Captain de Gaulle stayed, training and studying tactics as always. With a soldier's intuition, he believed that the war was coming, and he was eager to make contributions and be worthy of the status of a French aristocrat. Soon, World War I broke out, which excited De Gaulle, but he only participated in "four months" of the four-year war.
De Gaulle, who went to the battlefield for the first time, saw the cruelty of war.
According to the operational plan of the French High Command, Charles de Gaulle's troops were ordered to cross the Belgian border and attack Germany. Unexpectedly, the troops carrying out the "Schrieffen Plan" collided head-on, and "enemies meet each other and are particularly jealous". The two armies fought fiercely, and the gunfire masked the cries of the injured soldiers, and both sides suffered heavy losses.
When Charles de Gaulle faced the tragic war scene for the first time, it didn't seem too uncomfortable, but bravely charged. However, this "big man" who is more than 2 meters high has become the best target of his opponent. A bullet hit him in the thigh. When he returned to the team after being hospitalized for 3 months, the German and French armies formed a stalemate and turned into positional warfare and positional warfare.
Because the "big man" is too easy to "attract" bullets, the colonel left Charles de Gaulle around and became the colonel's assistant. A month later, a shrapnel hit his left hand. The injury was not serious, but the wound was infected and he had to be hospitalized again. Three months later, he returned to the army and was awarded the rank of captain, who could command a company.
19 16 In February, the German army carried out a surprise attack in Verdun on the western front, and the French defense line was divided into several sections, which was full of dangers. As a result, Charles de Gaulle's 33rd regiment went to the battlefield in Verdun, and the bumpy land was full of corpses and rats, which seemed like a hell on earth. This is the famous "Verdun meat grinder" in World War I.
With the rumble of guns, the Germans began to attack and the French suffered heavy losses. Before Charles de Gaulle woke up from the gunfire, the Germans had surrounded his company. The two sides started hand-to-hand combat, their thighs were stabbed by bayonets, and they were smoked to the ground by poisonous gas and fell into a coma. The colonel clearly saw in the telescope that Charles de Gaulle's company was "completely annihilated".
The news of Charles de Gaulle's death made Petain, then commander of the Verdun Theater, grieved and awarded him a cross posthumously. However, the "fatal" Charles de Gaulle did not die. When he woke up from a coma, he was surrounded by Germans who had just fought with his bayonet. This injury made him a prisoner of Germany, and he stayed away from the battlefield.
De Gaulle, who never gave in, began a life of "prison break".
De Gaulle, a prisoner of war, was extremely depressed. Before he achieved the goal of making contributions, he stayed away from the battlefield. What makes him unbearable is that it is a shameful thing to make a noble a prisoner of war and shame the family. De Gaulle, who refused to obey others since he was a child, decided to prove his "never yield" with practical action-"prison break".
However, his seven "jailbreaks" failed and became the focus of the prison camp. In order to prevent him from escaping, Charles de Gaulle was constantly replaced by a prison camp. Although the prison camp has been changed and the level of prevention is getting higher and higher, it still cannot erase his idea of "going out".
The funniest one was Charles de Gaulle's first Prison Break. At that time, he was held in a temporary shelter and stole a German dress while the guards were not looking, in an attempt to get away with it. Who knows, he is too tall, his sleeves only reach his elbows and his pants only reach his knees, which is very funny. I didn't run far before I was caught back.
The closest thing to success is his third Prison Break. He swallowed chilblain cream, pretended to have jaundice, and was admitted to the prison hospital. With the help of a prisoner of war, they walked out of the hospital and headed for the Swiss border. They lived freely for eight days. Just less than 100 km from the border, it was found and sent back to the prison camp.
De Gaulle "escaped from prison" many times, became a famous figure in the prison camp, and was also the key target of German managers, and was punished more and more severely. De Gaulle, who returned to the prison camp, faced a "little black room" for two months, with only half an hour of outdoor activities every day, but he was still planning to "escape".
With the end of World War I, the relationship between France and Germany tends to ease. The managers of German prison camps seem to have relaxed their vigilance against Charles de Gaulle and stopped paying attention to his "escape". Because, in their view, the "big man" of more than 2 meters is conspicuous everywhere, and it is only a matter of time before it is discovered.
Sure enough, his "big shot" and his strange words kept Charles de Gaulle from going far, and he was found to have been sent back to the prison camp. In the First World War, which lasted more than four years, Charles de Gaulle was hospitalized for nine months due to injury and spent three years and three months in a prison camp. He actually went to war for only four months.
In addition to Prison Break, Charles de Gaulle also gained a lot.
For Charles de Gaulle, who is active in thought and likes to do whatever he wants, life in a prison camp is undoubtedly the darkest day. In addition to planning Prison Break every day, there is "plenty of time" to make friends, analyze opponents and study tactics. This has accumulated many valuable resources for him to become the president of France in the future.
First of all, because he often "runs away", he enjoys high prestige among prisoners of war. De Gaulle met some comrades who tried to escape and became a friend in need. Among them, Remy Ruhr, who later became a columnist of France Times, often wrote articles in support of Charles de Gaulle. The first person who responded to the call of "6. 18" was catroux, the Governor-General of French Indian zhina.
Secondly, read books and newspapers, and have time to think. The greatest advantage of being a prisoner of war is that he can read German newspapers every day, which is the best way for thinking Charles de Gaulle to pay attention to the progress of the war and understand his opponents. He made many excerpts, and finished his first book, Competition among the Enemies, and analyzed the intrigue within the German army.
More importantly, Charles de Gaulle devoted himself to studying the strategies and tactics of countries in World War I, especially the role of tanks in future wars, and made a lot of theoretical research on foresight. In his view, the "master" of the future battlefield must be a large-scale tank force, which is why he strongly advocated the establishment of armored forces after the war.
What Charles de Gaulle is most willing to do is to give strategy lessons or situation reports to prisoners of war officers. He introduced the tactical characteristics of the French army with his rich knowledge of military history, and analyzed the trend of the war situation in combination with the ongoing war, just like a "professor" in a history class. At the same time, it also satisfies his sense of "nobility" who likes to "preach".
Although prisoners of war officers admire Charles de Gaulle's amazing memory, profound knowledge, and the advantages of calmness and reason. However, he was also found to be cold and stubborn, especially when expressing opinions, he did not allow others to argue, his tone was arbitrary, his attitude was arrogant and difficult to approach. So, in the prison camp, he had a new nickname "Grand Marshal".
It is difficult for a person like Charles de Gaulle to be promoted in peacetime. If a group of comrades he knew in the prison camp did not actively respond to his call, it would be difficult to have the famous "Free France Movement"; If he hadn't erected the "banner" against Germany at a critical moment, there would be no future French president. From this perspective, life in a prison camp is still worthwhile.
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References: The whole history of World War II and Charles de Gaulle.
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