BRP World War One Scenario

[svensson]

6 hours ago, Zit said:

You could make the French an Alsacian instead, who left the -at this time German- Alsace because he is for a French Alsace (a "French from Outside" as they used to call themselves, and they were a lot). Alsace was one of the main reason why France declared war to Germany. It is more credible I think than a Bavarian in the French army, which is a bit weird.

And of course, there is plenty of material to raise zombies...

If you can read French or find them in English, you may find inspiration in the comics made by Jacques Tardi.

Certainly, an AlsaBian [German spelling] is possible.

I've done some research into the Legion Etranger and in 1914 a significant percentage of the NCOs were actually Bavarians who joined the Legion to avoid service with the Imperial German [read: Prussian] Army. At the time there was a large cultural divide between the largely Catholic, generally permissive Bavarians and the stodgy, largely Protestant [Calvanist] Brandenburgers.

I'll look up the comic book. That's a new one for me and everything is grist for the mill

Thanks for the input.

[svensson]

2 hours ago, jean said:

For the record, on august  3rd 1914, Germany declared war to France

 

 

True, Jean, but to be completely fair about the whole thing France was spoiling for a fight with Germany ever since 1871. While Germany was the one to declare war, France didn't object to it all that much in 1914.

[Zit]

58 minutes ago, svensson said:

I've done some research into the Legion Etranger and in 1914 a significant percentage of the NCOs were actually Bavarians who joined the Legion to avoid service with the Imperial German [read: Prussian] Army.

I learned something today ! Are there any sources about that on the Internet ? Did they really fight ?

58 minutes ago, svensson said:

I'll look up the comic book. That's a new one for me and everything is grist for the mill

He published many graphic novels about this period and this war, as well as well as the weird adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec, a kind of Belle Époque Pulp.

[svensson]

5 hours ago, Zit said:

I learned something today ! Are there any sources about that on the Internet ? Did they really fight ?

In 1914, Germany was still very new at the whole 'empire' thing. The region we think of as 'Germania' was still thought of as almost a 'confederation of kingdoms' where the various states payed homage to the Kaiser but often thought of themselves as semi-independent. Nowhere was this more prevalent than in Bavaria, who kept her own sovereign crown, her own army, her own officer's seniority list, etc. And many Bavarians thought of themselves as Bavarians, not as Germans, who had a common language with Brandenburg-Prussia but were as different from Prussia as the Irish are from the English.

So, about your specific question of 'where did you get your info on the Foreign Legion's German makeup', a good starting source with a great bibliography is Osprey Publishing's Men-at-Arms 325 'The French Foreign Legion 1914-1945' and Men-at-Arms 461 'The French Foreign Legion 1872-1914', both written by Martin Windrow, a former Legionnaire himself.

[Zit]

That the French Foreign Legion was full of Germans is a fact, and since the beginning. But do these Germans have really been sent to the front against other Germans ? Anyway, it is a game, you can decide that they did.

9 hours ago, svensson said:

 And many Bavarians thought of themselves as Bavarians, not as Germans,

Still nowadays !

[svensson]

The Legion did not deploy into France en masse in 1914. France still had colonial campaigns ongoing in North Africa and needed troops there to keep the native Berber and Tuareg tribes in check. In the reorganizations that followed the declaration of war, the Legion formed two large regimental task forces [that unique French construct, the 'regiment de marche'] consisting of troops from all Legion regiments and the wave of foreign volunteers. Germans already serving in the Legion were given a choice, remain in North Africa in what was sure to be hard service or deploy with their comrades to Metropolitan France. In the end, most of the NCOs in the Regiments de Marche de Legion Etranger were Germans by descent.

[Zit]

Thanks. BTW, my grand father was a zouave during WW1. If you want to know his background for a pc or npc, tell me, I'll PM you his story (hat of a pacific humanist school teacher born in Algiers and sent to the "butchery" in northern France).