André Auguste Edouard Hirschauer
André Auguste Edouard Hirschauer (born June 16, 1857 in Saint-Avold , Moselle department , France; † December 27, 1943 in Versailles , Yvelines, France) was a French general de division in World War I and from 1920 to 1936 representative of Lorraine in Senate.
In his book “Germany's War in the Air. A review of the development and performance of our Army Air Forces in World War II, "which he created in 1921 in the first edition of" [...] the memory of the German air force "dedicated, General writes the cavalry Ernst von Hoeppner ," during the war commissioned taking care of the business of the Commanding General of the Air Force ”and“ Our main adversary, France, was way ahead of us in this respect. A tight organization under the purposeful direction of General Hirschauer provided foresighted and active development on a broad basis ”.
Life
André Auguste Edouard Hirschauer was born the son of Charles Edouard Hirschauer, Police Commissioner, from Mulhouse in Alsace and his wife Julie Dufour, from Embry , Pas de Calais. The couple had settled in Saint-Avold since October 1, 1856.
After a short schooling in Saint-Avold, André Auguste Edouard Hirschauer chose a military career. After 1870 the family left Saint-Avold, as the city had fallen to the German Empire .
career
As a young captain , Hirschauer married Marie Elisabeth Claire Joséphine Goussel in Pagny-sur-Moselle (Département Meurthe et Moselle) in 1883, born in Metz on November 24, 1858. The church wedding took place in Metz in the Sainte-Ségolène church.
Hirschauer died in Versailles at the age of 86 and found his final resting place in the family crypt in the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris.
The city of Saint-Avold honored him by naming a street after him in 1918 and by putting a plaque on the house where he was born in 1958 on the occasion of his 100th birthday.
In the service of French military aviation
Hirschauer was accepted into the École polytechnique , then he attended the weapons school of the pioneers and was then promoted to lieutenant in the 1st Pioneer Regiment of Versailles. In 1881 he proved his skills during a campaign in the south of Oran , Algeria. Promoted to Capitaine (1883), he then served on the General Staff in Lille , Nord Département , before being appointed professor at the Officers School of Saint-Cyr , Yvelines, in 1888. He was then transferred to the Navy College.
Once again he graduated from the War Academy ( École supérieure de guerre ) as the best in his year and received the General Staff Certificate (Brevet d'Etat Major). Before that he was head of the cabinet of General Raoul Le Mouton de Boisdeffre , head of the Army General Staff. As such, he carried out special assignments on behalf of the government, for example in the Balkans, Turkey and Africa.
After returning to France, he turned to military aviation and tried to adapt the newly developed weapon to modern combat. From now on he was recognized as the "father of the air force". After several command posts as lieutenant colonel and colonel in Arras , Pas de Calais and Lille, he was promoted to major general and appointed permanent inspector of military aviation.
Military aviation
In 1886, four airship companies were formed, one in each of the first four engineer regiments. From 1900 they were brought together in Versailles and formed the 25th Engineer Battalion there under the direction of Hirschauer. These airship companies comprised the entire staff of the dragon balloons (Cerf-Volants), the tethered balloons and the airships themselves. It was planned that they would be increased to eight companies in the event of mobilization, including four field airship companies and four fortress airship companies operating in Verdun, Toul , Épinal and Belfort were stationed.
Kite balloons are used in stronger winds when tethered balloons cannot be raised. But just like these, the dragons allow observations to be carried out (terrain, enemy, friend), to locate the enemy artillery batteries (firing fire), to determine the marches or the troop gatherings and finally also to assign the battle positions or battle facilities, field fortifications, obstacles, etc. in order to then shoot in their own artillery and control their fire via telecommunication connection.
In September 1909 ( Louis Blériot was the first to fly over the English Channel on January 25 of the same year) General Pierre Auguste Roques , Inspector of the Pioneers, ordered the five first flying machines (then called aerostats) for the army and looked for suitable personnel to control them . In homage to Clément Ader , he decided on November 29, 1911 that from now on they should be referred to as airplanes ( avions ).
Use in the First World War
In 1914, Hirschauer was the commander of a pioneer brigade consisting of the 5th and 8th engineer regiments in Versailles. He was appointed Chief of Staff of the Paris Fortress and worked there under the orders of Major General Galliéni (who was posthumously appointed Marshal of France ).
Hirschauer then spent four months in the War Ministry as head of the “Airship” department. In the summer of 1915 he promised the military doctor Edmund L. Gros the creation of a squadron consisting of the Americans serving in the French Air Force, the later Escadrille La Fayette .
From September 1915 he was in command of the 29th Infantry Brigade, the 63rd Infantry Division, the XVIII. Army Corps, the IX. Army Corps and finally the 2nd Army . He took part in the battles of the Ourcq , Champagne (1915) and Verdun (1916).
In 1917 he captured Craonne on the Chemin des Dames and then returned to Verdun at the end of the same year and finally invaded Mulhouse on November 25, 1918.
After the armistice, he was appointed governor of Strasbourg, then retired in 1919 after 45 years of service.
medal
In 1920 the government made him bearer of the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor and awarded him the Médaille Militaire . Fourteen states, including England, the United States of America, and Japan, honored him by awarding him their highest military medals.
Hirschauer and politics
On August 24, 1919, he received President Raymond Poincaré in his hometown . He ran for senator of the department of Moselle and on January 11, 1920 he was elected with 735 votes in the 1st ballot on the list "Union Républicaine Lorraine" (Union of the Lorraine Republicans). He was re-elected in 1924 and 1932.
In the House of Senators in the “Palais du Luxembourg” he presented the budget of civil and military aviation and later that of the Air Force, which was founded on April 1, 1932 under the Minister of Aviation Pierre Cot . Several magazines turned to him to publish his contributions, in particular La Revue des Deux Mondes (Rundschau der Zwei Welten), for which he wrote mainly reports on aviation.
General Hirschauer's four sons also all served in the French Air Force.
Web links
- Literature by and about André Auguste Edouard Hirschauer in the SUDOC catalog (Association of French University Libraries)
- Biography on www.senat.franz./3e. republique
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hirschauer, André Auguste Edouard |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French general de division in the First World War |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 16, 1857 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Saint-Avold , Moselle department, France |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 27, 1943 |
| Place of death | Versailles , Yvelines department, France |