Background
Dominique-Marie Gauchet was bom on August 14, 1853, at Vains, near the English Channel.
Dominique-Marie Gauchet was bom on August 14, 1853, at Vains, near the English Channel.
He was commissioned in the navy in 1879 and, like many of his contemporaries, saw extensive duty at sea in the Far East.
Promoted rear admiral in 1910, Gauchet advanced to vice admiral in 1914; at the outbreak of war in 1914, he commanded the navy's department of administration and supply.
In the reshuffling of commanders following the retirement of Admiral Boué de Lapeyrère, Gauchet took command of the French squadron at the Dardanelles (October 1915). When Admiral Dartige du Foumet was relieved in December 1916, following his misadventure in landing an expedition at Athens, Gauchet replaced him as commander in chief of the French fleet in the Mediterranean and nominal director over all Allied naval operations in that theater.
Gauchet proved to be little more than a passive observer of events. In Laurens' vivid description, he saw himself above all as a squadron commander: he busied himself preparing his fleet at Corfu for a grand encounter with the Austrian fleet that, in the end, never materialized. He delegated the touchy political and military task of pressing the Greek royalist government to a subordinate; the more explosive problem of dealing with the enemy submarine offensive he left to the hands of an interallied naval commission. Despite his narrow conception of his sphere of action, he was permitted to remain at his post until the November armistice.
The conclusion of the Mudros armistice (October 30, 1918) with Turkey by Admiral Calthorpe of the Royal Navy bound France as well as Great Britain but, given Gauchet's limited inclination to act forcefully on the wider stage of Mediterranean affairs, scarcely involved the French commander. Gauchet retired from active duty in 1919. He died, at his birthplace, on February 4,1931.