The standard French Army uniform seen in-game.
The French Army is the main protagonistic faction in Amnesia: The Bunker, fighting against the German Army during World War I. One soldier in the French Army, Henri Clément, is the protagonist of the story and the game's player character.
Much of the Army is not seen during the course of the game, due to being killed in the ongoing war, killed by the Beast that is trapped in the bunker along with most of the other French soldiers, or have simply gone missing.
History[]
World War I[]
Mobilisation[]
Soldiers marching to the trenches, sometime in 1915.[1]
The Western Front[]
The French armies held roughly 80% of the line across the Western Front, which by 1915 stretched from the base of the French Alps to the sea in Belgium, sharing it in the west with the British, the Belgians, and later on, the Americans, as well as colonial troops from the UK and France.[2] Neither side hoped to engage in trench warfare, as nations had seen the miserable conditions of the prior the Crimean War (1853–56) and especially the Russo-Japanese War (1904–05)—extensive trenchworks had also become a feature of battles in the American Civil War (1861–65) and the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902).[2][3] However, fighting ground to a halt in the early war, and both sides attempted and failed to outflank the other, a period in the autumn of 1914 called the Race to the Sea.[2][4] Soon after the Race ended with no decisive outflanking, the war settled into a stalemate along the lines in the West, primarily between Germany and France, with the British holding the seas.[2]
"An actual photograph of trench war in the Somme, snapped at the instant of the explosion of a German hand grenade at the feet of the onrushing French detachment."[5]
Mutinees[]
"A French traitor is led away to his death, by soldiers from the firing squad", c. 1914.[6]
Post-war[]
By the end of the war, the French had lost the lives of between 1.2 and 1.3 million military-aged men.[2]
Events of Amnesia: The Bunker[]
During the prologue to Amnesia: The Bunker, the French army fought off a German assault on their entrenchments. One soldier, Sdt. Henri Clément took refuge in the trenches, which were subsequently filled with gas grenades, suffocating Henri. Henri's fellow soldier and best friend, Sdt. Augustin Lambert, managed to find him and gave him a gas mask, saving his life.
Some time later, Sgt. Joubert, Henri and Augustin's unit commander, needed one soldier for a routine patrol. He ordered Augustin and Henri to decide between themselves which one of them should go. They both agreed to leave that up to "a game of chance," at which Henri cheated. This left Augustin with the patrol. However, Augustin didn't return, leaving him missing in action for a day. Henri, overcome with guilt, snuck out to save Augustin, and found him in a deep crater, gravely injured and unable to move.
Henri managed to enter the crater and give Augustin nearby spring water, not realizing the water had dangerous, transformative powers. Henri was able to pull Augustin out of the crater, and attempted to run back to his base while carrying his friend. At that moment, a German outpost spotted them. In the ensuing chaos, an exploding artillery shell incapacitated the two men.
The spring water had, unknown to anyone, given Augustin superhuman powers. It first healed his wounds, and despite impossible odds, he was able to carry an unconscious Henri back to the infirmary. While Henri was still comatose, Augustin began transforming into the Beast, and proceeded to brutally murder nearly everyone inside the bunker. The remaining officers, desperate to escape and trap the Beast inside, with little regard for their own men, abandoned the bunker and collapsed the only exit behind them.
Henri eventually woke up, and saw the aftermath of the Beast's destruction and brutal killings all around the bunker. While trying to escape himself, he found notes from his fellow soldiers, explaining some of the bunker's events while Henri was still asleep. He also found the many corpses of his comrades, with their dog tags still with them, providing locker combinations. Each of the lockers contain useful items that aid Henri is his escape.
There were two living soldiers Henri comes across, the first is Sdt. Boisrond, who was found injured and immobile. Believing in the inevitability of his impending fate, he decided to have a smoke. Once Henri arrived, Boisrond asked Henri to end his life by the use of Boisrond's revolver, wanting to die mercifully and honorably, rather than being brutally mauled by the Beast. Before Henri was able to comply, however, the Beast arrived and killed Boisrond.
When Henri entered the Roman Tunnels, he encountered Toussaint Beaufoy. Once a loyal soldier in the French Army, Beaufoy later lost his sanity, removing his own eyes as a result. By the time Henri reached him, Toussaint was roaming the ruins, spouting nonsense and firing his shotgun at anything he heard. His fate is determinant, as he can be killed by Henri is self-defense, or simply avoided.
Equipment[]
Uniform[]
Supportive kit[]
Weapons[]
Members[]
Officers[]
Commissioned Officers[]
Non-commissioned Officers[]
- Maj. Blanchet
- Maj. Sgt. Delpy
- Sgt. Maj. Melius
- Sgt. Reynard
- Sgt. Joubert – one of the officers most sympathetic to the rank-and-file soldiery.
- J. Delisle
Engineers[]
- Foreman Stafford
- Engr. Ozanne Zabelle
Enlisted Men[]
Gallery[]
![French soldiers on leave.[7]](/wiki/File:French_soldiers_on_leave_LOC_16149343176.jpg "French soldiers on leave LOC 16149343176.jpg (2.13 MB)")
!["French troops warming themselves up by a fireside in a farmer's house."[8]](/wiki/File:The_French_Army_on_the_Western_Front,_1914-1918_Q69865.jpg "The French Army on the Western Front, 1914-1918 Q69865.jpg (79 KB)")
!["A French regiment near the Battlefield of the Oisne".[9]](/wiki/File:Military_Operations_-_A_French_regiment_near_the_Battlefield_of_the_Oisne_-_NARA_-_45502712_(cropped).jpg "Military Operations - A French regiment near the Battlefield of the Oisne - NARA - 45502712 (cropped).jpg (9.99 MB)")
References[]
- ↑ "Soldats partant pour la relève des tranchées, 1915" [Photograph]. Accessed 2 July 2023. Taken circa 23 April 1915. Gallica, la Bibliothèque nationale de France (National Library of France). https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b9043533f.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 "American Artifacts: French World War I Soldiers" [Video]. Accessed 1 July 2023. Published 20 May 2018. C-SPAN, National Cable Satellite Corporation. https://www.c-span.org/video/?447911-1/french-world-war-soldiers.
- ↑ "Trench warfare". Accessed 1 July 2023. Last edited 26 June 2023. Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation Inc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trench_warfare.
- ↑ "Race to the Sea". Accessed 1 July 2023. Last edited 17 May 2023. Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation Inc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_to_the_Sea.
- ↑ "Charging Under Hand Grenade Fire" [Photograph]. Accessed 2 July 2023. Published 29 October 1916 (New-York Tribune). Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030214/1916-10-29/ed-1/?sp=9&st=image&r=-1.17,0,3.338,1.389,0.
- ↑ "A French traitor is led away to his death, by soldiers from the firing squad" [Photograph]. Accessed 2 July 2023. Published 7 November 1914. Corpus Christi Caller and Daily Herald.
- ↑ "French soldiers on leave". Accessed 2 July 2023. Taken circa 1915. Library of Congress. https://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/16149343176/.
- ↑ "The French Army on the Western Front, 1914-1918" [Photograph]. Accessed 2 July 2023. Imperial War Museum. https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205028714.
- ↑ "Military Operations - A French regiment near the Battlefield of the Oisne" [Photograph]. Accessed 2 July 2023. Taken circa 1917–1918. National Archives Catalog, U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/45502712.
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