Edmond Buat

Edmond Buat, 1921

Edmond Alphonse Léon Buat (born September 17, 1868 in Châlons-sur-Marne , † December 30, 1923 in Paris ) was a French officer, most recently Général d'armée , participant in the First World War and chief of staff of the French army from 1920 to his Death.

Life

Buat was born as the son of an officer in the engineering troop and later knight of the Legion of Honor , his mother came from Lorraine . He received a school education in Nantes and completed it with the Baccalauréat in Rennes . In 1887 he entered the École polytechnique in preparation for a military career and, after graduating in 1889, chose the artillery as a branch of service. He came first as a Sous-lieutenant at the École d'application de l'artillerie et du génie in Versailles and in 1891 to the 12th Artillery Regiment in Vincennes . In 1893 he married the daughter of a brigadier general of the artillery. From 1895 to 1897 he attended the École supérieure de guerre and completed the course as second best in his class and with the rank of captain . After two years of service with the 25th Artillery Regiment in his hometown, in 1900 he was appointed orderly officer of the commander of the 6th Infantry Brigade. In the following year he became the orderly officer of the new commander of the École supérieure de guerre , Henri Bonnal , and later he served in the same position with the governor general of Lyon and the member of the council supérieur de la guerre , general Henri de Lacroix . From 1909 to 1911 he was a commandant in command of a division of the 25th Artillery Regiment, before becoming sub-cabinet chief and in 1912 cabinet chief in the War Ministry. In 1913 he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel and appointed visiting professor of military history and strategy and tactics at the Ecole supérieure de guerre .

During the mobilization for the First World War, Buat was initially assigned to the operations department in the Grand Quartier Général . After just a few days, he was sent to Alsace as chief of staff to the Armée d'Alsace under General Paul Pau . After their dissolution he was again head of cabinet of the Minister of War Alexandre Millerand . In November 1915 he took over the 245th Infantry Brigade and from January to May 1916 was assistant to the chief of staff for operations outside France, Maurice Pellé , in the Grand Quartier Général. He then served as commander of the 7th Infantry Brigade and the 121st Infantry Division and, from January 1917, as commander of the General Reserve of Heavy Artillery (RGAL). This was steadily expanded as a main weapon in the offensives in trench warfare . From February 1918 Buat commanded successively the 33rd Infantry Division, the XVII. Army Corps and from June 1918 briefly the 5th Army . At the beginning of July 1918 he was appointed Chief of Staff to Commander-in-Chief Philippe Pétain and was one of the main organizers of the Allied final offensives, known as the Hundred Days Offensive , for which he was honored with numerous domestic and foreign awards.

He described the terms of the Compiègne armistice as oppressive and dishonorable for the defeated enemy and at the same time expected a new war against Germany within 20 to 30 years. He therefore set himself the task of rebuilding the French army taking into account new military-technical developments, whereby he had to assert himself against the rather conservative military-political establishment. Appointed Chief of Staff of the Army in January 1920, in addition to these organizational tasks, he had to deal with issues relating to the occupation in the Rhineland, Silesia and the Memelland as well as supporting the allied Poland . He died in December 1923 at the age of 55 as a result of an operation and was buried in Nantes on the Cimetière Miséricorde. Buat had kept an extensive diary from 1914 until shortly before his death and was the author of numerous works on military history and theory.

literature

• Edmond Buat: Journal du général Buat, 1914–1923 , edited by Frédéric Guelton, Perrin / Ministère de la défense, Paris 2015, ISBN 978-2-262-03839-7 .

Web links

Commons : Edmond Buat  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Biography on archives.nantes.fr