Private Bersot
Lucien Jean Baptiste Bersot was born on June 7, 1881, in Authoison ( Haute-Saône ) in a family of small farmers. His parents had come to settle in Besançon, Lucien learned the profession of farrier there and married there in 1908 before becoming the father of a girl in 1909.
When the First World War broke out, he was 33 years old. He was Mobilized into the 60th infantry regiment, he was on the Aisne front during the winter of 1914–1915, and had just suffered heavy losses near Soissons. However, the general staff judging this regiment not very active had just entrusted its command, on January 22, 1915, to Lieutenant-Colonel François Maurice Auroux, a former member of the African troops, responsible for whipping the unit into shape.
The case
As there were no longer any trousers in his size in the store, Lucien Bersot could only wear the white canvas one supplied in his kit which was handed over during induction. Shivering from the cold in the trenches, he asked on February 11, 1915, the quartermaster, for red woollen trousers (Le Pantalon Rouge) identical to those worn by his comrades. The sergeant then offered him tattered and bloodstained trousers, taken from a dead soldier, which Bersot refused.
For this refusal, Lucien Bersot was sentenced to eight days in prison by Lieutenant André. But Lieutenant-Colonel Auroux, commander of the regiment, considered this punishment insufficient and requested that he appear before a special court-martial, a veritable court-martial. As new recruits who had not yet been seasoned had just arrived, his intention was clearly to make an example of Bersot.
Before the regiment's “special” Council of War, chaired by Auroux, Bersot was condemned to death. The penalty imposed then did not correspond to the code of military justice because the offence had been observed in the rear and not in contact with the enemy.
Two companions of the condemned man (Elie Cottet-Dumoulin and Mohn André) then intervened with the lieutenant-colonel to try to soften the sentence, but were not heard and saw themselves punished in turn with forced labour in North Africa. Still, others refused to shoot their comrade during his execution which took place the next day on February 13, 1915, in Fontenoy, Aisne.
Aftermath
After the war, a press campaign was undertaken by the newspaper Germinal under the pen of a young lawyer, René Rücklin, general councilor of Belfort. Supported by the League of Human Rights tried for the rehabilitation of Lucien Bersot. The Court of Cassation could only rule quickly to confirm the injustice suffered by the shot Bersot. Thanks to this rehabilitation, his widow was able to claim the war widow's pension and his daughter was able to be recognized as a pupil of the Nation.
Colonel Auroux was implicated for having acted completely illegally, being both the accuser and the president of the court-martial, and causing the imposition of a sentence disproportionate to the fault (violation of article 24 of the Code of military justice ascertained by the Court of Appeal of Besançon, the April 10, 1922. In the National Assembly, the deputy Louis Antériou, a veteran and future Minister of Pensions, challenged the government to ask for its condemnation, but André Maginot, Minister of War, rejected the discussion under the pretext of an anti-militarist campaign. Auroux, protected by Maginot and by the military hierarchy, escaped all judgment and retired in 1924 without being able to obtain the rank of general which would have been given to him if this incident wasn't investigated.
Lucien Bersot was re-interred in 1924 in the cemetery of Besançon. A stele located near the church of Fontenoy (Aisne), inaugurated in November 1994, pays homage to Lucien Bersot and to another shot for the example: the soldier Léonard Leymarie of the 305th infantry regiment, executed on December 12, 1914, under the pretext of giving himself a Self-inflicted wound (according to the data of a medical report), an act for which he had always protested his innocence (he had been injured in the hand in his post as a lookout; however, many cases of voluntary mutilation consisted of holding a lit cigarette in the hollow of the hand-stretched over the parapet of the trench). Leymarie was rehabilitated in 1923.
The municipality of Besançon recently decided to put a plaque at the entrance to the Maison du peuple, 11, rue Battant. This plaque, inaugurated on November 11, 2009, honours the memory of Lucien Bersot and that of another soldier, Elie Cottet-Dumoulin, a tinsmith worker from Battant, condemned to ten years in prison for having protested against the sanction which struck his comrade in the regiment. This soldier died in the East (Serbia) in 1917.
A street in Besançon bears the name of Bersot, but it honours the memory of a namesake, benefactor of Besançon, François Louis Bersot.
This soldier, known all over the world thanks to Yves Boisset's film, was honoured in his native village. A plaque offered by the family paying homage to him and to all the "Shots for example" was attached to the war memorial, April 19, 2014. The Minister in charge of Veterans Affairs to the Minister of Defense had delegated Mr. Bonamy-Fromentin to represent him at this ceremony which brought together descendants from all French regions. Joseph Pinard, a biographer of the soldier, presented the exhibition lent by the city of Besançon to close this tribute.
The Irish Brigade was a brigade in the French Royal Army composed of Irish exiles, led by Lord Mountcashel. It was formed in May 1690 when five Jacobite regiments were sent from Ireland to France in exchange for a larger force of French infantry who were sent to fight in the Williamite War in Ireland. The regiments comprising the Irish Brigade retained their special status as foreign units in the French Army until nationalised in 1791.
The Royal Dragoon Guards (RDG) is a cavalry regiment of the British Army. It was formed in 1992 by the amalgamation of two other regiments: The 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards and the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards. Based in Battlesbury Barracks, Wiltshire, the regiment currently serves as the armoured cavalry reconnaissance unit of 20th Armoured Brigade Combat Team. Previously equipped with the Scimitar armoured reconnaissance vehicle, it started converting to the Warrior tracked armoured vehicle in 2022.
The Russian Expeditionary Force [REF] was a World War I military force sent to France and Greece by the Russian Empire. In 1915 the French requested that Russian troops be sent to fight alongside their own army on the Western Front. Initially they asked for 300,000 men, an unrealistically high figure, probably based on assumptions about Russia's 'unlimited' reserves. General Mikhail Alekseev, the Imperial Chief of Staff, was opposed to sending any Russian troops, although Nicholas II finally agreed to send a unit of brigade strength. The first Russian brigade finally landed at Marseille in April 1916.
Colonel Henry Elliott Chevallier Kitchener, 2nd Earl Kitchener was a British soldier and peer.
Iron is a commune in the Aisne department in Hauts-de-France in northern France.
Ouvrage Mont des Welches, a gros ouvrage of the Maginot Line fortifications, is part of the Fortified Sector of Boulay. It comprises two entrance blocks, one infantry block, one artillery block, one observation block and two combination blocks. It is located between petit ouvrage Coucou and gros ouvrage Michelsberg, facing Germany. Relatively small for a gros ouvrage, Mont des Welches saw a brief period of sharp action in June 1940, when German forces moving along the rear of the Maginot Line engaged the position without success. After modest renovations in the 1950s, Mont des Welches was abandoned in the 1970s.
Ouvrage Molvange is a large work, or gros ouvrage of the Maginot Line. The fortification complex faces the France-Luxembourg border from a height near Entrange in the Moselle department. The complex, armed and occupied in 1935, is located on the heights of Entrange, at an altitude of about 400 metres (1,300 ft). Molvange is flanked by the even larger Ouvrage Rochonvillers to the west and smaller petit ouvrage Immerhof to the east, part of the Fortified Sector of Thionville. Molvange was not involved in significant combat during World War II, but due to its size it was repaired and retained in service after the war. During the Cold War, Molvange's underground barracks and former ammunition magazine became a hardened military command centre.
Ouvrage Grand-Hohékirkel is a petit ouvrage of the Maginot Line, located near Bitche in the French département of Moselle. Grand-Hohékirkel is adjoined by gros ouvrage Otterbiel to the west and petit ouvrage Lembach at some distance to the east, and faces the German frontier. It was part of the Fortified Sector of the Vosges.
During World War I, France was one of the Triple Entente powers allied against the Central Powers. Although fighting occurred worldwide, the bulk of the conflict in Europe occurred in Belgium, Luxembourg, France and Alsace-Lorraine along what came to be known as the Western Front, which consisted mainly of trench warfare. Specific operational, tactical, and strategic decisions by the high command on both sides of the conflict led to shifts in organizational capacity, as the French Army tried to respond to day-to-day fighting and long-term strategic and operational agendas. In particular, many problems caused the French high command to re-evaluate standard procedures, revise its command structures, re-equip the army, and to develop different tactical approaches.
Georges Henri Journois was a French resistance fighter and Brigadier General who died in a subcamp of the Neuengamme concentration camp in Wilhelmshaven, Germany.
The 54th Infantry Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the French Army.
The beginnings of the history of the Jews in Besançon go back to the Middle Ages, a period during which the Jews settled in the city attracted by its activity as a commercial place. The community was founded at the end of the 14th century and, due to its status as a free imperial city, Besançon remained one of the only territories in present-day France to tolerate Jews after their expulsion from the kingdom of France in 1394. The community was nevertheless expelled in turn from Besançon in the middle of the 15th century. The Jews made a tentative return to the city in the 18th century, but it was only after the French Revolution, which emancipated them, that their situation in the Franche-Comté capital stabilized. Although the Jewish community never exceeded 2,000 people except on the eve of the Second World War, it experienced great economic success during the industrial revolution at the end of the 19th century, when the Lipmann family founded LIP, a brand of watchmaking which then became one of the economic engines of the region and remained associated with the name of the city.
Ouvrage Thonnelle is a petit ouvrage of the Maginot Line, located in the Fortified Sector of Montmédy between the towns of Thonnelle and Verneuil-Petit, facing Belgium. It possesses four combat blocks. It is located between gros ouvrages Vélosnes and Chesnois. The position was sabotaged and abandoned by French forces that were ordered to retreat from the exposed position in June 1940 during the Battle of France. The ouvrage is abandoned.
Ouvrage Chesnois, also known as Ouvrage Chênois, is a gros ouvrage of the Maginot Line, located in the Fortified Sector of Montmédy, facing Belgium. The ouvrage lies between the towns of Montlibert and Thonne-le-Thil. It possesses six combat blocks. It is located between gros ouvrage Thonnelle and petit ouvrage La Ferté. The position was sabotaged and abandoned by French forces that were ordered to retreat from the exposed position in June 1940 during the Battle of France. The ouvrage is now abandoned and sealed.
The Fortified Sector of the Crusnes was the French military organization that in 1940 controlled the section of the Maginot Line extending eastwards approximately 28 kilometres (17 mi) from Longuyon. The sector roughly follows the valley of the Crusnes river. Crucially, the trace of the Maginot Line in the Crusnes sector is about 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) behind the industrial city of Longwy which sits directly against the French borders with Belgium and Luxembourg. The Crusnes sector was one of the strongest Maginot Line sectors. It was attacked in 1940 by German forces in the Battle of France. Despite the withdrawal of the mobile forces that supported the fixed fortifications, the sector successfully fended off German assaults before the Second Armistice at Compiègne. The positions and their garrisons finally surrendered on 27 June 1940. Following the war many positions were reactivated for use during the Cold War. Three locations are now preserved and open to the public, with a fourth position under restoration.
The Fortified Sector of Montmédy was the French military organisation that in 1940 controlled the section of the Maginot Line between Sedan and Longuyon, a distance of about 60 kilometres (37 mi). The sector was not as strongly defended as other sections of the Maginot Line, facing the southern Ardennes region of Belgium. Large portions of the Montmédy sector were defended by fortified houses, blockhouses or casemates. The sector includes only four ouvrages of the type found in stronger sections of the Line. The weakly defended area in front of Sedan was the scene of a major breakthrough by German forces in the opening of the Battle of France. This was followed by a German assault on the Maginot Ouvrage La Ferté, which killed the entire garrison, the only such event on the Maginot Line.
The Fortified Sector of Colmar was the French military organization that in 1940 controlled the section of the French frontier with Germany in the vicinity of Colmar. The fortifications were built as part of France's Maginot Line defensive strategy, but the sector lacks the large interconnected fortifications found along France's land border with Germany. The sector's principal defense was the Rhine itself, which could be crossed only by boat or by seizing a bridge crossing. The sector's fortifications chiefly took the form of casemates and blockhouses. The SF Colmar was flanked to the north by the Fortified Sector of the Lower Rhine to the north and the Fortified Sector of Mulhouse to the south. The Colmar sector was directly attacked by German forces on 15 June 1940, capturing or destroying most of the fortifications in the sector in three days.
The Battle of Besançon was a sectarian conflict between the Protestants and Catholics in the French city of Besançon in the region of Franche-Comté. Prior to the battle, the Huguenots, accused of heresy, had been expelled from the city and fled to the County of Montbéliard and Switzerland; the outcasts formed an army and planned an attempt to retake Besançon and turn the city into a stronghold of the Protestant Reformation. By the time the armed Protestants had reached the city of Besançon however, their army had dwindled because of several mishaps. Nonetheless, the battle began and raged for several hours; the outcome was an overwhelming Catholic victory. The majority of the Protestant army managed to escape, but those who were captured were hanged as traitors. For over two centuries after the battle, Protestantism in Besançon was repressed.
The 7th Algerian Tirailleurs Regiment was an infantry unit of the French Army, part of the Army of Africa.
The Fortified Section of Savoy(Secteur fortifié de la Savoie) was the French military organization that in 1940 controlled the section of the Alpine Line portion of the Maginot Line facing Italy in the Savoy region. The sector constituted part of the Alpine Line portion of the Maginot Line, between the Defensive Sector of the Rhône to the north, and the Fortified Sector of the Dauphiné to the south. The works combined a number of pre-1914 fortifications with Maginot-style ouvrages, with many forward-positioned cavern-style frontier stations or avant-postes that proved effective in holding invading forces near the order.
France