I’ve given you all I have and I don’t know French. I’ve listened to a huge amount of A History According To Bob and think he is very reliable. Plus the author has an MA from the Navel War College.
I just find it highly suspicious that a person who apparently did the most harm to the French army by deliberately deceiving everyone and essentially handing the country to the Germans was not only not executed as a traitor when the story came to light, but kept in a position of authority. Additionally, the story is not described in any of the standard sources, only in this one podcast. There is no information online, either. Presumably he got it from somewhere.
I just find it highly suspicious that a person who apparently did the most harm to the French army by deliberately deceiving everyone and essentially handing the country to the Germans was not only not executed as a traitor when the story came to light, but kept in a position of authority.
Not so suspicious when you take into account how the French army preformed in its next war. And I suspect that lots of organizations value loyalty over honesty.
the story is not described in any of the standard sources
According to the linked podcast the story is based on relatively recently declassified documents so it couldn’t be in anything written much before 1989. But I do agree that if the story is true you would think there would be more written on it in English.
That addresses the French general ignoring reports, but appears to say nothing about Lt. Col. Buat. And the Google Translate of French wikipedia does not appear to address the possible hoax.
Okay, cool. I totally didn’t check the source to see if it verified the whole story, I was just posting it as a possible source based on 10 seconds of Googling. Thanks for checking it more closely.
Do you have any independent (from Sanders) sources to confirm this story? Google failed me, but then most documents about him are in French.
In the linked History According to Bob Podcast, Bob says that this is in some new history books.
A primary or secondary source would be nice.
I’ve given you all I have and I don’t know French. I’ve listened to a huge amount of A History According To Bob and think he is very reliable. Plus the author has an MA from the Navel War College.
I just find it highly suspicious that a person who apparently did the most harm to the French army by deliberately deceiving everyone and essentially handing the country to the Germans was not only not executed as a traitor when the story came to light, but kept in a position of authority. Additionally, the story is not described in any of the standard sources, only in this one podcast. There is no information online, either. Presumably he got it from somewhere.
Not so suspicious when you take into account how the French army preformed in its next war. And I suspect that lots of organizations value loyalty over honesty.
According to the linked podcast the story is based on relatively recently declassified documents so it couldn’t be in anything written much before 1989. But I do agree that if the story is true you would think there would be more written on it in English.
Google gave me The Guns of August, p. 272.
That addresses the French general ignoring reports, but appears to say nothing about Lt. Col. Buat. And the Google Translate of French wikipedia does not appear to address the possible hoax.
Okay, cool. I totally didn’t check the source to see if it verified the whole story, I was just posting it as a possible source based on 10 seconds of Googling. Thanks for checking it more closely.