FR tireurs
As Francs-tireurs [ fʁɑtiʁœʁ ] or franc-tireur ( French open shooters ) during the were Franco-German War erected 1870-71 French volunteer corps called. During the First and Second World Wars , French and Belgian partisans were also known as Francs-tireurs.
Franco-German War
Already at the time when Marshal Niel was preparing the reorganization of the French army, shooting societies were formed in France under the name “Sociétés des Francs-Tireurs”, which were armed with the most advanced Chassepot rifles at the time , held regular shooting training and selected their own officers. The Francs-Tireurs existed alongside the line troops and the Mobile Guard and were supposed to serve to lead the so-called small war .
Such societies were formed in large numbers in the departments of Aisne , Meurthe , Moselle , Vosges , Haut-Rhin and Bas-Rhin . However, contrary to the wishes of the government, they remained completely independent and without any involvement in the army.
After the French declaration of war on Prussia in 1870, the French army suddenly found itself on the defensive. During the advance of the German troops called a decree of the Emperor Napoléon III. the franc-tireurs to arms. Official estimates spoke of a total of around 57,600 mobilized franc-tireurs, which had also been joined by foreign adventurers and sympathizers. Among the German soldiers, the Franc-tireurs became an enemy, as they attacked the German supply lines without uniforms and often from ambushes and with acts of sabotage. The battle for Bazeilles as part of the Battle of Sedan , in which French civilians also took part, became a symbol of the warfare of the Franc-tireurs. The German Commander-in-Chief Helmuth von Moltke stipulated that the Franc-tireurs should not be treated as combatants but should be shot dead. He later expanded his orders to the effect that in retaliation for the attacks by the Franc-tireurs, entire villages involved should be destroyed.
During the German occupation of France, the Third French Republic continued this type of warfare. When Léon Gambetta called for a general revolt against the German troops in mid-September 1870, the number of franc tireurs increased significantly and again forced the Germans to send stronger detachments, which significantly weakened the actual field army.
A government decree of the Minister of War of September 29th placed the Francs-tireurs under his authority and by the decree of November 4, 1870, they were assigned to the army corps or the territorial divisions. The military successes of the franc tireurs were on the whole manageable. Railroad facilities were attacked and destroyed several times, such as on January 22nd, 1871 at Fontenoy-sur-Moselle , where the bridge over the Moselle was blown up and the important railway line was interrupted for several weeks.
First World War
During the German advance through Belgium in 1914, local and French snipers were known as Franc-tireurs. This often led to misunderstandings; if a gunshot was noticed somewhere, the soldiers panicked and searched for the guilty, often innocent civilians were executed. One of the worst incidents of this kind was the Dinant massacre on August 23, 1914. Whether there was any major partisan activity in Belgium at all is controversial today among historians. After the war, the former chief of staff, Erich Ludendorff, described the problems with the franc tireurs from his point of view. In My War Memories, 1914–1918, he justified the German approach.
Resistance
During the German occupation of France 1940-1944 there were the groups
- Franc-Tireur headed by Jean-Pierre Lévy and the
- Francs-tireurs et partisans , abbreviated to FTP,
who led the armed struggle against the German occupying power.
See also
literature
- John Horne , Alan Kramer : German Atrocities, 1914: A History of Denial. Yale University Press, New Haven 2001.
- Ulrich Keller : Questions of guilt. Belgian underground war and German retaliation in August 1914. Ferdinand Schönigh, Paderborn 2017, ISBN 978-3-506-78744-6 .
- Heidi Mehrkens: change of status. War experience and national perception in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71. Klartext, Essen 2008.
- Katja Mitze: "The world has not seen anything like this since the Babylonian captivity." French prisoners of war and Franctireurs in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71. In: Rüdiger Overmans (ed.): In the hand of the enemy. Captivity from antiquity to World War II. Cologne 1999, pp. 235-254.
- Mark R. Stoneman: The Bavarian Army and French Civilians in the War of 1870-71. Master's thesis, University of Augsburg, 1994 .
- Gunter Spraul : The Franktireurkrieg 1914. Investigations on the decline of a science and on dealing with national myths. Frank and Timme, Berlin 2016.
- Mark R. Stoneman: The Bavarian Army and French Civilians in the War of 1870-1871. A Cultural Interpretation. War in History 8.3 (2001), pp. 271-293.
- Mark R. Stoneman: The German atrocities in the war of 1870/71 using the example of Bavaria. In: Sönke Neitzel and Daniel Hohrath (eds.): War atrocities: The delimitation of violence in armed conflicts from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2008, pp. 223-239.
Web links
- Swiss Military Criminal Law, Art. 88 (Franktireur)
- The Franc Tireurs on www.GiBS.info; accessed on August 4, 2020
Individual evidence
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica , 1911
- ↑ Michael Eliot Howard: The Franco-Prussian War. The German Invasion of France, 1870-1871. Routledge, London 2001, pp. 251 f. and 378 f.
- ↑ On the thesis that the German troops mostly only imagined the “Franc-tireurs” because of enemy images and exaggerated fears, cf. John Horne, Alan Kramer: German war atrocities 1914. The controversial truth. Hamburg 2004.
- ↑ Critical of this is the review by Peter Hoeres in sehepunkte and now also Gunter Spraul, Der Franktireurkrieg 1914. Berlin 2016.