Guerrilla Warfare in 1870 - Resistance and Terror

After the French defeat at Sedan on 2 September 1870, and the fall of the Empire, France continued the war against the coalition of German states. Alongside and often outside the regular French armies, franc-tireurs fought the invader. Faced with an insurgency that intensified from October 1870 onwards, the Prussians and their allies devoted a quarter of their forces to securing their rear areas. Under the Prussian law of 4 June 1851 on the state of siege, they unleashed against this guerrilla a repression of implacable severity, of which the martyrdom of Châteaudun stands as testimony.

Franc-tireurs are fighters who cannot benefit from the laws of war. They are like a parasite that must be eradicated.

This work traces the formation of these irregular units, their composition, and their actions. It also analyses the brutal nature of the repression carried out by the enemy and the principles of counter-guerrilla warfare that the Germans developed throughout the nineteenth century.

The author: Holding a doctorate in history from the University of Paris-Sorbonne, a graduate of the Royal College of Defence Studies (London), the NATO Defence College (Rome), the Collège Interarmées de Défense and the École Militaire de Haute Montagne, Colonel Armel DIROU is an associate researcher at King's College London and a visiting lecturer at University College Durham. A cavalry and mountain troops officer, he served in the Balkans in Bosnia and Kosovo. He completed three tours in Afghanistan and commanded a tactical grouping in the Central African Republic. He also contributed to the tactical training of units from the United Arab Emirates, Kyrgyzstan, and the Afghan army.