SIR — In response to your correspondent’s comments (August 23) about mutinies etc, may I point out that The Monocled Mutineer was fiction. Percy Topliss — a thief, rapist and murderer — was very unlikely to have been at Etaples as he was serving with the RAMC out of Europe at that time. True, the French Army did mutiny in April 1917 on the Chemin des Dames — refusing to attack, only to defend — but the British extended their attack at Arras well into May while Marshal Petain restored the morale and discipline in the French Army.
The French Army were able to defeat the German attack during the Spring Offensive at the Second Battle of the Marne (July 1918) and then take part in the Hundred Days Offensive. Together with the American Army, they defeated the German Army during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, retaking Metz (November 1918).
Peter J Palmer, Buttermere Road, Bradford
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