Hey
/pelotonians, the offseason is in full swing but us mods are doing our best to keep you entertained until the Omloop- or the TDU if you’re not picky, or the Vuelta al Tachira if you’re downright desperate like I am.
At long last, here are the results of the end-of-the-year awards. Since 2015, users of this subreddit have been able to vote for the riders, the teams and the races they liked the most throughout the season. As usual, there have been separate polls for the men and the women and as usual, ladies first. Enjoy!
Non-racing awards
[25] Best personality
Have you ever been over to
/pelotonmemes? This is not a shameless plug, but rather a way to explain the popularity of the rider who won this category. I’m talking, of course, of
Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig! Not only she won over fans with her funny faces and lovable personality, but she has also been an outspoken advocate for more equality between men and women in cycling. She is very young, yet incredibly charismatic! But the high point of her season was probably her emotional post-La Course interview, which helped her become a household name even between those who don’t usually follow women’s cycling. The only other rider to amass a good number of votes in this category was last year’s winner
Annemiek van Vleuten.
[26] Most beautiful rider
The most beautiful/handsome riders are amongst my favourite categories to count votes from, because nothing gets fans fired up like picking their waifus and husbandos (yes I’m weebing and no I’m not even sorry) so there are a lot more picks including, often, some very niche ones. For the first time ever, this category resulted in a tie… with the already mentioned
Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig and
Annemiek van Vleuten sharing the spoils! It really seems like
/peloton users like them both for their personality and their looks. They only got three votes each: as mentioned above, votes were spread towards a number of different riders. It is also interesting how they are thirteen year apart, hinting that perhaps they are catering to users from different ages? Once again, no luck for
Puck Moonen, a rider who is known for her beauty even outside the cycling fandom, although she did collect two votes.
National award
[24] Best nation
Do I even need to dwell on this one? Of course, it’s
the Netherlands once again! They have been winning in this category since the inception of the end-of-the-season awards, and it is no surprise: they have five riders in the top-6 of the PCS rankings and Dutch riders have won nearly every important event of the year! The Ardennes classics, Ronde van Vlaanderen, Strade Bianche, the World Championships ITT and road race, the Giro Rosa, La Course, and the list goes on… unlike last year, however, the Dutchies’ win was not unanymous: there was a single vote for…
Canada.
Race awards
[18] Best stage race
After the Best nation category, we are onto another rather predictable one as we start dwelling into the awards for the best races of the season. Women’s cycling lacks any “real” Grand Tour, and the thing that comes closest to it is the
Giro Rosa. Held in July, it only lasts ten days but it is widely considered to be the most important stage race in women’s cycling: it attracts the biggest names and it is one of the few women’s racing to feature plenty of actual climbing- the riders got to challenge the Zoncolan this year! The Italian race won this award for the fourth year in a row, collecting all the votes that were cast minus three.
[19] Best one-day race
Unlike the Best stage race category, we have never had a repeat winner in this category; and the trend continued in 2018! The race that won this year has been changing its formula year after year but finally hit the jackpot this year, delivering an absolutely gripping affair that had fans all across the world on the edge of their seats: I’m talking, of course, about the
La Course by Le Tour! The race takes place during the Tour de France and in early years it was just a sprint on the Champs Elysees. It moved to the mountains last year, and this year’s edition we had great racing culminating with the victory of fresh Giro champion
Annemiek van Vleuten.
[20] Best non-WT stage race
Following women’s cycling at the WT level is not an easy task… so following small events is often nearly impossible! There were a good number of different races picked in this category though, which made it a fairly even category. For the first time ever, the race winning this category will not make the leap to the World Tour in the next season: after the wins from the Boels Ladies Tour in 2016 and the Emakumeen Bira in 2017, the 2018 title goes to the
Internationale Lotto Thüringen Ladies Tour! The German race, held in early June, saw
Lisa Brennauer win it for the second time in a row… but it was a quite tense affair, and it all came down to the ITT on the last stage.
[21] Best non-WT one-day race
What said above about non-WT stage races largely applies to one-day races as well, but there are notable exceptions: the Olympics and the World championships fit in this category and receive coverage comparable to a men’s race. Last year was the first time “regular” races won this category… but the
World Championships Road Race in Innsbruck took the top spot again this year- the first time since Richmond 2015. To be honest, the race wasn’t exactly thrilling but we had the luck to witness one of the most impressive rides I’ve ever witnessed:
Anna van der Breggen graced the Austrian spectators with an unbelievable performance, winning one of the few races she still missed in her ridiculously stacked palmares. Apart from it, the votes were fairly well spread with
Veenendaal Veenendaal Classic and
Giro dell’Emilia the only other races to rack up more than one vote each.
[22] Best stage in a stage race
Van der Breggen’s Innsbruck ride was not unrivalled during last year. Where else did we see a ridiculous display of dominance by a Dutch climber? Of course I’m talking about the
Giro Rosa, where
Annemiek van Vleuten pretty much destroyed all her opposition. One stage generated more buzz than the others- and of course it was
stage 9, which brought the riders atop one of the most sacred climbs in the whole of Italy-
Mt. Zoncolan.
Even though they didn’t tackle the hardest way up the legendary pass (EDIT: they did tackle the hardest way up, thanks to Sulfuratus for pointing it out), that stage was something never before seen in the Giro Rosa and received a lot of votes. It’s worth noting that Giro Rosa stages have been winning this award since the first edition of the awards in 2015! A small consensus built around the Boels Ladies Tour’s stage 2 as well... It was a completely different setting, but the outcome didn’t change, as Van Vleuten won on that day as well.
[23] Most surprising result
If one looks at the sheer results, there was nothing out of the ordinary about how
La Course by Le Tour developed. One of the top climbers in the peloton and recent Giro winner Annemiek van Vleuten winning a mountainous race: what’s strange about that? Who has seen this race, however, will certainly agree that Van Vleuten might have been a bookmakers’ favourite, it looked like all hope was lost from her after Van den Breggen attacked on the last climb. The way she made up the ground she had lost was mouth-opening: after the broadcast, I could barely believe my own eyes! So while it might not have been “surprising” as in “unpredictable”, it certainly was an unexpected result given how the race had developed! Once again, the subreddit was pretty united in this view; the only other race to gather more than one vote was the
European Championships’ road race in Glasgow, where Marta Bastianelli won from a chaotic sprint.
Team awards
[13] Best team
Well this is a gimme, no?
Boels-Dolmans Pro Cycling Team dominated the seasonal rankings once again, won a lot of the most important races, so in my mind they looked set to win this award for the third year in a row. They did receive a lot of votes… but enough for second place only: according to
/peloton voters, the best team of the season has been
Mitchelton-Scott! The Australian team did not win as much as Boels… but their wins were pure quality (Giro Rosa) and/or came in races with a lot of exposure (La Course). Besides, Van Vleuten might have been a certainty but riders such as D’Hoore and Spratt carried the team to complete new heights. It is safe to say that this was their most successful season ever! This is the first time a non-Dutch team wins this award, as the only ones to have won before Mitchelton were Boels and Rabo-Liv.
[14] Most improved team
Well I have ran out of things to say. While it might be debatable that
Mitchelton-Scott has been the best team of the season in absolute terms, it’s hard to argue that they aren’t amongst the ones which have improved the most compared to last season. And indeed, they topped this category as well! As I said above,
Jolien d’Hoore and
Amanda Spratt are largely to thank for this: they have been outstanding all season long and turned Mitchelton into a team that can compete nearly always, not just when AvV is in the lineup. And while, indeed, there were no doubts about Van Vleuten being one of the greatest, she still managed to win the Giro Rosa for the first time, bringing Mitchelton its very first Grand Tour (with Yates following suit a few months later!). The only teams to score more than one vote were
Canyon SRAM, which added a lot of firepower to its roster during the previous winter;
Movistar Team, which technically cannot be compared with the past… but it had a good season, exceeding the expectations usually set for a new team;
Valcar PBM, which did surprisingly well especially considering it is a very young team and it does not have the money/power of some of the top dogs.
[15] Most combative team
Although with less votes than the other two categories,
Mitchelton-Scott brought home this award as well, completing the “triple crown” of team awards. This result is nothing new, to be honest: Mitchelton has always been a very entertaining team on the road, and even without a natural born attacker like Garfoot in its roster, its riders livened up every race they were in- see the brief resume of La Course posted above, for one of the many examples. Second place was shared between
Cervélo-Bigla and
Team Sunweb, two other teams whose riders have always shown a fierce spirit: Ludwig’s shenanigans at La Course and Van Dijk’s stunning long range attacks are just two examples that come to mind. This award was introduced in 2017 and it went to Mitchelton last year as well, meaning no other team has ever won it!
Rider awards
[02] Best sprinter
Oh boy, this is where things get interesting. This award has always been a bit of a curse in that no one has won it twice, and winners generally have an underwhelming follow-up season. Last year’s winner
Coryn Rivera didn’t fare too bad this year, but had no wins that could rival her stellar performances in Cittiglio and Oudenaarde. 2015 winner
Jolien d’Hoore came close to a second title in this category thanks to several good results throughout the year… but had just one point less than
Marianne Vos! The Dutchwoman, arguably one of the greatest of all times, had a fantastic second half of the season: it looked like she could just do anything she wanted and scored wins and top-10 placements pretty much everywhere she raced- including a ridiculous Norwegian campaign with three wins out of three stages. This is the second time Vos wins a racing-related award, as she was voted “Most improved rider” in 2017 when she was coming back from an injury.
[03] Best climber
I expected this category to be a close contest between
Annemiek van Vleuten, who bossed everyone on the Zoncolan slopes, and
Anna van der Breggen, who won the Worlds on the difficult Innsbruck course and also managed to drop van Vleuten herself on the last climb of La Course (although she was eventually caught back in the descent). Both riders have won this award in the past- van der Breggen in 2015 and van Vleuten in 2017. It turns out, I wasn’t quite right: AvV won with an outstanding majority of the votes! Nearly of 2/3rd of all the votes that were cast (including blank ones) and more than 70% of the valid votes went to her, while Anna van der Breggen only collected two votes.
[04] Best time-trialer
If
Annemiek van Vleuten’s win wasn’t necessarily a given in the previous category, it was really hard to imagine someone dethroning her from the top spot in the Best time-trialer ranking! And indeed, that did not happen at all with Van Vleuten scoring another win with a huge margin. Not much needs to be said: except for the Dutch national championships, she won every ITT she entered this year… and most importantly she managed to keep her rainbow stripes for the second year in a row, with an excellent performance on the Innsbruck course. Speaking of the worlds… no one picked silver medal Anna van der Breggen, but apart from that the podium resembled the one from last September with
Ellen van Dijk in second place and
Leah Kirchmann in third. They were the only riders who got picked besides Annemiek, and their votes put together amount to less than 1/8th of the votes Van Vleuten got… looks like the Mitchelton-Scott star destroyed the field in this category just like she does in time trials!
[05] Best young rider
For the past two years, the winner in this category was
Katarzyna Niewiadoma. The Polish ace from Canyon SRAM is a household name in the peloton, but she is still very young and will be eligible for this category next year as well! However, the fact that she is an estabilished star means that people have high expectations from her… and indeed, this year she only scored second place here. The win went to a rider who, like Niewiadoma, is very popular with fans: I am talking about no one else but
Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig! The young Dane had a perhaps unspectacular but certainly solid season, with good showings in the Giro Rosa and La Course (where she gave the beautiful interview already mentioned elsewhere). Without Moolman by her side next season, she will be the undisputed leader for Bigla in the following season: it is going to be interesting to see how she develops and whether she will be worthy of this award next year as well; being born in 1995, she has still two years of white jerseys ahead of her.
[06] Best neo-pro
In the first two years of this award, this category was very… divisive: everyone voted for a different rider, two years in a row! It was no big deal in 2016 as just three people (!) took sides in this category, but we had six joint winners in 2015! In 2017, however, a majority of users agreed that
Arlenis Sierra’s first season with a UCI Women’s Team was just outstanding… and we had a clear-cut winner this year as well: I’m talking about Parkhotel Valkenburg’s
Lorena Wiebes! The young Dutch rider had a string of very solid results, which become even more impressive if we think that she is just 19 years old and this was her first year with a top-tier team. Perhaps she lacked a big result that made everyone notice her, but we have to keep in mind that Parkhotel Valkenburg is a relatively small team that doesn’t race every top event. The only other riders to score more than one vote each were Australian national champion
Shannon Malseed (Tibco-SVB) and young Italian prodigy
Letizia Paternoster (Astana), tied at two votes each.
[07] Most improved rider
Data often don’t tell the whole story, but if we check the PCS points rankings there is a truth we can’t ignore: if, one year ago, you told me
Amanda Spratt would be in the top 5 riders worldwide, outscoring riders such as Moolman and Niewiadoma, I couldn’t have believed it! “Spratty” was definitely a solid rider before 2018 (she was 5th in the Giro Rosa last year), but this was a life-changing year for her; she is a very rightful winner of this award. Amongst her finest results were her third place at the Giro, her GC win in a hard race such as Emakumeen Bira and, of course, her incredible second place at the Innsbruck Worlds. The only other riders to receive multiple votes in this category were
Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig and
Annemiek van Vleuten, on whose excellent seasons I have already dwelled before.
[08] Best stage races rider
For the first three editions of these awards, the winner in this category has always been the winner of the Giro Rosa… and this year was no exception, with yet another award going to
Annemiek van Vleuten! The Dutchwoman won the Italian race in a very dominating fashion and she had good results throughout the year, although her season started with quite the shocker- a narrow loss in the Herald Sun Tour to relatively unknown Brodie Chapman. Besides her Giro win, Van Vleuten was second in Emakumeen Bira (where team issues came into play, as she was the GC leader but couldn’t chase the breakaway with her teammate- and eventual GC winner- Spratt on the last stage) and won the Boels Ladies Tour later on. Van Vleuten won with nearly 100% of all valid votes: there was only one dissenter, who picked Van der Breggen instead.
[09] Best one-day races rider
Strade Bianche, Ronde van Vlaanderen, La Flèche Wallonne, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, the World Championships… the Best one-day races rider was pretty much an acclamation for
Anna van der Breggen, who won this award for the second time in a row. The newly crowned World Champion (and reigning Olympic Champion) won pretty much anything she targeted during this season, and one is left wondering whether she has anything left to target by now! A few votes went other ways, with La Course winner
Annemiek van Vleuten being the only other rider to collect more than one vote (still, we’re talking less than 1/6 of AvdB’s votes).
[11] Best teammate
This has usually been a relatively balanced contest for- I guess- several reasons. Women’s cycling is definitely more hectic, and we don’t get to see Sky-like trains working their butts for their captains as much as we do in men’s cycling; besides, even when the racing is more “traditional”, the races’ coverage is scarce, so we’re often left with highlights where the behind-the-scenes actions of valuable domestiques go unnoticed. Unlike the previous years, however, there was a clear-cut winner this time around… and it wasn’t
Ellen van Dijk, who had been winning this award every year since 2015! To go along with the “blue-and-lime” wave that took these awards by storm, the winner was no one else but
Amanda Spratt. A few paragraphs ago I celebrated her improvements as a rider with her own ambitions, but we can’t forget how useful she has always been to the rest of her team, especially when serving as a luxury lieutenant for Annemiek van Vleuten. Spratt was second behind Van Dijk last year; the two switched places this year. Quite interestingly, world champion
Chantal Blaak was third: she had been doing well in this category last year, too, but her rainbow stripes did not change her team-working attitude, and she was once again an important helper for her Boels teammates.
[12] Most combative rider
Once again, I think that La Course made a lasting impression on many of the voters… as the winners in this category were
Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig and
Annemiek van Vleuten, possibly the two riders who turned a good race into an unforgettable one. This is not to say, of course, that those riders haven’t shown their fighting spirit elsewhere! Van Vleuten won this award last year as well, and her fierce personality is surely no big news to cycling fans. Ludwig has also shown that she is a fighter who just gives it all in every race- most recently in the
Giro dell’Emilia, where she launched a powerful attack on the last climb. I’m sure there is a correlation between their results in this category and their results in the “Best personality” award, because us cycling fans just love panache, after all!
[01] Rider of the year
And this is it. The last award, and the most important one. So far, it has been won by
Anna van der Breggen (2015 and 2016) and
Annemiek van Vleuten and it is hard to picture someone else winning this year. On one side, we have the World Champion, winner of countless prestigious races throughout the year. On the other side, we have the winner of the Women’s World Tour as well as of the only Grand Tour in women’s cycling. Picking one over the other was a hard choice for me, but in the end
/peloton has spoken- and the gap between the two is quite larger than I expected. With double the votes of her rival,
Annemiek van Vleuten is back-to-back rider of the year for
/peloton! With Van Vleuten having won a grand total of 5 personal awards (plus three team awards for Mitchelton, plus three awards to races won by her) I have really ran out of things to say about this incredible rider. Many of us might have feared for her career (or even worse) during that damned Rio 2016 descent, but she came back stronger than ever and ruled on the WWT like a true queen all season long.
This is it for the women’s awards.
HERE you will find the full results as well as the complete list of disallowed votes. Thank you for voting; the men’s awards will be out soon!
Part 2 So, I’m here once again with my project of a FPW serial, this time, a full month plus after the first part. Obviously, this was an unusual occurrence and the first episode has already been researched and I plan to adopt a real schedule soon. In the meantime, I would be glad to hear about the countless typos that must filling the following and/or how you disagree with my conclusions.
Introduction The French Army in 1870. A lot have been written about it, and little good and with good reasons. They made a poor show of themselves in July before the fighting started in earnest, but while French-bashing is a fun activity, I feel like I must try to explain why this French Army was the way it was, give context. And since I’m a details junkie, this an over 4000 words summary of the state of the French Army in 1870. Well, one part of a two part series. Today, I’ll be looking at the personnel, leadership and organization of the French Army and next time, I’ll be talking about materiel, combat and support troops, all that fun stuff.
Context: In the post-Napoléonic era, the French Army once again became a tool of dynastic power; it first fought against a rebellion against the king in Spain, an insurgency in Mexico, colonial wars in Africa, “limited” cabinet wars against Austria and Russia and served as an internal police force, none of which required a costly and unpopular conscripted army. In that they weren’t an exception, as Michael Howard points out, the Austrians did little but face rebellions between 1815 to 1848. The first test of Prussians and Russian arms after Waterloo were against Polish rebels. The Prussian army later fought the Danes and the 1848 liberal forces in Germany. As such there was no need for extremely large and efficient armies, In post-Napoleonic Europe. It was a time for small armies made up of long-serving, politically reliable professional soldiers. Quite the change since the armies led by Napoléon and the French Revolution. At the time the European Powers, were hesitant in using the full potential of their peoples in war like the French invaders, but they did, only to forget about how as soon as possible, preferring to to go back to how things were before the Levée en Masse. All of them, except Prussia… sort of. But that’s another, complicated matter for another day. It is in this context that the army of the 2nd French Empire was considered the dominant force in Europe around 1860, after beating Austria in the 2nd war of independence italy, Russia in the Crimean War, making a better show of it than the British and fighting numerous colonial wars. Such victories imprinted what you might call “bad habits” on the French Army, in those smaller wars, dreadful logistics were overcome by the System D, as in “On se débrouillera - we’ll pull through it somehow” and officers weren’t required to be educated or technically competent, courage was enough. And anyway, the opponents of the French were obviously worse when it came to logistics and administration. The French Army was seen as the best in Europe, it’s tactics were copied like in Austria. But that was before Sadowa. Suddenly, the Austrians, favorites of the bookmakers of 1866 lost. Decisively. And France faced the prospect of fighting a triumphant Prussian Army.
I. Personnel a. Numbers Sources vary. but the French Army in 1866 was about 200.000 men. Something like half of them scattered in Mexico, Rome and Africa. With the prospect of facing a huge Prussian army, and estimates ran as high as 1.2 million men, measures had to be taken quickly to enlarge the French army.
And so was the Garde Nationale Mobile was born… sorry, reborn, since this institution dating back to the revolution was dissolved by Napoléon III after his coup as potential obstacle to his power. It was recreated as a form of local militia used to support the Army sort of like the Prussian Landwehr. In July ‘70 the French war ministry reckoned they had 420.000 gardes and of those 120.000 would be ready for deployment within 3 weeks. Obviously this didn’t mean much considering that the French mobilization was very chaotic and failed to bring the advertised numbers of men to the front. As for the numbers of the army proper. Numbers varied but there should have been around 400.000 of them including 300.000 available within 3 weeks. So theoretically, in the very best of worlds France could bring to bear 420.000 men against Prussia’s Armies, not an inconsequential number but it pales compared to what the Germans had in store. But the French thought - when they thought about such things at all- that the quality would win over quantity. Not that they much choice, the Legislature kept cutting military expenses. But was this underlying assumption, the excellence of the French soldier true to begin with? o b. Quality Let us be unfair and start with new men, the Garde Mobile. In the beginning, the idea of the Garde Mobile was supposed to be a pill easier to swallow than universal conscription, but the proposition was still unsurprisingly very unpopular for legal, economic and of course political reasons. Opponents of the proposition were, indeed, quick to point that only the legislature could fix the size of the army, that taking all the young men in the barracks would hurt economic production, that the measure would be unpopular and would only spread the “corrupting life of the barrack” into those young men. Moreover, there were military arguments, minister of war Marshal Randon opposed the measure on the ground that it would only give recruits to the army rather than actual soldiers. That last argument didn’t last long, Napoleon simply sacked Randon. The new minister, the able Marshal Adolphe Niel energetically pursued the Garde Mobile project as part of his larger reforms of the French Army. But the Legislature did its best to dilute the proposal to the point of guaranteeing the ineffectiveness of the Guard Mobile. And after the death of Niel on an operation table, the project lost it’s only enthusiastic proponent. His successor Leboeuf was said to regard it with distaste. As for its quality… let’s see: -14 days of training a yea none of them consecutive * So no sleeping in the barracks -The Gardes Immobiles stayed in their regions and couldn’t be deployed elsewhere -Officers nominated by mayors and prefects -Obsolete guns -Their NCOs were recalled regs. It would be fair to say that Awful discipline and unpreparedness made them thoroughly useless, maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing… seeing how saturated the French supply system was. Or as Howard puts it.
“Yet the only regiments to be fully organizied, those of department of the Seine, showed so revolutionary and insubordinate a temper that the Government was reluctant to set on foot any more. “To organize the Garde Mobile”, maintained many senior officers, “will simply be to prepare an army for insurrection against the Government and society.” (Howard, p. 34)
Not exactly hopeful, you’ll agree but the Garde was a support force, what about the lifeblood of the French forces, the regular army? The picture is more nuanced, but first things first. Recruitment. Yes, post-1815 the French army functioned as a professional force, there was some conscription, in the form of an annual lottery, but the practice of buying exemptions or finding a substitute meant that only the poorer classes would be conscripted. Those young men served for say… seven years to purge them of civilian habits after which they were left to their own devices and often realized they couldn’t reajust to life outside of the army meaning that they would often re-enlist. This created a group of long serving soldiers, disconnected from the civilian population, in part because regiments were garrisoned in unfamiliar areas as a matter of policy but more on that latter, in part because the military profession lost its appeal, the army was treated with contempt. cough (Not without good reason) cough. And the better elements of society avoided military service to seek more socially acceptable jobs. At any rate, long serving soldiers also meant veterans of the various wars of the past decades. Africa, Crimea, Italy and Mexico gave France experienced troops and leaders and a host of interesting habits, you’ll see. But what were they doing when weren’t fighting in some colonial/dynastic war off far away? Drinking. They did drink. And were known for this. In general they were characterized as cynical, unenthusiastic and indifferent to their officers. Punishments were frequent and this perhaps only hardened the men as discipline was still lax. There was also much talk in Republican circles about the “corrupting life of the barracks”, one more reason for them to dislike the army. Despite those issues, they were by and large good fighters and many among them were veterans. This might have contributed to hide the deeper problems. Such an army could put up a good fight, but might not be disciplined enough to recover from defeat. That’s true for the regulars, not so much the reservists who only received summary training had trouble enduring the hardship of campaign and weren’t well trained in the new rifle. I’ll like to conclude with quote from 1813 by Arthur of Wellesley, future duke of Wellington on recruitment. "The French system of conscription brings together a fair sample of all classes; ours is composed of the scum of the earth — the mere scum of the earth." Interesting how it went the other way around
By and large, then the soldiers were a mixed bag. Well, you might be interested in hearing that many officers were formers rankers. Especially in the lower ranks: Those officers showed a low level of education, though they had practical experience. They were also old, bringing up the average age of the officer corps.
Lieutenant 37 years
Captain (Capitaine) 45 years (Up to this rank ⅔ of officers were ex-rankers (Howard,1961, p.16))
Major (Commandant) 47 years (¼ ex-rankers)
(Wawro, 2003, p.37)
Promotion was decided either through seniority or au choix, at the pleasure of a superior. Seniority means that the officer promotion is totally independent to whatever talent he has. Only the time he served matters. If you have read any Hornblower or Aubrey-Maturin novels the shortcomings of this system are obvious. Now it doesn’t get a genius to guess how a promotion system based on choice from on high can be abused. And abused indeed it was. Now, if the Prussian solution to the problem of officer promotion (a secretive, nigh almighty military cabinet reporting directly to the king) is a better system, I leave to your judgement.
Not that it was the only problem… there were six officer schools in France including St. Cyr (vs. 23 in Prussia), quality was about as problematic as quantity; Palat describes the education in those terms “Noticeably weak, apart from military regulations and maneuvers, which the student knew with a pedantic exactitude, by pushing to à level we have now have trouble to imagine the cult of rote learning and of the form, they learned nothing or little more than that. A certain number of civilian teachers charged of general education classes, such as history or physics, have a level inferior to that of an average Lycée; officers are teaching military art, fortification and artillery often in the most retrograde sense, by ignoring recent progresses. The teaching staff and military instructors are more than mediocre. It seems that the staff was chosen at the reverse of common sense [...] The spirit in Saint-Cyr was that of mismanaged Collège rather than a that of great military school” (Palat, 1902, p.91)
In contrast, the École Polytechnique gave little military training itself, as the students of this prestigious school would go into the civilian workforce ASAP. The four other schools were scarcely more useful to the army.
And what did those officers do in their free time? They spent most of their time in cafés, and for the record those didn’t just offer coffee. Indeed what else to do? The disdain in which the French officer corps held education is a common theme of the histories of the Franco-Prussian War. “We took pride in knowing even the printing errors in maneuver regulations, but we were ignorant of foreign armies and our great wars “The Army ignored all sorts of intellectual works beaucoup education didn’t matter for promotions” ” (Palat, 1902, p.93) The education of French officer was such that foreign military recoiled at their conversation, according to Waldersee, who, Wawro says was no snob. It might be true, but I encourage you to read up on his career, an interesting man, this Waldersee. At anyrate, the anti-intellectual climate in the French Army was demonstrated by the failure of the Conférences Régimentaires, supposed to hear lectures or discuss recent military topics among officers, the widely accepted view expressed by Marshal Bazaine was that all an officer needed was (Bon pied, bon oeil) a “Solid footing and a good eye” (Wawro, p. 49) or illustrated by the alleged story that Marshal Mac-Mahon threatened to strike from the promotion list any officer whose name he found on the cover of a book. (Persson, 2010,p.19.) In this context, it is not hard to believe why one would write that the “French Army was dominated [...] by ‘an all-powerful school made up of soldiers as fortunate as they were brave who loudly proclaimed their contempt for the military art’ ”. (Howard, 1961, pp.17-18) They never needed it in their careers fighting in Algeria or against inept Austrian or Russian armies. Those wars saw the triumph of the French System D… over admittedly worse organized and led armies. Besides this disdain of military knowledge was not an uniquely French phenomenon. Emperor Franz-Josef expressed his preference of “Chivalrous and courageous officers” (Barry, 2010, kindle location 3868) over learned ones in no uncertain terms, general Benedek, the C-in-C Austrian Army of the North in 1866 once said “the only talents required in a staff chief are a strong stomach and good digestion” (Persson, 2010, p.19)
Heck, in the Prussian Army itself, had an anti-intellectual of the very first order in Karl Frederick von Steimetz, commander of First Army but he had many other issues, distrust of the Great General Staff being one only among the lot of them. Such was the spirit of the times and in fact, I would argue that the need for officers having military and technical training is one of the things that made the Wars of 1866 and 1870 so different from the past wars. Even Napoléonic France though using staffs at Army, Corps and Division level didn’t have to deal with the problems of mobilizing and supplying hundreds of thousands of men via railroad or to make them march in an orderly manner in so tight an area. But it is important not to overstate the need for education. Prussia didn’t require high-school diplomas from officer-candidates until after the war (and even then those requirements weren’t always enforced), only a very small minority of officers went through the murderous selection process and curriculum of the Kriegsakademie and became General Staff Officers. On the whole, the dominant opinion was that expressed by no other than Moltke himself in 1871 to the Reichstag: “more important than what is learned at school is the subsequent moral education of the man - his becoming accustomed to order, punctuality, neatness, obedience and loyalty; in short, discipline. It is that discipline that placed our army in a position to win three campaigns.” (Hughes & Dinardo, 2018. pp.18-19) And that makes perfect sense, the overwhelming majority of officers probably won't need military art or technical training in 1870 due to the warfare of the time and discipline was necessary to implement the plans of those specialists and superior commanders. It’s absence inevitably has interesting circumstances. So before I went off this small tangent, I wanted to talk about the French leadership. And ask who were those Senior Officers anyway? c. The Leadership
For the most part, Corps commanders were imperial favorites with the notable exception of Bazaine, whose background (he made it from private to marshall, you see). And his distance from the Regime after the Mexico Debacle made a favorite of the Opposition and of the Opinion. The Emperor had many contacts with senior officers but he wasn’t quite a good judge of character, to quote Palat: “sometimes courage, and more often the art of pleasing made a reputation [...] it seems even that powerful individualities left a shadow” “”He liked submissive mediocrity” for he feared the presence of a popular military man near him.” (Palat, 1902, pp.73-74)
Other sources also attest of the poor quality of Napoléon’s judgement, Howard faults his lack of a military cabinet specialized in such things or at least the expert knowledge or interest to do it himself. All of which the Prussian king had. Some choices were downright strange like the appointment of 2nd Corps Commander, Frossard former military tutor to his son and war planner in his free time, who was a competent engineer but never commanded line troops in his life before. In this context, it should come as surprise to no one, that jealousy was rife in the upper echelons of the French Army. Well, the disadvantages of promoting courtiers are obvious, like those of promoting generals trained in the “petite guerre” (small war) in Algeria. Such brave men are good up to corps level, but above? Just ask the Lion of Skalitz (hint: His name is not Henry). And at anyrate who will coordinate their movements? The Imperial regime’s answer was “Napoléon, obviously”. After all a Napoléon was to be seen leading the troops. Unfortunately, Napoléon III was a military mixed big, from what I can tell, on one hand he had a better military culture than some of his generals, as evidenced by his support of adoption of breech-loading guns and his support of the tragically misused mitrailleuse. On the other hand he has proved incompetent on the field in Italy, and this hasn’t escaped the notice of those serving under him. Additionally, he lacked the will to bring his subordinates to heel. Meaning that the French forces would be left without strong central leadership. To top it off he was suffering greatly from illness. I just want to emphasize something here, France’s high command was occupied by a notoriously incompetent, sick man. Which meant that there was no guiding strategy to the French actions and no efficient staff system to keep track of the details, more on that later.
By contrast King Wilhelm had Moltke as his strategic adviser and executant of his vision. Napoléon Ier had his own genius for advice and the very able Berthier to execute his strategic vision. Seriously, contrary to what is sometimes said Napoléon valued Berthier’s work as chief of staff of the Grande Armée (He also had a different understanding of what the job meant), for example he gave more money to him than any other marshal. Anyway, Napoléon III and his army lacked a proper staff system that would allow them to pursue the offensive operations they desired and the strategic vision and will to make it happen. In that they weren’t helped by the lack of initiative of their subordinates, during mobilization, Palat noted numerous incident where army commander in the provinces wrote back to the ministry of war for clarifications in their orders. He also gives an example during the war where a general ordered to move would reply asking about what to do with his artillery. Maybe this can be explained by… I dunno, the length of the French orders. “One typical example of those orders so larges, so full and yet so empty, so imprecise is that of the general de Failly for the movement for the 2nd August, meaning one of the secondary maneuvers for the so-called reconnaissance in force on Saarbrucken. He details what régiments, bataillons and squadrons [4 level below of his corps command!]. But he omits indicating the point of that operation: It’s objective and it’s goal. It’s not because the orders were too short since they measured 3 pages in-8° [in octavo | presumably 16 pages each]. But it went in so much details that the most important has been forgotten [Just like this episode]. He goes as far as giving everyday prescriptions: In every movement, half the roads and streets must be left free in order to allow communication to be maintain and orders communicated [...] Exploitation by the cavalry is limited to 8km” In those conditions, what’s so surprising that the troops don’t know where they go, what they do and where is the enemy.” (Palat, 1902, p.80)
A bit of long quote but I wanted to illustrate in detail how meticulous the French army was. And for the record as usual, the Prussian took the exact. Opposite. Approach. Moltke recognized that since he couldn’t know the circumstances on the field, he would give general directives to be accomplished in the manner judged suitable to the officer in charge on the field. This command-style would become a staple of German warmaking in the years to come, providing an edge to the German officers who could react more rapidly to changing realities on the battlefield, you can see successful examples of that in the second battle of Sedan, you know, the one 70 years after the first. But it can give too much free reign to the commanders on the field, risking them not following the commander’s intent. An example of that is the early days of WW1 for Germany, though new and interesting command and control problems contributed their fair share. But this video is not about the Prussian Army. You’ll hear me rambling about them more at a later date.
d. Force structure
·In terms of force structure, the French Army suffered from two major disadvantages compared to the Prussian Army and her allies: -The lack of brigade or higher level formations, the highest unit in peacetime that was used in combat was the regiment, brigade, divisions and corps were formed ad hoc during mobilization. This meant that the commanders, superiors, subordinates and staffs didn’t know each other prior to the war and had to took time to know how to work together, and in the chaos of the mobilization to find each other. There were military regions in charge of training the units in their areas but the commanders of those had to give command of their forces to other men. It also created few command posts beyond regimental commander and so many generals lost the habit of command according to Palat. It also meant that the generals of the French Army weren’t used to command combined arms formations, they used to command their own arms, and lacked experience of commanding it in conjunction with the others in battle. Niel did try to “endivision” the army but the proposal was rejected by the public opinion as a way to empower an already unpopular army.
-The other problem was the so-called extra-territorial organization of the French Army, the units garrisons were in a different region than their depots. Meaning that in theory, during mobilization, units had to come back to their depots to incorporate reservists, then go to the front. Whereas in Prussia, the army would stay near its depots and get it’s reservists on the spot before heading to the front. This organization was meant idealistically to help soldiers identify with France as a whole, seeing the variety she had to offer and so reinforce morale. More cynically, you could say that when it came to neutralise an uprising, for example, it helped that the soldiers were from a different region. The Army was a bulwark against revolution after all.
Conclusion.
To wrap all of this up, I would say that as an organization, the French Army in 1870 was pretty much a product of the 1850-1860, a force meant to fight dynastic or colonial/counterinsurgency warfare. That despite the attempts at reform by the Empire in a very tense political period, we’re in the middle of a liberalization of the Empire, the army at the core remained in many ways, the same force it had been in 1866. Going to fight another dynastic war like in Crimea and in Austria. I’ll touch more on this in my next episode but, the French seemingly felt ready for it. It should therefore come as no surprise that they were overwhelmed by the new, more demanding conflict they faced in July 1870. Next time, I’ll talk about the combat arms and support services of the French Army. The sad fate of the mitrailleuse, the chassepot and the Corps d’État-Major (You know, the fellows who failed to provide any map of France). I assume I will be done in 2 weeks, maybe more, no promises. See you.
References:
• Barry, Quintin. (2009) The Franco-Prussian War 1870-71 Volume 1: The Campaign of Sedan. Helmuth von Moltke and the Overthrow of the Second Empire
• Barry, Quintin. (2010) The Road to Koniggrätz: Helmuth von Moltke and the Austrian-Prussian War 1866
• Howards, Michael Elliot. (1961 - redited 2001) The Franco-Prussian War: The German Invasion of France 1870–1871
• Hughes, D.J.; Dinardo, R. L. (2018) Imperial Germany and War. 1871-1918.
• Palat, Barthelemy Edmont (Pseud. Lehautcourt) (1902), Histoire de la Guerre de 1870-1871. Available:
https://gallica.bnf.fark:/12148/bpt6k64720815 • Gudrun Persson (2010). Learning from Foreign Wars: Russian Military thinking 1859-1873
• Stoffel, Eugene (1871), rapports militaires écrits de Berlin 1866-1870. Available:
https://gallica.bnf.fark:/12148/bpt6k2207082.image • Wawro, Geoffrey. (2003) The Franco-Prussian War: The German Conquest of France in 1870–1871
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beats Beattie Beatty beau Beaubourg Beaujolais Beaulieu Beaumont beautified beaux Becca beck Becker Beckham Becky become becomes becoming bed bedbug bedded bedding bedecked bedfellows Bedford Bedfordshire Bedhampton Bedouin beds bee Beeb Beeblebrox Beecham Beeching Beeding beef beefed Beefheart beefier beefing beefs beefy Beegees beehive beehives beekeepers been beep beeped beeper beepers beeping beeps beer Beerbohm beerier beeriest beers beery bees beet Beethoven Beethovens beetle Beetlejuice beetles Beeton beetroot beets beg began begat beget begets begonia begot Behan behavior behaviors beheaded behemoth behemoths behoove behooves beige Beijing Beirut Bela Belarus Belfast Belgian Belgique Belgium Belgrade Belgrave Belgravia belie Belize bell Bella Bellamy Belle belled Belling Bellingham bellows Belorussia Belorussian Belsize Belushi Bemer bemoan Ben Benares Benatar Benchley Bendix Benedict benefactor benefactors beneficence Benelux Benetton Bengal Bengali benignly Benin Benito Benjamin Benji Benny Benoist bent Bentley Bentleys Benz benzene benzine Beowulf bequeath bequeathable bequeathed bequeather bequeathing bequeaths bequest bereavement bereft beret berets Berg Bergen Berger Bergkamp berk Berkhamsted Berkshire Berle Berlin Berliner Berlioz Bermondsey Bermuda Bernadette Bernard Bernhard Bernice Bernie Bernoldi Bernoulli Bert Bertha Bertie Bertillion Bertolt Bertram Bertrand Berwick Beryl beryllium beset beshrew beshrewed beshrewing beshrews Bess Bessie best bestows bet beta Betamax Betelgeuse Beth Bethany Bethesda Bethlehem Bethnal Bethnal Green bethnalgreen Betjeman betook betray bets Betsy Bettina Betty Beulah Beveridge Beverley Beverly bevvies bevvy bevy beweep Bexhill Bezier beziers BFG bhajis Bhutan Bhutani Bhutto Biafra Biarritz bibilographic Bicester bicyclist Bideford Bidmead big bigamy Bigfoot biggest Biggins Biggleswade Bigglesworth Biggs Bignor bigotry Bilbao Bilbo Billericay billets Billie Billingham Billingsgate Billingshurst billion billionaire billionaires billions billionth billows bills Billy Biloxi Binatone Bing Bingham biologist biosciences Birdham birds birdscarer birdseed birdwatching Birkenhead Birkhamsted Birmingham birthplace Birtwistle bisexual bisexuals bishop bishopric Bismark Bissett bitching bitterest Bixby bizarre bizarrely bizarreness Bizet Bjarne Bjork blab blacken blacklist blacklists Blackpool blacks blacksmith blacksmiths blacktail blackwash blackwashed blackwashes blackwashing bladder bladdered blade blades blag blagged blagger blaggers blah Blair Blaise Blake Blamire Blanchet blandly blaspheme blasphemous blasphemously blast blatently Blenheim Blenkinsop Bletchley blimp blindfolded blissfully blister blistered blockaded blockading blockages blockings Bloemfontein Bloodnok bloodsucking Bloomsbury blow blowfish blowjob blowjobs blubber bludgeoning bludgeons blue bluebell bluebells blueberry bluebird blueish bluesy blunder blunderbuss blunders blunt blunted blunter bluntly blur blurb blurbs blurp blurred blurring blurry blurs blurt blurted blurting blurts blush blushes bluster blusters blustery Blyth Blythe BMW boardrooms boast Boateng Bobby Bochum Bodmin Boeing boffin Bogart bogey bogging boggling Bognor Bogota bogusly Boillot Boise Bolam Bolero Boleyn Bolivar Bolivia Bolivian bollixed Bollywood bolognese Bolsover bolstered boltgun Bolton bolts bomb Bombadil Bombadillo bombards bombast Bombay bonanza Bonaparte bondsperson boneheads bongo bonk Bonn bonsai bonuses boogie bookmaking bookshelf Boole Boolean Booleans boomerang boomerangs boon boondocks boondoggle Boosey boost booth Boothferry booths booting bootlaces Bootle bootleg bootleggers bootlegs Bordeaux Borehamwood Borgia Borgias Boris Borland Borneo boron Boroughbridge borrowed borrowers borrowing borrowings borscht Bosch Bosham Bosnia Bosnian Bosnich Bostaph Boston Bostonians Bostrom Bostwick Bosworth botanist botches Botswana Botticelli Boudicca Boulogne boundedness Bournemouth Bovis bowdlerization Bowery Bowie Bowness bows bowsprit box boxy boy boycott boycotted boycotting boycotts Boyzone bozo bozoness bozos bra Brabham Bracklesham Bracknell Brad Bradfield Bradford Bradley Bradman Bradshaw Brady brag braggadocio braggart braggartism bragged bragger braggers bragging braggingly brags brahman Brahms Braille Braintree brainwash Braithwaite brander Brando bratwurst Brauchitsch Braun Braunton bravest brazen Brazil Brazilian Brazilians Brazzaville bread breadbox breadcrumb breads breadthless breakfast breakouts breast breasts breathes Brechin Brecht Breckenridge Bremen Brenda Brendan Brennan Breslaw Brest Brett Breville Brezhnev Bridget Bridlington Bridport briefest Brigid Brillo Brisbane briskly bristly British Britishness brittleness broadens broadsheets Broderbund brogues broiler brokenly brolley bromide Bronx Brooking Bros brothel browbeat brown Browne Bruce Brucie Brundle Bryony Buchan Bucharest Budapest budgerigars Budweiser buff bufferable Buford bugaboo Bugatti bugbears bugfixed bugfixes buggeration bugginess Buglass bugle bugleboy bugler buglet buglets Bulgariabulkiest bullion bullshit bunched bunching bungled Bunsen BUPA bureaucratically burglars burritos burstier bushed Bushnell busied busk butchered Butlins buttermilk buyers buzby buzzard buzzards buzzcocks Byelorussia Byrne cab cabbie caber cack Cadbury Caddick caddyless Cadell Cadiz Caerphilly caesium Cagney Cairns cakewalk Calais calcium Calcutta Caldera Calderdale Caleb Caledonia Caledonian Caledonians calendar calendrical calf calfed Calgary Calhoun Caliban calico California Californian Californians Caligari Callaghan Callahan Callas callbacks calligraphic calligraphy Calum Calvert Calvin calypso Camberwell cambric camcorder Camden camel Camelot camels camembert Cameroon Camilla Camille camomile Campari Campbell Canada Canadian Canadians Canaria Canarias Canaveral Canberra cancellers Candace Candice candidacy candy canister cannery Cannes cannibals canonicalizes cant cantaloupe cantankerous cantata Canterbury Canton Cantona Cantonese Canuck Canucks canyon canyons capacitated Capaldi capella caper capers capon Capone Capra capriciously captioned car Caracciola caramel caramels carbohydrates carbon carbonaceous carbonara carbonate carbonated carbonation carbonisation carbonise carbonised carbons carboxylic carbureted carburetor carburetors carcass carcasses carcinogenicity carcinogens card cardamom cardboard cardboards carded cardholder cardiac Cardiff Cardigan Cardiganshire cardiogenic cardiological cardiologist cardiologists cardiology cardiopulmonary cardiotheatre cardiovasclar cardiovascular caregiver caregivers caregiving carets Carfax Caribbean caries Carisbrooke Carl Carla Carlisle Carlo Carlos Carlsberg Carly Carlyle Carman Carmarthenshire Carmen Carmichael Carnaby carnally Carnarvon carnation carnet carnivore carnivores carnivorous Carol Carole Carolina Caroline carols Carolyn carouse carousel carp carpal Carraciola Carrera Carrickfergus Carrie carrierless Carrol Carroll carrot carrots carry carrying carryings carryout carryovers cars Carshalton cartesian Cartier cartographers cartographically cartography cartoon cartoonists cartoons cartouches cartridge cartridges carts cartwheels Caruso carve carved carver carvery carves Carvey carving carvings Caryl Casablanca caseless cash cashmere Casimir casino Casio casket Caspian Cassidy Cassiopeia Casterbridge Castilian castling Castro cat Catalan catalog Catalunya catalysing catalysts catastrophical catatonic Cate categorisation catenating Caterham caterpillar catfish Catford Catherine Catherines catheterization Cathie cathode Cathryn Cathy cation cations Catrina Catriona Caucasian cauliflower cautiousness Cavanagh Caxton Cayman Cecil Cecile Cecilia Cecily cedar cedars cedes cedilla Cedric Ceefax celeb Celeron celery Celeste Celia Celine Cellnet cello Celsius Celt Celtic Celts cembalino cent Centauri centenary centennial center centime centiminutes centipede centipedes Centrica Centronics cents century CEO cerebral cerebrospinal CERN certifiable certifier certifiers cerulean Cesar cesses Cessna Ceylon Cezanne CFO Chablis chaffinch chaffinches Chaim chalice chalking chamberlain chameleon chamomile champagne championed Chan Chandler Chandrashekar Chaney changings Chantal chanter chants Chapelthorpe Chapeltown Chaplin Chapman chapter char charade Chardonnay Charing Cross charingcross Charlene Charles Charlotte Charnley Charron chartering Charteris charts chary chassis chastising chatback Chatsworth Chattanooga Chatterley chattiness chatty Chaucer cheap cheapo cheapskate cheat cheated cheaters cheating cheats checksumming Cheech cheese cheeseburger cheesecake cheeseplant cheeses cheesiest Cheesman cheetah cheetahs Cheetos Cheever chef Chello Chelmsford Chelsea Cheltenham chemotherapeutics chemotherapy Cheops Chepstow cheque chequebook cheques Cherbourg Cherie Chernenko Chernobyl Cherokee Cheryl Chesapeake Cheshire Chesney Chessington Chessman Chester Chesterfield Cheswick Cheung Chevalier Chevis Chevrolet chewy Cheyenne Chiang Chianti Chicago Chichester chick chickadee chicken chickened chickens chickpeas chicks Chico chicory Chiddingfold Chidham Chidingfold chiffon Chigwell chihuahua chihuahuas Chile Chilean Chiltern Chilterns chime chimera chimeras chimerical chimp chimpanzee chimpanzees chin Chinatown Chinese ching Chinook chipolata Chippendale Chippenham Chipperfield chippy Chirac Chiron chiropody chiropractic chiropractor chiropractors chiropracty Chiswick chlamydia Chloe chlorate chlorosulphonic chocolate chocolates Chomsky Chong Chopra choreographer Chorlton Choudhury chowns Chris Christchurch Christina Christine Christopher chromakey chromatic chromatically chromaticities chromaticity chromatics chromic chronometry chrysalis chrysanthemum Chrysler chub Chubb chubby chucked chug chugging Chumbawamba chunder Chuzzlewit cicada Ciccone Cicely cichlid cichlids cider Cincinatti Cincinnati cinder Cinderella Cindy Cinematronics cinnamon ciphered circuitous circulates circulations circumcised circumciser circumcision circumcisions circumnavigate circumnavigated circumnavigates circumnavigating circumnavigation Cirencester CISC Cisco Citicorp Citrix Citroen citrus cittern Clacton claimer Clair Claire Clairol clambered clamoring clamour clamouring clampers Clampitt clams Clapham clapped Clapton Clara Clare Clarence claret Clarice clarinet clarinets Claris Clarissa Clark Clarke Clarksville classiest Claude Claudette Claudia Claudio clausal clavichord clavichords claviers clearable Clearasil Cleese Cleethorpes cleft Clement Cleo Cleopatra Clerkenwell Cleveland Clifford Clifton climatology Clinique Clint Clinton Clippit clippy clippys clitoral clitoris clitorises Clive cloners Clooney close cloudy Clovelly Clovis clown clowns cludge clumsy clunk clunked Clutterbuck Clwyd Clyde Clydesdale CMOS CNN coals coarsen coat Coates coaxial cobbling Cobham COBOL cobra Coburn cobwebs Cochrane cock cockamamie cockatoo cockney cockroaches cocksparrows cocktail cocktails cocoa coconut coconuts cocoon cod coda CODASYL codec codger codifies Coe coelacanth coelacanths Coen coffee coffees Coffey cognac cognate cognisant cognitively Cognos cogwheel Cohen coinstallers Colbert Colchester Coldplay Cole Coleclough Coleco Coleridge Coletta Colgate Colin collaboratory collectives Colleen Collette collie Colliergate Collins Collis colloquialism colluding Colombia Colombian color Colorado coloratura colored colorful coloring colors colour colt Coltrane colts Columbia Columbian Columbine Columbus Colwyn coma combatted Combe Martin comet cometh comets commandeer commanders commends commercialised Commie Commies committeemen Commodores commonalities commutable commutativity Como Compaq compartmentalized compendia compendiums complainers complementary complex complies compliments Compo composition compositional compositions comprehending comprehension Compuserve computer computerese computerisation Computervision con Conan concatenations conceivers conceptional concert concertina concerto concertos concerts conciliation concocted concomitantly concurrence concurrences condo condor conductance confederacies configurers conformed confounder confounds conga congesting congestive congests Congleton Congo congregated congruency conjectures conjoining conjoints conjugates conjugating Connecticut connectivities Connery Connick Connie Connolly Connor Connors connotation Conor Conrad Conran conscript conservators consoled consonance consortiums Constance Constellar constricted constricting consumptive contagious containee content contentedly contessa contextless contingents continuable contradict contrasty contrition convergency convolutions convolves convoy Conway coolie coot Copeland Copenhagen copiously copped copperpot Coppola cops copse copses copycats copyright Corel Corelli coresident corgi Corinna Corinne Coriolanus corks cormorant cormorants corn cornamuse cornbread Cornelia cornerstone cornet cornett cornetti cornettino Cornetto cornfed Cornish Cornwall corollaries Coronel corporatisation correctional correlational correlator correlators correspondently Corrine Corrs corruptible Corsa Corsica Corsican Corvette Cosgrave Cosham Cosmo cosmologic cosmological cosmologically cosmologist cosmologists cosmology cosmos cosponsors cossacks Costa Rica Costello costless costliest Cosworth Cottingham Cottingley cougar Coulthard countable counteracts counterbalancing counterintuitively counterpoise coup coups courgette courgettes Courtenay Courtney Cousteau Coutts Covent Garden Coventry covetous cow coward cowardice cowardly cowards cowbell cowboy cowboys Cowdrey cowed cowered cowering cowers Cowes cowgirls cowherd cowl cowlick cowling cowls coworkers cows cowshed cowsheds cowslip cowslips coyote coyotes CPU CPUs crabs cracksman Craddock Craig cranberries cranberry crannies crapola crater crawfish Crawley crayfish crazies creases creasing creator credibly Crediton Creole crestfallen cretaceous Crete cretinously Crewe cribbing Cricklewood crikey criticism criticisms Croat Croatia Croatian croissant croissants Cromer Cromwell Cronje Cronkite crosscompilation crosscompiling Crossley crow crowd crows Croydon crucify crumhorn crumhorns Crunchie Crusoe crustacean crux crybabies cryogenically cryptanalyse cryptographical cryptological cryptologists crypts Cthulu Cuba Cuban Cubans cuddle Cujo culminates Culpepper Cumberland Cumbria Cumbrian Cumming Cunnah cunning cunningly cunt Cuprinol Curacao cures curfew curia curing curio curiosities curiosity curlew curlews curmudgeon currants currentness curtailing Curtis Cushing cutes Cuthbert Cuthbertson cutlets cwm Cwmbran cwms cyan cyanates cyanide cyanides cybercops Cyberdyne cyberhighway cyberholics cybermedia cybersex Cybersitter cyberslackers cyberslacking cyberslur cyborgs cygnet Cygnus Cyndi Cynthia cypress cypresses Cyprus Cyril Cyrillic cyst cystic Czech Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakian Czechozlovakia Czechs dad Daedalus Daewoo daffodil Dafoe dafter Dagenham daggers Daglish dahlia Daihatsu Daimler Dakar Dakota dalek Dales Dallas Daltrey Dalyell Damascene Damascus Damian Damilola Damon Dan Dana dandelion Dando danged Daniel Daniela Daniele Daniella Danielle Danish Dankworth Danny Danone Dante Danube Danzig Daphne Darcey Darcy Dario Darleen darlin Darlington Darmstadt Darracq Darragh Darrel Darrell Darren Darryl Darryn Dartford Dartmoor Dartmouth Darussalam Darwin datagrams dataless datamining datedness Datsun daughterboards Dave Davenport Daventry David Davidson Davies Davis Davros dawns Dawson daycare Dayton Daz dBase de Longhi deaggregate deaggregates deaggregation deaggregator Deanna Deanne Deansgate deasserted deasserting deassertion Debbie Debian Deborah Debra Debussy decapsulated decapsulators Decca December deciders deciduous decimally declaim declassified decollating decommission decomposable decompresser decompressible deconstructed deconstructors decor decors decreasingly decriminalisation decry decrying decryptions Dee deencapsulate deencapsulation Deeside defector defenestrate defibrillator defiltering definiteness definitional deflectors Defoe defragged defrauds defray Degas degauss degeneration deglitch deglitching deify Deighton Deirdre Del Delage Delahaye Delaney Delaware delegatable delegatee delegatees delegators Delhi Delia Delilah delimeted delimitors deliniate delinks delirium Della deLonghi Delores demagoguery demangler demangles demasqueraded demeanor Demis demo demodulated demodulates demonstratively demotion Dempster demultiplexor denary Denbighshire Denby denim Denis Denise Denison Denmark
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