French Uniforms

[David]

The French Army that advanced with so much courage and confidence to meet the Germans in 1914 had changed little from the days of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. Despite attempts to reform their uniform the French infantrymen still wore the traditional red kepi and trousers, a conspicous blue greatcoat, a heavy pack and a long, unwieldy bayonet. One shall not, however, completely underestimate the French Army. The system of conscription was able to call upon the services of some 4,000,000 trained men (inclusive of the Regular and Territorial Armies and their Reserve). Equipment, organisation, and supply services had also been improved, and everything possible was carried out to make the mobilisation of this huge force as speedy and efficient as possible. Also, many of the weapons of the French Army were first rate, like the famous "75", the worlds best field gun at this time. The infantry formed, as in most armies, the bulk of the fighting troops, and in the French service were organised as Infantry of the Line, and Chasseurs a pied, that is light infantry, specialised mountain infantry, and the so-called African Infantry. An ordinary infantry regiment consisted of three battalions, each of 1,000 men, divided into four companies. A brigade contained two such regiments, a total of six battalions, half as large again as the four battalion brigade employed in the British Army of that period. The big problem, however, was the French military philosophy that grew out of the defeat of the Franco-Prussian War, and whose main point was a very strong belief in the power of the attack, preferrably by armes blanches i.e. bayonet. Emphasis was centred upon the infantry's main objective of closing with the enemy and putting him to rout with the bayonet. Whilst group fire effect was desired, less importance was placed on individual marksmanship than in, say, the British infantry, which had to make its men make every round count. Also it fostered a very offensive spirit in that, in the case that French terrain was lost, it must be retaken by an immediate counter-attack. (Speed was also seen as very important, and the French Infantry had great marching powers, that were developed assiduously in training.) In this philosophy the French Army had ignored much of the recent mili­tary developments. As a result, when the brave French Infantry met the German machine guns in the opening of the war, the results was slaughter: in the first five months of war France lost some 300.000 men killed and another 600.000 wounded, captured or missing.
Uniform in 1914
Typical of the French Infantry was a cloth kepi worn by all ranks. In line regiments, the soldier's kepi was red with a band of dark blue cloth around it. Side, front, and rear of the kepi were piped with a thin blue line of material. (The blue piping did not cross the crown of the kepi.) Above a leather chin strap, on a red square, was a regimental number embroidered in blue cloth. The dark blue greatcoat was double­breasted with two rows of brass but­tons. A tunic was worn under the greatcoat. The front skirts of the greatcoat were folded and buttoned back to make movement easier. On the front of the greatcoat collar, a regimental number was embroidered, again blue on red. The red trousers were encased in black, laced leather gaiters. These and a kepi cover were the only differences peculiar to the field uniform. In drill order the gaiters were brown. For footwear the infantryman wore half­boots and an additional pair of boots was carried on the haversack.
The haversack itself was extremely unpractical. Made of black canvas, it required constant waterproofing and endless polishing. Hours of basic military training were wasted teaching the young soldier how to put on this haversack without aided, which was very difficult. Even trained soldiers could not put on the haversack quickly in an emergency, and being of one size only, small men suffered great pain and discomfort because the haversack did sit too well on their backs. Field kitchens were a rarity, so each soldier had to carry extra food and cooking gear. This burden might consist of biscuits, tins of bully beef, canvas buckets, metal bowls, collective utensils, bags of coffee, small 1 or 2 litre cans, salt and sugar, and a coffee grinder for each section. There was also a canvas bag for each man, containing one day's rations, a mug and eating utensils.
Two cartridge pouches were worn on the front of the waist belt and one at the rear, supported by shoulder straps. Because they opened front to rear, the pouches at the front were frequently obstructed by the soldier's body and the one on the back by the haversack.
Officers' service dress had become less elaborately braided, compared to 1870-71, but they still carried the sword, even in the attack, and were readily distinguishable from the men, a fact that added considerably to their chances of becoming casualties.
Weapons
The rifle used by the Infantry in 1914 is often referred to as the 'Lebel', the correct title being 'Rifle 86 modified 93'; it weighed, fully loaded, 4.41 kg. (The name comes from a certain Colonel Lebel was closely involved in its design in 1882.) The model used in 1914 was a repeating rifle of 8mm calibre. Ten rounds were loaded in a tubular magazine located in the stock. Functionally the tubular magazine had two problems. Firstly, the rifle was difficult to load, especially when lying down. Secondly the balance of weapon would change as each round was discharged.
The bayonet the French Infantry used with their rifle was the famous long, triple-edged bayonet, known as “Rosalie”. It was carried in a tubular steel scabbard, worn in a leather frog on the left side of the belt.
New uniform in 1915: the famous Horizon Blue

After the initial months of mobile warfare, the lines stabilized and the war in the trenches started. The terrible debacle had shown that the old uniform was obsolete, not least the garish colouring, and in 1915 it was replaced by the new in horizon-blue cloth. The horrible winter of 1914-15, and the gradual introduction of the new horizon blue uniforms in the spring of 1915 meant that the French Army at first in this period appeared very motley when it came to uniform. First during the second half of 1915 this gave way and a sort of standardisation could be seen.
The French were the first to receive a general issue of helmets, which it was hoped would reduce the very high proportion of head wounds from bullets and shrapnel inflicted in the new type of trench warfare: early statistics showed that 13.3% of all wounds were to the head, and of these no less than 57% were fatal. The Mle 1915 Adrian pattern steel helmet was issued to the front line troops from September 1915 on, and more than three million were distributed before the end of that year. Unfortunately, the Adrian was made only of mild steel, so the protection it offered was less to that of the heavier British and German helmets introduced somewhat later – it weighed only some 0.76kg. Marc Patiou: "The helmet was first issued (incidently, in prototype stage as early as June 1915) with a light blue shade very similar to the fabric used for clothing. But then, shine problems, related to the paint 'cooking' process, occured. A first solution was the helmet cover, which was issued beginning early 1916 (or late 1915, haven't been able to found out for now) and last untill helmets were repainted (and newer ones issued) with a darker and somewhat duller shade. It is reasonable to assess that by late 1916, early 1917, no more helmet covers were seen."

At the end of 1915, a new greatcoat was also introduced, the Mle 1914/15, which allow for the carrying of more ammunition: a large pocket with a flap with two buttons was added to each side. The Mle TN gasmask and its anti-gas goggles was carried in a special canister, of metal painted grey-blue, and a flattened oval section. The simplified Mle 1893/1914 knapsack of greenish grey canvas, was still big and unwieldy, stowed as it was with spare boots, mess tin, tent accessories, the squad's folding canvas bucket etc. The originally shaped M1877 two-litre water bottle was originally intended only for troops in Africa, but it was soon issued to the whole army.

Notice, however, that at the same time as the new horizon blue uniform was introduced throughout the whole French Army, it was decided that the African regiments – Foreign Legion, later the so called RMLE, plus the Maroccan Infantry - in a mustard type of khaki. (the redressing of them was even more acute, as their 1914 uniform consisted of, among other things, white trousers!) Initially this was solved with more improvisations, as the issuing of brown trousers and dark blue puttees. From the spring 1915 on, whole uniforms in khaki were being supplied. See figure 10 below.

The reason for the choice of khaki has not been solved, the reason might have been that the initial hurried order came to land in the UK, where khaki cloth was in pretty good supply. Their Adrian helmets were initially dark-blue as all the rest of the Army – again: a very motley appearance - but they were repainted khaki-mustard during 1916.

1= General 2= General Staff Captain 3= Infantry Lieutenant 4= Infantryman 5= Infantryman

6= Mountain Infantry 7= Curaissier 2nd Leutenant 8= Dragoon 9= Field Artillery 10= Turco (Algerian Infantry)