In 1912, de Gaulle graduated with honors from the military academy and chose to go to the 33rd Infantry Regiment in Pétain. In his opinion, the next war is likely to take place in the north. Since both de Gaulle and Pétain were from the north, both were Catholic, and especially on military points of view, they soon became friends. But soon Pétain was transferred away.
Lieutenant de Gaulle, who remained, trained and studied tactics as always, and with the intuition of a soldier, he thought that war was coming, and he was eager to make a contribution, worthy of his status as a French nobleman. Soon, the First World War broke out, which excited de Gaulle, but for 4 years of the war, he only participated in "4 months".
De Gaulle, who had just entered the battlefield, saw the cruelty of war.
According to the battle plan of the French high command, de Gaulle's unit was ordered to cross the Belgian border and attack Germany. Unexpectedly, the German troops carrying out the "Schlieffen Plan" collided head-on, "the enemy met each other, the eyes were extremely red", the two armies began a fierce fight, the sound of gunfire masked the shouts of wounded soldiers, and both sides suffered heavy losses.
De Gaulle, for the first time, faced with a tragic war scene, did not seem to be too uncomfortable, but more courageously charged. However, the "big man" who was more than 2 meters tall became the best target for the opponent, a bullet hit his thigh, and when he returned to the army after 3 months of hospitalization, the German and French armies formed a stalemate and turned into trench warfare and position warfare.
Because the "big man" was too easy to "attract" bullets, the colonel left de Gaulle with him as assistant to the regimental commander. A month later, a piece of shrapnel hit his left hand, the injury was minor, but the wound became infected and had to be hospitalized again. Three months later, when returning to the unit, he was awarded the rank of captain and could command a company.
In February 1916, the German army launched a surprise attack on the Verdun area of the Western Front, and the French defense line was divided into several sections, and the situation was extremely critical. So, de Gaulle's 33rd Regiment went to the battlefield of Verdun, and the land full of bomb craters was full of corpses and rats, as if it were hell on earth. This is the famous "Verdun meat grinder" in World War I.
With the rumbling of artillery, the Germans began to attack, and the French suffered heavy losses. Before de Gaulle could wake up from the sound of the gunfire, the Germans had surrounded his company. The two sides engaged in a white-knife battle, his thigh was stabbed with a bayonet, and he fell unconscious with poison, and the regimental commander clearly saw in the telescope that de Gaulle's company was "completely annihilated".
The news of de Gaulle's death made Pétain, then commander of the Verdun Theater of Operations, sadden, and "posthumously awarded" him a cross. However, the "fateful" de Gaulle did not die, and when he woke up from his coma, he was surrounded by German soldiers who had just fought with his bayonet. This injury made him a German prisoner and has since been away from the battlefield.
Never yielding, de Gaulle began a "prison break" life.
De Gaulle, who had become a prisoner of war, was extremely depressed, and before his goal of success could be achieved, he stayed away from the battlefield. What made him even more unbearable was that it was a shameful thing for a nobleman to become a prisoner of war and a disgrace to the family. De Gaulle, who refused to obey others since childhood, decided to prove his "never yield" with practical actions - "prison escape".
However, he plotted 7 "escapes" that all failed, and became the focus of the camp's prevention. To prevent him from escaping, de Gaulle was constantly converted to a prisoner-of-war camp. Although the replacement of the prisoner of war camp, the level of prevention is getting higher and higher, but it still can not erase his single-minded desire to "go out".
The funniest one was de Gaulle's first "jailbreak". At that time, he was locked up in a makeshift shelter, and when the guards were not paying attention, he stole a set of German clothing in an attempt to fool him. Who knows, he is too tall, the sleeves are only up to the elbows, the pants are only up to the knees, very funny. I didn't run very far before I was caught.
The closest he came to success was his third "jailbreak." He swallowed frostbite ointment, pretended to have jaundice, and was admitted to a prison hospital. With the help of a prisoner of war, the two walked out of the hospital and headed straight for the Swiss border, where they lived freely for 8 days. Just less than 100 kilometres from the border, it was discovered and sent back to the POW camp.
De Gaulle's repeated "escapes" became a well-known figure in the prisoner of war camp, and it was the focus of the German military administrators to prevent him, and his punishment became more and more severe. Returning to the POW camp, de Gaulle faced a two-month "little black house" with only half an hour of outdoor activity every day, but he was still planning a "prison escape".
As world war I drew to a close, relations between France and Germany tended to ease. The managers of the German prisoner-of-war camps also seemed to have relaxed their vigilance against de Gaulle and were no longer too concerned about his "prison escape". Because, in their opinion, the "big man" of more than 2 meters will attract attention everywhere, and it will be discovered sooner or later.
Sure enough, his "big man" and his strange conversation made de Gaulle not go far before he was found and sent back to the prisoner of war camp. During the First World War, which lasted for more than four years, de Gaulle was hospitalized for 9 months due to his wounds and spent another 3 years and 3 months in a prisoner-of-war camp, and his actual participation in the war was only 4 months.
In addition to the "prison break", de Gaulle is also full of harvest.
Life in a prisoner-of-war camp was undoubtedly the darkest day for de Gaulle, who was active in his thinking and liked to do as he pleased. In addition to planning a "jailbreak" every day, there is "plenty of time" to make friends, analyze opponents, and study tactics. This accumulated many valuable resources for him to become president of France in the future.
Second, read books and newspapers, have time to think. The greatest advantage of being a prisoner of war was the ability to read German newspapers every day, which was the best way for the thoughtful de Gaulle to keep an eye on the progress of the war and understand his opponents. He made many excerpts and completed his first book, Tilting Within the Enemy, analyzing the intrigues within the German army.
More importantly, de Gaulle devoted himself to the study of the strategies and tactics of various countries in world war I, especially the role of tanks in future wars, and carried out a lot of predictive theoretical research. In his view, the "master" of the future battlefield must be a large-scale tank force, which is why he strongly advocated the establishment of armored forces after the war.
De Gaulle was most willing to give strategy lessons or situation reports to the POW officers. He used his rich knowledge of military history to introduce the tactical characteristics of the French army and analyze the direction of the war situation in combination with the ongoing war, as if he were a history class "professor". At the same time, it also satisfies his sense of "nobility" who likes to "preach".
Although the POW officers admired de Gaulle's astonishing memory, profound knowledge, and calm, sane virtues. But he also found that he was cold, stubborn, especially when expressing opinions, not allowing others to argue, his tone was arbitrary, and his attitude was arrogant and difficult to approach. Thus, in the prisoner-of-war camp, he had a new nickname " Grand Marshal " .
Characters like charles de Gaulle are difficult to promote in peacetime. If it were not for a group of suffering comrades he knew in the prisoner-of-war camp and actively responded to his call, it would have been difficult to have the famous "Free France Movement"; if it were not for him at the crucial moment, he would have raised the "great banner" of resistance against Germany, and presumably there would have been no future French president. From this point of view, life in a prisoner-of-war camp is still worth it.
What do you think? Discussions and comments are welcome.
References: The Complete History of World War II, De Gaulle
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