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Life of a French NCO Before World War I
After an exhaustive search, we could not find information about an overview of the daily life of a French soldier (an adjutant-NCO) pre-World War 1.
Useful Findings
- The French military hierarchy consists of Marshals and Officer Ranks. The two categories have further sub-categories with Gold as the color for their insignia.
- In France, an adjutant non-commission officer is an officer ranked under the French Army Enlisted Men.
- The adjutant assists the commanding officer with administrative matters, including the management of human resources.
- Non-commissioned officers are mandated to see that commanders' policies and standards are observed by the soldiers serving in the unit.
- Adjutant-NCO can command a platoon of soldiers.
- From 1880 to 1914, the French Army trained and prepared for war. There was a 43-years long military anticipation of the return of war in Europe.
- Before World War 1, the progressive militarization of the population was viewed as the best way to revive French traditions.
Research Strategy
To find an overview of the daily life of a French NCO before World War I, we began our search by scouring French military publications, military guidelines, articles, and France-based military-based history encyclopedias. We anticipated finding information about the daily life of a French soldier before WWI. The aspects of daily life that we considered included the number of working leaves, residence time at the barracks, work-life balance, family visitations, and visiting places during leave. While this search provided us with the French Military and pre-World War 1 military activities, this strategy did not provide any insight into the daily life of a French soldier (an adjutant — NCO) around 1910. The expansion of the research scope to include all categories of French military soldiers could not yield the desired results. We believe that high-level professionalism in military matters is why most sources focus on professional matters instead of the personal daily life of French soldiers.
Next, we searched surveys, expert analyses, and press releases about the French soldiers. We expected these sources to analyze and compare a French soldier's work and life across different times, including before World War 1. We intended to consider this information and extract the one applicable to the life of a French NCO before World War I. Unluckily, these sources did not provide any insight into the daily life of a French soldier (an adjutant — NCO) before WWI.
Afterward, we searched through the profiles and memoirs of the famous French military soldiers who served before World War I. We assumed that the nature of daily work-life does not vary significantly among the different categories of the French Military soldiers. The research team considered soldiers like Charles de Gaulle, Joseph Joffre, Philippe Pétain, and Jean de Lattre, among others. We hoped that memoirs regarding these officers could offer a chronology of events, thus providing hints about their daily lives in the service before World War I. The research team intended to use hints about these officers' daily lives, how they spend their time off-duty, and how they related with their families and generalize them for all soldiers, including adjutant officers before WWI. Unfortunately, this strategy did not give any hints about the daily lives of the considered French soldiers before WWI. Most of the information about these soldiers entailed the time they served in the French Military and their accomplishments.