Name Georges Bazelaire | Died March 29, 1954 | |
 | ||
Georges de Bazelaire (January 30, 1858 – March 29, 1954) was a Major General in the French Army. During World War I, Bazelaire commanded the 135th Infantry Regiment, the 27th and 38th Infantry Divisions and the 7th Army Corps.
Contents
World War I
In 1916, general de Bazelaire took part in the Battle of Verdun, defending the left bank of the river Meuse: « He was to command the half of the Région Fortifiée de Verdun west of the river Meuse, including the section of front between Avocourt and the Meuse ». In the first days of March, intense fighting involved the troops under Bazelaire's command in the areas of Bois des Corbeaux, Mort-Homme and the Cote 304.
An order by Bazelaire dated March 7, 1916, quoted by the Germans and published in the New York Times, reflects the extremely tough conditions of the fights when colonel Macker and his 92e Régiment d'infanterie were ordered to retake the Bois des Corbeaux where they demonstrated an admirable courage.
In the British weekly The Graphic (July 1916) we can read the following comments: «After the Dead Man (Mort-Homme), none of the Verdun hills has been the scene of fiercer fighting than the now famous Hill 304 (Cote 304), where for many weeks general Bazelaire has held against the hellish fire of the Crown Prince's big guns and the massed attacks of his armed hosts ».
During the offensive of the Chemin des Dames, in April 1917, the 7th Army Corps of general de Bazelaire, comprising three infantry divisions, was reinforced by the 1st and the 3rd Russian Brigades. These troops, commanded by general Nikolaï Lokhvitski, took part in the fighting near Courcy, where they behave courageously and suffered severe losses.
In February 1918, as Douglas MacArthur recalls in his memoirs, four regiments of the 42nd Infantry Division (United States), the Rainbow Division of the American Expeditionary Forces, « were placed under the command of General Georges de Bazelaire of the French VII Army Corps to be battle-trained with four French divisions.» Colonel MacArthur took part in what was his first raid against German trenches where several prisoners were seized, after which he was awarded a Croix de Guerre by Bazelaire.
Military Commendations
Georges de Bazelaire received several military citations for his services in World War I