“Attaque a outrance” — “attack to excess”

As Europe approached the precipice of war in 1914, France's military thinkers were unwaveringly committed to the idea that an outright, relentless, and wholehearted offensive was not only the key to victory... but the only method of waging war that should be put into action whatsoever. Soon the French armies would crash into the Germans and punish them for their dastardly preemptive strike, and the "Lost Provinces" of Alsace-Lorraine would once again be French. Or so men like Joffre thought, but as events unfolded throughout the complicated, layered Battle of the Frontiers, those misconceptions would soon be exposed.

If this kind of theoretical dissection sounds interesting to you, we have some good news! The French obsession with "the offensive" and how it began to affect real events in 1914 is precisely what we're going to study in the next episode of Fix Bayonets! First World War Podcast.