French General and Colonial Administrator. After serving in the Marine Infantry during the Franco-Prussian War, Galliéni spent most of the rest of his career as a soldier and military governor in the French colonies of Martinique, French Sudan, Tonkin, and Madagascar. Seniority and experience would normally have given him overall command of the French armies before the outbreak of World War I, but age and ill health caused him to defer to his one-time protégé, General Joseph Joffre. Galliéni was given command of the garrison of Paris. In the first weeks of the war, the Germans pushed the Allied Armies back almost to the gates of Paris. When, at the last moment, the German First Army began turning south and east instead of continuing westward to encircle Paris, Galliéni alerted Joffre to the possibilities of hitting the German First Army in the flank as they passed in front of Paris. However, there wasn’t enough military transport to move the garrison troops to the front. Galliéni solved the problem by drafting over 400 Parisian taxicabs and their drivers to ferry troops of the 103rd and 104th Infantry Regiments to reinforce the French 6th Army near Nanteuil-le-Houdouin. The resulting victory of the Allied Armies in the First Battle of the Marne was a turning point in the war. Galliéni was appointed Minister of War in 1915, resigning shortly before his death in 1916. He was promoted to the rank of Marshal of France posthumously in 1921.
French General and Colonial Administrator. After serving in the Marine Infantry during the Franco-Prussian War, Galliéni spent most of the rest of his career as a soldier and military governor in the French colonies of Martinique, French Sudan, Tonkin, and Madagascar. Seniority and experience would normally have given him overall command of the French armies before the outbreak of World War I, but age and ill health caused him to defer to his one-time protégé, General Joseph Joffre. Galliéni was given command of the garrison of Paris. In the first weeks of the war, the Germans pushed the Allied Armies back almost to the gates of Paris. When, at the last moment, the German First Army began turning south and east instead of continuing westward to encircle Paris, Galliéni alerted Joffre to the possibilities of hitting the German First Army in the flank as they passed in front of Paris. However, there wasn’t enough military transport to move the garrison troops to the front. Galliéni solved the problem by drafting over 400 Parisian taxicabs and their drivers to ferry troops of the 103rd and 104th Infantry Regiments to reinforce the French 6th Army near Nanteuil-le-Houdouin. The resulting victory of the Allied Armies in the First Battle of the Marne was a turning point in the war. Galliéni was appointed Minister of War in 1915, resigning shortly before his death in 1916. He was promoted to the rank of Marshal of France posthumously in 1921.
Bio by: Doc Wilson
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