a rounding at the button, but in the drawings of Karl Berne, which accompanied the official text of the regulations, they are depicted in the form of an shoulder strap with a “trefoil” at the end.

Cloth-covered buttons could be replaced with wooden, bone, horn, or simply arbitrary civilian samples or wooden crutch sticks. It was extremely rare to sew on large uniform buttons with the regiment number. The official text of the regulations does not say anything about the fact that grenadier epaulettes were fastened with tight buttons to the shoulders of the overcoat. A possible explanation for this is the logic of this situation. The uniform color of overcoats was also stipulated in the regulations - beige. But often overcoats were made from gray cloth of various shades - from steel to dark gray. It is likely that at first the new overcoats were worn along with the old overcoats of random designs made in 1809-1811..."

After the Russian campaign, fragments of Napoleon's once great army scattered across the vast expanses of Russia. Some of the soldiers returned home, but many wished to stay in a foreign country forever.

Where did the army go?

In 1869, the retired French engineer Charles-Joseph Minard, with his characteristic painstaking work, did a unique job: he created a diagram in which he reflected the change in the number of Napoleonic troops during the Russian campaign.

According to the figures, out of 422 thousand Napoleonic soldiers who crossed the Neman, only 10 thousand returned.

The French engineer did not take into account about 200 thousand more people who joined Napoleon's army during the war. According to modern data, out of the 600,000-strong Great Army, no more than 50,000 people crossed the Russian border in the opposite direction. It is estimated that about 150 thousand people died in six months of fighting, but where are the other 400 thousand?

The summer of 1812 in Russia turned out to be unusually hot. Napoleonic soldiers languished from the scorching sun and dust: many died from heatstroke and heart attacks. The situation was aggravated by intestinal infections, which, in unsanitary conditions, mercilessly mowed down the conquerors. Then came the time of cold showers, which gave way to severe frosts...

The historian Vladlen Sirotkin estimates the number of captured Napoleonic soldiers (French, Germans, Poles, Italians) at 200 thousand people - almost all who survived in inhospitable Russia.

Many of them were not destined to survive - famine, epidemics, frosts, massacres. Still, about 100 thousand soldiers and officers remained in Russia two years later, of which about 60 thousand (most were French) accepted Russian citizenship.

After the end of the war, King Louis XVIII of France asked Alexander I to somehow influence his compatriots stuck in Russia and force them to return to their homeland, but the Russian government did not do this.

French trace

Traces of the French presence in Russia can be seen throughout the country. Today in Moscow there live about one and a half dozen families whose ancestors once did not want to return to France - the Autzes, Junkerovs, Zhandrys, Bushenevs. But the Chelyabinsk region occupies a special place here. Why? More on this later.

In the first half of the 19th century, on the outskirts of Samara there was a toponym “French Mill”. This is evidence that French prisoners worked at the once working mill.

And in modern Syktyvkar (formerly Ust-Sysolsk, Vologda province) there is a suburb of Paris. According to legend, its foundation was also the work of captured Frenchmen.

The French also left their mark in the Russian language. Hungry and frozen Napoleonic soldiers, begging for shelter and bread from Russian peasants, often addressed them as “cher ami” (“dear friend”). And when they needed a horse, they pronounced this word in their native language - “cheval”. So the great and mighty one was replenished with slang words - “sharomyzhnik” and “trash.”

The famous Russian economist, the son of a Smolensk landowner, Yuri Arnold, left us memories in which he told us about a Napoleonic soldier named Grazhan, who became his teacher. The boy doted on the “uncle” who taught him to make a fire, pitch a tent, shoot and drum. In 1818, the parents sent their son to the Moscow noble boarding school. The teachers were shocked. Not so much from Yuri’s fluency in French, but from the slang expressions that the teenager “spilled”: “Eat, assholes!” or “Crawls like a pregnant louse through shit,” that’s how they sound when translated into Russian.

From Napoleons to Cossacks

Napoleon, who uttered the famous phrase “Give me some Cossacks, and I will go with them all over Europe,” could not even imagine that his soldiers would soon join this formidable army. But adaptation occurred gradually. Historians are collecting information bit by bit and reconstructing the picture of the assimilation of former Napoleonic soldiers in Russia.

For example, Professor Sirotkin in the Moscow archives came across a trace of a small Napoleonic community in Altai. The documents say how three French soldiers - Vincent, Cambrai and Louis - voluntarily went to the taiga (Biysk district), where they received land and were assigned to the peasants.

Historian Vladimir Zemtsov discovered that at least 8 thousand captured Napoleons visited the Perm and Orenburg provinces, several dozen of them were imperial officers. About a thousand died, and many, after peace was concluded, wished to return home.

The French were received with all hospitality. Those dressed out of season were equipped with short fur coats, cloth trousers, boots and mittens; the sick and wounded were immediately sent to military hospitals; the hungry were fattened. The Russian nobles took some captured officers into their custody.

Non-Commissioned Lieutenant Rüppel recalled how he lived in the family of the Orenburg landowner Plemyannikov, where, by the way, he met the historian Nikolai Karamzin. And the Ufa nobles organized endless dinners, dances and hunts for the captured French officers, disputing the right to invite them to their place first.

It should be noted that the French accepted Russian citizenship timidly, as if choosing between a shameful return to their homeland and complete obscurity.

In the entire Orenburg province there were 40 such people - 12 of them wished to join the Cossack army.

The archives have preserved the names of 5 daredevils who, at the end of 1815, applied for Russian citizenship: Antoine Berg, Charles Joseph Bouchain, Jean Pierre Binelon, Antoine Vikler, Edouard Langlois. Later they were ranked among the Cossack class of the Orenburg army.

By the beginning of the twentieth century, there were about two hundred Cossacks with French roots in the Orenburg army.

And on the Don at the end of the 19th century, local historians found 49 descendants of Napoleonic soldiers who enlisted as Cossacks. It was not so easy to discover them: for example, Zhandre turned into Zhandrov, and Binelon into Belov.

To protect new frontiers

The district town of Verkhneuralsk (now Chelyabinsk region) at the beginning of the 19th century was a small fort that guarded the southeastern borders of Russia from raids by Kazakh warriors. By 1836, there was a need to strengthen this bridgehead, for which the construction of the New Line began: soon a chain of Cossack settlements - redoubts - grew from Orsk to the village of Berezovskaya, four of which received French names: Fer-Champenoise, Arcy, Paris and Brienne. Among others, all French Cossacks and their families were resettled to the New Line.

In response to the increase in the number of Cossack troops, the Kazakh Sultan Kenesary Kasymov launched large-scale military operations. Now the gray-haired Napoleonic veterans were again forced to return to the half-forgotten military craft, but now to protect the interests of their new fatherland.

Among the volunteers on the New Line was the elderly and Russified Napoleonic soldier Ilya Kondratievich Autz, who moved here from Bugulma with his entire large family, as well as the Orenburg Cossack Ivan Ivanovich Zhandre, born from a Frenchman and a Cossack woman. The latter eventually rose to the rank of centurion and received land in the village of Kizilskaya, Verkhneuralsk district.

Another colorful Frenchman has taken root in Orenburg - a young officer from the ancient knightly family Desiree d'Andeville.

For some time he taught French. When the Neplyuev Cossack Military School was established in Orenburg in 1825, d'Andeville was accepted into its staff and included in the Cossack class with the rights of a nobleman.

In 1826, his son was born, Victor Dandeville, who continued his father’s Cossack work. From the age of 18, Victor served in the military horse artillery and was noted in campaigns to the Aral and Caspian Sea. For his military distinctions, he was appointed to the post of ataman of the Ural Cossack Army. Subsequently, Victor Dandeville reaches new heights - he becomes an infantry general and commander of an army corps. He, like his crusading ancestors once did, demonstrates his military prowess in battles with Muslims - in Turkestan, Kyrgyzstan, Serbia and Bulgaria.

Many captured soldiers of the Great Army ended up in the lands of the Terek Cossacks. These were almost exclusively Poles, who were traditionally called French.

In 1813, about a thousand Poles were transported to Georgievsk, the main city of the Caucasus province. Now the newly minted Cossacks had to carry out military service in one of the hottest spots of the Russian border. Some of the Cossack Poles survived the heat of the Caucasian War, as evidenced by the Polish surnames that are still found in the villages of the North Caucasus.

A French popular science magazine writes:

1) “the French army went to war in red pants for the sake of profits from domestic paint manufacturers.”
- The last French manufacturer of red paint, Garance, went bankrupt at the end of the 19th century and the army was forced to buy chemical dye in... Germany.
In 1909-1911, the French army carried out extensive work on the development of khaki uniforms (Boer uniform, Mignonette uniform, Detail uniform).
Its first and most vehement opponents were... journalists and experts from the media of that time, who quickly turned the public against the protective uniform, “degrading to human dignity and the French spirit.”
Then populist parliamentarians, ever-frugal financiers and army conservatives got involved - and the initiative was buried until 1914, when it was necessary to urgently remove Detail's blue-gray overcoats from warehouses, which, fortunately, had not yet been written off, unlike their khaki predecessors and mignonette.

2) “The theory of “offensive to the limit” developed by General Staff intellectuals brought France to the brink of disaster.”
- Absolutely all parties in the initial period of WWI adhered exclusively to the offensive image of war. The theoretical calculations of the French General Staff - by the way, less mechanistic than those of the Germans and paying great attention to the psychological aspect of combat operations - did not stand out as anything special against this background.
The real reason for the August hecatombs was the failure of the corps and divisional officers, who were distinguished by a high average age and low quality.
In the regular military, due to the low standard of living, there remained people who were incapable of anything else, and the reservists of the en masse had no idea about modern methods of warfare.

3) "Ruthless hand-to-hand combat in the trenches."
- Medical statistics on this matter are merciless. Melee weapons accounted for 1% of fatal wounds in 1915 and 0.2% in 1918. The main weapons in the trenches were grenades (69%) and firearms (15%).
This also correlates with the distribution of wounds throughout the body: 28.3% - head, 27.6% - upper limbs, 33.5% - legs, 6.6% - chest, 2.6% - abdomen, 0.5% - neck.

4) "Deadly Gas"
- 17,000 killed and 480,000 wounded on the Western Front. That is, 3% of total losses and 0.5% of deaths. This gives us a ratio of killed to wounded of 1:28 against the front average of 1:1.7-2.5.
That is, no matter how cynical it sounds, many more soldiers survived after the gas, who could tell everyone about their suffering - despite the fact that only 2% of the wounded became disabled for life, and 70% of those poisoned returned to duty in less than 6 weeks.

5) "France bled to death in the trenches of Verdun."
- At Verdun, France lost approximately the same number of soldiers as in the mobile war of 1918 and almost half as many as in the more mobile border battles and on the Marne.

6) "The officers were hiding behind the soldiers."
- Proportion of dead and missing from those conscripted into the army, officers/soldiers: infantry - 29%/22.9%, cavalry - 10.3%/7.6%, artillery - 9.2%/6%, sappers - 9, 3%/6.4%, aviation - 21.6%/3.5%. At the same time, so as not to say it again, this is about the issue of cavalry destroyed by machine guns.

7) “The generals shot the rebel soldiers.”
- The number of soldiers sentenced to death by courts-martial (including those who committed criminal offenses) is 740. This is 0.05% of all dead French infantrymen.

As is known, by the beginning of the First World War, the armies of Russia, Germany and Great Britain were equipped with machine guns of the same design (Hiram Maxim), differing only in ammunition and machines - a Sokolov wheeled machine in Russia, a tripod in Britain (these machines are used all over the world in our time ) and an unusual sled machine in Germany. It was the latter that became the reason for the legend.
The fact is that a machine gun with such a machine was supposed to be carried either like a stretcher or dragged like a sled, and to facilitate this work, belts with carbines were attached to the machine gun.
At the front, machine gunners sometimes died while being carried, and their corpses, fastened with belts to the machine gun, gave rise to a legend, and then rumor and the media replaced the belts with chains, for greater effect.

The French went even further and talked about suicide bombers locked outside inside “Shuman armored carriages”. The legend became very widespread, and as Hemingway later wrote in one of his post-war stories, “... his acquaintances who had heard detailed stories about German women chained to machine guns in the Ardennes Forest, like patriots, were not interested in unchained German machine gunners and were indifferent to his stories."
Somewhat later, these rumors were mentioned by Richard Aldington in the novel “Death of a Hero” (1929), where a purely civilian lectures a soldier who came from the front on leave:
"- Oh, but our soldiers are such good fellows, such good fellows, you know, not like the Germans. You are probably already convinced that the Germans are a cowardly people? You know, they have to be chained to machine guns.
- I didn’t notice anything like that. I must say, they fight with amazing courage and tenacity. Don't you think it's not very flattering for our soldiers to suggest otherwise? We haven’t really managed to push back the Germans yet.”

By the beginning of the Great War, the German command and officers did not hide their disdain for the French army, associating it with a “Gallic rooster” - it was assumed that it was just as hot-tempered and noisy, but in reality it was weak and timid.
But already in the first battles, French soldiers confirmed their long-standing reputation as persistent and brave fighters, sincerely ready to sacrifice themselves in the name of their homeland.
Their high fighting qualities turned out to be all the more valuable because this time they had to fight with practically the worst weapons of all that were in the arsenals of both allies and opponents.

The main weapon of the French soldier - the 8-mm Lebel-Berthier rifle - could not be compared with the German "Mauser M.98", in many respects inferior to the Russian "three-line", and the Japanese "Arisaka Type 38" and the American " Springfield M.1903", and the Shosha light machine gun was generally classified by many as a weapon curiosity.
However, since the French infantry were doomed to use it (although at the first opportunity they sought to replace it with captured or allied ones), it ultimately became the “weapon of victory” of the Great War, in which the French army, of course, played a decisive role.

The Shosha machine gun also began to be developed spontaneously, as a reaction to the global trend towards the creation of automatic weapon systems.
The basis for the future automatic rifle (and it was precisely this that the French created) was taken from the nowhere else in demand and potentially unsuccessful machine gun system of the Austro-Hungarian designer Rudolf Frommer, based on the recoil energy of a long-stroke barrel.
For rapid-fire weapons, this scheme is the most undesirable, since it leads to increased vibration. Nevertheless, the French chose it.
The tactical and technical characteristics of the new weapon turned out to be at a level “below the lowest.” Perhaps the only positive quality of the Shosh was its light weight - no more than 9.5 kg with a loaded box magazine for 20 rounds and a bipod.
Although even here he did not become a champion: the Danish “Madsen” light machine gun, which had excellent combat and reliable automation, weighed no more than 8.95 kg.

Despite all its shortcomings, the Shosha machine gun was a commercial success, albeit a scandalous one. It remained in service with the French army until 1924, and the total production of the machine gun by that time amounted to a considerable 225 thousand units.
The French managed to get the main income from sales of their outsider machine gun from the US military department, which had a very saturated market for automatic weapons.
In the spring of 1917, shortly after America entered the war, the director of the American Army's Department of Armaments, General William Crozy, signed a contract for the supply of almost 16 thousand Shosha machine guns.
It is noteworthy that several years earlier, the same official categorically rejected the idea of ​​​​producing an excellent Lewis machine gun in the United States, but argued the need to purchase a clearly unsuccessful French model with “the obvious lack of firepower of American formations.”

The result of its use in the US Army is not difficult to predict: the French machine gun received the same unflattering ratings. However, General Crosi continued to purchase these weapons on a massive scale.
On August 17, 1917, the French Arms Commission received an order for another 25 thousand C.S.R.G. machine guns, only this time chambered for the main American cartridge 30-06 Springfield (7.62 × 63 mm).
The fate of this contract turned out to be quite remarkable. Machine guns manufactured under the Automatic Rifle Model 1918 (Chauchat) began to shoot even worse than those manufactured under the “native” 8-mm cartridge.
The more powerful 30-06 ammunition not only often jammed, but it also very quickly destroyed the reloading mechanism. It is not surprising that, having received just over 19 thousand machine guns under the new contract, the Americans categorically refused further deliveries.
Several deputies of the French parliament then tried to initiate an investigation into where the profits from the sale of clearly unusable machine guns to the Americans went, but it was quickly closed - too many high-ranking military and diplomats were involved in the deal on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

HEAVY CAVALRY

Cuirassiers

Cuirassiers belonged to the heavy cavalry; They differed from other types of cavalry in that they wore a steel cuirass on their chest and back, which protected the soldiers from the chopping blows of broadswords and bullets flying obliquely. Cuirassier regiments were formed from the tallest and strongest men (no less than 1 m 76 cm in height), who were given the tallest horses. As a result, the weight of the armored rider was so great that no one could resist him. Therefore, the striking power of the cuirassier regiments was very high; they were used in frontal attacks to break through enemy defense lines.

The French heavy cavalry included: in 1804 - 4, and from 1809 - 14 cuirassier regiments. They all had the same blue uniform with white trim and differed from each other only in the color of the collars and cuffs on the sleeves, as well as the regiment number on the saddle suitcase. The French cuirasses, unlike the Russians, were not painted and had the color of polished metal. Each cuirassier was armed with a broadsword, a pair of pistols, and, from the beginning of 1812, also a musket with a bayonet.

Cuirassiers, nicknamed “healthy brothers” by the troops, were considered the best cavalry of the French empire and were Napoleon’s main striking force on all battlefields.

CARABINIERI

Carabinieri regiments existed in France during the French Revolution. Napoleon valued these regiments very much, but for unknown reasons, in 1809 he actually turned these units into cuirassiers, dressing all officers and soldiers in copper helmets and cuirasses. At the same time, Napoleon left the units with their previous name - carabinieri regiments. In total, there were 2 carabinieri regiments, whose soldiers wore white uniforms with blue collars and cuffs:

Both carabinieri regiments took part in a campaign in Russia in 1812, where they died almost in full force (less than 300 people returned to their homeland).

DRAGUNS

Dragoons were often called "riding infantry" - they were trained in both mounted and foot combat. Therefore, the dragoons were armed not only with cavalry broadswords and pistols, but also with guns equipped with bayonets (though shorter than in the infantry). Napoleon had 30 DRAGOON REGIMENTS.

Dragoon units were traditional for the French cavalry, but Napoleon treated the dragoons with distrust. This was a consequence of their poor combat training: the dragoons were overly carried away by drills and parades, and therefore could not fight well either on horseback or on foot. However, at the end of 1805, the emperor changed his attitude towards the dragoons, after they captured the village of Wertingen in a matter of minutes before Napoleon’s eyes. The dragoons finally regained their authority during the battles in Spain, where they acquired the necessary combat experience and began to fearlessly attack any enemy.

The Dragoons of France wore green uniforms, with collars, lapels and cuffs having the colors assigned to the regiment; On the heads of the dragoons were copper helmets with horse tails. The dragoons of the elite companies had bearskin caps with a red plume instead of helmets and images of grenades on the lapels of the tails, as well as on the saddle saddles.

Brigadier (corporal) of the 22nd Dragoon Regiment in an old-style marching uniform, a private of the 25th Dragoon Regiment in an old-style marching uniform (the “horseshoe” emblem on the sleeve is the badge of the regimental blacksmith)

CHEVALEGERS (ULANS)

This type of cavalry appeared in France very late - only in the summer of 1811, under the influence of the first battles with the Cossacks, whose peaks turned out to be an insurmountable obstacle for the French. Since there were no specialists in handling pikes in France, the first Uhlan regiments were formed from Poles and Dutch - they became part of the Imperial Guard. In 1811, these guards began training French dragoon regiments, reorganized into Uhlan regiments. In total, 6 ULAN REGIMENTS were formed in France. All regiments wore the same uniform: new-style green uniforms and the same cavalry trousers. On the heads of the French lancers there were not the square-topped hats traditional for this type of cavalry (the so-called “confederates”), but copper helmets with a “caterpillar” (a fur roll along the helmet). The shelves differed only in the different colors of the collar, lapels, cuffs and lapels. The soldiers of the selected companies were distinguished from the rest of the Chevaliers by red epaulettes.

In 1812, these units were supplemented by three more Uhlan regiments, formed in Poland from Poles. The soldiers of these regiments wore the traditional blue uniform of the Lancers with colored collars, cuffs and lapels; on their heads they had the traditional confederate helmets for lancers, and not helmets like the French.

The French Uhlan units covered themselves with glory during the battles in Russia, and then in the battles in Germany and France. The last exploit of the French lancers was a desperate attack on British positions at the Battle of Waterloo.

LIGHT CAVALRY

HUSSARS

During the Great French Revolution, there were 13 hussar regiments in France, but by 1803 their number had decreased to 10. In 1810, 2 more units were formed, and at the time of the attack on Russia, France had 12 HUSSAR REGIMENTS. True, only 6 hussar regiments (5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 11th) took part in the campaign to Russia; the rest of the hussar regiments fought in Spain at that time. After the defeat in Russia, Napoleon began rebuilding the defeated troops, and in 1813, 2 more hussar regiments were created - the 13th Hussars and the 14th Hussars. But they didn't last long...

The hussars were considered the most brilliant cavalry of the empire, and this obliged them to desperate courage, panache and fanfare. The accomplishment of numerous feats was greatly facilitated by the very purpose of the hussars: reconnaissance, attacks on outposts and long-distance raids behind enemy lines. Particularly distinguished soldiers were brought into selected companies, which were the main striking force of the hussar regiments. These veterans did not wear shakos, but bearskin hats, which was a source of special pride for them. The bravery and fearlessness of the hussars were the reason for their short life. The hussars had a saying: “He who lives to be 30 years old and does not die is not a real hussar.” And these were not empty words. For example, in the attacks at Lutzen, 20 of the 25 hussars who had been awarded the Legion of Honor the day before were killed!

The French hussars wore the traditional uniform for this type of army: multi-colored dolmans, mentiks, chakchirs, richly embroidered with gilded or silver (depending on the color of the regiment) cords. These traditional French uniform elements were complemented by a mandatory vest, also often embroidered with cords. The peculiarity of wearing the hussar uniform by the French was that rarely did any of them put on both the dolman and the mentik (on the shoulder), as the Russian hussars did. More often, the French hussars wore either one dolman or one mentic on their vest - immediately “into the sleeves”. Another purely French feature was that soldiers of elite companies wore a bearskin fur hat with a red plume instead of a shako; the majority of hussar officers also preferred to wear this same hat (even if they never commanded an elite company). The richness of the French officer's hussar uniform was complemented by natural leopard skin, spread on the saddle instead of a blanket during parades, but during the campaign it was replaced by sheep or bear skin.

The task of the mounted rangers, like that of the hussars, included reconnaissance of the area, observation of the enemy and taking his outposts and convoys by surprise. The huntsmen successfully coped with these tasks, and, if necessary, without hesitation they rushed into massive attacks on enemy squares during major battles. In numerous battles, horse huntsmen covered themselves with glory, and everyone treated this type of cavalry with great respect.

Until 1806, huntsmen wore green hussar dolmans, which were later replaced by green general army uniforms; however, the 4th, 5th, 6th and 10th regiments violated Napoleon's order and continued to wear hussar dolmans until 1813. Among the mounted rangers, like the hussars, distinguished veterans were reduced to selected companies, distinguished by bearskin hats. In 1812, these hats for the rangers were abolished by order of the emperor, but the veterans ignored this order of Napoleon - they did not give up their honorary insignia.