Charles Mangin

Charles Emmanuel Marie Mangin (6 July 1866 – 12 May 1925) was a French general during World War I.

Early career
Charles Mangin was born on 6 July 1866 in Sarrebourg. After initially failing to gain entrance to Saint-Cyr, he joined the 77th Infantry Regiment in 1885. He reapplied and was accepted in Saint-Cyr in 1886 attaining the rank of Sub-Lieutenant in 1888. He joined the 1st Marine Infantry Regiment based in Cherbourg. He was sent to Sudan, serving under Jean-Baptiste Marchand, and gained further experience in Mali, French North Africa. During this period he learnt Bambara, the lingua-franca of Mali. He was wounded three times and returned to France in 1892. In 1893 he was made a Knight of the Legion d'honneur.

In 1898 Mangin joined Marchand on his expedition to Fashoda. In 1900 he attained the rank of Officer of the Legion d'honneur and married Madeleine Henriette Jagerschmidt. They would go on to have eight children. He was given the command of a battalion in Tonkin from 1901 to 1904. He was then promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1905 and served during the French occupation of Senegal from 1906 to 1908 under General Audéoud. In 1910 he published La force noire, where he called for the use of French Colonial Forces in the event of a European war.

First World War
During the First World War Mangin rose from divisional command to that of the 10th Army for the Second Battle of the Marne, commanding both French and American troops. Nicknamed "the Butcher" for his espousal of la guerre à outrance and his faith in the suitability of North African troops for the attack, there was no doubt in the French Army that Mangin was personally fearless.

During that war, Mangin had notable victories at Charleroi and then at Verdun, but his reputation suffered following the disastrous Nivelle Offensive, (16 April–9 May 1917). This was due partly to the fact that Mangin was one of the few high-ranking French officials who supported Nivelle's strategy.

Mangin's Sixth Army bore the brunt of the main attack during the Second Battle of the Aisne, the main component of Robert Nivelle's costly assault. After the failed operation was abandoned, both Mangin and Nivelle were removed from effective command. However, following Ferdinand Foch's promotion to Allied Supreme Commander (over Philippe Pétain), Mangin was recalled upon the orders of Prime Minister Clemenceau and given command initially of a corps and then of the French Tenth Army on the Western Front.

Although Mangin was despised by some of his troops (who gave him the nickname "The Butcher"), his 10th Army was responsible for the crucial Allied counter-attack at the Second Battle of the Marne. It was this that largely promoted his military reputation. He also became known for the observation: "Quoi qu'on fasse, on perd beaucoup de monde." ("Whatever you do," (i.e. attack or defend) "you lose a lot of men."). In the closing months of the war, he served as part of General Castelnau's Army Group East, advancing towards Metz.

The incorporation of African troops in the French Army on a large scale, both before and especially during the war, was the result chiefly of Mangin's persistent advocacy of the idea, which had many opponents. His conception of a “plus grande France,” based on political autonomy and military obligation for all parts of the French Empire, is put forward in the concluding chapters of his book Comment finit la Guerre.

Occupation of the Rhineland
After the Allied victory, Mangin's 10th Army was sent to occupy the Rhineland. There, he became the focus of controversy due to his attempts to foster the establishment of a pro-French Rhenish Republic with the aim of separating it from Germany and thus denying Germany the West bank of the Rhine.

Mangin became a member of the Supreme War Council and inspector general of French colonial troops. He fell seriously ill at his Paris home on 9 March 1925, suffering from incredible pain. He became incoherent and partly paralysed. The following day he was diagnosed as suffering from appendicitis and as having suffered a stroke, though it was rumoured he may have been poisoned. He died two days later, on 12 March. His remains were interred in Les Invalides in 1932, and a statue erected in his honour in 1928.

A bronze statue of Mangin in the Place Denys-Cochin in Paris was destroyed on the 16th of June, 1940 (German troops had entered Paris only two days earlier on the 14th). Mangin had guarded the Rhineland in 1920 with Senegalese troops; every German 'knew' that he ordered German mayors to provide brothels for his soldiers, and when the mayors protested at 'providing German women for Senegalese', Magin was alleged to have replied, 'German women are none too good for my Senegalese'. A German demolition squad destroyed his statue and the broze was melted down and used for German bullets.

During his tour of Paris, Adolf Hitler visited Napoleon's tomb and the statue, being a reminder of Mangin's machinations in the Rhineland, was one of two he ordered dynamited. (The other was of Edith Cavell.) In 1957 a new statue was erected on the nearby avenue de Breteuil.

Decorations

 * Légion d'honneur
 * Knight (30 December 1891)
 * Officer (1 October 1899)
 * Commander (13 September 1912)
 * Grand Officer (2 November 1916)
 * Grand Cross (6 July1919)
 * Médaille militaire (12 May 1925)
 * Croix de guerre 1914–1918
 * Médaille Interalliée de la Victoire
 * Médaille Commémorative de la Grande Guerre
 * Médaille Coloniale with "Sénégal et Soudan" clasp
 * Grand Officer of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus (Italy)
 * Distinguished Service Medal (US)
 * Companion of the Order of the Bath (UK)

His Publications

 * La force noire, Hachette, Paris, 1910 (in this book Mangin advocated the quick and massive use of colonial troops, his so-called "Black Force", in the event of a war in Europe)
 * La Mission des troupes noires. Compte-rendu fait devant le comité de l'Afrique française, Comité de l'Afrique française, 1911, 44 p.
 * Comment finit la guerre, Plon-Nourrit, Paris, 1920, 330 p.
 * Des Hommes et des faits. I. Hoche. Marceau. Napoléon. Gallieni. La Marne. Laon. La Victoire. Le Chef. La Discipline. Le Problème des races. Paul Adam : A la jeunesse. Réponse à M. P. Painlevé, Plon-Nourrit, 1923, 275 p.
 * Autour du continent latin avec le "Jules-Michelet", J. Dumoulin, Paris, 1923, 381 p.
 * Regards sur la France d'Afrique, Plon-Nourrit, Paris, 1924, 315 p.
 * Lettres du Soudan, Les Éditions des portiques, Paris, 1930, 253 p.
 * Un Régiment lorrain. Le 7-9. Verdun. La Somme, Floch, Mayenne ; Payot, Paris, 1935, 254 p.
 * Souvenirs d'Afrique : Lettres et carnets de route, Denoël et Steele, Paris, 1936, 267 p.
 * Les Chasseurs dans la bataille de France. 47e division (juillet-novembre 1918), Floch, Mayenne ; Payot, Paris, 1935, 212 p.
 * Histoire de la nation française (publ. sous la direction de Gabriel Hanotaux), 8, Histoire militaire et navale, 2e partie, De la Constituante au Directoire, Plon, Paris, 1937
 * Lettres de guerre : [à sa femme] 1914-1918, Fayard, 1950, 323 p.