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| 1re Armée | |
|---|---|
 Insignia of First French Army during World War II | |
| Active | 1914–1918 1939–1940 1944–1945 1970–1996 |
| Country | France |
| Branch | French Army |
| Type | Field army |
| Mottos | Rhin et Danube (English:Rhine andDanube) |
TheFirst Army (French:1re Armée) was afield army ofFrance that fought duringWorld War I andWorld War II. It was also active during theCold War.
On mobilization in August 1914, GeneralAuguste Dubail was 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 betweenBelfort and 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 Anthoine during 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).
DuringWorld War II the French First Army, under the command ofGeneralGeorges Blanchard, formed part of the forces ranged against theGerman Army during theBattle of France. It formed part ofGroupe d'Armees no. 1 (Army Group No. 1), itself part of theThéatre d'Operations Nord-Est.[1] 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.[2] When theWehrmacht invadedFrance and theLow Countries in 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 vastpocket with 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 atLille butcounterattacked and resisted fiercely in 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 Kuhne of the253rd Infantry Division (Wehrmacht) in the fighting and halting the German capture of Dunkirk for three days.[3] It is estimated that the First Army's last battle allowed the evacuation of an additional 100,000 men from Dunkirk.[3]
The First Army formally ceased to exist on 29 May, though a portion escaped with the British soldiers.
The First Army was reconstituted as French Army B under the command of GeneralJean de Lattre de Tassigny in 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. LiberatingMarseille,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 I andII Corps. The French First Army liberated the southern area of theVosges Mountains, includingBelfort. Its operations in the area of Burnhaupt destroyed the GermanIV Luftwaffe Korps in 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 Pocket and cleared the west bank of theRhine River of Germans in the area south ofStrasbourg. In March 1945, the First Army fought through theSiegfried Line fortifications in theBienwald Forest nearLauterbourg. Subsequently, the First Army crossed the Rhine nearSpeyer and capturedKarlsruhe andStuttgart. Operations by the First Army in April 1945 encircled and captured the GermanXVIII S.S. Armee Korps in theBlack Forest and 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.
The First Army was mainly composed of North African troops (Maghrebis, FrenchPied-Noirs and 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 (1943–1944), 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.[4] From September 1944 onward, 114,000 men of theFrench Forces of the Interior were 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.
From 26 September 1944,André Malraux'sAlsace-Lorraine Independent Brigade, formed from the FFI, formed part of the army's reserves.[5] 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).
During theCold War the 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).[6]
Among army commanders were GeneralsEmmanuel Hublot [fr] (1969–72),André Biard [fr] (1977–79) andClaude Vanbremeersch [fr] (1979–80).
In 1970 the Army appears to have controlledI Corps (HQ Nancy, France) with the4th Armoured Division with its headquarters atVerdun, the 7th Infantry Division with headquarters atMulhouse, and the8th Armoured Division with headquarters atCompiègne (2nd, 4th, and 14th Brigades).[7] II Corps was atKoblenz with the1st Armoured Division atTreves (Trier) (1st, 3rd, and 11th Brigades), and the3rd Division atFreiburg (5th, 12th, and 13th Brigades).
The Army controlled the I Corps, theII Corps, and theIII Corps as well as Army troops, includingPluton artillery, and three anti-aircraft artillery regiments, the401st, 402nd, and 403rd Regiments d'Artillerie, during the 1980s.[8] Signals units included the40th, 44th, and 54thRegiments de transmissions.[9] After deactivation as the war headquarters for the NATOCentral Army Group,Ouvrage Rochonvillers was designated as the First Army's war headquarters in the 1980s.
In 1990 the army staff left Strasbourg and moved to theChâteau de Mercy inMercy-lès-Metz,Moselle.[10]
The army's last commander was GeneralJean Cot. The 1st Army was disbanded on 31 August 1993.
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