THE GENERALISSIMO

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 65, 22 September 1939, Page 3

THE GENERALISSIMO

PEN-PICTURE OF GAMELIN A QUIET LITTLE MAN General Gamclin, the commanderinnchief of the Allied forces is a little man scarcely 5 feet 1 inches in height and weighing not much more than a hundredweight. He was one of the lew generals who came out of the Great War with a reputation as a strategist, and as Supreme Commander of all the French armed forces he holds a title not held by any soldier of Fr?rtce since Napoleon. Descended I'rotn Five Generals. j He was born in 1872 (the year after the Franca-'Prussian War) in Paris at No. 262 Boulevard, St. Germain, just across from the War Ministry, in whose shadow he played war games a s a child. On his father's side he is descended from at least five generals, one of whom served under Louis X\ 1 Ilis father, Zephirin Auguste Joseph Gamelin, became Controllei'-GeneroJ of the French Army after he had been gravely wounded at Solferino, during Napoleon Ill's light against the Austrians. He first went to the College Stanislas a strict and scholarly Catholic school Avith considerable social stand-

ing and a military flavour. One 0 1 - his teachers was Mgr. Henri Marie Alfred Baudrillart, now Cardinal Baudrillart, who still remains on;* oT General Gann lin's best irieuds. At Stanislas, methodical Maurice jurther disciplined his mind by memorising ten lines of prose at night (because it was harder than poetry) and read ing_a, book of philosophy a week. After Stanislas he entered St. Cyr ; French Sandhurst, where in I-'-' he finished JH'st in a class o! 449. Service in Algeria. There followed three years of service with the 3rd Regiment of the Tirailleurs Algcriens, and three years ■with the Army's Geographical Service because he liked lo paint landscapes in water colour, survey and map. In 1899 he was admitted to the AVar College, where he studied tactics under Lieutj-Colonel. lat"r Marshal Focli, who particularly noticed his qualities. He graduated in 1902 with the commendation of "tres bien Secretary to Joffre. During the next four years he had various field commands and in 190n lie became orderly officer to General .Toil're, then commander of the oth Infantry Division in Paris. In 1912, when J off re was promoted to the Supreme AA'ar Council, Gamelin was chosen as Joflre's chef tie cabinet, or military secretary. During this time the French General Staff was discussing (but only discussing) the possibility of a German violation of Belgian neutrality to attack France. Gamelin made a study of it and wrote out a defence of such an attack. That was the germ of JotTre's Instruction No. 2. During those critical days General Joffre, who had called Gamelin, one of mv red blood corpuscles came to admire his little aide's unfailing composure as well as his swiit and incisive tactical foresight. Paraphrasing Abraham Lincoln, he observed: '11 this is philosophy, it is time all generals were philosophers.' As France's No. 1 Soldier,, Gamelin has continued the Magi not Line to the sea, mechanised the Army to a point below Germany's, but at which he thinks it can be most effective, extended the conscript peuod from a' year to eighteen months to two years —this over the bitter opposition of most French politicians. He has confidence in the -Vfjy has built. During the Munich crises he believed the French Army was ready to fight, and General GamcliP quietly went to London to tell the statesmen so. He got about the Sam*, attention that he get in UWtf from M. Saii'aet wh.'U he told the viOVemment he could chase the Genu'.... out of the Rhinelaiid ii" they wanted him to. Not a "Cc.ioiirfui" General. General Gamelin is generally characterised as colourless. That, how ever, is the way the French lmvc learned to like tlieir generals best, Napoleon I. and IH. had plenty o colour, but they did not pay off a the finish. In 1889 colourful Genera Boulangcr came close to seizing «-h country. The colourful military cli cj lies of the century's lurn—on on side the Catholics and reactionaries on the other the Radical Soeiali.M rrivMna-on.-.-'gave 1U Dreyfus case. Nowadays no Frenc

soldier votes s and oa the subjcct of politics the Army is known as la grande mueite (the big dumb woman). Particularly in these limes, France wanes her soldiers mute ,vnd profession ;sl, and the mutest and mos t professional is Maurice Gambia The good gi ey little Genera! leads fl good grey liltle life. Just before () o'clock each morning he leaves his apartment on the third floor of a fivestorey house at No. 55 Avenue Foch near the Arc de Triomphc. He is driven in a staff car to his office in a long-low, old-fashioned building at No. 4 bis Boulevard ties Invalides, below the gold dome of Napoleon's tomb. Prodigious Memon". General Gamelin is very easily approached, his voice is quiet and ho is always calm. ("It's no use getting angry at things it's a matter of indifference to them."') His well-train-ed memory is still prodigious. He is said not only to know every road near any French frontier, but also to know by name and sight every French officer down through the rank of colonel. He is not chummy witb his staff, but treats them w r th what they call "benevolent formality.'' Friend of Badoglio. The General usually wears t except on ceremonial occasions, a dark civilian suit. He does not mind the numerous luncheons and dinners he has to attend, likes to go out in the even ings, to hear opera and ancient music. If lie stays home he reads'. His library >s stocked principally with philosophy folklore, political and military history and treatises on his other old favourite: man making. He has few friends, but one of 'lis bc>t. oddly enough, is that other able professional, Marshal Pietro Badoglio of Italy. On his 55ih birthday General Ciacmlin married. He and his wife, who is as neutral-toned as her husband, have no children. Madame la Generate enjoys going to manoeuvres. Two Anecdotes;

Even the few anecdotes about tliis thoroughly professional little man take on some of their subject's small, neat dignity. Last year, visiting a Chasseurs' encampment on a mountain plateau, he shook hands with familiar old-timers and was taken to the picket line to see some of the St. Bernards who do the outfit's liaison work. Gravely the General kneeled down and shook hands with the best of them, too. On Bastille Day, down the Chamr.Elysees rolled one of the most blazingly colourful military parades eve) seen. There were white-plumed Republica 11 Guards in scarlet and blue, bear-skinned, red-coated, white-cross belted British Guardsmen; rakish beretcd Chasseurs a pied (Blue Devils); smart ski-shouldering Chasseurs Alpins; bearded Foreign Legionnarics; bumoused Spahis with shoul-der-slung rifles on Arabian ponies or brandishing lance-; on racing dromedaries; turbaned brown Madagascar rifle men, sun-helmeted white Colonial scouts; lez/ed black Senegalese sharpshooters; carthshaking, car sViat tering tanks— all ablaze with the armed might of Imperial France. In the reviewing stand, half-hidden behind politiOK.ns and visiting digniuiries. steed a little mm with grey hair, a smail grey in a small blue -' e y uniform —>>mman-der-inriChief Gamelin. He could hardly be seen. But the troops knev; he was there, and so did the people.