Adolphe Marie Messimy (; 31 January 1869 – 1 September 1935) was a French politician and general. He served as Minister of War in 1911–12 and then again for a few months during the outbreak of and first three weeks of the First World War. Having begun his career as an army officer, he returned to the Army and successfully commanded a brigade at the Battle of the Somme, and later a division. Defeated for re-election to the Chamber of Deputies in 1919, he served as an influential senator from 1923 until his death in 1935.
Early and personal life Born in Lyon on 31 January 1869, Adolphe Messimy was the eldest son of notary Paul Charles Léon Messimy and Laurette Marie Anne Girodon. He married Andrée, the daughter of Victor Cornil, whom he divorced in 1921. His second marriage, in 1923, was to Marie-Louise Blanc (née Viallar), a widow. He had two children from each marriage.
Tuchman described him as “an exuberant, energetic, almost violent man, with … bright peasant’s eyes behind spectacles and a loud voice”.Tuchman 1962, pp. 46–7
His hobbies were mountain-climbing and collecting weapons and furniture.
Early career Messimy entered the military academy of Saint-Cyr at the age of eighteen and after graduation began a career as a line officer. He was promoted to captain at the age of twenty-five and at twenty-seven attained his Brevet d'état-major (qualified as a staff officer), opening up the promise of an excellent military career. In 1899 he resigned from his post as a captain of chasseurs in protest at the Army's refusal to reopen the Dreyfus case, entering politics determined on “reconciling the army with the nation".Tuchman 1962, pp. 46–7
After leaving the Army he became a journalist, writing on military matters for a number of Paris newspapers including Le Temps, le Matin, le Rappel, le Radical and Lyon-Républicain. He also published documented studies in La Revue politique et parlementaire, La Revue des questions coloniales, La Revue bleue and Revue de Paris.
He also became an administrator of the General Company of Niger.
Prewar political career He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies as a Radical-socialiste in 1902, for the Seine constituency (14th arrondissement of Paris). In the second round (11 May) he defeated the incumbent deputy, Girou, by 9,068 votes to 8,569. In 1905 he voted in favour of the law separating church and state.
He was re-elected as a Gauche radicale-socialiste, again at the second round, on 20 May 1906, by 11,894 votes to 5,438 for his opponent Fraguier. On 8 May 1910, once again at the second round, he was re-elected as a Républicain radicale-socialiste by 9,462 votes to 7,182 for his opponent Grangier.
His prewar writings included: "The Armed Peace, France can Lighten the Burdens" (1905), "General Considerations on the Organisation of the Army" (1907), "The Army and its Cadres" (1909) and "Our Colonial Work" (1910).
Peacetime war minister Messimy became Minister of the Colonies in the government of Ernest Monis and served from 2 March 1911 to 27 June 1911.
From 27 June 1911 to 14 January 1912 Messimy served as Minister of War in the government of Joseph Caillaux. He was the fourth new War Minister that year, and within a few days of his appointment the German gunboat arrived at Agadir, sparking the Second Moroccan Crisis.Tuchman 1962, pp. 46–7
Until 1911 the vice-president of the Conseil Supérieur de Guerre (a body of senior generals, chaired by the President of the Republic) was commander-in-chief designate in the event of war but had no planning staff, whilst the Army Chief of Staff reported to the War Minister and dealt solely with administrative matters.Greenhalgh 2014, p. 15 The vice-president, General Victor-Constant Michel, proposed that the French Army adopt a more defensive war plan and attach a regiment of reserves to each regular regiment. Messimy, in common with senior French generals, thought that these plans would blunt the fighting spirit of the French Army. He described them as “comme une insanité” and Michel a “national danger” and helped to ensure his removal.Tuchman 1962, pp. 46–7
Messimy abolished the job of vice-president, and created a new post – soon given to General Joseph Joffre – of Chief of the General Staff (and Commander-in-Chief designate). There were to be two sub-chiefs, one heading the General Staff, based in the ministry and a member of the War Minister's military cabinet, whilst the other was chief of staff to the Commander-in-Chief and dealt with mobilisation and concentration. Alexandre Millerand abolished the former post (in his 1912–13 tenure), helping to create the situation where Joffre acquired enormous power in his hands during the early years of the First World War.Greenhalgh 2014, p. 15 Messimy was suspicious of Joffre's choice of the clericalist right-winger General de Castelnau as his chief of staff.Tuchman 1962, pp. 48–9
As War Minister Messimy proposed other reforms. He advocated that the manpower of the French Army should be enhanced with large contingents of black Africans, a view which he shared with General Charles Mangin.Greenhalgh 2014, p. 10 Like President Theodore Roosevelt he ordered generals to conduct manoeuvres on horseback, to weed out elderly and unfit generals who were “incapable not only of leading their troops but of following them".Tuchman 1962, pp. 46–7 Messimy and General Auguste Dubail had tried to introduce 105mm heavy guns, but French generals saw them as a defensive weapon like machine guns and as a drag on their offensive doctrine, preferring the more mobile "Soixante-Quinze" gun, so only a few had been introduced by 1914.Tuchman 1962, p. 230
Out of office Returning to his native district, Messimy was, on 25 February 1912, elected deputy for the arrondissement of Trévoux (the Ain) for the Parti républicain radical et radical socialiste, replacing Donat-Auguste Bollet, who had become a senator. Messimy polled 9,734 votes against 4,648 for Ducurtyl and 3,420 for Nanssex, out of 18,186 ballots cast.
After visiting the Balkans and seeing the advantage held by Bulgarians in their inconspicuous uniforms, Messimy also proposed replacing the red kepi and pantalon rouge (red trousers) worn by the French Army since 1830 by a grey-blue or grey-green uniform (the British Army had recently switched from scarlet to khaki and the Germans from blue to field-grey). This plan was blocked by French generals and politicians. Messimy later wrote of the “blind and imbecile attachment to the most visible of all colours”.Tuchman 1962, pp. 47–8
He was re-elected for his Ain seat unopposed on 26 April 1914, obtaining all of the 11,713 votes cast and holding the seat until his defeat in 1919.
War Minister in 1914
July Crisis On 13 June 1914 he entered the government, led by René Viviani, as Minister of War. On 24 July 1914 Messimy summoned Joffre to warn him that war was likely.Greenhalgh 2014, p. 1 Greenhalgh gives his rank at the time as Colonel, which appears to be an error
News of the German Kriegesgefahr (announcement of danger of war) was announced around 5.30pm on 31 July. Messimy, who had been tipped off an hour earlier by a banking friend in Amsterdam, told the cabinet it was “une forme hypocrite de la mobilisation”. Joffre, who had previously been ordered to keep French troops 10 km away from the frontier, arrived and demanded French mobilisation, but was only allowed to send a “covering order” because of the Tsar’s last minute appeal to the Kaiser. Messimy was left fretting at the “green baize routine” by which each minister was permitted to speak in turn at cabinet meetings.Tuchman 1962, pp. 92–3
The next morning (1 August), after the German ultimatum to Russia, the cabinet agreed that the mobilisation order could be issued but Messimy was required to keep it in his pocket till 3.30pm. Public posters appeared at 4pm, but that evening Messimy had to order the Army, in the president's name, to keep out of the 10 km zone, on pain of court martial. Not even patrols were permitted, and special orders were issued to General Foch, commander of XX Corps, who was suspected of patrolling aggressively.Tuchman 1962, p. 95 Until the Germans were confirmed to have entered Belgium, Messimy forbade any French troops to enter in case reports were a trick to make the French into the violators of Belgian neutrality.Tuchman 1962, p. 127
Messimy was keen to bring the Colonial Corps from North Africa to France. In the fraught atmosphere of the Crisis he was challenged to a duel on 2 August by Navy Minister Armand Gauthier, who had forgotten to send torpedo boats into the English Channel but now wanted to redeem his reputation by using the French Navy to attack the German warships Goeben and Breslau, currently in the Mediterranean, before Germany and France were actually at war. He eventually embraced Messimy tearfully and was persuaded to resign on grounds of health.Tuchman 1962, pp. 149–50
French defeat and defence of Paris The Germans attacked the outermost Liège forts on 5 August. Three cavalry divisions under General Sordet were to enter Belgium on 6 August to reconnoitre east of the Meuse. Like President Poincare, Messimy would have preferred to send five corps, but this did not meet with Joffre's approval.Tuchman 1962, p. 176
Messimy called in General Hirschauer of the engineers on 13 August and ordered him to have the Paris defences ready in 3 weeks, as a precaution.Tuchman 1962, pp. 338–9 General Gallieni, who had been designated as Joffre's successor "in case of accident" went to Vitry (14 August) to lobby Joffre as Messimy refused to go, believing (wrongly) that Joffre would be more likely to listen to his former superior.Tuchman 1962, p. 233 Messimy rang GQG on the night of 18/19 August “in anguish” at the weakness of the French left wing. He spoke to General Berthelot, who assured him that the German centre was weak and he agreed that Joffre should not be wakened.Tuchman 1962, pp. 245–6
With the French armies falling back in retreat, and the Paris defences still not ready, Messimy sent for Gallieni and offered him the job of Military governor of Paris in place of General Michel. He shook Gallieni's hand effusively and kissed him when he agreed, promising him three active corps to avoid “the fate of Liège and Namur”, asking him to return later when he hoped to have cabinet authority to appoint him.Tuchman 1962, pp. 338–40 Paris had been besieged in the Franco-Prussian War Messimy fully supported Joffre in his purge of unsuccessful generals, even suggesting that, as in 1793, some of them simply ought to be executed.Terraine 1960, p. 113
Messimy then learned from General Ebener, GQG's representative at the War Office, that Joffre had ordered 61st and 62nd Reserve Divisions up from Paris to the Amiens sector (where they would form part of a new Sixth Army under Michel Maunoury). When Messimy protested that Paris was in the Zone of the Interior not the Zone of the Armies, and that the troops could not be moved without the authority of the president, the prime minister and himself, Ebener replied that the move was already “in execution” and that Ebener himself was to command the two divisions. This left Paris guarded by only one reserve division and three territorial divisions. Messimy hung onto 45th Division despite demands from GQG.Tuchman 1962, pp. 338–40