Charles Mangin

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General Charles Mangin

Charles Marie Emmanuel Mangin (* 6. July 1866 in Sarrebourg , France ; † 12. May 1925 in Paris ) was a French General de division in the First World War .

career

Mangin in Africa

He began his military career at the Saint-Cyr Military School . Mangin served in French Sudan (under Jean-Baptiste Marchand ) at the head of the Senegalese riflemen (French Tirailleurs Sénégalais ) in the Congo-Nile Mission (1898-1900), which led to the Faschoda crisis . In further French West Africa he took part in the conquest of Morocco in 1912 under the command of Hubert Lyautey with the rank of colonel . He distinguished himself in the capture of Marrakech and was one of the main participants in the Moroccan crises (1907-1914) before participating in the World War. Because of his experience in Africa, he advocated the formation of black African troops in the French army (armée noire) .

Service in Europe

Mangin with his staff before Verdun

In August 1913 promoted to Général de brigade and commander of the 8 e brigade d'infanterie, he was appointed interim commander of the 5th Infantry Division from Rouen in the 3rd Army Corps in September. He led the brigade in the battle of the Sambre , the division in the battle of the Marne , the battle of the Aisne and the Artois. In the Battle of Verdun on May 22, 1916, he began a major French attack on Fort Douaumont , in which the German occupation was pushed back into the lowest casemates. In early June 1916, he was appointed commander of the XI. Army Corps appointed. At the side of Robert Nivelle , he led the French recapture attacks near Verdun. His men called him "the butcher" or "blood drunkard" because of his offensive attacks at all costs.

In the spring of 1917 he took part at the head of the 6th Army in the Nivelle offensive (April 16 to May 9, 1917) on the Aisne . But the attack stalled and Mangin was released after the battle. Nivelle was also deposed as Commander-in-Chief in May and replaced by Philippe Pétain . Pétain relied on a more defensive warfare than his predecessor, he succeeded in gradually restoring the morale of the French troops. Mangin was not given command of an army corps again until December 1917.

After Ferdinand Foch was nominated Marshal , Prime Minister Clemenceau brought Mangin back to head an army. In June 1918 he was subordinated to the 10th Army , with which he participated in the defense against the German Matz Offensive and the second Marne Battle (July 15 to August 6, 1918). With the French counter-offensive at Villers-Cotterêts on July 18, 1918, he laid the foundation for his military reputation.

The Invalides in Paris, resting place of famous French military figures (including Napoléon Bonaparte )
The general with his eight children in Mainz

Towards the end of the war he served in Noël de Castelnau's Army Group East and advanced against the fortress of Metz . The armistice made his planned attack in Lorraine superfluous. On November 19 he marched into Metz and by December 11 his troops had advanced to Mainz . On December 14th, the commanding generals Fayolle and Mangin rode into the city. With that, France reoccupied the area west of the Rhine and dreamed again of the dream of a Rhenish republic . Mangin was one of the generals who supported separatist German forces in the Rhineland and the Palatinate with the beginning of this occupation. Ultimately, the German solidarity, established in 1871, could no longer be divided.

In the Grand Dukes General Mangin Quartier participated. From then on, the tricolor fluttered on the roof. Mangin used every opportunity to point out the historical ties that existed between Mainz and France. He became commander in chief of the French occupation army on the Rhine, based in Mainz.

General Mangin instigated a separation coup in Wiesbaden in June 1919 , apparently with the tacit approval of Clemenceau . This putsch venture failed because it had been prepared in an absolutely amateurish way, and Clemenceau had to reprimand his military under pressure from the Allies. This coup attempt was made with the aim of annexing the Rhineland to France after the failure in the Versailles treaty negotiations.

Mangin liked to mingle with the civilian population on market days. At his instigation, the newspapers Le Rhin Illustré / Der Rhein im Bild (bilingual) and L'écho du Rhin (French) were published.

After the war Mangin also became a member of the Supreme War Council and Inspector General of the French colonial troops. He died on May 12, 1925 and rests in the Invalides Cathedral .

The ship General Mangin was named after him.

Awards

Statue 1957 by fr: Raymond Martin (sculpteur) , a 1933 statue by Charles Gern (* 1870 in Kaiserslautern) with the Tirailleurs sénégalais was blown up on June 16, 1940.

Legion Honor GC ribbon.svg Medal militaire ribbon.svg Croix de Guerre 1914-1918 ribbon.svg

World War I Victory Medal ribbon.svg Medal commemorative de la Guerre 1914-1918 ribbon.svg Medal d'Outre-Mer (Coloniale) ribbon.svg

Grande ufficiale SSML Regno BAR.svg US Army Distinguished Service Medal ribbon.svg Order of the Bath UK ribbon.png

French medals

Foreign medals

plant

La Force noire. Hachette, Paris 1910: In this partly autobiographical book, Mangin advocates the rapid and massive deployment of colonial troops, the so-called “black force”, in the event of war.

literature

  • Martin Marix Evans: Battles of World War I. Select Editions, Devizes 2004, ISBN 1-84193-226-4 .

Web links

Commons : Charles Mangin  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Le général Mangin statue détruite en 1940