During a first visit to the battlefields of Alsace in May 2024, the inscription on a memorial in the heart of the Vosges Mountains prompted some research about garde général Lieutenant E.L. Renaud and lots of new learning about (for me, at least) an unknown unit described as one of the « troupes d’élite » of the French Army.
As the road west out of the village of Mittlach in Haut-Rhin runs alongside la Grande Fecht (a fast-flowing rocky stream of probably ice-cold water given that even in mid-May there’s snow still on the lee slopes of some of the higher reaches of the surrounding ridges of the Vosges), it runs past the intriguingly named Rocher du Kiwi and turns south-west into the Vallée du Langenwasen. At the road and stream’s bend stands a memorial bearing the traditional hunting horn emblem of the Chasseurs.
This is one of those occasions when my photography has let us all down, so you’ll have to take on trust that these are the words on the memorial1:
À LA MEMOIRE DU GARDE GÉNÉRAL E.L. RENAUD LT AU 68E BATAILLON DE CHASSEURS ALPINS, MORT POUR LA FRANCE LE 15 JUIN 1915.
IN MEMORY OF GARDE GENERAL E.L. RENAUD LT OF THE 68TH BATTALION OF CHASSEURS ALPINS, WHO DIED FOR FRANCE ON 15 JUNE 1915
1 There are also other web sites that have information on this memorial – but more of that later
It’s important to point out here that a garde général is not a General! To explain, we need to learn more about E.L. Renaud.
Louis Étienne Renaud (so, not ‘E.L.’, but ‘L.E.’) was born on 16 August 1888 in the 16e Arrondissement of Paris. This is a little surprising, given the recruitment centre for the 68e Bataillon de Chasseurs Alpins was in Grenoble in the Isère département. His service records, however, show he was a student at an agricultural science institute. An important fact we’ll return to shortly. His military service was notionally with the 41e RI (which recruited from the Rennes area). He was contracted at the mairie of the 16e Arrondissement for a voluntary engagement of four years with the regiment under “article 23 of the law of 21 March 1905”. This article set the parameters for military service for those who were entering any of the specialist schools – the « grandes écoles ». Here’s the relevant section:
These schools offer an alternative educational system alongside the French public universities, and are institutes dedicated to teaching, research and professional training in either natural or social sciences, or applied sciences such as engineering, architecture, business administration, or public policy and administration. They include l’école polytechnique (also known as « l’X ») where the likes of Joffre, Foch, Fayolle, Estienne, Nivelle and Alfred Dreyfus were educated, l’École normale supérieure – its students, who are called normaliens, included politicians like Jean Jaurès, Léon Blum, Paul Painlevé as well as writers (Charles Péguy), historians (Marc Bloch) and philosophers (Henri Bergson), and those such as the former École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures (École Centrale Paris) and the École nationale supérieure des mines de Saint-Étienne. The École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr is also considered a grande école. Admission to a grandes école was, and still is, extremely selective. As Renaud’s military service makes clear, he was to be a student at one of the applied science schools – l’École Nationale des Eaux et Forêts – the école forestière in the above section of the 21 March 1905 law – and this also meant something special and distinct about his military career.
Alongside their training to manage and develop France’s huge forests as a national resource, students at l’École Nationale des Eaux et Forêts also received military instruction before, during and after their time at the school. If they were admitted to the school, they became a part of the cadre of an elite military unit – the Chasseurs Forestiers under an officer designated by the Minister of War. Upon leaving school, and if they were admitted to l’Administration des forêts, they were appointed sous-lieutenants de réserve d’infanterie and completed the planned training course in this capacity in the corps to which they were assigned. The director of l’École Nationale des Eaux et Forêts provided the recruiting offices with the names of the school’s students. The commanders of these recruitment offices would not assign to any unit of the active or territorial army officers who had not had at least 6 months of service in the l’Administration as « garde général stagiaire ». From his military service record, we learn that after his arrival on 8 October 1910, Renaud was a soldat de 2e classe and, in February 1911, he was promoted to caporal. He was nominated (which I take to mean admitted) to the school in October 1911 and in 1913-14 he accomplished a year of training as a sous-lieutenant.
But here we encounter an issue with the matricule militaire, because at no point does it mention that this service was with the Chasseurs Forestiers. Did Renaud, therefore, never serve in the cadre militaire of this corps ? Given that both the memorial near Mittlach and his matricule militaire state that he was a lieutenant with the 68e Bataillon de Chasseurs Alpins, was he indeed ever a part of the Chasseurs Forestiers?
To answer that question, first, we need to know more about the rather elusive Chasseurs Forestiers.
More on the Chasseurs Forestiers.
The creation of a military formation, les Chasseurs Forestiers, composed of regionalized companies was a direct product of France’s defeat in the War of 1870. France’s forests had been the subject of state control since medieval times. Increased regulation and ‘usage rights’ brought significant income to the Kingdom. By the late 17th century, royal forests were such significant sources of income that they were closed to most people and the royal administration responsible for forests had assigned the surveillance and policing of the forest to sergents and gardes, with officers of the royal forest administration service overseeing forest management.
By the time of the July Monarchy of Louis-Philippe (1830-1848) these gardes forestiers acted as guides for the military assisting them in navigating the forests in times when France was under attack. Meanwhile, from 1838, l’administration des Eaux et Forêts was established in colonial Algeria where an extension of the approach to forestry in métropolitaine France gave rise to numerous conflicts.
After the defeat of France by Prussia, the entire French nation went through an agonising self-examination in a vast range of military and civil functions in an endeavour to learn from the disasters of the war. In forestry administration, the situation was no different. Many of the forestiers themselves had suffered from the disorganization, and even chaos which had deeply marked them, and wanted to avoid the repetition of similar situations. Because of this, they lobbied for real “military status”.
A decree of April 2, 1875 incorporated forestry personnel into the composition of the country’s military forces by creating “companies, sections and detachments of chasseurs forestiers”. Military training thus made its debut at what was then the École nationale forestière at Nancy. The administration des Eaux et Forêts was integrated into the French military forces and its personnel attached in times of war to chasseurs forestiers companies. In peacetime, its personnel ensured the continuity of the forest service and carried out forestry surveillance and other administrative functions. In times of war, its mission was to facilitate the progress of troops in the countryside and to support the army’s Engineer units in the supply of wood.
But there was no clear “employment doctrine” (doctrine d’emploi) for the chasseurs forestiers. They were simply distributed throughout France in 48 companies (including 2 fortress), 36 sections (including 18 fortress) and 15 detachments. In Algeria, three squadrons of mounted infantry were organized, one per unit.
The decree of 1875 was modified and supplemented in 1882, in 1883 and especially by that of November 18, 1890, after which the corps de chasseurs forestiers comprised 6,500 men (6,000 in mainland France and 500 in Algeria) and 280 officers (260 in mainland France and 20 in Algeria).
As for uniforms and weapons, these were provided by the army as well as equipment (bags, cartridge belts, gaiters, shoes) and camp materials. The uniform was that of l’Administration des forêts. The Chasseurs Forestiers, being classified among the « troupes d’élite » bore distinctive signs.
Chef de bataillon chasseur forestier, inspecteur des Eaux et Forêts, 1909-1918. 
Képi of a Garde Général Stagiaire des Eaux et Forêts / Sous-Lieutenant des Chasseurs Forestiers, 1914. 
Other ranks’ Chasseur Forestier uniform with leather gaiters and chevrons showing length of service on the upper left arm. 
Chasseurs Forestiers at the Camp de Saint-Maur, 1914.
- Chef de bataillon chasseur forestier, inspecteur des Eaux et Forêts, 1909-1918. Note the collar insignia, the dark green of the tunic (drap vert foncé). [Source: Aussie Oc, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons]
- Képi with silver piping and the hunting horn (cor de chasse) of the chasseurs of the type that Louis Renaud would have been issued as a Garde Général Stagiaire / Sous-Lieutenant of the Chasseurs Forestiers in 1914. [Source: Aussie Oc, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons]
- Uniforme forestier with trousers in a dark blue-grey (pantalon gris-de-fer bleuté) with daffodil piping (passepoil jonquille) and the coat (manteau) in ‘finance green’ (vert finance). There are leather gaiters and chevrons showing length of service on the upper left arm.
- Group of ten Chasseurs Forestiers other ranks with an NCO in two ranks (front rank kneeling). They are armed with rifles and are wearing equipment harness. The photograph shows how the collar insignia of other ranks was darker than that of officers, warrant officers and NCOs. None of the men appear young. [Source: Aussie Oc, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons]
Étienne Renaud’s Brief, But Eventful, War
All these details concerning uniforms and the organisation of the unit in relation to the Administration des Eaux et Forêts are important when used alongside other sources. Renaud’s matricule militaire is rather sparse on detail aside from what’s already been provided. Luckily, useful information is available to draw on via the web. Of course, research in the archives of the Service Historique de la Défense (SHAD) at Vincennes in Paris would be the optimum. But, given such a trip needs careful planning and is best when a decent quantity of potential historical sources to consult on a variety of topics has been identified, I’m at the stage at present of seeing what’s available online and in digitized form.
The usual route to follow for me is to do an initial web search, then look at the individual’s matricule militaire, before moving on to look at the digitized unit histories that were published after the war and have been the subject of an extensive digitisation programme by the Bibliothéque Nationale de France (BNF). From there, it would be Les Journaux des marches et opérations (JMO) of the relevant military unit(s) – the rough equivalent of the War Diary of anglophone units.
In the case of our man, Étienne Louis, there was a wealth of information on the web and in the unit history of the 68e Bataillon de Chasseurs Alpins for us to learn a good deal about this officer’s impressive war service. Despite it being tragically short in length, it was filled with incident.
Renaud merits several mentions in the unit history of the battalion. In the first of these, we’re told how in November 1914:
« Soutenue par la section de mitrailleuses du bataillon, la 9e compagnie progresse sur les crêtes boisées d’Ebeneck, en chasse instantanément les défenseurs et s’installe aux lisières du bois. De là elle peut couvrir sur la gauche l’opération de Rimbach à laquelle prennent part la 7e compagnie et un peloton de la 10e. Les mitrailleuses du lieutenant RENAUD entrent en action dès leur installation et brisent dans l’œuf une contre-attaque importante. Rimbach est occupé pendant trois heures au bout desquelles on procède à l’évacuation volontaire, ordonnée par le commandement. »
This is interesting since command of a machine-gun section suggests an officer already assessed as capable and brave and seemingly established with the battalion. But more than that. On the same page, there’s a photo of a group of officers and among them is Renaud. Here it is:
From left to right:
Rear row : Cap. DUPONT, lieut. DESBENOIT.
Middle row : Cap. LAVAUDEN, aide-major GUILLAUME, Cap. BALLON, sous-lieut. RENAUD.
Front row : Médecin-auxiliaire PINARD, lieut. SABATTIER.
The other officers can be identified as part of 68e Bataillon de Chasseurs Alpins because they all wear the Modèle 1889 béret and have the number ’68’ as collar insignia. Étienne Renaud’s pantalon are clearly different to those worn by the others and so is his ‘cor de chasse‘ collar insignia. He has a single inverted V indicating his rank as sous-lieutenant on his lower left sleeve. Until November 1915 when the chasseurs alpins adopted hunting horn collar insignia, these differences in collar insignia are a good pointer for identifying chasseurs forestiers. It’s less easy to be definitive based on the differences in shade of his tunic and breeches (uniforms wore out rapidly during war service and standard issue replacements were not readily available until after the introduction of the horizon bleu uniform towards the end of 1915). However, uniform regulations by 1914 prescribed they were to be made of a cloth close in colour to blue-grey with daffodil yellow piping for sous-officiers and chasseurs forestiers, but with a double band of finance green either side (« de part et d’autre ») of the piping for officers. I think this is enough to confirm the unit of service for Étienne Renaud.2
We next find lieutenant Renaud mentioned for his part in the fighting around Steinbach where French attempts to take the village and then the town of Cernay saw fighting sway back and forth over the last days of December 1914 and the first of January 1915:
« Le 30 décembre, à l’exception de la 10e compagnie
… les 7e, 8e et 9e compagnies montent en ligne devant Uffholtz, le centre du bataillon sur la croupe de la chapelle Saint-Antoine, la droite en liaison avec le 152e régiment d’infanterie, qui, depuis une semaine, vient de s’illustrer dans l’opération hardie de la prise de Steinbach. … Dans la nuit du 1er au 2 janvier, attaqué après de sérieux bombardements, le bataillon repousse victorieusement trois fortes tentatives de l’ennemi en vue de la reprise de la croupe Saint-Antoine. Installés dans des trous d’obus, les mitrailleurs du bataillon font merveille et sous l’impulsion de leur chef de section, le lieutenant RENAUD des chasseurs forestiers*, coopèrent dans une très large mesure à l’échec de l’ennemi. »
* my emphasis
Renaud, it seems, was a chasseur forestier officer serving with a battalion of chasseurs alpins but preserving his rank, uniform and distinctions. This may explain why, of the 48 forestier companies in France at the outbreak of war, there are very few JMOs (4 – those for 9e, 14e, 16e and 18e) or unit histories (1 – 1ère Compagnie de Chasseurs Forestiers) for the companies. From another useful source of information, the Forum PAGES 14-18, a useful post explains that in May 1914, the Minister of War specified that in the event of mobilization for war, only those under the age of 48 were called upon to join chasseur forestier companies that would form on the outbreak of war. These units would then be attached to large formations of the army. Other officers would stay in their peacetime posts to ensure the continuity of the forestry service, avoid the pillaging of the forests and fulfil the information and guide missions that the military authority would entrust to them locally. Furthermore, only gardes généraux and les inspecteurs adjoints (deputy inspectors) were for front-line service – a fact that explains why on the war memorial of the we can see on the monument aux morts of l’Ecole forestière de Nancy there are the names of 96 former students who were killed between 1914 to 1918. Many more were wounded or taken prisoner.
[If anyone can provide a photograph of this memorial or a link to a web site with more detail, by the way, please get in touch.]
Casualties among the forestiers were such that in 1916 they were withdrawn from front-line service (along with many engineers and specialists essential to the continuation of the industrial war effort). This avoided the “total eradication” of the 25/40 age group, but the gaps created could not be filled after the war until around 1930. Away from the trenches, the forestiers were assigned to supplying the armies with wood in the forward zone as part of la service forestier des armée or to guard duties at the headquarters of senior commanders like Joffre. (I’m looking for photographs of visits by the likes of Kitchener, French and Haig to see if I can spot men in this role).
Lieutenant Étienne Louis Renaud was one of those who did not survive the war. On 15 June 1915, 68e bataillon de Chasseurs Alpins (among them capitaine Robert Dubarle, who I hope will be the subject of a future blog post), was to participate in the French offensive that aimed to seize the small town of Metzeral in the valley of the Grande Fecht.
To capture Metzeral in the valley, the French first had to take the heights of Anlasswasen to the west of Metzeral and the Braunkopf to the north. For its attack on Anlasswasen (Côte or collet 955), two companies plus one platoon of 68e bataillon de Chasseurs Alpins were to tackle the enemy positions on the slopes of 955 which faced Sondernach and a pentagonal enclosure located between 955 and the bois de Winterhägel. (See the map from the unit history and the modern IGN map below):
However, when the French preparatory bombardment began at noon, German artillery batteries responded in turn and soon a barrage ‘of incredible violence’ fell on collet 955 and in the rear, causing heavy losses to a battalion of the 152e RI in reserve at 1025. As the batallion history describes:
« Au cours de cette réaction, le bataillon éprouve une perte douloureuse en la personne du lieutenant RENAUD, commandant du peloton de mitrailleuses. Un aveugle éclat d’obus vient frapper en pleine poitrine ce vaillant officier, au moment où il dirigeait l’installation d’une mitrailleuse destinée à appuyer l’attaque. Sa mort, que ses chasseurs et ses camarades ressentent amèrement, sème une impression de tristesse sur tous les visages. »
From another forum, dedicated to the chasseurs battalions, we learn that Renaud was buried in the cimetière communal de Kruth. He had also received three citations – two in army, and one in divisional, orders. These were:
1. « A l’Ordre de la Division. Lieutenant au 68e Bataillon de Chasseurs à Pied : extrêmement énergique et courageux, toujours en avant, remplit les missions les plus périlleuses. »
2. « A l’Ordre de l’Armée. A fait preuve au combat du 7 mai, comme officier mitrailleur, de belles qualités militaires ; accompagnant avec ses mitrailleuses les troupes de première ligne, s’est installé avec elles sur la position conquise et s’y est maintenu sous un violent bombardement, assurant par le feu de ses pièces le succès définitif. »
3. « A l’Ordre de l’Armée. Officier plein d’entrain, de sang-froid et d’audace ; toujours volontaire pour les missions les plus dangereuses. Au combat du 15 juin, est mort à son poste de chef des mitrailleuses, comme il avait vécu depuis le début de la campagne, en chef héroïque. » »
Finally, the battalion history explains one more aspect of the story of lieutenant Renaud, garde général and officier des Chasseurs Forestiers:
« Désireux d’honorer la mémoire de ses officiers tués au cours de l’avance sur Metzeral, le bataillon obtient l’autorisation de donner leurs noms à des points de ce territoire sur lequel il vient de répandre si généreusement son sang : Le camp de Mittlach-le-Haut où s’installe le train régimentaire, s’appelle désormais « camp RENAUD » et on y érige un monument à la mémoire du vaillant forestier. »
My longest blog post so far, and one that I hope has done justice to the story of the man and the unit.
2. A second photograph in the unit history shows the officers of the battalion in February 1915. In this photograph, Renaud is stood next to the battalion mascot, Théophile, a young Alsatian boy kitted out with the full uniform of a chasseur alpin. The boy clearly can’t hide his delight in his new status.
Debout les Morts! 