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French infantry pushing through enemy barbed wire, 1915. During World War I, France was one of the Triple Entente powers allied against the Central Powers.Although fighting occurred worldwide, the bulk of the French Army's operations occurred in Belgium, Luxembourg, France and Alsace-Lorraine along what came to be known as the Western Front, which consisted mainly of trench warfare.
The catalyst for the mutinies was the extreme optimism and dashed hopes of the Nivelle offensive, pacifism (stimulated by the Russian Revolution and the trade union movement) and disappointment at the non-arrival of American troops. French soldiers on the front had unrealistically been expecting US troops to arrive within days of the U.S ...
The First Army was mainly composed of North African troops (Maghrebis, French Pied-Noirs and a significant number of escapees from occupied France) drawn from the Army of Africa. These troops had played a major role in the liberation of Corsica (September–October 1943) and the Italian Campaign (1943–44), with about 130,000 men engaged.
French troops crossed the front lines starting November 17, following the German retreat at a distance of only ten kilometers, stopping at six successive lines. [179] In Alsace-Lorraine, assigned to Fayolle's army group (the former reserve army group), the 5th Cavalry Division advanced with the 10th Army , while the 3rd Cavalry Division was ...
Les Armées françaises dans la Grande guerre [French Armies in the Great War] (in French). Vol. X-2 : Ordres de bataille des grandes unités : divisions d'infanterie, divisions de cavalerie. Paris: Impr. nationale. 1924.
Pétain used a noria (rotation) system quickly to relieve French troops at Verdun, which involved most of the French Army in the battle but for shorter periods than the German troops in the 5th Army. The symbolic importance of Verdun proved a rallying point and the French did not collapse.
In August 1914, following the outbreak of the Great War, the French Armed Forces numbered some 1,300,000 soldiers, and by the end of the war the French Army had called up 8,817,000 men, including 900,000 colonial troops; of these around 1,397,000 French soldiers were killed in action, mostly on the Western Front.
French Army lists; Field armies in the First World War: Divisions in the First World War: Divisions in the Second World War: Regiments: French army formations in ...