Maurice Paul Emmanuel Sarrail (6 April 1856 – 23 March 1929) was a French general of the First World War. Sarrail's openly socialist political connections made him a rarity amongst the Catholics, conservatives and monarchists who dominated the French Army officer corps under the Third Republic before the war, and were the main reason why he was appointed to command at Salonika.
At the start of the war, Sarrail commanded VI Corps then Third Army in the Ardennes and around Verdun, where his army played an important role in the final stages of the First Battle of the Marne and where he took the credit for holding Verdun (later the site of an important battle in 1916). He was dismissed for poor leadership, amidst political uproar, in July 1915.
The Salonika campaign – chosen out of several strategic options presented by Sarrail – was intended originally to support Serbia, with Bulgaria entering the war on the side of the Central Powers, and later (as the Gallipoli campaign was winding down) to provide a chance for France to assert her economic and political influence over Greece and the declining Ottoman Empire. Sarrail ended up commanding a multinational Allied force amidst political intrigue and a state of near civil war in Greece, whose King Constantine was pro-German, whilst the Prime Minister Venizelos was pro-Allied and also keen to gain territory from the Turks in western Anatolia. Despite a number of offensives, Sarrail's forces did not succeed either in conquering Bulgaria or in preventing the Central Powers' conquest of Serbia in 1915 or Romania in 1916. Sarrail was dismissed from his Salonika command in December 1917.
He later played a role in the French suppression of the Great Syrian Revolt in the mid-1920s.
Biography
Early career
Sarrail was born at Carcassonne, and attended St Cyr, graduating in third place on 1 October 1877. He was posted as a sub-lieutenant to the infantry. His regimental service and promotion followed the normal course. He was promoted to lieutenant in October 1882, captain in 1887, and chef-de-bataillon (major) in 1897. In 1901 he was appointed Commandant of the École Militaire d'Infanterie (St. Maixent), where rankers were turned into loyal republican officers.
In 1902 he was promoted lieutenant-colonel. From 1904 to 1906 he was Military Commandant of the Palais Bourbon, which housed the Chamber of Deputies, and he was promoted colonel in 1905. In 1907 he became Director of Infantry at the War Office, an appointment which he held for four years. He was made General de Brigade in 1908. In 1911 he was promoted General de Division when his radical Socialist friend Caillaux formed his first government, and on 1 November 1913 he was given command of VIII Corps.
Unlike many French officers, Sarrail was a freemason and a Dreyfusard. After a left-wing government came to power in 1914, he was due to be appointed Commander-in-Chief designate in Joffre's place in the autumn, but war broke out before this could take place.
First World War: western front 1914–15
Battle of the Ardennes
At Virton in the Ardennes in August 1914 he commanded VI Corps, part of Ruffey's Third Army. VI Corps was strengthened with an extra (third) infantry division, and faced German VI Reserve Corps. Sarrail's was the only corps of Ruffey's Third Army to withstand the strong German counterattacks (the others being Brochin's V Corps and Victor-Rene Broelle's IV Corps). It was eventually forced to fall back to avoid encirclement. Sarrail told 42nd Division, which formed the rearguard, "you have given proof of cran (guts)".
On 30 August Sarrail was promoted to succeed Ruffey in command of Third Army. In early September IV Corps was removed from his command and sent to Maunoury's new Sixth Army near Paris.
Fighting around Verdun
In early September Sarrail, along with Franchet d’Esperey (Fifth Army) and Foch (Ninth Army), was ordered (Instruction Generale No 5) to stop retreating and be ready to counterattack. However, during the Battle of the Marne, unlike those other French generals, Sarrail was ordered simply to pin down German Crown Prince Wilhelm's Fifth Army opposite him, in the vicinity of Verdun.