1915 - In France, General Fayolle noted in a meeting of generals that General Petain had ordered that 25 soldiers who had self-inflicted wounds should be bound and thrown into No Man's Land. This incident became the basis of the 1991 novel A Very Long Engagement by Sebastien Japrisot, and the 2004 film by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. The mail of soldiers was censored and analyzed by the Postal Control of the Grand Quartier General (G.Q.G.) which reported in 1916, according to Richard Watt, "the man in the ranks is no longer aware of why he is fighting. He has lost both faith and enthusiasm. He carries out his duties mechanically. He may become the victim of the greatest discouragement, display the worst weakness." Life in the trenches was becoming intolerable and dangerous. The British skilled 75,000 of their own men with British artillery barrages. This became one of the factors in the 1957 Stanely Kubrick film, Paths of Glory. 1916 June - In the Austrian army, mutinies of the Czech and Ruthene units began during the Brusilov Offensive, and spread to other ethnic minority units in 1917 and 1918. 1917 March - In the Russian army, mutinies began spreading after the March Revolution in Petrograd and the failed Kerensky Offensive in July 1917 May 3 - In the French army, the 21st Division refused to renew Nivelle's offensive on the Chemin des Dames, and its leaders were shot. Next the 120th Regiment refused, then the 128th. From the army 20,000 deserted, and mutineers advanced on Paris. The 199th Regiment put machine-guns in trucks to destroy the Schneider-Creusot weapons factory. By June, 54 divisions or half the French army was in mutiny, or as the official French history wrote, in "collective indiscipline". A general wrote "The operation must be postponed. We risk having the men refuse to leave the assault trenches." According to Richard Watt, "French soldiers cursed their commanders, drank openly in the trenches, singing ditties about war profiteers and wooden graveyard crosses. Their commanders were unable to stem the distribution of papillons, the pacifist leaflets that filled French barracks like white spring snow." The French conducted 3427 courts-martial and condemned 554 soldiers to death, with 49 executions carried out. Nivelle was replaced by Petain who visited 100 divisions in person, promised no more Nivelle-like offensives, said he was waiting for the Americans and their tanks, began reforms: more leave, station canteens, lavatories, showers, beds, better cooks, better pinard wine. 1917 Sept. 9 - The Etaples mutiny began at the British training camp 15 miles south of Boulogne by New Zealand troops that defied military police and broke into the office of the Base Commandant. The arrival of a British Machine Gun Squadron stopped the demonstrations without bloodshed, and British commanders changed the training methods at the camp. However, mutinies at other locations were more violent. On Sept. 5, 23 British were killed in a mutiny of two companies in Boulogne. On Sept. 11, strikes began in Labor Battalions that would coninue to the end of the year, and mutinies in other British units continued through 1918. On Dec. 9, 1918, the Royal Artillery stationed at Le Havre burned buildings in a full-scale riot. The British army sent 3,894 men to prison for self-inflicted wounds. 1917 Oct. - In the Italian army, masses of soldiers surrendered to the Germans after the Battle of Caporetto. 1917 Dec. - In the Turkish army, desertions and mutinies increased after the fall of Jerulsalem in the Mideast. 1918 - Aug. - In the German army, mutinies were rare until the Allied offensive began to inflict large casualties and the German forces had no chance to win. The German naval mutiny at Kiel in Oct. was caused by the rumor of a suicide atttack planned against the British navy. The mutinies had significant results, producing reforms and new officers. According to William Dean, the soldier in the trenches ultimately determined the tactics of the war, not the commanders. The French shifted from rupture (percee) strategy to nibbling (grignotage) strategy to holding (tenir) strategy. http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/ww1/mutinies.html
