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TheFirst Army(French:1reArmée) was afield armyofFrancethat fought duringWorld War IandWorld War II.It was also active during theCold War.
| 1reArmée | |
|---|---|
 Insignia of First French Army during World War II | |
| Active | 1914–1918 1939–1940 1944–1945 1970-1996 |
| Country |  France |
| Allegiance | French Third RepublicProvisional Government of the French Republic |
| Branch | French Army |
| Type | Field army |
| Motto(s) | Rhin et Danube (English:RhineandDanube) |
First World War
editOn mobilization in August 1914, GeneralAuguste Dubailwas put in the charge of the First Army, which comprised the7th,8th,13th,14th,and21st Army Corps,two divisions of cavalry and one reserve infantry division. It was massed betweenBelfortand the general line Mirecourt-Lunéville with headquarters atEpinal.First Army then took part, along with theFrench Second Army,in theInvasion of Lorraine.The First Army intended to take the strongly defended town ofSarrebourg.BavarianCrown Prince Rupprecht,commander of theGerman Sixth Army,was tasked with stopping the French invasion. The French attack was repulsed by Rupprecht and his stratagem of pretending to retreat and then strongly attacking back. On 20 August Rupprecht launched a major counter-offensive, driving the French armies out. Dubail was replaced in 1915. A frantic 1916 saw four different commanders command the First Army; an even more frantic 1917 saw five different commanders at the helm (includingFrançois Anthoineduring theBattle of Passchendaele). By the time of Passchendaele, the French First Army was composed of two corps - the1st Army Corps(composed of 4 divisions) and the36th Army Corps(composed of 2 divisions).
Second World War
edit1940
editDuring theSecond World Warthe French First Army, under the command ofGeneralGeorges Blanchard,formed part of the forces ranged against theGerman Armyduring theBattle of France.On 10 May 1940, it included theCavalry Corps,and the3rd,4th,and5th Army Corps,as well as the1re Division Cuirassée(1st DCR, effectively an armoured division with four battalions of tanks and one of infantry, plus supporting units) and32nd Infantry Division.[1]When theWehrmachtinvadedFranceand theLow Countriesin 1940, the First Army was one of the many armies including theBritish Expeditionary Force(BEF) that advanced north to stop the German armies.
On 21 May 1940 the First Army was one of the armies trapped in a vastpocketwith their backs to the sea that would eventually result in theDunkirk evacuations.As the Germans moved in, what remained of the once-formidable First Army was hopelessly surrounded atLillebutcounterattacked and resisted fiercelyin a delaying action aiming to buy time for the beleaguered Anglo-French defenders of Dunkirk. GeneralJean-Baptiste Molinié's 40,000 remaining men engaged seven German divisions (including the4th,5th,and7th Panzer Divisions,roughly 110,000 men and 800 tanks), capturing GeneralFritz Kuhneof the253rd Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)in the fighting and halting the German capture of Dunkirk for three days.[2]It is estimated that the First Army's last battle allowed the evacuation of an additional 100,000 men from Dunkirk.[2]
The First Army formally ceased to exist on 29 May, though a portion escaped with the British soldiers.
1944–45
edit
The First Army was reconstituted as French Army B under the command of GeneralJean de Lattre de Tassignyin the summer of 1944. It landed in southern France afterOperation Dragoon,the Allied invasion of the area. On 25 September 1944, French Army B was redesignatedFrench First Army.LiberatingMarseilles,Toulon,andLyon,it later formed the right flank of the AlliedSouthern Group of Armies(also known as theU.S. Sixth Army Group) at the southern end of the Allied front line, adjacent toSwitzerland.It commanded two corps, theFrench IandII Corps.The French First Army liberated the southern area of theVosges Mountains,includingBelfort.Its operations in the area of Burnhaupt destroyed the GermanIV Luftwaffe Korpsin November 1944. In January 1945 it defended against operationNordwind,the last major German offensive on the western front. In February 1945, with the assistance of theU.S. XXI Corps,the First Army collapsed theColmar Pocketand cleared the west bank of theRhine Riverof Germans in the area south ofStrasbourg.In March 1945, the First Army fought through theSiegfried Linefortifications in theBienwald ForestnearLauterbourg.Subsequently, the First Army crossed the Rhine nearSpeyerand capturedKarlsruheandStuttgart.Operations by the First Army in April 1945 encircled and captured the GermanXVIII S.S. Armee Korpsin theBlack Forestand cleared southwestern Germany. At the end of the war, the motto of the French First Army wasRhin et Danube,referring to the two great German rivers that it had reached and crossed during its combat operations.
Composition
editThe First Army was mainly composed of North African troops (Maghrebis,FrenchPied-Noirsand a significant number of escapees from occupied France) drawn from theArmy of Africa.
These troops had played a major role in the liberation ofCorsica(September–October 1943) and theItalian Campaign(1943–44), with about 130,000 men engaged. During the French and German campaigns of 1944-45, these troops formed the core of the First Army. In Autumn 1944, First Army comprised about 250,000 men, half of themIndigenes(Mahgrebian and Black African) and half Europeans from North Africa.[3]From September 1944 onward, 114,000 men of theFrench Forces of the Interiorwere added to the First Army, replacing many African troops. Eventually, more than 320,000 men would form the First Army during its final advances in Germany and Austria.
- 1st Free French Division(1st DFL, later became the 1st Motorized Infantry Division and finally the 1st March Infantry Division)
- 2nd Armoured Division(2nd DB, former 2nd Light Division) only for a short time in late 1944
- 2nd Moroccan Infantry Division(2nd DIM)
- 3rd Algerian Infantry Division(3rd DIA)
- 4th Moroccan Mountain Division(4th DMM)
- 9th Colonial Infantry Division(9th DIC)
- 1st Armoured Division(1st DB)
- 5th Armoured Division(5th DB)
- Moroccan Goums(Four groups of Tabors, equivalent to one brigade)
- 10th Infantry Division(Colmar Pocketonly)
- 14th Infantry Division(Germany and Austria campaigns)
From 26 September 1944,André Malraux'sAlsace-Lorraine Independent Brigade,formed from the FFI, formed part of the army's reserves.[4]Like other units formed from FFI personnel, Malraux's brigade was subsequently incorporated into the French Army as a regular unit (and was retitled the 3rd Demi-Brigade of Chasseurs).
Cold War
editDuring theCold Warthe First Army was again active. Army headquarters was atStrasbourg,and may have also been at Metz for a period. For a time the army commander was also the Military Governor of Strasbourg (seeHôtel des Deux-Ponts).[5]
Among army commanders were GeneralsEmmanuel Hublot(1969–72),André Biard(1977–79) andClaude Vanbremeersch(1979–80).
In 1970 the Army appears to have controlledI Corps(HQ Nancy, France) with the4th Armoured Divisionwith its headquarters atVerdun,the 7th Infantry Division with headquarters atMulhouse,and the8th Armoured Divisionwith headquarters atCompiègne(2nd, 4th, and 14th Brigades).[6]II Corps was atKoblenzwith the1st Armoured DivisionatTreves(Trier) (1st, 3rd, and 11th Brigades), and the3rd DivisionatFreiburg(5th, 12th, and 13th Brigades).
The Army controlled the I Corps, theII Corps,and theIII Corpsas well as Army troops, includingPlutonartillery, and three anti-aircraft artillery regiments, the 401, 402, and 403 Regiments d'Artillerie, during the 1980s.[7]After deactivation as the war headquarters for the NATOCentral Army Group,Ouvrage Rochonvillerswas designated as the First Army's war headquarters in the 1980s.
In 1990 the army staff left Strasbourg and moved to theChâteau de MercyinMercy-lès-Metz,Moselle.[8]
The army's last commander was GeneralJean Cot.The 1st Army was disbanded on 31 August 1993.
Commanders
editWorld War I
edit- GeneralAuguste Dubail(Mobilisation– 5 January 1915)
- GeneralPierre Roques(5 January 1915 – 25 March 1916)
- GeneralOlivier Mazel(25–31 March 1916)
- GeneralAugustin Gérard(31 March – 31 December 1916)
- GeneralEmile Fayolle(31 December 1916 – 6 May 1917)
- GeneralJoseph Alfred Micheler(6 May – 1 June 1917)
- GeneralHenri Gouraud(1–15 June 1917)
- GeneralFrançois Anthoine(15 June – 21 December 1917)
- GeneralMarie-Eugène Debeney(21 December 1917 –Armistice)
World War II
edit- GeneralGeorges Blanchard(2 September 1939 – 26 May 1940)
- GeneralRené Prioux(26–29 May 1940)
- GeneralJean de Lattre de Tassigny(September 1944 – 1 August 1945)
See also
editReferences
edit- ^Leulliot, Nowfel."1re Armée Order of Battle / Ordre de bataille, 10/05/1940".france1940.free.fr.
- ^abShirer "The Collapse of the Third Republic," (1969),p. 746
- ^"Au total, à l'automne de 1944, la France finira par disposer d'une armée effective de 250 000 hommes composée pour moitié d'éléments indigènes, Maghrébins, Africains et pour moitié d'Européens d'Afrique du Nord", Philippe Masson,L'homme en guerre, 1901-2001: de la Marne à Sarajevo,Editions du Rocher, 1997, p.23
- ^Michalon, Roget (ed.):Les Grandes Unités françaises,6. Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1980, p. 569. Malraux's brigade was among several units formed from FFI personnel, such as the Corps Franc Pommiès, that made up what up General Lattre used as a reserve.
- ^AP (11 February 1981)."Gen. Claude Vanbremeersch, 60, Retired Chief of Staff for France".The New York Times.
- ^Miles Glorious,The French Army: Five Orders of Battle 1970-96Archived2016-03-03 at theWayback Machine,accessed June 2014.
- ^David C. Isby and Charles Kamps Jr, Armies of NATO's Central Front, Jane's Publishing Company, 1985.
- ^1st Army 1969 - 1993on the sitehttp://sites-bruno.chez-alice.fr;Mayor of Ars Laquenexy."MERCY property of the French army"(in French). Archived fromthe originalon December 29, 2018.RetrievedDecember 29,2018.
