Who I am, and why I do this, have become something of a distraction from the site’s purpose. It’s irrelevant, anyway. You may know already and, if so, I thank you for your support in keeping it out of the conversation.
I see that part of France and Belgium known as the Western Front as a multifaceted and complex environment in which the military operations form only one, albeit extremely important, part. Whilst my focus has always been to the greatest extent on the operational history of the war, my interest has always been piqued by the individuals’ stories within the main and commonly understood sequence of events.
When looking at France in la Grande Guerre, it’s even more important to see civilians, industry, ‘the home front’, as well as France’s Empire and imperial ambitions, as an integral part of the story. Unlike for Britain and the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and, indeed, Germany, there is no physical zone of separation between ‘civilian’ and ‘war’ zones. (Although of course, in the era of total war, these begin to merge – a theme that will run as an undercurrent to some of what I bring forward). This site is about any aspect of this vast subject that interest me. It’s subjective in that. if it interests me, I hope it will interest you. It doesn’t seek to praise uncritically. The aim is to tell more of the story to an anglophone audience.
Why « Debout, les Morts ! » ?
Debout les Morts! has traditionally been used by NCOs in the French Army to rouse sleeping soldiers to their duties. It’s the less crude equivalent of ‘Hands off cocks, on with socks’.
Given this site’s purpose is to awaken interest, it seemed appropriate.
A word on the name of this site: Debout, les Morts! Although the title of a roman policier français by Fred Vargas and a silent film from 1916, neither is the inspiration for this site. On 24 May 1915, the 95e Régiment d’infanterie in fighting at Bois-Brûlé was famously rallied to counter-attack by adjudant Jacques Péricard with this cry ‘Wake up the Dead!’ But, again, his brave action is not the connection.
As for ‘vingtfrong’, that’s my version of a British Tommy’s corruption of ‘twenty francs’.
An area of this site focuses on the personnel of the ‘missions militaires‘ or military missions that, notionally at least, connected the British, French, Belgian, Italian and American armies on the Western Front. Other sections on specific themes will almost certainly follow.
This site is dedicated to the memory of Dave O’Mara ‘@Croonaert’. The best historian of the French Army I knew and a man I greatly admired.
Debout les Morts! 