Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Pétain, generally known as Philippe Pétain, Marshal Pétain and sometimes The Old Marshal, was a French general officer who attained the position of Marshal of France at the end of World War I, during which he became known as The Lion of Verdun. He then served as Chief of State of Vichy France from 1940 to 1944. Pétain, who was 84 years old in 1940, ranks as France's oldest head of state.
Maxime Weygand was a French military commander in World War I and World War II.
The Battle of Arras, fought on 25 August 1654, was a victory of a French army under Turenne against a Spanish army commanded by Don Ferdinand de Salis and the Prince de Condé.
Ferdinand Foch was a French general and military theorist who served as the Supreme Allied Commander during the First World War. An aggressive, even reckless commander at the First Marne, Flanders and Artois campaigns of 1914–1916, Foch became the Allied Commander-in-Chief in late March 1918 in the face of the all-out German spring offensive, which pushed the Allies back using fresh soldiers and new tactics that trenches could not contain. He successfully coordinated the French, British and American efforts into a coherent whole, deftly handling his strategic reserves. He stopped the German offensive and launched a war-winning counterattack. In November 1918, Marshal Foch accepted the German cessation of hostilities and was present at the Armistice of 11 November 1918.
Maurice Gustave Gamelin was an army general in the French Army. Gamelin is remembered for his disastrous command of the French military during the Battle of France in World War II and his steadfast defence of republican values.
Alphonse Joseph Georges was a French army officer. He was commander in chief of the North East Front in 1939 and 1940. Opposing the plan by supreme commander Maurice Gamelin to move the best allied forces into the Low Countries, he was overruled. Georges tried to allow as much initiative to his subordinates as possible, to improve operational flexibility.
The French Military Mission to Poland was an effort by France to aid the nascent Second Polish Republic after it achieved its independence in November 1918, at the end of the First World War. The aim was to provide aid during the Polish-Soviet War (1919–1921), and to create a strong Polish military to serve as a useful ally against Germany. It was an advisory body consisting of about 400 French officers attached to staffs of Polish units at various levels. Although the French mission was small numerically, its effect was substantial in improving the organisation and logistics of the Polish army. It worked in parallel with the smaller British Military Mission to Poland. It existed from 1918 to 1939.
The Interallied Mission to Poland was a diplomatic mission launched by British Prime Minister David Lloyd George on 21 July 1920, at the height of the Polish-Soviet War, weeks before the decisive Battle of Warsaw. The purpose of this mission was to send a number of high level personages from Britain and France to Poland in an attempt to influence Polish policy, possibly through effecting a change in government.
Paul Baudouin was a French banker who became a politician and Foreign Minister of France for the last six months of 1940. He was instrumental in arranging a cessation of hostilities between France and Germany in June that year, resulting in an Armistice.
Maxime is a French given name that may refer to:
The Doullens Conference was held in Doullens, France, on 26 March 1918 between French and British military leaders and governmental representatives during World War I. Its purpose was to better co-ordinate their armies' operations on the Western Front in the face of a dramatic advance by the German Army which threatened a breakthrough of their lines during the War's final year.
The Compagnons de Jeanne d'Arc was an association honouring Saint Joan of Arc. From 1937 to 1939, it organised mass patriotic and religious demonstrations at Domrémy in her honour.
Gaston-Henri Billotte was a French military officer, remembered chiefly for his central role in the failure of the French Army to defeat the German invasion of France in May 1940. He was killed in a car accident at the height of the battle.
Rue Weygand is a street in Beirut's Central Business District. Originally, the street was named Rue Nouvelle as it was a new thoroughfare constructed as part of a modernization plan in 1915. Upon its completion, the street was renamed after Maxime Weygand, the High Commissioner of French-mandated Syria and Lebanon who served from 19 April 1923 – 29 November 1924.
Georges Blanchard (1877–1954) was a French military officer. He served in the French Army in World War I on the Western Front. In World War II, he was a general, commanding the French First Army, which advanced into Belgium during the Battle of Belgium.
Jean-François-Maxime Raybaud was a French philhellene officer and writer, and a participant in the War of Independence of Greece.
The Grand Quartier Général was the general headquarters of the French Army during the Second World War. Originally established in 1911, GQG was re-established on the outbreak of war in 1939, the original GQG had functioned from 1914 to 1919 during the First World War. In the inter-war years, the plans for activation of GQG changed considerably, with the formation switching from an offensive-oriented position near the German border at Metz in the 1920s gradually westwards. By 1938 its planned base was at the Château de Vincennes in the suburbs of Paris, from where it was expected to conduct a defensive war.
France was the largest military power to come under occupation as part of the Western Front in World War II. The Western Front was a military theatre of World War II encompassing Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Germany. The Western Front was marked by two phases of large-scale combat operations.
Marie Bertrand Alfred Fagalde was a French Army officer.
The Dury, Compiègne and Abbeville meetings were held by the Allies during World War I to address Operation Michael, a massive German assault on the Western Front on 21 March 1918 which marked the beginning of the Kaiser's Spring Offensive. Since the fall of 1917, a stalemate had existed on the Western Front. However, German victory against Russia in 1917, due to the Russian Revolution and the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, freed up German armies on the Eastern Front for use in the west. During the winter of 1917-1918, approximately 50 German divisions in Russia were secretly transported by train to France for use in a massive, final attack to end the war. The battle that followed, Operation Michael, totally surprised the Allies and nearly routed the French and English armies from the field. The meetings below were held under these dire circumstances.
