Aknouche, Christophe Les batailles des Ardennes 1870, 1914, 1940

Le destin inattendu de l'armée française

On the eve of the three major European conflicts of 1870, 1914 and 1940, the French army enjoyed an undisputed reputation for excellence. Although the geopolitical environment, the alliance game, and the motives and intentions of the German enemy varied greatly from one era to another, France's military power was taken very seriously. A comparative study of the campaigns that took place in the Belgian and French Ardennes illustrates the fate of a French army that was at the height of its prestige at the end of the Second Empire and was destroyed 70 years later in the ruins of the Third Republic. At a time when the European continent is once again the scene of intense warfare, it seems appropriate to analyse what led our armies in the past to the disasters of August 1870, August 1914 and May 1940. Is the French army doomed, regardless of the period, to be ignorant or incapable of preparing and conducting a campaign? Far from being a harsh indictment, this essay attempts, in the form of a three-part analysis of these three decisive military operations, to decipher the causes of the intrinsic weaknesses of an army whose overwhelming majority of officers, non-commissioned officers, soldiers and civilian employees have always shown exceptional courage in the most tragic trials.