The Cannes de Poilus
French Poilu 1918 by Stcyr74 Via Deviant Art
In showing a photo montage of the Great War era infantryman’s typical loadout last week, it was interesting to note the non-standard equipment each often carried. While the Doughboy could be expected to have a domino set and the Tommy a trench mace, the French soldier’s kit was shown with a walking cane.
Yup, the canne de marche or cannes de poilus was very popular with the average French soldier of the period. Going back to the time of the little Emperor, senior sergeants in the Grand Armee often carried their own thick canes for correcting disciplinary problems and there was evidence this practice continued through the 1870s.
By the time of the Great War, the elite “blue devils” of the French Chasseurs Alpins and les troupes alpine were issued long-handled walking sticks for use in skiing and mountaineering.
Nos diables bleus en reconnaissance
Carte Postale DESSIN JULLIAN – CHASSEUR ALPIN
Carte Postale DESSIN JULLIAN – CHASSEUR ALPIN
French blue devils Chasseurs alpins marching order uniforms by Hector Large
French blue devils Chasseurs alpins uniforms by Hector Large
Then came the average soldier, or poilus (bearded ones), who often carried their own non-standard walking sticks to help during marches–especially along muddy roads of the era– or to kill rats in bivouac. As imagery from the time shows, these sticks were widespread and varied from soldier to soldier. Functional trench art if you will.
French soldiers and officers outside of Fort Vaux, Verdun, December 1916– with canes
Some examples of walking sticks have even been found made from legacy infantry sabers.
There is some evidence that the practice outlived the trenches of the Great War.
This image from 1919 portrays a soldier on occupation duty in Germany, his kit carried by a local German boy.
Here is a set of French soldiers in 1939 with their own very well-made walking sticks:
WWII Free French icon Gen. Philippe de Hauteclocque (aka Leclerc) was often seen with a cane, though he may have used it honestly– as he broke his leg in two places in a fall from his horse in 1936– although in this 1947 image, he seems to get along just fine without it.
Further, tributes such as postage stamps and monuments across France all show Leclerc with his ever-present canne, though rarely showing him actually using it, giving even more credence to the fact that it was his own marshal baton throwback to the time when he commanded First World War veteran poilus as a young sous-lieutenant with the 5e Régiment de Cuirassiers on occupation duty in the Ruhr.
French General Leclerc, canne in hand, with a group of captured Waffen-SS Frenchmen of the Waffen-Grenadier-Brigade der SS “Charlemagne”, May 1945. The unit, made up largely of anti-Bolshevik French collaborationists, many of whom were already serving in various other German units, was all but annihilated in Berlin in April 1945. A dozen survivors, captured by the Soviets in the ruins of the German capital, were handed over to the Free French. “How could you wear someone else’s uniform?” the general was reported to have asked. One of them replied by asking why Leclerc wore an American one. The prisoners were executed the next day without trial.
He wasn’t the only one.
With “le canne” in hand, Maj. Gen. Claude Philippe Armand Chaillet inspects the citadel of Belfort on 25 November 1944 after the 1ère Armée française retook the city from the Germans. Born in 1893, he was in the last pre-1914 St.Cyr class and had risen to the rank of colonel in the professional army by 1938, when he retired to a desk in the Ministry of War after 25 years of service. He joined De Gaulle in 1941, led a West African Division, then the artillery of the Corps Expéditionnaire Français in Italy before his promotion to the staff of the 1st French Army late in the war, and rejoined the reserve list in 1946.
The cane even appeared in Indochina in the 1950s
2e BEP Plaine des Jarres, Laos 1953 opération Muguet
And in Algeria, after that, possibly its last hurrah.
Le Canne! “7 novembre 1956 – Fort National (Larbaa Nath Irathen) (Algérie) Une section de la 7e compagnie du 2/13e régiment de tirailleurs sénégalais (RTS) est rassemblée avant le départ en patrouille. Réf. : ALG 56-320 R9 © Raymond Varoqui/ECPAD/Défense”
The French Musée de l’Armée has the circa 1940 canes of both General Weygand and Giraud on display.
Giraud’s
Weygand’s canne
For more information and the source of many of these images, please refer to the excellent (French) site Centre de Recherche sur la Canne et le Bâton.
