Louis Loyzeau de Grandmaison

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Louis Loyzeau de Grandmaison

François-Jules- Louis Loyzeau de Grandmaison (also written Loyseau ; born January 21, 1861 in Le Mans , † February 18, 1915 at Soissons ) was a French officer, most recently General de division in World War I , and military theorist. His name is often associated with the military doctrine of the offensive à outrance (Eng. "Offensive to the extreme").

Life

Loyzeau de Grandmaison came from an old French bourgeois family. He attended the Saint-Cyr military school from 1881 to 1883 and was then assigned as a sous-lieutenant to the 20e bataillon de chasseurs à pied stationed in Rouen . Around 1892 he came as a captain to the 1st régiment étranger in Sidi bel Abbès in French North Africa. After Tonkin been detached, he commanded there 1894-1895 the region Đồng Đăng on the Chinese border. In the following year he came to the 131e regiment d'infanterie in Orléans and in the same year was accepted as a knight in the Legion of Honor . In 1898 he was admitted to the École supérieure de guerre , where he studied with Ferdinand Foch , among others , and in 1900 became battalion commander.

Appointed to the General Staff of the Army in 1906, he became head of the 3rd Bureau of the War Ministry in October 1908 , responsible for operations. In this role he gave two lectures at the École de guerre on military doctrine in the spring of 1911 , which established his reputation as a pioneer of the offensive à outrance . With them he also promoted a "rebellion of the Young Turks" in the French military leadership against the rather defensive plans of the then Commander-in-Chief Victor-Constant Michel , which eventually led to his replacement by General Joffre .

In 1911, Grandmaison was colonel in command of the 153e regiment d'infanterie in Toul , one of the regiments intended for the immediate defense of the border with Germany. At the beginning of the World War Grandmaison was seriously wounded in the Battle of Lorraine near Morhange . In October 1914 he was appointed commander of the 53rd Division and promoted to brigadier general. From January 1915 he led the 5e groupe de divisions de réserve , at the head of which he fell on February 18 at Soissons in the winter battle in Champagne .

Fonts

  • En territoire militaire. L'expansion française au Tonkin. Paris 1898.
  • Dressage de l'infanterie en vue du combat offensive. Paris 1906.
  • Two conférences faites aux officiers de l'État-major de l'armée, February 1911. La notion de sûreté et l'engagement des grandes unités. Paris 1911.

literature

Web links