France at War - The Dreyfus Case and the French 75

A Well Kept Secret: The Military History of the Dreyfus Case

Book Review [by Gerard Demaison ] of
Un secret bien garde: Histoire militaire de 1'Affaire Dreyfus by Jean Doise (in French),
1994, Editions du Seuil, 27 Rue Jacob, 75006 Paris, France. ISBN 2-02-021100-9

What It was All About

Based on research carried out by this reviewed author over a period of forty years, within the French State archive system, this work ties together the great French scandal, l' Affaire Dreyfus with the development of one of the decisive weapons of the First World War.

The author, Jean Doise, holds a doctorate in History from the Sorbonne, a second degree from the prestigious Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris and is also a graduate from the French Army's General Staff College. He pursued a career as a professional French Army military historian and had retired just before publishing this volume. The author begins by explaining that his interest in the military ramifications of the Dreyfus Case go way back to an interview he carried out in 1952 with Colonel Emile Rimailho who was then, at the age of 88, the last survivor of the three man team that engineered the development of the famous quick -firing "Modele 1897 "French 75 mm field gun.

It has long been demonstrated, in fact since 1898, that Captain Dreyfus was innocent of the charges of espionage pressed against him. Dreyfus had no links whatsoever with an intercepted "list" or "bordereau", of French military documents which was later to be addressed to the German military attaché in Paris, Colonel Maximilian Von Schwartzkoppen, in the fall of 1894. This list, or "bordereau", had been retrieved in a waste paper basket at the German Embassy by a cleaning lady who was in the employ of French military counter-intelligence. This document had been torn up but was easily pieced together. It announced, among other items, a forthcoming report on a new French 120mm howitzer and the comportment of its hydraulic recoil mechanism, as well as detailed manuals describing the current organization of French field artillery.

The old official story goes that this "bordereau" intercepted by French counter intelligence was immediately forwarded to the Defense Minister, General Mercier. The Defense Ministry concluded that the "bordereau" was so diverse and so technical in nature that it had to originate from an artillery officer on the General Staff. Then, the Defense Ministry prepared a short list of potential suspects and the name of Alfred Dreyfus rose to its top. Captain Dreyfus was 35 years old in 1894 and a well-noted artillery officer from prestigious Ecole Polytechnique as well as a graduate from Ecole Superieure de Guerre (the French War College). At the time of his arrest, in 1894, he was completing a training assignment with the Army's General Staff, a clear sign that he was on a career "fast track". Captain Alfred Dreyfus traveled about once a year to Alsace in order to visit his ailing father and the long established family textile business located in Mulhouse. The Dreyfus family had chosen to retain its French nationality at the time of the German annexation of Alsace in 1871, after the Franco-Prussian war. Captain Dreyfus' Alsatian connection, artillery training and the lame charge that the handwriting on the "bordereau" -- although interpreted at the time as probably disguised -- was likely to be his, led to his arrest.

The Principals of Affaire Dreyfus

Captain Dreyfus was court-martialed and sentenced in December 1894 to solitary confinement for life on Devil's Island, in French Guyana. By 1898, however, the real culprit, an obscure French infantry Major by the name of Walsin-Esterhazy was proven to be the real author of the "bordereau". This revelation made by the new chief of military counter-intelligence, Colonel Picquart, was rejected by the French High Command and led to Picquart's dismissal, a world-famous miscarriage of justice.

Eventually, in response to public outcry and intense political pressure from the Left which had recently won the national elections, Alfred Dreyfus was brought back to France, retried in 1899 and amnestied in 1900. He was also reintegrated in the French Army in 1906, with the Legion of Honor.

The real unsolved mystery of the Dreyfus Case has always been the true reason why, in the first place, was there such a high-level cover-up concerning the famous "bordereau" planted at the German embassy. Also, why was Major Esterhazy, the proven but never convicted culprit, let go freely to retire in England. Troubling questions were also posed by Alfred Dreyfus himself and by his son Pierre in their joint memoir published after the Great War of 1914-18: "There is still the need to explain how a low level infantry officer such as Major Esterhazy could have had access to so much detailed and diverse technical information"

Mr. Doise addresses these questions and makes a convincing case that the Affair was closely tied to the secret development of the quick-firing French 75mm field gun, based on a novel, long recoil hydro-pneumatic system. The new French 75 was technically way ahead of its time: the German and British military did not produce a field gun of comparable performance until nearly the eve of WW 1. Furthermore, the US Army adopted the French 75mm field gun in 1918 and had it built under license in America. Mr. Doise makes a strong case that the "bordereau" used to frame Dreyfus was part of a disinformation exercise organized in 1894 by a Colonel Sandherr, who was then the head of French military counter-intelligence. Quite significantly, Mr. Doise documents that the short recoil mechanism of the 120mm Baquet howitzer prototype, prominently quoted in the famous "borderau" destined to the German Military Attaché, had already been rejected as unsuitable. As to the current organization of French field artillery listed in the " bordereau", it would be made obsolete by the secret adoption of the revolutionary 75mm field gun. Furthermore, Mr. Doise demonstrates that the rest of the information on the "borderau" was "fluff' of little value. He also lists other French deceptions played at that time. In other words, Doise proves that the "bordereau" was a plant containing technically obsolete artillery information that was part of a larger program to throw the Germans off the scent of the 75mm field gun.

The main architect of this disinformation was Colonel Sandherr, the head of French military counter-intelligence, assisted by his subordinate, a Major Henry. The higher level originator of this deception is suspected, without formal proof, to have been a General Deloye who supervised all French artillery research and development at the time. Furthermore, Mr. Doise explains how Major Esterhazy, the man who leaked the "bordereau" to the German Embassy, was a double agent masquerading as a French traitor. As a matter of fact, Major Esterhazy had previously worked for French military counter-intelligence, in the early part of his career, and had known both Major Henry and Colonel Sandherr for many years.

To clarify the issues, Mr. Doise analyzes three distinct layers of deception and conspiracy inside the Dreyfus Case:

«   An "Alsatian layer "which underlies the beginnings of the Affaire Dreyfus. Captain Alfred Dreyfus came to the attention of a French spy in Alsace, during his yearly visits to his ailing father in Mulhouse, a town which had become German since 1871. This French spy, whose name is divulged in the book, alerted Colonel Sandherr to the fact that Captain Dreyfus had been seen in Mulhouse several times. However these visits to his family in Mulhouse were already known to Captain Dreyfus' own superiors and they had never raised any objections. It is also interesting to note that, besides Alfred Dreyfus himself, the principal protagonists of the Dreyfus Case were also born in Alsace and spoke German fluently as a second language: Madame Bastian the French cleaning lady and spy who was sifting the waste paper baskets at the German Embassy, Colonel Sandherr the chief of French military counterintelligence who organized the framing of Alfred Dreyfus and Colonel Picquart who was first to demonstrate that the author of the "borderau" was Major Esterhazy, thus proving Captain Dreyfus' innocence as early as 1898. It was within this layer that information was gathered to paint Alfred Dreyfus as a credible "traitor".

«   The "French 75mm layer" began not by random coincidence, in late 1894, only four months after the novel 75mm field gun prototype had been successfully tested in complete secrecy. A disinformation campaign against the German Military Attaché, Col. Von Schwartzkoppen, by the false spy Esterhazy was then initiated. As part of this effort, Colonel Sandherr, assisted by Major Henry, orchestrated the framing of Captain Dreyfus as a traitor and leaker of military secrets probably in order to make his own counter-espionage agent, Major Esterhazy, credible as a purveyor of French artillery information. The name of Alfred Dreyfus had come to Sandherr's mind as the ideal "patsy" because of Dreyfus' Alsatian connection, coupled to Dreyfus' early professional training as an artillery officer (although Dreyfus had never been involved, even remotely, into the highly secret 75mm field gun research and development).

Eventually, the participants at this level of the conspiracy were all discredited. Major Henry committed suicide in prison in 1898, after being arrested for forging documents designed to further incriminate Alfred Dreyfus. As to Colonel Sandherr, Henry's superior, he left behind the devastation he had brought to Alfred Dreyfus and to the French military establishment by conveniently dying of disease in 1895. Major Esterhazy admitted much later, while in self-imposed exile in England that he was the one who had written the "bordereau" used to incriminate Dreyfus. However, Esterhazy was never condemned by the French for espionage or for the part he had played in the framing of Captain Dreyfus. Instead, he continued to receive a monthly pension from an unknown source, until his death in 1923.

«   The " Cover-up by the French General Staff layer ". This cover-up was pursued by the highest authorities in the French General Staff and took place between late 1894 and 1898. Alfred Dreyfus was rushed to judgment and unjustly condemned because War Minister General Mercier had believed the falsehoods concocted by Sandherr and Henry, and because some of the graphology experts had inaccurately concluded that the author of the "borderau" was Captain Dreyfus. However the situation became indefensible after 1896 when proof supplied by the new chief of French military counter-intelligence, Colonel Picquart, showed that the "bordereau" had been handwritten by Major Esterhazy himself. Rather than accepting responsibility for this miscarriage of justice, the French military leadership persisted in the cover-up for another two years. A newspaper article by Emile Zola finally blew the case wide open for the public, in 1898.

Because of intense political pressure, Captain Dreyfus was recalled to France and amnestied in 1900. His recall also coincided with the first international exposure of the French 75's performance during the Boxer Rebellion in Peking (China). A French 75 field artillery group [3 batteries of 4 guns] had been sent to China with the international expeditionary force, also in 1900.

The Germans adopted a modern field gun with recoil brakes only in 1901: the well known German 77mm field gun. However, the shells and the time fuses of the French 75, particularly the shrapnel shell with a rear explosive charge that makes the shell behave like a huge shotgun at any distance up to 8kms, were not matched by the Germans until 1915. All the deceptions, however, came close to a Pyrrhic victory since the Dreyfus controversy nearly destroyed France politically and lowered military preparation in 1914 because the politicians had acquired a deep distrust of the General Staff.

Mr. Doise's work is a captivating research volume, with a wealth of new and highly detailed material, thanks to the military and artillery research background of the author and to his unrestricted access to French military archives. Thus it ideally complements the better known literary resources which are already available on the judiciary and political aspects of the Case. Mr. Doise's book only exists in the French language for the time being, but we hope that this review will spur the interest of a translator and publisher for the benefit of the English-speaking readership.

Postscript

In a supreme irony of history only one of the French principals of "Affaire Dreyfus" did actually fight in the defense of his country during the Great War.

As noted above Colonel Sandherr died of natural causes (a stroke) in 1897.
Major Henry committed suicide with his razor in his prison cell, on August 31,1898.
Major Esterhazy died of natural causes near London in 1923. He did not participate in World War I.
Colonel Picquart became Minister of War in Clemenceau's cabinet, in 1908. It is during his tenure that the number of 75 batteries in the French Army was voted by the Chamber of Deputies to be doubled! The Army entered the War in 1914 with 1000 (a thousand) 75mm batteries of 4 guns each. Picquart died from a fall, while practicing horsemanship, on January 19, 1914.
General Deloye reached the age limit in 1901 and permanently retired.

The Dreyfus Family During the Great War

However, one principal of the "Affaire Dreyfus" did serve with distinction in the World War. Although he was already beyond normal retirement age, Alfred Dreyfus returned to active duty as a Lieutenant-Colonel of artillery in 1914 and served for the entire war, including front line duty in 1917. Alfred Dreyfus was later raised to the rank of Officer of the Legion of Honor just before the Armistice, in November 1918. His long-suffering family shared in the sacrifice and call to duty. Alfred Dreyfus' son, Pierre Dreyfus, served as a Lieutenant and later a Captain in French 75mm batteries on the Western Front. Pierre Dreyfus participated to the Marne, Verdun, the Somme and to the final drives during the summer and fall of 1918. He survived to receive the Croix de Guerre with palms and other decorations. Alfred Dreyfus's two nephews also fought as artillery officers in French 75mm regiments but both lost their lives on the field of honor, thus striking the family with further devastation. Alfred Dreyfus, himself, died quietly in bed on July 11, 1935.

Sources and Thanks: The photos here from the reviewer's collection.

Revised: December 30, 2003

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