Jean Barratchard was the youngest French soldier. Born in Bayonne, he enlisted at 14 years old (1914)

14 comments
  1. We had several child soldiers in WW1 whose heads were turned by ideas of volunteering to be heroes and serve King and Country, so lied about their age and were admitted into the army.

    Many subsequently ended up on the front line scared out of their wits. Some ran away and were shot for desertion despite still being boys.

  2. Is 14, looks about 10.

    I work in a high school and a few 14 year old boys could pass for adults- this kid ain’t one of them.

  3. I only found one source for that, apparently he fought near Reims and was evacuated according to a ministerial circular. So he did not die fighting, but it’s impossible to find a trace of him after the war

  4. The British Army had 250,000 underage soldiers in WW1, the youngest was 12 and fought at the Battle of the Somme (by then he was 13).

  5. A 14 yo kid sent to the battlefield all because of a fucking inbred family ruling Europe. Glad they’re mostly gone and buried by now. (even if our actual leaders still suck)

Leave a Reply