The Brigade des Fusiliers Marins is a unit of the French Navy which fought alongside the Belgian army in 1914-1915 and which sacrificed itself in October 1914 at Diksmuide to stop the advance of the German army and protect Dunkirk .
Origin of the Brigade
When the 1914 war was declared, the French Navy had unemployed marine riflemen on board its ships because the main battles were on land. To use these men, it was decided, on August 7, 1914, to create a strong brigade of 6,000 men organized into two regiments which would be the 1st and 2nd marine rifle regiments. The command is entrusted to Pierre Alexis Ronarc'h who has just been appointed rear admiral. The first mission entrusted is the defense of the Capital and its suburbs from which the usual garrison has left.
See the Fusilier marine article.
Organization of the brigade
The brigade consists of a General Staff, two regiments and a machine gun company of 15 sections. Each regiment is commanded by a captain and itself composed of a staff and 3 battalions. The organization is modeled on that of the infantry regiments of 1914, with the exception of the machine gun sections which are independent of the regiments.
Recruitment
In the workforce, there are 700 very young apprentice marine riflemen (young recruits barely sixteen and a half years old), and reservists from the Lorient depot, former drivers or mechanics of the fleet. The extreme youth of the apprentices surprised the Parisians who gave them the nickname of "Ladies of the Navy" or "Ladies with red pompoms".
They were joined in Paris by reinforcements arriving from the others ports:Rochefort, Brest, Cherbourg and Toulon. These reinforcements include long-distance sailors, fishermen or coasters, who will quickly turn into army soldiers by replacing the jacket with the greatcoat.
Sent as reinforcements to Belgium
* In October 1914, the Germans in excess threaten to annihilate the Belgian defences. The brigade receives the mission to leave Paris to reinforce the Belgian army, this mission also being given to the 87th Territorial Infantry Division. It is a question of helping the Belgian army to withdraw towards France and to protect the strategic port of Dunkirk.
* The Brigade is transported by train to Flanders, then it goes to Antwerp where the Belgian army is besieged. In Ghent, the Brigade stops, the way being cut beyond.
* Marine riflemen fought at Melle on 9, 10 and 11 October to protect the retreat of Belgian troops having evacuated Antwerp. Then they drop out towards Diksmuide, which they reach on October 15 after an exhausting walk. Pursued by fifty thousand Germans, these men accustomed to living barefoot on the decks of their boats, provide marches of thirty and forty kilometers.
* The following day, October 16, the sailors' line of defense was barely established when the Germans launched their first artillery and infantry attack at 4 p.m. The fighting for the possession of Diksmuide has just begun, opposing 6,000 sailors from the Brigade commanded by Admiral Ronarc'h and 5,000 Belgians commanded by Colonel Meiser to three German army corps, under the orders of the Prince of Würtemberg, approximately 30,000 men.
General Foch's decision
The French and Belgian General Staffs meet, and given the development of the situation, believe that it is now possible to stop the German invasion along the coast.
General Foch recounts his strategy as follows:
We will hold out for that on the Yser, from the North Sea to Diksmuide, with the rapidly reconstituted Belgian army; at the strongpoint of Diksmuide, with the marine rifle brigade; on the Yperlé, further south, and as far as Ypres with the territorial troops which are already there and which I quickly reinforce with cavalry divisions. We will wait in these conditions for the arrival of the French reinforcements that the general in chief makes us hope for. In this vein, and before leaving Veurne on the evening of the 16th, I hastily sent Admiral Ronarc'h an instruction setting out his task at Diksmuide:
" In the circumstances in which we find ourselves, the tactics you have to practice do not involve the idea of maneuver, but simply and to the highest degree, the idea of resisting where you are. To this end, it is necessary to prepare without any reserve the implementation, in a sheltered situation, and under good conditions, of all your means. As for the action to be taken, it consists for you in stopping the enemy in its tracks, by the power of your fires in particular. This means that it is easy to hold with the manpower and the means at your disposal, that it allows you to occupy a large area of ground and that you should only think of evacuating the position on a formal order from your superiors or following the capture of "the whole" position by the enemy. Needless to say, I rely entirely on your dedication to fulfill this mission. »
Following the general's order, Admiral Ronarc'h relayed the following order to his sailors:"The role you have to fulfill is to save our left wing until reinforcements arrive. Sacrifice yourself. Hold for at least four days. »
* On October 24 at 9 o'clock in the evening, the Prince of Württemberg launched a general attack with the aim of breaking through the front in the direction of Veurne. Two columns will attack the Nieuport-Dixmude front held by the Belgians and two other columns will converge their efforts on Diksmuide, after a formidable artillery preparation.
* On October 26, the sailors are reinforced by a Marching Regiment of Senegalese Riflemen under the orders of Lieutenant-Colonel Pelletier. This regiment includes two battalions:the 3rd BTS of Morocco (Commandant Frèrejean) and the 1st BTS of Algeria (Commandant Brochot)
* On October 28, following a decision taken on the 25th, the Belgians open the floodgates and flood the left bank of the Yser between this river and the railway road from Diksmuide to Nieuport, making Diksmuide an artificial peninsula. These floods decided by Albert 1st of Belgium on the proposal of the General Staff of the Belgian army saved the situation on the Yser.
* On November 10, the defenders of Diksmuide were forced, after bitter fighting which ended in hand-to-hand combat with bayonets or knives, to abandon the burning town and return to the left bank of the Yser.
They had pledged to hold the city for four days but they held out for three weeks, against around 50,000 Germans who left 10,000 dead and more than 4,000 wounded.
Very significant losses
The losses of the defenders are appalling.
* The sailors have more than 3000 men dead or hors de combat:23 officers, 37 petty officers, 450 quartermasters and sailors were killed; 52 officers, 108 petty officers, 1,774 quartermasters and sailors were injured; 698 were taken prisoner or reported missing.
* Concerning the Senegalese Tirailleurs, there are 400 men left in the Frèrejean Battalion and only 11, including a captain, in the Brochot Battalion:411 survivors out of 2000.
* On November 15, the German offensive is definitively stopped.
Aftermath of the battle
The Brigade's sacrifice had a great impact in France. It was noticed that this unit had no flag. To remedy this omission, the survivors of the Marine Rifle Brigade gathered near Dunkirk on January 11, 1915. Mr. Raymond Poincaré, President of the Republic, accompanied by Mr. Victor Augagneur, Minister of the Navy solemnly handed over to the Admiral Ronarc'h, the flag of the marines, whose guard is entrusted to the second regiment.
At the end of January 1915, the Brigade moved to the Nieuport sector.
From January to May 1915, the fronts in Flanders gradually stabilized until the Allied offensive of July 1917.
Dissolution of the Brigade
In November 1915, the French government decided to disband the Brigade of marine riflemen, following the request of the Navy which needed its personnel to fight against German submarines. It is decided that the flag of marines will remain at the front of the armies with a battalion, a company of pontooners and eight sections of machine guns. The role of the two regiments ended on December 10, 1915.
During the sixteen months at the front, the Brigade of marine riflemen lost, in killed, wounded or missing, 172 officers, 346 petty officers and around 6,000 quartermasters and sailors, the equivalent of its initial workforce, mainly made up of Bretons.