Sunday, 13 April 2008 12:00
Raymond Seré of Rivers was born May 20, 1815 in Albi in the Tarn, and died February 16, 1895 in Paris. He was a military engineer and a French general.
The youngest of four children, born in Languedoc, Raymond Seré of Rivers lies in the cemetery of Père-Lachaise, a modest burial is simply the epitaph "Lapides clamabunt" stones testify. He gave his name to a line of fortifications built after the 1870 war.
It is called the nineteenth century Vauban.
Student in Paris, he was admitted in 1833 at the Military School of Saint-Cyr, but he chooses not to enter, preferring to continue his law studies. He entered the Ecole Polytechnique in 1835, graduating in 1837 with the rank of lieutenant. He then joined the School of Applied Artillery and Engineer Metz where he learned the basics of permanent fortification. In 1839, he joined the Second Regiment of Engineers of Arras where he perfected his knowledge. It draws on the ideas of the Marquis de Montalembert.
Lieutenant in 1841, he was captain of the second class in January 1843, then appointed to the chiefdom of Toulon in April of that year. In this position, he showed unusual skills in regard to fortifications, art whose mastery guide his career. In Toulon, his work includes the barracks of the Centre and the fort of Cape Brun.
He was transferred successively
* Perpignan in October 1848,
* Castres in March 1849
* Carcassonne in July 1853
* Orleans in March 1860 (after having participated in the Italian campaign of 1859)
* Paris-North in October 1860,
* Nice in January 1862,
* At Metz in August 1864
* Lyon in April 1868.
In June 1873, he took the post of secretary of the Defense Committee. Opposed to General Frossard in quarrel school, he had the opportunity to detail his concept of the reorganization of borders. It is both defensive and offensive sets and motion. Leaning on a linear system of fortified regions, aiming to channel the enemy into an opening where a small army of wait, it reflects the evolution of arms and seeks above all to remove a potential enemy in Paris. This design, inspired by one of Vauban's but brought up to date, has been guided in part by the defeat of 1871: the Vauban fortifications, if they shone in their time, had demonstrated an inability to adapt to new weapons , and required a full recovery. Two texts are mainly based this doctrine:
* Presentation on the defensive system of France (filed May 20, 1874, July 17 following the law on improving the defenses of the Eastern Border is enacted).
In 1874, Sere de Rivieres became director of the Engineering Department at the Ministry of War, commissioned by the General Barail construction of a defense from Dunkirk to Nice and which bear his name. His project sees its program realization launched from July 17, 1874, with a law passed unanimously. The border of north and north-easterly divided into four groups:
* The group Jura, with the square Besançon basis.
* The group Vosges, Epinal and Belfort based on.
* The group of middle Meuse, consisting of a curtain between Verdun to Toul works by the Meuse Heights.
* The northern group, ranging from Montmédy Dunkirk, Lille and Maubeuge building on and connecting to the group of the Meuse by the positions of Montmédy-Longwy, the Ayvelles-Givet.
General Sere de Rivieres and conducts its program until replaced following a political cabal against the service engineer January 10, 1880 by General de Villenoisy Cosseron. The general was dismissed primarily for political reasons: Republicans eliminate positions of responsibility and conservatives in particular the military supported by Marshal Mac Mahon (president from 1873 to 1879).
General Cosseron of Villenoisy continues its program without major changes until 1885. Thus were built 196 forts, 58 batteries and 278 small works on all borders and strategic places in the country, a cost estimated at 450 million gold francs (books) and 229 million gold francs (weapons).
And yet, we forget the work of Sere de Rivieres. The defense policy of the French government will transfer the military budgets of the fortifications to the equipment of the army campaign. France is going well for a defensive strategy to an offensive strategy. In addition, to evacuate the idea of revenge (recovery of Alsace Lorraine), the various governments of the 3rd Republic was launched gradually in the settlement. Meanwhile, the amendment of this defense strategy, military technologies evolve. In 1886, the development of explosive shells capable of destroying buildings stone forts obsoletes generation Sere de Rivieres. From that date the forts are built of concrete.
