6 e armée (France)

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The 6 e armée ( German  6th Army ) was an army of the French army that was used in the First and Second World Wars .

First World War

The 6 e armée was formed in the First World War at the end of August 1914 on the orders of the Grand Quartier Général on August 26, mainly from reserve troops and with the general staff of the dissolved Armée de Lorraine and initially concentrated in the Montdidier - Péronne - Amiens area. Between August 30 and September 5, she was withdrawn to the northern Île-de-France area to protect Paris and to threaten the right wing of the German 1st Army in the First Battle of the Marne (Battle of Ourcq ). After the Battle of the Marne, she pursued the retreating German troops to the north of Soissons and took part in the Battle of the Aisne . She then held the front between the Oise and northeast of Soissons after the withdrawal of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) from her right wing .

In August 1915 the army's left border was moved to the Somme area , where it joined the BEF. In April 1916, the 10th Army was pushed in to her right , and from July 1, both armies were involved in the Battle of the Somme until late autumn . At the turn of the year 1916/17, the Army High Command was withdrawn from the front in order to take over a new section of the front in the area east of Soisson. From April 1917 the army took part in the Second Battle of the Aisne , in which it took the Laffaux corner . After mutinies broke out , she was no longer capable of offensive operations until autumn. At the end of October she led the battle of Malmaison , in which she was able to advance her positions to the Ailette .

At the beginning of 1918, the 6th Army formed the left wing of the French army front again after the 3rd Army had withdrawn . In March, like the neighboring British units, it was hit by the German Michael Offensive . At the end of March the 3rd Army was pushed in again to the left of her, the border to her being the Oise. From late April to late May the army was reinforced by several British divisions. The third German offensive in 1918 between Aisne and Marne hit the army hard and, from the end of May, forced them to retreat behind the Marne and into the forest of Villers-Cotterêts , where they were reinforced by American troops. In the Second Battle of the Marne in July, supported by tanks, they counterattacked and finally reached Vesle .

From the second week of September, the Army High Command was withdrawn from the front and transferred to Flanders. The general staff of the army was made available to the Belgian King Albert I. On October 15, the army was reconstituted as the Armée française de Belgique with three army corps (XXXIV., VII., XXX.) Under their control and headquarters in Roeselare , which belonged to the Allied Groupe d'armées des Flandres under King Albert's command. In the course of the Hundred Days Offensive , it advanced in October in the battle of the Lys and Scheldt, and had exceeded the latter when the armistice came .

Commander in chief

Second World War

During the Second World War, the army was mobilized in 1939 to defend the Alpine border under General René Olry and initially comprised three army corps. In the winter of 1939/40 it was renamed Armée des Alpes .

After the German breakthrough through the Ardennes during the western campaign , General Robert Touchon was given the command of a hastily assembled army detachment that was concentrated in the area west of Sedan to stop a German advance across the Aisne. From it a new 6th Army emerged, which belonged to the French 3rd Army Group under General Besson. In the second phase of the campaign from the beginning of June (" Fall Rot ") she defended the Aisne and Oise-Aisne Canal line . During the battles of Montcornet , the Ailette and the Battle of the Aisne , she was thrown back by the German tank group Kleist in May and June 1940 and was forced to retreat to the Burgundy region until the armistice . It was then dissolved.

literature

  • Les Armées françaises dans la Grande guerre ( AFGG ) , Tome X / Vol. 1: Ordre de bataille des grandes unités. , Paris 1923, pp. 323-377, digitized on Gallica .

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