Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
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The French Black Sea Fleet mutinies!
After the end of the First World War, the French government under George Clemenceau ...
... decided, at the end of November 1918, to send parts of the French Mediterranean fleet to the Black Sea to support the "white" forces in the Russian civil war.
5,000 French troops were put ashore and occupied the port city of Odessa at the end of December 1918...:
The goal was the occupation of Kharkov and Kyiv and the support of the newly created independent Ukrainian state.
After realizing that 5,000 men are not enough, the French massively up the ante!
By mid-February 1919, the Allied troops in the Ukraine and southern Russia, under the command of the French General d'Anselme, had reached a strength of 150,000 men, including 50,000 French and Greeks in the Odessa, Cherson and Sevastopol areas alone..:
But what French politicians and generals have grossly underestimated is the almost total unwillingness to fight of the French after the exhausting war years, who have absolutely no desire to stick their heads in a cause that they do not see as their own!
Moreover, the well-crafted and no less well-organized Bolshevik propaganda, which also reaches the ranks of the French soldiers, is extremely seductive!
In February 1919, a revolt broke out in Bessarabia, where French troops had joined forces with Romanian troops. The 58e régiment d'infanterie mutinied, numerous French soldiers and sailors fraternized with the Bolsheviks.
In March 1919, the 176th regiment d'infanterie mutinied at Cherson...
...and makes contact with the Bolshevik sailors on the ships in the harbour.
After the French had had to evacuate Odessa and Sevastopol from the advancing Bolshevik Red Army at the beginning of April under these circumstances, their high command decided on a counter-offensive.
But numerous sailors and soldiers refuse the order on April 9, 1919, the fraternization with Bolshevik agitators and increase - this picture was also taken in Odessa, in the background you can see the city's famous opera house...:
The Fleet Commander, Vice-Admiral Jean-François-Charles Amet...
...wants to restore order with a crackdown and lets French socialist agitator Jeanne Marie Labourbe...
...put them before a court-martial and shoot them.
The situation is now so tense that the admiral doesn't dare shoot a French soldier or sailor!
With the execution of Laborbe he achieves exactly the opposite!
The mutinies in Odessa not only intensify but spread to the rest of the French Black Sea Fleet based at Sebastopol.
In the night from April 19th to 20th, 1919, sailors under the leadership of the chief engineer André Marty and the engineer Louis Philippe Badina...
... take control of the battleship "Jean Bart"...
...and about her sister ship "France"!
They are raising red flags and demanding an immediate cessation of the fight against Soviet Russia!
"Down with the war!" and "Stop the murder of children and women!" are their demands.
The mutiny quickly spread to other ships...
... so the battleships "Vergniaud"...
... and "Waldeck-Rousseau"...:
The French admiral has no choice but to negotiate with the mutineers.
After four days, Vice-Admiral Amet agrees to withdraw the entire French fleet and the troops that have been deployed from the Black Sea.
The French evacuate their forces - the following picture shows again the port of Odessa...:
The French intervention in favor of an independent Ukrainian state has collapsed!
Jeanne Laborbe is later honored with a commemorative stamp by the Soviet Union...:
After the end of the First World War, the French government under George Clemenceau ...
... decided, at the end of November 1918, to send parts of the French Mediterranean fleet to the Black Sea to support the "white" forces in the Russian civil war.
5,000 French troops were put ashore and occupied the port city of Odessa at the end of December 1918...:
The goal was the occupation of Kharkov and Kyiv and the support of the newly created independent Ukrainian state.
After realizing that 5,000 men are not enough, the French massively up the ante!
By mid-February 1919, the Allied troops in the Ukraine and southern Russia, under the command of the French General d'Anselme, had reached a strength of 150,000 men, including 50,000 French and Greeks in the Odessa, Cherson and Sevastopol areas alone..:
But what French politicians and generals have grossly underestimated is the almost total unwillingness to fight of the French after the exhausting war years, who have absolutely no desire to stick their heads in a cause that they do not see as their own!
Moreover, the well-crafted and no less well-organized Bolshevik propaganda, which also reaches the ranks of the French soldiers, is extremely seductive!
In February 1919, a revolt broke out in Bessarabia, where French troops had joined forces with Romanian troops. The 58e régiment d'infanterie mutinied, numerous French soldiers and sailors fraternized with the Bolsheviks.
In March 1919, the 176th regiment d'infanterie mutinied at Cherson...
...and makes contact with the Bolshevik sailors on the ships in the harbour.
After the French had had to evacuate Odessa and Sevastopol from the advancing Bolshevik Red Army at the beginning of April under these circumstances, their high command decided on a counter-offensive.
But numerous sailors and soldiers refuse the order on April 9, 1919, the fraternization with Bolshevik agitators and increase - this picture was also taken in Odessa, in the background you can see the city's famous opera house...:
The Fleet Commander, Vice-Admiral Jean-François-Charles Amet...
...wants to restore order with a crackdown and lets French socialist agitator Jeanne Marie Labourbe...
...put them before a court-martial and shoot them.
The situation is now so tense that the admiral doesn't dare shoot a French soldier or sailor!
With the execution of Laborbe he achieves exactly the opposite!
The mutinies in Odessa not only intensify but spread to the rest of the French Black Sea Fleet based at Sebastopol.
In the night from April 19th to 20th, 1919, sailors under the leadership of the chief engineer André Marty and the engineer Louis Philippe Badina...
... take control of the battleship "Jean Bart"...
...and about her sister ship "France"!
They are raising red flags and demanding an immediate cessation of the fight against Soviet Russia!
"Down with the war!" and "Stop the murder of children and women!" are their demands.
The mutiny quickly spread to other ships...
... so the battleships "Vergniaud"...
... and "Waldeck-Rousseau"...:
The French admiral has no choice but to negotiate with the mutineers.
After four days, Vice-Admiral Amet agrees to withdraw the entire French fleet and the troops that have been deployed from the Black Sea.
The French evacuate their forces - the following picture shows again the port of Odessa...:
The French intervention in favor of an independent Ukrainian state has collapsed!
Jeanne Laborbe is later honored with a commemorative stamp by the Soviet Union...:
