Avenue du XVe corps

The cities of Fréjus, Toulon, Nice, Saint-Raphaël to mention but have an avenue of the 15th body

But what is this regiment, why did he rather than another one give his name to so many avenues?

3 August 1914 is the declaration of war between France and Germany. The Grand Headquarters, which is still dreaming of sabre horse assaults in the clear, declares "the attack in excess" against an enemy who, since 1870, had the time to prepare firmly at the borders of Alsace and Lorraine equipped with weapons of the latest technology of the time.

As early as 20 August, the latest generation of German Maschinengewehr 08 (MG 08) machine guns laminated French troops equipped with Lebel rifles, which were designed in 1886. Despite their valour the Poilus are retreating, it turns out that this strategy is a total failure and of course we must find a scapegoat that will not be the incompetence of the Major State.

EXAMPLES MUST BE MADE

On 24 August the newspaper "Le Matin" published an article signed Auguste Gervais, an article probably written by the Minister of War Alexandre Millerand. «A division of XV^e Corps composed of contingents of Antibes, Toulon, Marseille, Aix and Nîmes, dropped foot in front of the enemy. All the advance we had made (...) was lost (......) despite the efforts of the other bodies involved in the operation, which were irreproachable, the 15th Corps' failure led to the entire retreat. The Minister of War (...) prescribed the immediate and ruthless repression measures that imposed... To the public confession of unforgivable weakness of the troops of the kind Provence surprised by the terrifying effects of the battle and taken from a sudden panic, will add the rigour of military punishments ... »

The 15th Corps case was born.

To the humiliation of a whole population would be added executions for example, rejection of provençal soldiers, refusal to treat the wounded and heavy bullying. The rehabilitation of the 15th Corps and the honourable fine that followed did not erase the effects of an anti-meridional racism in the room. Boulevards, squares, avenues perpetuate in several cities of the Midi the memory of this Fifteenth Corps of Army accused of cowardice at the beginning of the war for the only reason that it was composed of provencals and corses. A wonderful effect of stupefying had then grasped Provence shared between pain and indignation. Despite the official rehabilitation of Private Odde, shot for example, the wound will remain open for a long time.

Private Odde

Auguste Odde was born on 29 November 1892 in Six-Fours (Var) and executed on 19 September 1914, unjustly charged by a military court on the ground of voluntary mutilation following a "rapid and arbitrary" diagnosis.

Injured on September 8, Auguste Odde is examined by the 1st major physician.^re Cathoire class in a barn. The doctor is responsible for designating potential voluntary mutilated persons. Auguste Odde and seven of his comrades, all belonging to the 15th Corps, are referred to the War Council. On 18 September, six soldiers, including Auguste Odde, were sentenced to death for abandonment of post in the presence of the enemy as a result of voluntary mutilation, which is false, and were wounded in combat. The judgement was quashed and quashed on 7 August 1917 and 12 September 1918, with the Supreme Court rehabilitating soldiers Odde and Tomasini. The Supreme Court acknowledges, according to the testimony of the comrades of Private Odde,

« that this soldier deserved only congratulations on his general manner of serving; that he was an excellent soldier, highly disciplined, having always had a good attitude to fire and had been noticed by his bravery and cold blood [...], that Odde was a very brave and courageous liaison officer, whose attitude to fire had been superb until the day he was wounded ».

André Neyton wrote and directed "The Black Legend of Private O" at the Mediterranean Theatre.

Many shot for example

Of course Auguste Odde was not the only one who fell under the bullets of his comrades during the Great War. Many other soldiers suffered this terrible fate, especially in what history will remember as "the 1917 mutinies" We have in mind the fate of Lucien Bersot, a Bisontin shot for example under the false motive of "desertion in front of the enemy" because he refused to wear bloody, holed and muddy pants recovered on a corpse. France took a long time to recognize the inequity of these assassinations. It took 70 years and the speech of Lionel Jospin, then Prime Minister, in Craonne in 1998 to rehabilitate these men.