Comparisons of the Armies French

                                     
                                           Comparisons of the Armies
The French Forces

492,585 active  417,366 Garde Mobile

The French Army comprised approximately 400,000 regular soldiers, some of them veterans of the Crimean War, Algeria, Second Italian War of Independence, and in Mexico supporting the Second Mexican Empire. This strength would increase to 662,000 on full mobilisation with the recall of reservists, with another 400,000 in the loosely organised Garde Mobile, which would require time to train. Unlike the Prussians, who relied on universal conscription, the French relied on long serving professional army . There were also at the time about 60,000 French troops in Algeria .A soldier signed on for a seven year term and was offered bonuses to reenlist . The French thought their veterans would be better in the field than the green recruits of the Prussian army. The French soldiers had many weaknesses such as lack of discipline, alcoholism.

Chassepot rifle

the mitrailleuse

The mitrailleuse was a precursor to the modern machine gun,developed from the American Gatling. The desire to keep it a secret meant that few French soldiers were instructed in its use. It weighed about 1750 lbs and required a team of six horses to transport it.


pot rifle and the mitrailleuse

 After Prussian soldiers breech-loading  needle rifles ( zundnadelgewehr) in 1866 at the battle of Koniggratz had decimated the Austrians using muzzle-loaders, the French had hastily equipped their infantry with the Chassepot rifle, one of the most modern mass-produced firearms in the world at the time. The Chassepot was designed by Antonie Chassepot in 1866 and was superior to the outdated Prussian Dreyse rifle. The Chassepot had an effective range of 1,500 yards and could fire 8 to 15 rounds a minute while the Dreyse could only fire 4 or 5 rounds a minute . The bullets of the Chassepot were smaller than the Dreyse, but had more penetrating power .The Chassepot used a rubber ring seal to prevent sparks and smoke from being emitted .

 The French also had one of the world's first machine gun, the mitrailleuse which could fire 100-200 rounds a minute.Because of the novelty of the weapon and lack of experience of its use, it was mounted on an artillery gun carriage and grouped in batteries in a similar fashion to cannon.

Tactics

With these two weapons, why did the French not sweep the Prussians from the field as the Prussians had at Koniggratz ? One reason was is that they did not use these weapons effectively. The French battle plan was to mass men in a defensive position and deliver a withering wall of fire -  the feu de bataillon . French commanders were not given much leeway in the battlefields as the Prussian officers had, who could improvise better. The Prussians swarmed their open with attacks of smaller groups of men from many different positions seeking to outflank the enemy .. The Prussians also negated the French superiority of their rifles with their superior breech-loading steel Krupp cannons  .

The artillery could not be re-equipped as the money was not voted by the Assembly, and was still equipped with muzzle-loading, although rifled, Lahitte '4-pounder' (actual weight of shot: 4 kg / 8.4 lb) guns, with an effective range of 2,800 metres . The French also tended to mass their artillery in the field, while the Prussians were much more mobile with their artillery .

Railway

The French railway system was not as organized for war compared to the Prussians . The Prussians had a special staff to plan and synchronize the movement of troops .

Cavalry

The Prussians had reformed their cavalry service, no longer letting it be the field of the elite, but opening it up to advancement by merit and using it for skirmishing and screening . The French still made use of heavy cavalry with the Charge of the Light Brigade in the Crimean War had shown to be outdated with the longer range of rifles and cannons .

The army was nominally led by Napoleon III. Marshals Bazaine, MacMahon and Canrobert were initially selected to command field armies. They and many of their subordinates had gained high reputations for bravery and leadership in the Crimean War, Franco-Austrian War and colonial wars in Algeria.

In practice, the French army, which had undertaken urgent reforms as a result of the outcome and lessons of the Austro-Prussian War, was nevertheless crippled by its poor administration and lack of coherent planning. Although the French Chief of Staff, Marhal Edmond Leboeuf, had stated that the French Army was ready for war, "down to the last gaiter button", as the fighting began, many of its formations were under strength as 100,000 reservists were living hand-to-mouth at depots and railway stations as they tried to find their regiments; and among various deficiencies in supplies and equipment, most of the medical supplies were still at the Invalides in Paris, awaiting transport.Throughout the war, the movements of French formations were to be badly directed and confused

The Navies

At the beginning of the war, the French could claim to have one of the best navies in the world . It had pioneered new developments in steam, shell-guns and armor . It had 49 ironclads and 9 corvettes armed with 16cm and 19cm guns . The largest French ironclad was the Rochambeau, purchased from America .Against this the Prussians only had 5 ironclads. The Konig Wilhelm,which remained in port during the war, was more powerful than the French ironclads .When the war broke out, most of the French navy was used to transport troops from Algeria to France. The was a planned seaborne invasion of the German North Sea coast, but the newly installed Krupp coastal guns and garrison troops of about 90,000 in the Hamburg Bremen area caused these plans to be shelved . The French Marines were sent to the French army of Chalons and many of them were captured at Sedan.