Paths of Glory: The French Army 1914-18

by Anthony Clayton

World War I from the French point of view: the first ever account in English

Anthony Clayton is an acknowledged expert on the French military and his book is a major contribution to the study and understanding of the First World War. He reveals why and how the French army fought as it did. He profiles its senior commanders - Joffre, Petain, Nivelle and Foch - and analyses its major campaigns both on the Western Front and in the Near East and Africa.

PATHS OF GLORY also considers in detail the officers, how they kept their trenches and how men from very different areas of France fought and died together. He scrutinises the make-up and performance of France's large colonial armies and investigates the mutinies of 1917. Ultimately, he reveals how the traumatic French experience of the 1914-18 war indelibly shaped a nation.

Genres: Military History, History, World War I, Nonfiction, France, 20th Century, Military Fiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2003

About the author

Anthony Clayton was Senior Lecturer at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst from 1965 until 1994. One of Britain's leading military historians, he earned a Diploma in French from the University Paris in 1947, a Master of Arts in History from the University St. Andrews in 1951, and a Doctor of Philosophy in History from the University St. Andrews in 1970. He was made a Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Palmes Academiques in 1988 in recognition of his expertise in French military history.

Reviews

[A.L. Sowards · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book begins with this quote: "On 29 October 1914, Captain Jolivet, a pharmacist from Chateaudun serving with the 268th Infantry Regiment near Zillebeke, saved the life of a British Royal Artillery forward observation officer. Badly wounded, the British officer had managed to crawl back to the French lines after being struck down. The British officer was my father." The author has some emotional investment in the French WWI Army, and I liked that.

This is a good overview of the French Army during WWI, and I liked that the author tried to show the army without looking at them through the lens of WWII. The book isn't long enough to go into great depth on anything, but it is nice to have an English-language book focusing on the French Army rather than the British or the Americans. (The book is mostly in English. There were numerous untranslated French quotes, but I have no idea what they said.)

3.5 stars, rounding up. I read the first half of this book, then set it aside for a while to read some other books. For some reason, when I came back to it, it wasn't as enjoyable as I remembered. It times it felt like work to read it, rather than enjoyment, but I definitely learned a few things.

[John Somers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very easy to read book on the french army in world war 1. While I wasn' t terribly impressed with the historical accounts of each years manouvers the chapters for 1916,17 &18 are followed by chapters on the morale, strategy, tactics and equipment at that time and these are excellent. I also really enjoyed the opening chapter which explained the tactics and strategy employed by the french at the beginning of the war along with their equipment (red trousers) and how it had been affected by politics and even religion in the government and high command. Chapter 11 where he discusses the aftermath of the war particularly its effect on the french conduct of World War 2 was also quite interesting.

[Ria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clayton aims to show how badly equipped and even trained French solders were in WWI as opposed to the Brits or the Germans.
Battling on regardless against tide suffering the lack of basics such as good quality uniforms, weapons even food.
Eventually, drained by lack of morale, struck by devastating losses their fight ended in mutiny in 1917.
Marshals Petain and Foch were ultimately instrumental in driving them onto victory with new found faith.
Exhaustively researched and with a wealth of historical detail this will appeal to any WW enthusiast.
For me, not being at all an expert I found some of the information fascinating yet at times this was rather high brow and bits went over my head due to the extensive battle detail etc.
Frankly I really do think to give this full justice you really need to be a die hard expert in the field and have huge knowledge of the period and of military tactics.
Overall a good read but not necessarily a great read for someone who is not well versed in the subject.

[Stephen Bywater · Rating 2 out of 5]

Comprehensive account of the French Army's response to WWI. Generals and tactics, rather than the experience of the ordinary soldier. War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing! Say it again. It ain't nothing but a heart-breaker, friend only to the undertaker.

[Derek Weese · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the reasons I avoided studying WWI for so long was because of the lack of focus on anything other than the BEF in English language works. My own interests tend to wander towards the Germans and the French (as well as the Russians) in the First World War as well as the Second. So it was with some bit of joy that I discovered this book as I have, finally, decided to give some serious reading time to the First World War.
First off this was not a bad book, but as you can see I only gave it three stars. I did this for three reasons.
1- First of all this book is simply way too short to be anything more than a primer, and a shallow one at that too. It's well written and certainly informative and I, in the main, agree with the authors analysis. It's just too short.
2- This is a subjective personal bias, but I'm still going to mention it. The accounts of the actual military operations undertaken by the French Army were sidelined for the political and doctrinal accounts in the narrative. I enjoyed the political narratives as well as the narrative on the French Army's evolving doctrine. However, this book, as mentioned above, was simply too short to not spend more time on the great battles that the French fought. Had more time been spent on the actual individual operations and battles fought by the French Army, I feel that the political narrations as well as the discussion on the evolving doctrine applies by French commanders would have been better underpinned.
3- Finally very little time was spent discussing their enemy: the Germans. Granted this was a book about the French Army, and too bad there aren't more written on the subject that aren't predominantly photo-books meant for coffee tables. Still the little attention given to the Germans and their own strategic ideas and operations meant that much of what was discussed about the French lacked a sense of focus and seemed to be provided within a vacuum.
Still, this was a good book. it did a good job showing that the French were the key to the Alliance against the Central Powers. If France had fallen, Russia would have fallen soon after (possibly sooner than 1917). it is doubtful that without a major continental power outside of Russia resisting the Germans that the British would have been willing to risk the numerous peripheral operations which helped to wear out all three of the major players in the Central Powers not to mention Britain might have left the war themselves soon thereafter. French soldiers provided the bulk of the Allied mass, even more so than Russia (though not by much) and France (even more so than Russia) lost more men killed in action than anyone else in the entire war. Despite frequent morale problems, a lack of excellent equipment and even heavy weapons till 1916 (though not in large quantities till 1918) as well as a dearth of un-idiotic field leadership the French fought on, even if at times it was in a staggering punch drunk manner. Still, they kept on.
Overall I would recommend this book to someone, but I'm still waiting for a far more lengthy book to highlight the history of the French Army in WWI.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most English-language memoirs and histories of the First World War typically focus on and reflect the experiences of the British “Tommies” on the Western Front. Such an approach often marginalizes the far more critical experience of the French army, which as Anthony Clayton argues diminishes their contribution to Allied victory in the conflict. Clayton’s book is an attempt to rectify this. In a succession of chapters he intersperses a operational narrative of the French army on the Western Front with descriptions of its commanders and their strategies, the soldiers and their equipment, and the challenges they faced in the four years of trench warfare.

All of this serves as an informative summary of the French military experience in the First World War, one that is enjoyably written and generally accessible for the interested reader. Yet the book is not without its flaws. Foremost is its predominant focus on the French military experience in northeastern France. While understandable, Clayton takes this too far by reducing his examination of the army’s involvement on other fronts to a single chapter and generally ignoring the broader context of French politics and society. Civilians are typically addressed only in terms of their direct interactions with the troops, while the heavily politicized world in which the French high command operated is treated often as background noise. Such a narrow approach deprives his analysis of critical elements necessary for understanding the forces at work in the French army during this period.

Also problematic is Clayton’s handling of non-European troops fighting in the French ranks. While acknowledging the presence of thousands of North African, Senegalese, and Indochinese soldiers, the author never gives them the attention he grants to conscripts from France itself, often offering little more than stereotyping claims of questionable veracity. These beg for a reference to Clayton’s source, yet there are no footnotes or endnotes, only a bibliography of the sources used. Such an omission minimizes the utility of the book, one that in the end leaves it to serve as a useful survey of the French army in the First World War and little more.

[Dale · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good introductory work to the French army during the Great War. So, if you are new to the subject and looking for an introduction, this is a good starting point.

However, if you are a reader of Great war or western Front literature in general. You will probably find very little that is new to you in this book. Most works on the Great War that are available in English are focused upon the actions British and empire forces. However, within these works many snippets of information are contained about French forces during the war. This book does a good job of bringing together these snippets and reinforcing the timeline of events.

So, recommended for those looking for an introduction.

Thanks for reading

[Kyle Mackenzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is definitely an old fashioned historian writing an old fashioned style of history. That being said it was a fantastic account for understanding the performance of the French army in the First World War and goes some measure to understanding their Second World War performance. Perhaps if he wasn’t so conservative he’d stop trying to blame it all on ‘dangerous socialist elements’.
I’m glad this era of historian is dying out.

[Matt Caris · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent overview of the French Army in the First World War. Some good detail here I hadn't seen before on equipment, morale, logistics, and political issues, along with a "play the hits" narrative of French Army operations. Decent enough scholarship, but the writing is rather poor, with a lot of tortured sentences with far too many subordinate clauses (to pick one failing). Overall, the book just pales in comparison with Elizabeth Greenhalgh's masterful "The French Army and the First World War" or (for a work on French Army strategy and operations) Robert Doughty's equally impressive "Pyrrhic Victory".

[Russ Spence · Rating 3 out of 5]

A history of the French Army in the First World War, this works well as a guide, but I found it lacking in detail & analysis, and overall, far too short. It could do with being twice the length and more detailed.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read, learnt some facts about the French soldiers daily wine ration!