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vingtfrong.bsky.social
Debout les Morts !
@vingtfrong.bsky.social
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A range of stuff connected to the French experience of the First World War chiefly, but not only, for an English-speaking audience. #1gm #ww1 #FWW
Also, the practical role of French liaison officers & interpreters on the Western Front.
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vingtfrong.bsky.social
Another useful glossary of French First World War specialist terms with their English equivalents. This time it’s #Railway terminology, but lots of the terms also crop up in a military context.
A glossary of first world war French terms related to railways and industry with their English translation
October 19, 2025 at 9:25 PM
vingtfrong.bsky.social
A little something useful for when you’re next looking at a First World War #map and wondering what all the Cabarets and Carrières are.
Translations of common geographical features found on French #FWW #1GM maps. Printed on the reverse.
A brief list of translations of French terms used on First World War maps and printed on the reverse of a map sheet. It reads: TRANSLATIONS Auberge, Aube - Inn. Bac - Ferry. Cabaret, Cab. - Inn. Carrière - Quarry. Cheminée - Factory Chimney. Déversoir - Weir. Écluse - Lock. Étang, E - Pond. Fontaine, Font. - Spring. Gué - Ford. Marais - Marsh. Moulin, M - Mill. Nacelle - Ferry. Puits - Well, Shaft. Source - Spring.
October 12, 2025 at 12:01 PM
vingtfrong.bsky.social
9/ Mais non ! le lit est fait de feuilles et de terre,
C’est un lit à la fois, étroit, vaste et glacé…
Sans couronnes de fleurs, sans cierges mortuaires,
Je ne sais où – là-bas – est mort le bien-aimé !

#FWW #poetry #poésie
Newspaper cutting and photograph of Alec Carter [source: Wikipedia] Description Français : extrait du journal "le miroir". Date: 15 November 1914 Source: Le Miroir Author: inconnu. {{PD-US-expired}}
October 11, 2025 at 8:27 AM
vingtfrong.bsky.social
3/ She was beautiful & ambitious & benefited from an age where her beauty became widely known through diffusion of her image in press photographs. She was one of the « Trois grâces de la Belle Epoque » and as a « horizontale » her relationships with women and men enhanced her notoriety.
October 11, 2025 at 8:27 AM
vingtfrong.bsky.social
2/ He was the lover of Emilienne d’Alençon, wife of another jockey, Percy Woodward. Several years older than Alec and described as ‘dancer, actress and courtesan’, this barely does justice to a remarkable woman whose life and career is often described in judgemental terms by many (male?) writers.
Emilienne d’Alençon Cabinet Photograph c.1900 Gabrielle Enthoven Collection V&A Museum Accession Number: S.506-2021 Full-length studio costume photograph by Reutlinger of dancer and actress Emilienne d'Alençon. URL https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1627376/emilienne-dalencon-cabinet-photograph-reutlinger-studio/
October 11, 2025 at 8:27 AM
vingtfrong.bsky.social
#OTDiH 1914: Death of Georges Alexandre (Alec) Carter, a hugely successful pre-war jockey. Born into a British horse racing family in Chantilly, he’d been maréchal des logis with 23e Dragons but died of wounds received while serving as agent de liaison with 226e Régiment d’infanterie. #1GM
[more] ⬇️
A French Newspaper article reporting the death of Alec Carter and his achievements as a jockey.
October 11, 2025 at 8:27 AM
vingtfrong.bsky.social
A #WW1 poster from the Musée Carnavalet collection urging smokers in rear areas to economise on their use of tobacco so that French soldiers didn’t run out.
A nice try. Given the character of many smokers and their addiction, it was likely doomed to failure. #1GM #FWWhist
Fumeurs de l'arrière, économisez le Tabac POUR que nos SOLDATS N'en manquent pas Ménard, Andrée, dessinateur (1916) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris Numéro d’inventaire: AFF5260 Signature - S.B.G.: " Andrée Ménard " Lettre - " Fumeurs de l'arrière/ économisez le/ Tabac/ POUR que nos/ SOLDATS/ N'en manquent pas/ Ville de PARIS/ Ecole Commle 221, Bd Péreire " Lettre - B.G.: " UNION FRANCAISE, 286, Boulevard St. Germain, PARIS. ", B.D.: " Comité National de Prévoyance et d'Economies ", B.C.: " Cette Affiche ne doit pas être vendue " Marque du musée - B.D.: " CARNAVALET " Casque de soldat rempli de divers objets: pipe, paquet de cigarettes, paquet de tabac, cigare. The poster depicts a soldier's Adrian helmet filled with various objects: pipe, pack of cigarettes, pack of tobacco, cigar. A veritable cornucopia of lung destruction and cancer infliction.
October 3, 2025 at 11:04 AM
vingtfrong.bsky.social
This art medal by Pierre Roche (1858-1922) on display at the musée d’Orsay commemorates the return of #Alsace to #France after the latter’s victory in the #FWW #WW1.
The stork has strong associations with Alsace. The spire in the background is Notre-Dame-de-Strasbourg Cathédrale. Also, ‘1918’ #clue
A bronze medal featuring a design of a large bird with long legs, large beak and wide wingspan - it’s a stork - with wings wide open above its head in front a church building (actually a cathedral) with a spire. The words « Le Retour » in raised capital letters are on the upper left edge of the medal. Small, but also visible behind the stork is the date ‘1918’.
September 18, 2025 at 9:55 PM
vingtfrong.bsky.social
6/ Near our barracks some monstrous English artillery pieces, on platforms and on rails, fired hundred-kilo shells from time to time onto the Mont Saint-Quentin.
A 305 mm Railway gun (in this case, a French one) in action at Bois de Biellon, just NNE of la ferme de Bronfay. Référence SPA 91 H 3546 © Frédéric Gadmer/ECPAD/Défense
September 5, 2025 at 7:38 PM
vingtfrong.bsky.social
5/ To see this intense life, pulsating, without a break, made you dizzy. Your eye couldn’t see the limits of the camp. Your ear took in and identified the different sounds, the jumble of noises, which mixed with the rolling cannonade in the background.
Sur la route de Bray-sur-Somme à Maricourt. Près de la ferme Bronfay, passage de troupes et de convois (au fond un camp). [légende d'origine] On the road from Bray-sur-Somme to Maricourt. Near Bronfay Farm, the passage of troops and convoys (in the background is the camp). [original caption translation] Photographe(s) : Emmanuel Mas Référence SPA 41 S 2138 © Emmanuel Mas/ECPAD/Défense
September 5, 2025 at 7:38 PM
vingtfrong.bsky.social
A short 🧵🪡 with a wonderful description from a renowned French #1GM source of a #Somme location familiar to many British soldiers who served in the later part of the 1916 Somme battle: Le camp de la ferme de Bronfay - Bronfay Farm Camp, now the site of a #CWGC #FWW cemetery 1/⬇️
French 1915 1:20 000 trench map from July 1915 showing la ferme de Bronfay NE of Bray-sur-Somme
September 5, 2025 at 7:38 PM
vingtfrong.bsky.social
“ #WW1 was a horse-drawn war ”. Let me introduce you to Commandant Doumenc and his work « Les Transports Automobiles sur le Front Français 1914-1918 ».
By the end of #FWW, the French Army had 92,000 vehicles on the Western Front alone.
107 years later, the modern US Army has an estimated 164,000.
An illustration from « Les Transports Automobiles sur le Front Français 1914-1918 » illustrating some of the variety of purposes for which the French army used motorised transport during the first world war. Michel Goya’s « Les Vainquers » would also be an eye-opener for the person who made this ill-informed comment on social media.
September 4, 2025 at 9:28 PM
vingtfrong.bsky.social
“To the East of Reims is the region still known as ‘Champagne Pouilleuse’ (lousy Champagne) for the poverty of its soil; here in 1915–1917 were delivered the greatest French attacks of the war.” #FWWHist #1GM #FWW
A view of the Champagne region to the East of Reims. There are distant green hills but the flat ground in front has beets or similar in what looks dry and poor soil.
September 4, 2025 at 5:04 PM
vingtfrong.bsky.social
This may be of interest, @mightygwyn.bsky.social
#1GM #FWWHist #WW1 #FrHist #Alsace
The advertising 'blurb' for a new book entitled « Les Opérations Militaires dans la Vallée de Munster en 1914-1915 » which gives the German point of view on these operations between 3 August 1914 and 15 October 1915. The 'blurb' is from the Catalogue Edhisto 2025.
August 29, 2025 at 7:42 PM
vingtfrong.bsky.social
And a CPA showing how the station might have looked around the time of the barrel maker (au temps du tonnelier 🙂).
Carte postale de la gare de Moux. The black-and-white photo shows the Station perhaps had three platforms and lines but without any bridge across the tracks as was common at the turn of the century. There’s a line of goods wagons on the right of the photo and a locomotive with a couple of carriages in the centre . The railway buildings are on the left and the name of the Station is on the end of the building.
August 16, 2025 at 8:58 PM
vingtfrong.bsky.social
When a #1GM account mentions a rail station, I try to find the station to see how it looks now. Sad to see those that are closed that were known to « les poilus ».

This is l’ancienne gare de Moux (11). On Jan 11, 1916, CPL Louis Barthas of 296e RI, arrived here on his first home leave since 1914.
A photograph of the former Station at Moux in the Aude department. The photo shows a rather shabby set of white walled and red windowed buildings of which the main one has two floors with three smaller windows on the upper floor and three large windows (likely one of which is a door but they all look the same). The buildings have red tile roofs. There are electrical wires above the rail lines of which it seems three sets run in front of the Station buildings. There is one metal and one concrete support for the overhead wires visible in the photo. it’s rather sad scene with grass and other vegetation growing between the rails. The photograph is from http://passes-montagnes.fr/htlm1/vf_caunes-moux-6.html - a website which traces the former railway line that ran through this part of the Aude. I hope they will be okay that I used it.
August 16, 2025 at 8:44 PM
vingtfrong.bsky.social
A tale of Anglo-French liaison and co-operation involving design, diplomacy and the Army Printing & Stationery Service (A.P. and S.S.) from Frank Fox’s book, G.H.Q.
#FWWHistory #WW1 #1GM #FWW
The text from a book page. It reads: “The Boulogne Printing Press, which was under the care of Major Bourne, was a particularly up-to-date establishment much praised by the Americans and the French as well as by our own Army. It put a strain once, however, on the politeness of the French. The French Mission at G.H.Q. wanted a book printed giving a record of its organisation. A.P. and S.S., in the right spirit, did its best to make the book a handsome one, and designed a special cover with fleur-de-lys decorations. The French Mission, with tact but with firmness, pointed out that France was now a Republic and a monarchical symbol could hardly be permitted on an official publication. It might give rise to a suspicion that the Army contemplated a coup d'état. The printers regretted and tried again. The second cover design bore the good old Roman Republican…” “… device of the lictors' fasces. But they were shown reversed. The French were desolated at being so exiguous, but could something else be tried, just plain type? The printers were determined, however, to give the good French something to show what an artistic people we English really are, and made a third effort at a decorated cover. This showed a really charming design in which the Gallic Cock strutted triumphantly along a rose-point border. The French were enchanted, so enchanted that they found reason to have another book, an annexe to the original book, printed with the same cover.”
July 16, 2025 at 4:38 PM
vingtfrong.bsky.social
Well, as you have so clearly appreciated that one, you might like this from the same Museum. #1GM
A model of wounded man being unloaded from an ambulance train in the first world war. The lighting of the model is effective suggesting that this is taking place at night. A stretcher bearing a wounded man is being taken away while another is just being unloaded from the train. An officer of the Service de Santé des Armées supervises the unloading.
July 15, 2025 at 8:12 AM
vingtfrong.bsky.social
“The question of sanitary arrangements is a serious one. It is true that a sort of little trenches called feuillées are dug on one side of the camp, but many men obstinately refuse to use them, and prefer to make use of any haphazard spot …”
#FWW #1GM #WW1 #latrine
Feuillées de campagne - a field latrine. A row of 4 narrow trenches in the ground enclosed on 3 sides by a wicker fence. A large tub of water or disinfectant nearby, and two poilus in helmets and bleu horizon who are putting on coats and breeches having recently made use of the facilities. Oh, and it’s a model, not the real thing. Obvs.
July 15, 2025 at 7:01 AM
vingtfrong.bsky.social
#1GM Zouave Jules Maljette as captured in portrait by Eugène Burnand. One of 104 works in pencil & pastel by the Swiss-French artist, this one (along with 100 more) is owned by, and on display at, the Musée de la Légion d'honneur in Paris. Three are in the Musée Eugène Burnand in Moudon, Switzerland
A portrait of a moustachioed man in the red chéchia fez-like cap and short dark blue jacket with red embroidery. He looks to our right. His dark straight hair is in a neat fringe peaking out from his headwear.
July 12, 2025 at 6:15 AM
vingtfrong.bsky.social
You can’t walk around the model. There are large dioramas of this type though. I focused on the uniforms they presented, rather than the realism or otherwise of what they aimed to show.
A diorama showing wounded chasseurs alpins, an aumônier, a doctor and medical attendants. Another view of a museum case with figures representing chasseurs alpins, brancardiers and medical orderlies. Brassards and insignia are one of the interesting features of the figures here.
July 11, 2025 at 11:14 AM
vingtfrong.bsky.social
I’ve had discussions with a few people about the use of models to facilitate some museum visitors’ understanding of concepts (“what the #FWW was ‘really like’”) (cf also my post on the latrine model at Musée du Service de Santé des Armées).
This one at Le Linge does a good job on trench conditions.
A model intended to depict the shell torn and blasted landscape of the trench system at le Linge in Alsace. The French and Germans struggled for possession of the crest throughout late 1914 and much of 1915. Seen by way of contrast with the beautiful scenery outside the museum today, it is a good attempt to remind visitors of the power of the weapons of the FWW. Bare muddy brown earth is cut into by narrow trenches and cratered by shells. The remaining trees are bare of leaves and broken by artillery fire. Barbed wire entanglements seem to be everywhere preventing the earth from rising up against the tyranny of human despoliation.
July 10, 2025 at 7:18 AM
vingtfrong.bsky.social
2/ The 54e régiment d’infanterie was garrisoned at Compiègne in 1914. This image by le lieutenant Darlot of the regt from the regimental history captures something of their mobilisation in August 1914.
Image by le lieutenant Darlot from the historique of 54e RI captures something of their mobilisation in August 1914. A trumpeter in the uniform of drap bleue capote and pantalon rouge garance sounds the call to arms. In the background men hurry to equip themselves and collect their stacked arms whilst others march off. 
July 4, 2025 at 12:51 AM
vingtfrong.bsky.social
A bronze memorial plaque at Saint-Remy-la-Calonne (55) commemorates 16 men from 54e Régiment d’Infanterie who died in the regiment’s first attack in the Tranchée de Calonne sector, 22 Sep 1914.
The #WW1 sector to the SE of #Verdun is heavily wooded and was much fought over in 1914-15. #FWWHist #1GM
A bronze memorial plaque on beige stone at Saint-Rémy-la-Calonne with the inscription « ICI REPOSENT LE CAPORAL RENÉ WORMS DU 54e D'INFie ET 15 DE SES CAMARADES MORTS À LA TRANCHÉE DE CALONNE LE 22 SEPT 1914 »
July 4, 2025 at 12:51 AM
vingtfrong.bsky.social
Reading novels for a little while I use lots of the reference books I’ve accumulated for a project that anyone and everyone interested in French Army #FWW technology and personnel (who isn’t?) will, I hope, ultimately benefit from.
Meanwhile, after finishing Zola’s La Débâcle, I’ve started this.
Cover of David Diop’s Frère d’âme featuring an artistic representative of a tirailleur sénégalais in khaki tunic with unit distinctions for a unit numbered ’14’ and red chéchia. Red wraparound with white lettering proclaimed that this was the winner of the International Booker prize in 2021 and the Goncourt des Lycéens 2018. In Britain, the book is known as At Night All Blood is Black.
June 18, 2025 at 7:12 AM