Passionate about history and, more specifically, about military history, she founded, in June 2018, The First Alliance Foundation (TFA), whose primary mission is to honor and enhance the French-American strategic alliance.

Considered as a true ambassador of the French-American friendship, Carole L. Brookins was also a major patron of the musée de l’Armée through her Foundation.

Thanks to her generosity, the exhibition Eisenhower – de Gaulle. From friendship to alliance in war and peace was unveiled in June 2019. Last September, the Musée and the Foundation celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Liberation of Paris with a concert in Saint Louis Cathedral of the Invalides and a scientific symposium on the Liberation of Paris. Her support also permitted to readapt a part of the Second World War permanent collections at the Musée.

Her deep military knowledge and her insatiable quest for enhancing the French-American friendship left a mark at the musée de l’Armée which loses a loyal friend. The Musée offer its condolences to her family and friends and wishes to continue its partnership with the TFA, under the guidance of its co-chairman the Général de Corps d’Armée (2s) Olivier Tramond.

The post A tribute to Carole L. Brookins first appeared on The News blog.

The life of the Spanish artist, a French resident from 1901 until his death in 1973, was punctuated by armed conflicts, although paradoxically he did not take an active part in any war himself, and never served as a soldier. The artist was excused from compulsory military service and experienced the wars that ravaged the 20th century as a civilian. He was an inspiring figure, feted after Liberation as a resistance artist and activist, and his political statements conferred on him a unique role in history as it unfolded.

Picasso always claimed that his work was his ‘journal’, a personal and secret journal that recounted his private life. As the 20th century unfolded, with its two World Wars and rising totalitarianism, he recounted the conflicts and tragedy of contemporary life through this journal.

The exhibition will mix a chronological and chrono-thematic approach. Picasso’s works and personal archives, in all their diversity, will be shown alongside a selection of explanatory items (press articles, photographs and objects) evoking the reality and spread of the conflicts that influenced his work. The exhibition will explore the various ways that warfare informed and impacted Picasso’s creative output throughout his career.

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Illustration © Graphica (Julie Bayard & Igor Devernay) Succession Picasso 2019

The post “Picasso and War”: 5 April to 28 July 2019 first appeared on The News blog.

Military Necropolis of the Great War

Foch died on 20 March 1929. On 29 March, Parliament passed a law stipulating that “the Marshals of France, the officers-general who, during the war of 1914-1918, exercised either the command-in-chief or the commandment of a group of armies or an army, will be, either on their desire expressed by testamentary disposition, or on request from their successors, buried in the Hôtel des Invalides”. It was immediately applied to Foch.

The Governor’s vault

While waiting for sculptor Paul Landowski (1875-1961) to create the tomb, Foch’s remains were placed in the governors’ cellar from 1929 to 1937.

Marshal Foch’s tomb

The tomb was inaugurated in Saint-Ambroise Chapel on 20 March 1937. On 13 March 1937, a few days before the ash transfer ceremony, Landowski’s work was unveiled in the daily newspaper Le Matin. A week later, on 20 March, the ceremony took place. L’Illustration, a widely-circulated illustrated press review, echoed the event by publishing the same day a double page reproducing the Foch tomb.

The ground, modified when the tomb was set in its new place, offered Landowski the chance form a link with the dome of Les Invalides built by Jules Hardouin-Mansart and Napoleon’s tomb made by Visconti. One of Louis XIV’s monograms, found  throughout the dome and particularly on the ground, was modified to render Ferdinand Foch’s two “Fs” intertwined with his French Marshal staff, and set in front of the tomb. The monogram is framed by plants symbolising victory: palm and laurel. Like the pavement around Napoleon’s tomb evoking eight victories of the Napoleonic army, Landowski places around Foch’s tomb a laurel wreath mingled with oak punctuated by eight medallions evoking the First World War and Foch’s actions during that period. The arrangement of the eight medallions does not necessarily follow the chronology of the Great War.

The post « 1918, armistice(s) », episode 22 first appeared on The News blog.

Hôtel des Invalides

The destiny of a restaurant-car

Built in 1914, restaurant car 2419 D began to circulate in June. In September 1918, it was requisitioned by the army, then transformed into a lounge-office-wagon, in the Saint-Denis workshops. In October 1918, it was incorporated into the train of the great headquarters at the disposal of Marshal Foch. After the armistice was signed, it was still used during the three extensions of the armistice signed in Triers. In September 1919. It was returned to the Compagnie Internationale des wagons-lits, which refitted it as a restaurant car.

At the behest of the Government led by Clémenceau, the Compagnie Internationale des wagons-lits donated it to the State.  On 1 October 1919, an agreement was signed to this effect. The President of the Republic, Alexandre Millerand, was on board when it travelled to Verdun on 8 December 1920. It was then placed in the north-east corner of the main courtyard of the Hôtel des Invalides from 28 April 1921 until 8 April 1927. The wagon deteriorated and from 1924, General Mariaux, then director of the Musée de l’Armée, wrote to the Minister of War to have it placed in a shelter in «Rethondes» or at the Château de Vincennes. The Deputy Mayor of Compiègne, Robert Fournier-Sarlovèze, intervened multiple times to have the wagon come back to Compiègne. Finally, thanks to the patronage of an American, Arthur-Henry Fleming, the wagon was restored and returned to the Compiègne Wagon in the forest of the same name.  On 11 November 1927, the shelter containing the wagon was inaugurated in the presence of Marshal Foch.

Another Armistice

In June 1940, the wagon brought out of its shelter and was set in the clearing.  The Armistice between Nazi Germany and France of the Vichy regime was signed there on 22 June 1940. It was then transported and displayed in Berlin, then destroyed, in April 1945, upon Hitler’s orders. In 1950, a wagon of the same series, the 2439D wagon, was fitted out identically and decorated with the original furniture. It is now on display at the Armistice Memorial.

The collections of Musée de l’Armée

As mundane as they may be, the pen holder, ink and paper are essential when signing an armistice. Some of these objects were collected by direct witnesses, then jealously guarded by the families, before being donated to the national collections.

The post « 1918, armistice(s) », episode 21 first appeared on The News blog.

War repairs

Delivery and return of equipment

This aspect was crucial for the Allies and associates, as it was both about preventing Germany from returning to war, about starting to rebuild the devastated areas, and about ensuring everyone’s place in the economic recovery.

The 1918 Armistice Conventions contained all clauses relating to the return or delivery to the winners of materials related to war, transport, communications or agriculture. These clauses, military and naval, were detailed in particular in the armistice signed at Villa Giusti on 3 November 1918, between the Allied and associated powers and Austria-Hungary, and in the Rethondes armistice signed on 11 November 1918, on behalf of the Allied and associated powers.

The delivery of equipment and the demilitarisation of the German army, which began in December 1918, were thus subject to numerous clauses in the Rethondes Armistice Convention, some of which were even specified or modified in the extensions: 11 November 1918, articles IV, VI, VII, XXII, XXVIII; Annex 1, article III; Annex 2, articles II and IV; extension of 16 January 1919, article III. These clauses reveal both the difficulty of the Germans in meeting certain demands and that of the Allies and associates in agreeing on these questions. These differences are even more blatant with the peace treaties and, in particular, the Treaty of  Versailles.

Execution

Initially, German troops, who evacuated the occupied or invaded territories to return to Germany, abandoned military equipment for lack of time and resources.

Then, in accordance with the armistice clauses, the German High Command sent its men to hand over military vehicles, weapons and equipment to the Allies.  Thus, from as early as 4 December in Strasbourg, German officers delivered German army trucks to French officers.

The post « 1918, armistice(s) », episode 20 first appeared on The News blog.

Demobilisation

From the armistice, the period of demobilization, with its joys, but also its lulls, its offences, etc., began for more than four million French soldiers. While England gave priority to the needs of the economy, the demobilisation of the French took place by age group.

Mobilised for liberated, reintegrated and occupied areas

In application of the Armistice Treaty, it was essential that military pressure be maintained and the withdrawal of German troops controlled, that stability be ensured by maintaining order, administrative continuity guaranteed, aid provided to the people, reconstruction and so on. The men still mobilised, among Allies and partners, were assigned to those tasks. Their fashion show, their daily presence, particularly in Alsace-Lorraine and Rhineland, make it possible both to show a force that is still active and dissuasive but also to postpone, especially for the French, the return of a mass of men whose reintegration must be ensured in a civil society that had functioned without them for more than four years. Lastly, the war continued on other fronts, in the Levant, in Russia and in Eastern and Central Europe.

From Autumn 1918 to Spring 1920…

The means of transport and funding to carry out the demobilisation were also lacking, particularly for overseas soldiers.  During the demobilisation, carried out in multiple stages, the combatant, valid or invalid, returned his military equipment and received in exchange a scallop note and compensation and, if he wished, an Adrian helmet, a plaque engraved with the words “Soldier of the Great War 1914-1918” and a civilian suit called “Abrami suit” or 52 francs if he did not wish for the latter.

The post « 1918, armistice(s) », episode 19 first appeared on The News blog.

The prisoners return

With the announcement of each armistice, an important change in situation began for many people: civilian refugees, for example, having fled their territory occupied by their adversary and/or devastated by war, had to choose, if possible, to return or remain where they had found refuge. The fate of prisoners of war was directly tied to the signed convention, but also to military, political, economic, etc. constraints.

War prisoners

Their return is generally made in several stages. Whether returning by their own means or following a special procedure, due to their military status, they had to first go to the military authorities of their own country. For France, from 30 November 1918, it was General Dupont who organised the repatriation of more than 500,000 French prisoners held in Germany. In the camps where all nationalities were present, the situation was explosive. The operation ended in mid-January 1919.

First, prisoners of war were grouped together to undergo medical examinations. They were then directed to a barrack where were required to complete a questionnaire, including in particular, questions about the origin of their captivity. Depending on their nationality and military status – a distinction was made between career soldiers and mobilised soldiers – they went on leave to see their families, for about a month, in the case of the French. The latter were generally automatically reassigned to the Depot of their weapon in the recruitment district to which they belonged until they were demobilised. The British and Americans prisoners, fewer in number, were relatively quickly repatriated. The same could not be said of the Russians, for instance, held in Germany as workers after the signing of the Brest-Litovsk armistice, sometimes until 1922. Due to political developments in the country, the prisoners’ return was not always desired by the Russian authorities.

The return of prisoners to civilian life was a new struggle for men who generally traumatised by the experience of captivity, often suspected of having taken shelter away from the war, having made a deal with the enemy… Society in general put them aside by treating them differently from other former combatants.

German prisoners of war

The case of German prisoners held in France until the beginning of 1920 is the subject of intense German and French propaganda which resulted in isolation for France vis-à-vis its international partners. France held around 400,000 German soldiers hostage, as a guarantee, until the signing of the Treaty of Versailles (1919), then pending payment of compensation and the dispatch of workers. They were used as cheap labour to rebuild areas devastated by the war and carry out thankless and dangerous tasks. These prisoners would harbour a deep resentment against France.

The post « 1918, armistice(s) », episode 18 first appeared on The News blog.

Occupation

From the end of November 1918, Allied and associated troops entered Germany, though the occupation would not start until December.

It began with a show of strength as troops paraded in front of the Allied and/or associated military authority, an event to which the local population was “convened” by poster. Symbolic gestures were made, such as that of General Degoutte, who, in December, delivered his speech in front of the tomb of Charlemagne in Aachen; General Plumer, head of the 2nd British army, attended the march of troops, on 12 December, in front of the statue of Prince Hohenzollern of Prussia.

The military authority met with the city’s civilian leaders. The occupying troops were set up in buildings that were already built or remained to be built, sometimes with the financial aid or labour of the city. The Occupant’s flag was omnipresent in the city.

The military authority could intervene in the daily life of the city by adding street or building plaques in the language of the occupants; by organising cultural events, like General Fayolle who, at the beginning of January, gave a series of public concerts and an exhibition on the traces left by the French Revolution and the First Empire in the region. It could also signal its presence by setting up trophies, such as cannons, taken from opponents, or machines testifying to its power, such as tanks, on symbolic or very frequent places.

The occupation was generally little appreciated by the people, especially as the country’s western border had not been crossed during the four years of war.

The post « 1918, armistice(s) », episode 17 first appeared on The News blog.

In the wake of the Russian February and October revolutions and the signing of the Treaty of Brest Litovsk between Russia and the Central Powers on 3 March 1918, fighting seemed to be diminishing in the east despite the Russian Civil War. However, in the west, the signing of this treaty allowed Germany to redeploy 50 divisions to the Western Front. From the 21 March, fighting became fiercer, and in spring Germany launched a series of short-lived attacks. In August 1918, the allied forces launched a counterattack and forced the German Empire into negotiating an armistice that was finalised on 11 November 1918.

While fighting between the warring parties came to an end in the west, a loose conglomeration of internal disturbances, sometimes in the form of civil wars and international conflicts, arose between the new countries created by the breakdown of the former Russian, Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian and German empires that followed their military setbacks. This situation resulted in violence and instability, whose repercussions can still be seen today. Under these circumstances, the resolution of the First World War turned out to be as complex as it was fragile. Various treaties were drawn up following hard-fought negotiations and were soon contested. The Treaty of Sèvres, signed on 10 August 1920 by Turkey and the Allies, was extensively amended and then replaced by the Treaty of Lausanne, signed on 24 July 1923.

The exhibition sets out to trace the difficult path taken in the east, from Finland to Lebanon, between 1918 and 1923, as the former empires gave way to new nation-states, and the various revolutions and counter-revolutions sparked the emergence of totalitarian radicalisation. It shows how, in this troubled context, France tried, with some difficulty, to put its military dominance to use in bringing stability to the region within a complex partnership of allies.

While we often think of the Treaty of Versailles, signed on 28 June 1919, as bringing the First World War to an end, the exhibition draws visitors’ attention to the east, giving them a better understanding of the issues and features of the many crises that followed on the heels of the Great War.

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Patronage

The exhibition is under the patronage of Emmanuel Macron, President of the French Republic.

Institutional partners

The exhibition is organized with the support of CIC, a key partner to the Musée de l’Armée, and the First World War Centenary Partnership Program, and in partnership with the diplomatic archives of the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, Gaumont Pathé Archives, ECPAD, the Service historique de la Défense and the musée départemental Albert-Kahn, Département des Hauts-de-Seine.

The post “In the East War without End, 1918-1923” from 5 October 2018 to 20 January 2019 first appeared on The News blog.