fme_504097 - GUERRE DE 1870-1871 Bataille de Vermans et St Quentin

GUERRE DE 1870-1871

(1870-1871)

In a foreword, Jean-Pierre Collignon writes: "In 1870, France was surprised because it had to be and because it deserved it. The resulting war demonstrated that the imperial army did not had been able to play its role of cover which would have given the nation time to run to arms and launch its masses of combatants against the enemy, because minds were not prepared, in the government, in the high command and in public opinion; the army was sacrificed in an unequal and badly conducted fight before the necessary was done to allow the country which was counting on not participating directly in the fight to arm itself under its protection. when this one will have succumbed under the number, it will be too late so that the rising in masses can overcome, for lack of cadres, the latter then surrounded in Metz or prisoners of the Germans.This is the whole history of the war of 1870.".