7 e armée (France)

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The 7 e Armée ( German  7th Army ) was a large unit of the French army that was used in the First and Second World Wars .

First World War

The association was formed on April 4, 1915 from the army division deployed in the Vosges ( Détachement d'armée des Vosges - DAV ) and remained deployed on this front sector throughout the war. The first in command was General Maud'huy . The 7th Army took part in the fighting for the Hartmannswillerkopf in 1915. Towards the end of the war, American divisions were also subordinate to it.

Commander in Chief 1915–1918

Second World War

The 7th Army was set up again in September 1939 and used during the western campaign in 1940 as part of the French 1st Army Group. It consisted of a mechanized infantry division, a motorized infantry division and four infantry divisions .

According to the Dyle Breda Plan, the 7th Army was to establish contact with the Dutch Army. After taking possession of the Dutch bridges at Moerdijk , their commander-in-chief, General Henri Giraud , decided to prepare for a defense near the coast between the Westerschelde from the English Channel to Antwerp . After strong attacks by the German 9th Panzer Division and by Stukas , the army withdrew from Breda and Tilburg to Antwerp.

After the Dutch surrender and the German breakthrough further south at Sedan ( Battle of Sedan May 13-15, 1940 ), the army was withdrawn to the south behind the Somme . The 10th Army was formed here from its left wing . In the second phase of the western campaign, she was involved in the defense of Paris and retreats on the Loire .

In June 1940 the 7th French Army secured through a negotiator to Army High Command 18 under the later Colonel General Georg von Küchler the evacuation of Paris and the city. On June 14th, Wehrmacht units entered the deserted-looking Paris without a fight. There were no strategic goals associated with it.

After the armistice (June 22, 1940) it was dissolved. Its last commander, Aubert Frère , was the military governor of Lyon under the Vichy regime and co-founder of the Organization de résistance de l'armée (ORA).

literature

  • Les Armées françaises dans la Grande guerre ( AFGG ) , Tome X / Vol. 1: Ordre de bataille des grandes unités. , Paris 1923, pp. 379-413, digitized on Gallica .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.cheminsdememoire.gouv.fr/de/henri-giraud
  2. ↑ Le Général FRERE on museemilitairelyon.com .