Benoît Chenu

In 2017, Benoît Chenu published his first book in France about the Great War, ’Castelnau, le quatrième maréchal’, which was very successful and received several awards. As a result, he was elected to the prestigious Académie de Versailles. This book owed much to the personal papers of his great-grandfather, General de Curières de Castelnau (GCB, GCVO), one of the most important French military leaders of that war: He was the French Chief of the General Staff during year 1916 and thus second in command of the French Army. He has been associated to all the events and decisions regarding the various theatres of operations. Contrary to all the major military chiefs of WW1, Castelnau refused to write his memoirs. He also forbade his former staff from publishing anything about him. Most importantly, he embargoed the access to his personal papers until the death of the last French 1914–1918 soldier. Hence, one of the most important French WW1 private collection of archives is still nearly unknown by historians.

From this invaluable source, Benoît Chenu discovered critical information concerning the main political and military events of this war. As far as year 1916 is concerned, he found unpublished critical elements about Verdun, the Somme, the Austrian Strafexpedition, the Brusilov offensive and the Romanian/Bulgarian/Salonika issue. What he read was rather different from the usual cultural myths that clutter English or French historiographies. This convinced him that much remained to be discovered about the year 1916 and prompted him to undertake extensive research into the subject. On 15 May 2021, he published in France, 1916, La Bataille des 5 empires. The interest shown by British readers incited him to have this book published in English.

Benoît Chenu is also a member of the British Commission for Military History and of the Western Front Association.