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Henri Mathias Berthelot
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Henri Mathias Berthelot
Henri Mathias Berthelot (7 December 1861 – 29 January 1931) was a French general during World War I. He held an important staff position under Joseph Joffre, the French commander-in-chief, at the First Battle of the Marne, before later commanding a corps in the front line. In 1917 he helped to rebuild the Romanian Army following its disastrous defeat the previous autumn, then in summer 1918 he commanded French Fifth Army at the Second Battle of the Marne, with some British and Italian troops under his command. In the final days of the war he again returned to Romania, helping fight the Hungarians during the Hungarian–Romanian War and then briefly commanded French intervention forces in southern Russia in the Russian Civil War, fighting the Bolsheviks in Bessarabia (1918).
Appointed a member of the Conseil supérieur de la guerre, he was among the supporters of the decision to build the Maginot Line.
In 1883, after graduating from the Saint-Cyr military academy, Berthelot saw service in Algeria, Tonkin and Annam.
In 1907, he was assigned to the French General Staff. During this period Berthelot worked together with General Joseph Joffre on the French war plan called Plan XVII.
At the outbreak of war in 1914 he was Joffre’s First Sub Chief of Staff (under Major-General (a French term - not a rank but equivalent to the English language title "chief of staff") Emile Belin). Berthelot was in charge of the Second (Intelligence) and Third (Operations) Bureaux; First Bureau (Personnel & Transport of Materiel) and the Direction de l’Arriere (lines of communication) reported to the Second Sub Chief of Staff (General Deprez, replaced in mid-August by Colonel Maurice Pellé, former military attache in Berlin).
The British Commander-in-Chief Sir John French visited GQG on 16 August as British troops were marching towards Belgium, and was impressed by Berthelot’s calm and confidence. Tuchman wrote that Berthelot was “quick and clever, (and) like his British opposite number General Wilson, was an inveterate optimist. He weighed over 230 pounds”. Berthelot discarded his uniform jacket to work in shirt and slippers in the August heat. Like Joffre, Berthelot underestimated German strength. He thought that a German thrust into Belgium would play into French hands by weakening their centre in the Ardennes, where Joffre planned to attack, and even then thought reports of German strength in Belgium greatly exaggerated (20 August).
Berthelot noted British keenness to retreat in his diary (26 and 28 August 1914, after the Battle of Le Cateau), at the very moment the British were bemoaning the French lack of support. Although Berthelot advised waiting a little longer before launching the counterattack which became the First Battle of the Marne, Joseph Gallieni (Military governor of Paris) forced the issue on 4 September by ordering Sixth Army to move into position that day, so that evening orders were sent out for an attack on 6 September. Berthelot complained that British aircraft had been better than French aircraft and cavalry at delivering intelligence.
Like many Allied leaders, Berthelot believed after the victory at the Marne that the war was as good as won. He told Wilson (13 September) that the Allies would be in Elsenborn on the German-Belgian frontier in three weeks (Wilson thought four).
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Henri Mathias Berthelot
Henri Mathias Berthelot (7 December 1861 – 29 January 1931) was a French general during World War I. He held an important staff position under Joseph Joffre, the French commander-in-chief, at the First Battle of the Marne, before later commanding a corps in the front line. In 1917 he helped to rebuild the Romanian Army following its disastrous defeat the previous autumn, then in summer 1918 he commanded French Fifth Army at the Second Battle of the Marne, with some British and Italian troops under his command. In the final days of the war he again returned to Romania, helping fight the Hungarians during the Hungarian–Romanian War and then briefly commanded French intervention forces in southern Russia in the Russian Civil War, fighting the Bolsheviks in Bessarabia (1918).
Appointed a member of the Conseil supérieur de la guerre, he was among the supporters of the decision to build the Maginot Line.
In 1883, after graduating from the Saint-Cyr military academy, Berthelot saw service in Algeria, Tonkin and Annam.
In 1907, he was assigned to the French General Staff. During this period Berthelot worked together with General Joseph Joffre on the French war plan called Plan XVII.
At the outbreak of war in 1914 he was Joffre’s First Sub Chief of Staff (under Major-General (a French term - not a rank but equivalent to the English language title "chief of staff") Emile Belin). Berthelot was in charge of the Second (Intelligence) and Third (Operations) Bureaux; First Bureau (Personnel & Transport of Materiel) and the Direction de l’Arriere (lines of communication) reported to the Second Sub Chief of Staff (General Deprez, replaced in mid-August by Colonel Maurice Pellé, former military attache in Berlin).
The British Commander-in-Chief Sir John French visited GQG on 16 August as British troops were marching towards Belgium, and was impressed by Berthelot’s calm and confidence. Tuchman wrote that Berthelot was “quick and clever, (and) like his British opposite number General Wilson, was an inveterate optimist. He weighed over 230 pounds”. Berthelot discarded his uniform jacket to work in shirt and slippers in the August heat. Like Joffre, Berthelot underestimated German strength. He thought that a German thrust into Belgium would play into French hands by weakening their centre in the Ardennes, where Joffre planned to attack, and even then thought reports of German strength in Belgium greatly exaggerated (20 August).
Berthelot noted British keenness to retreat in his diary (26 and 28 August 1914, after the Battle of Le Cateau), at the very moment the British were bemoaning the French lack of support. Although Berthelot advised waiting a little longer before launching the counterattack which became the First Battle of the Marne, Joseph Gallieni (Military governor of Paris) forced the issue on 4 September by ordering Sixth Army to move into position that day, so that evening orders were sent out for an attack on 6 September. Berthelot complained that British aircraft had been better than French aircraft and cavalry at delivering intelligence.
Like many Allied leaders, Berthelot believed after the victory at the Marne that the war was as good as won. He told Wilson (13 September) that the Allies would be in Elsenborn on the German-Belgian frontier in three weeks (Wilson thought four).
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