Géraud Réveilhac - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Géraud François Gustave Réveilhac (16 February 1851 in Aurillac

Aurillac

Aurillac is a commune in the Auvergne region in south-central France, capital of the Cantal department.Aurillac's inhabitants are called Aurillacois, and are also Cantaliens or Cantalous in Occitan....

(France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

) - 1937 ) was a French

France

career officer, raised to the rank of Général de brigade on 21 December 1909, commanding officer of the 42nd Infantry Brigade; he was then Commandeur

Commandeur

Commandeur is a title in French and Dutch , usually rendered in English as Commander, with different uses. The literal meaning is he who commands, parallel to Commandant. In most senses the German equivalent is Kommandeur....

of the Légion d'honneur

Légion d'honneur

The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...

World War I

At the beginning of World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, Réveilhac was commanding the 119th Infantry Brigade, part of the 60th Infantry Division, under General Joppé, whom he replaced on 25 September 1914 as commanding officer of the division.

In February 1915, after three attempts to take a strong German position failed, showing sovereign contempt of the life of his men, he ordered artillery to shell a French trench

Trench warfare

Trench warfare is a form of occupied fighting lines, consisting largely of trenches, in which troops are largely immune to the enemy's small arms fire and are substantially sheltered from artillery...

, to force his troops to attack. However, the artillery commander refused to obey without a written order. On another occasion, he ordered his troops to relaunch an attack pretending the percentage of acceptable losses had not been reached for that day. Stanley Kubrick

Stanley Kubrick

Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...

's 1957

1957 in film

The year 1957 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 21 - The movie Jailhouse Rock, starring Elvis Presley, opens.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue-Awards:...

film Paths of Glory
Paths of Glory
Paths of Glory is a 1957 American anti-war film by Stanley Kubrick based on the novel of the same name by Humphrey Cobb. Set during World War I, the film stars Kirk Douglas as Colonel Dax, the commanding officer of French soldiers who refused to continue a suicidal attack...

is partly based on these events.

At the end of the war, General Réveilhac was made Grand Officier of the Légion d'honneur

Légion d'honneur

. He retired to his country estate, and died in bed in 1937.

World War I

Further reading