La France et son armée

First edition on ordinary paper, with the printed dedication to Marshal Pétain.

Discreet restorations to the spine.

Our copy is housed in a chemise and slipcase of navy blue half morocco, smooth spine lettered with author, title, and date in palladium, decorated paper boards, grey paper pastedowns, slipcase trimmed with matching navy morocco and decorated paper sides; binding signed by Boichot.

An exceptional copy inscribed by General de Gaulle to Colonel Émile Mayer, his “great friend [...] without whom this book could not have been conceived,” as stated in the author’s own inscription, which continues: “Receive, my Colonel, my deepest gratitude and my profound respect.”

A visionary soldier and theorist whom de Gaulle would later acknowledge as his strategic mentor, Émile Mayer corrected the very proofs of this work, which is here presented to him in these warm lines. Fifteen years before the First World War, Mayer had predicted the trench warfare to come. From the 1920s, de Gaulle frequented the salon of this great thinker of military art, whose Jewish origins and Dreyfusard sympathies had subjected him to calumnious antisemitic attacks and suspension from the army between 1899 and 1907. Both Mayer and de Gaulle opposed the immobile dogma of the French General Staff. Their military prophecies proved extraordinarily accurate concerning the mechanisation of the modern army: “For fifteen years, they confronted the same themes, not without disagreements, and each evolved while enriching the other” (Milo Lévy-Bruhl). At their weekly lunches they exchanged perspectives on the future of corps and tactics, both convinced of the futility of the Maginot Line. Mayer favoured a strategy of aerial and chemical warfare, while de Gaulle advocated the use of armoured divisions. Despite their differences, Mayer actively promoted the ideas of his protégé, and assisted in revising France and Her Army—having been won over, after the shock of the reoccupation of the Rhineland, to de Gaulle’s ambition of creating a professional armoured army. De Gaulle addressed these remarkable words of gratitude to his mentor just two weeks before Mayer’s death on November 28, 1938, which grieved him deeply.

An exceptional presentation copy from General de Gaulle of his essential and visionary work on military strategy—a significant testimonial linking two independent spirits who revolutionised the theoretical understanding of national defence.

Quinze ans avant la Première Guerre Mondiale, Mayer prédisait les combats de tranchées. De Gaulle fréquenta dès les années 1920 le salon de ce grand penseur de l’art militaire dont l’origine juive et les opinions dreyfusardes lui avaient valu de calomnieuses accusations antisémites et une mise à pied de l’armée entre 1899 et 1907. Mayer et de Gaulle contestent tous deux le dogme immobiliste en vigueur au sein de l’État-Major français. Leurs prophéties militaires s’avéreront d’une incomparable justesse sur la mécanisation de l’armée moderne : « Quinze années durant, ils se confrontent aux mêmes thèmes, non sans désaccords, et on les voit évoluer respectivement, s’enrichissant l’un l’autre » (Milo Lévy-Brühl). À l’occasion de déjeuners devenus hebdomadaires, ils échangent leurs perspectives sur l’avenir des corps d’armée et des tactiques militaires, convaincus tous deux de l’inutilité de la ligne Maginot. Mayer privilégie le recours à une stratégie de guerre aérochimique. De Gaulle, quant à lui, prône l’usage des blindés. Suite au choc de la réoccupation de la Rhénanie, Mayer se rallie à l’ambition gaullienne de créer une armée blindée professionnelle, participe activement à la diffusion des idées de son protégé, et offre son concours à la relecture de La France et son armée. De Gaulle adresse ces superbes lignes de gratitude à son mentor deux semaines avant sa mort, survenue le 28 novembre 1938, qui l’affligera infiniment.

Exceptionnel envoi autographe du Général de Gaulle sur cet exemplaire de son œuvre essentielle et visionnaire de stratégie militaire – un précieux témoignage liant deux personnalités indépendantes d’esprit, qui révolutionnèrent la pensée théorique de la défense nationale.