Souain corporals affair

The Souain corporals affair was an incident where four corporals in the French Army were shot by firing squad as an example to the rest of their companies during the First World War. The executions, which occurred in the vicinity of Souain on 17 March 1915, are considered to be the most egregious and most publicized military injustice during World War I in France. The events inspired the 1957 American anti-war film Paths of Glory by Stanley Kubrick.

In March 1915, units of the French Army holding a section of the Western Front through Champagne had seen no tangible results despite two months of fighting. After two recent unsuccessful attacks, the 21st company of the 336th Infantry Regiment (part of the 60th Infantry Division) was ordered by Général de division Géraud Réveilhac to retake positions captured by the Germans north of the village of Souain in the Marne. A bayonet assault would begin at 5am on March 10 against a stretch of enemy trench that was heavily defended by machine guns and barbed wire. Several unsuccessful attacks had already left this part of No Man's Land strewn with French dead.

However, on the morning of the planned assault, a preceding artillery barrage dropped shells on the French trenches instead of the German lines. This also ploughed up the ground over which the assault troops were ordered to cross. When the first wave of troops started "going over the top" most became casualties of the undamaged enemy machine guns. The remaining soldiers of 21st Company, who were both exhausted after days of front line duty (in 1915, French Army troop rotation was much slower than later in the war) and demoralized by failure, refused to leave their trenches. On hearing that the troops were refusing to attack, General Réveilhac ordered his divisional artillery to bombard their positions to force them out of their trenches. But the Artillery Colonel Raoul Berube refused to obey the command without a written order. Réveilhac did not issue one.

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