cuirassiers

[Bartek]

These are french cuirassiers in the beginning of IWW. France had 12 regiments of them. Note the armour and helmets .

 

[shmrck1]

Bartek,
Thanks for your post.
snake-eyes :hatsoff:

 

Hummmmmmmm French Jaegers..... Victories????? must have been short? were is the runn'en shoes? :crackup:
The German's showed them how to use Jaegers didn't they?
Loyalst Dawg

 

[thomas]

Bartek,

Excellent, thank you for the post!

Thomas

 

[TFoley]

Dear Mr Loyalist Dawg - I'd just like to point out that France suffered 1,385,000 dead in WW1. Why, I think you could safely say that they hardly ran at all, don't you think?

tac :grey:

 

[Stumpkiller]

And we had to buy Nieuport and S.P.A.D. airplanes from them because ours stunk! Mostly because once Orville and Wilbur patented the aeroplane they spent from then on suing Glen Curtiss and other Americans instead of developing the design.

But we designed the best machine guns. :: Browning of course, but Maxim (who designed both the Maxim the Vickers guns) and Lewis were Americans, too. :hatsoff:

 

Hi Tac :relax:
Ok YOU are right and I could have been out of line(For that I am truly sorry). Sadly every one lost great numbers during WW1. However why don't you do a search on French military victories during the 20th century... that says it all... Besides my attitude is attributed to my Prussian and German heritage...:crackup: "O" damn they lost both of those didn't they Oops...
:hatsoff: Best regards Loyalist Dawg
PS Who was loosing WW1 before outside help came? Who had lost in the earlier part of WW2 before outside help came? :kid: Eh who cares right?

 

[Mike Brooks]

The french troops went on strike and abandoned the trenches for a short time in 1918. Luckily, the germans didn't find out about it and one of the dynamic french officials was able to plead with them and get them to return before all was lost.
WWI was about the last war the French had stomach for, they havn't been a world power since, it pretty well robed them of there youth and their will for a fight.

 

[SKS_madman]

MIke, exactly, over 50% of their tiny nation died in a valiant struggle; sadly since then the nation's spirit seems to have been broken, and their will to put foot to @$$ crushed along with the bodies of their heroes. :cry:

 

[Mike Brooks]

MIke, exactly, over 50% of their tiny nation died in a valiant struggle; sadly since then the nation's spirit seems to have been broken, and their will to put foot to @$$ crushed along with the bodies of their heroes. :cry:

I'm not overly fond of the french, but who could blame them for their attitude after WWI. WWI was an absolutly horific war and France took the brunt of it right on the nose. Their loses were staggering. A whole generation of young men were nearly compleatly wiped out....Nearly the same for the brits.

 

[SKS_madman]

Not a fan of the nation as it is today either, they put a statue for non-violence infront of a memorial to american losses in WW2. :shocking: :curse: :curse: :no: But before WW1 they were a different nation in spirit and valor (remember, they sent us supplies in the revolutionary war! :RO: ).

 

WOW guys sorry caus'en all this fuss..
But hey if you want to talk about wip'en out a nation, then take a look some times at the numbers of dead, and wounded from Canada during WW1. Heck we lost most if not all of that generation also (more as a percentage). Our troops were the first to get gased, held when the others fled. We were (and still are) a small population compared to all the countries of Europe (and the US for that matter). We to had lost a great percentage of our young men. However our youth still carried their wieght in the next war (we even went the furtherest in land during "D" day), and in Korea our troops (the PPCLI)won the American congestional metal for bravery holding the line as all the others bailed. But hey we bailed the French out twice. Once again sorry about the stir... :m2c:
Best regards Loyalist Dawg :hatsoff:

 

[Mike Brooks]

Hey , no stir here Dawg. Just an interesting little chat about WWI...another area of history I find fascinating. eace:

 

[dodgecity]

It's amazing to think that that picture of active duty regulars was taken only 90 years ago. The changes that have ocurred in that brief span of time is mind boggling. Surely. the generations born in the subsequent 90 years have seen more technological and societal change than any previous 1000 year period. Minus the magazine rifles, there is essentally no difference between the troops in the picture, and those of the Napoleonic wars 100 years earlier. Thanks for the post...I collect photos and memorabilia of that period, so I really appreciate it.

 

[Bartek]

My post is not nasty for French Nation. I did'n want to offend anyone eace:
For me most interesting is, what kind of work on the battlefield had to do these cuirassiers? One of them is wounded, so they were in combat. Were their tasks (in the military sense) same like 50-100 years ago?
Off course it was the same anachronism like our cavalry against german tanks in September 1939 :cry:

 

[Mike Brooks]

The Soviets were using mounted troops through out WWII ! They fought mainly on foot and used the horse as transportation. COSSAKS!
Scouting and raiding behind the lines were probably their main duties.
What the french mounted troops did i don't have a clue as military folks in WWI were still fighting 1860's style battles with 20th century machine guns....took them alittle while to adjust to the new high tech weapons.....3 or 4 years to be exact.... :shake:

 

Hi Mike
Most people do not realize almost all of europes armies including Germany was 70% plus horse drawn. Check out the real articals on WW2. The german invasion of CCCP was manly on horse.
Best regards Loyalist Dawg

 

[Mike Brooks]

Most all german artillery was horse drawn thru the invasion of france and Belgium too, Same with Poland too. Those were certainly different times...

 

[Bartek]

The last big "cavalry battle" in Europe was the battle of Radzymin in 1920 (polish-soviet war). I mean in this battle was used only cavalry by both sites: 15. Poznan Ulans Regiment "Horny Devils" and famous "Mounted Army of Red Cossacks" of Semon Budionny, in fact it was only regiment too. By the way - Budionny was the only one commander of October Revolution, who was not killed by Stalin. Soviet officers used to say : "Stalin keep him alive becouse no one knows who is more stupid - Budionny or his horse". Budionny was the Stalin's living doll. Always by Stalin in exotic cossack uniform.
Sovet army even in 80. years had cavalry troops. They was used by movie making
In Poznan we have big group of 15. Ulans Regiment reenactors.

 

More of an aside as anything: the French have a long history of being great warriors. The Gauls held up the Romans and fought valiently. In the middle ages French knights regularly defeated the English. They fought and died in Crusades. The French Army in the Seven Years (F&I) War was every bit the equal of Britain. Napoleon nearly conquored all Europe with them. They fought as well as anyone in the bloodbath of WWI. Today's France is a different place--as is most of Europe--the old warriors are mostly gone. But blame the politicians for France's current appearance of cowardice and appeasement.