His father was Pierre Adrien de Maud'huy, Battalion Chief in the
Napoleon III Imperial Guard and his mother was Thérèse Joséphine Olry. A "
Lorrain from
Moselle", he had been haunted by the idea of driving the Germans out from Lorraine since the
1871 defeat. He was then 14. Louis de Maud'huy graduated from
Saint-Cyr and later the General Staff Course. He served as an infantry officer of
chasseurs à pied until becoming a colonel and assuming command of the
35th Infantry Regiment in
Belfort in 1907. On 10 July 1913, he was
brigadier general in charge of the 80th Infantry Brigade. An infantry Division Officer in 1914, he was placed in charge, after the
Battle of the Frontiers, of the
18th Corps with which he fought in the
First Battle of the Marne on the
5th Army left wing. During the
First Battle of the Aisne, de Maud'huy crossed the Aisne at
Pontavert on 13 September 1914 and captured
Corbeny,
Craonne and the eastern tip of
Chemin des Dames. As a result of this, he was promoted to Divisional General, became a Commander of the
Legion of Honour for his courage and was considered a specialist of night attacks. He assumed command of the
French Tenth Army on the 29 September 1914 to extend northward the
de Curières de Castelnau Second Army in the beginning of the
Race to the Sea. Then the French Tenth Army attacked the advancing German forces on 1 October, initially experiencing success until they reached the town of
Douai. There, the German Sixth Army launched a counter-attack along with additional attacks from three corps of the German First, Second and Seventh Armies: de Maud'huy lost
Lens and was forced to withdraw towards
Arras. From 2 April to 3 November 1915, he was named to the head of the
Seventh Army. From 2 April 1916 to 24 January 1917 he was in charge of the 15th Corps which meant a downgrading for him. On 25 January 1917, he was replaced by General de Riols de Fonclare and named to the head of the French
11th Army Corps involved in the
Third Battle of the Aisne. As well as his chief
General Duchêne, he was relieved of his command by French Prime Minister
Georges Clemenceau on 2 June 1918, when Germans were seemingly within reach of Paris, and replaced by
General Niessel. With the liberation of
Metz in November 1918,
Marshal Foch appointed him its Military Governor. After the war he entered politics. From 16 November 1919 to his death, he was elected to parliament as a deputy of
National Bloc for
Moselle. In July 1920, he became the first Chief Scout of Scouts de France. A Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, he died in Paris on 16 July 1921. His remains are entombed in
the Invalides. ==Bibliography==