The French Air Force[aʀme də lɛʀ], literally Army of the Air) is the air force of the French Armed Forces. It was formed in 1909 as the Service Aéronautique, a service arm of the French Army, then was made an independent military arm in 1934. The number of aircraft in service with the French Air Force varies depending on source, however sources from the French Ministry of Defence give a figure of 658 aircraft in 2014. The French Air Force has 225 combat aircraft in service, with the majority being 117 Dassault Mirage 2000 and 108 Dassault Rafale. As of early 2017, the French Air Force employs a total of 41,160 regular personnel. The reserve element of the air force consisted of 5,187 personnel of the Operational Reserve.
The Armée de l'Air is the name used for the French Air Force in its native language since it was made independent of the Army in 1933. This article deals exclusively with the history of the French air force from its earliest beginnings until its destruction after the occupation of France. French naval aviation, the Aéronautique Navale is covered elsewhere.
The French Army, officially the Ground Army to distinguish it from the French Air Force, Armée de l'Air or Air Army, is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces. It is responsible to the Government of France, along with the other four components of the Armed Forces. The current Chief of Staff of the French Army (CEMAT) is General Thierry Burkhard, a direct subordinate of the Chief of the Defence Staff (CEMA). General Burkhar is also responsible, in part, to the Ministry of the Armed Forces for organization, preparation, use of forces, as well as planning and programming, equipment and Army future acquisitions. For active service, Army units are placed under the authority of the Chief of the Defence Staff (CEMA), who is responsible to the President of France for planning for, and use, of forces.
The German 1st Infantry Division,, was one of the original infantry divisions of the Reichswehr and Wehrmacht and served throughout World War II.
The Troupes coloniales or Armée coloniale, commonly called La Coloniale, were the military forces of the French colonial empire from 1900 until 1961. From 1822 to 1900 these troops were designated Troupes de marine, and in 1961 they readopted this name. They were recruited from mainland France or from the French settler and indigenous populations of the empire. This force played a substantial role in the conquest of the empire, in World War I, World War II, the First Indochina War and the Algerian War.
Rank insignia in the French Army are worn on the sleeve or on shoulder marks of uniforms, and range up to the highest rank of Marshal of France, a state honour denoted with a seven-star insignia that was last conferred posthumously on Marie Pierre Koenig in 1984.
The Army of Africa was an unofficial but commonly used term for those portions of the French Army recruited from or normally stationed in French North Africa from 1830 until the end of the Algerian War in 1962.
The French Army Light Aviation is the Army aviation service of the French Army. ALAT was established on 22 November 1954 for observation, reconnaissance, assault and supply duties.
The structure of the French Army is fixed by Chapter 2 of Title II of Book II of the Third Part of the Code of Defense, notably resulting in the codification of Decree 2000-559 of 21 June 2000.
The 11th Parachute Brigade is a unit of the French Army, dominantly infantry, part of the French Airborne Units and specialized in air combat and air assault. The Brigade's primary vocation is to project in emergency in order to contribute a first response to a situational crisis. An elite unit of the French Army, the brigade is commanded by a général de brigade with headquarters in Balma near Toulouse. The Brigade's soldiers and airborne Marines wear the red beret (amaranth) except for the Legionnaires of the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment who wear Green beret of the French Foreign Legion.
Ouvrage Molvange is a large work, or gros ouvrage of the Maginot Line. The fortification complex faces the France-Luxembourg border from a height near Entrange in the Moselle département. The complex, armed and occupied in 1935, is located on the heights of Entrange, at an altitude of about 400 meters (1,300 ft). Molvange is flanked by the even larger Ouvrage Rochonvillers to the west and smaller petit ouvrage Immerhof to the east, part of the Fortified Sector of Thionville. Molvange was not involved in significant combat during World War II, but due to its size it was repaired and retained in service after the war. During the Cold War Molvange's underground barracks and former ammunition magazine became a hardened military command center.
Guy Pedroncini was a French academic and military historian specialising in the First World War, and notable as the biographer of Philippe Pétain and for his work on the French army mutinies of 1917. He was born in Paris on 17 May 1924 and died on 11 July 2006, at the age of 82.
Jacques Michel Gabriel Paul Benoist-Méchin was a French far right politician and writer. He was born and died in Paris. Well known as a journalist and historian, he would later become prominent for his collaborationism under the Vichy regime. After his conviction in 1947 and release from prison in 1954, he became an Arab world expert in the second part of his life.
Valence - Chabeuil Airport is an airport in France, located about 5 miles (8 km) east of Valence and approximately 300 miles (483 km) south-southeast of Paris.
The 9th Army Corps was a large military formation of the French Army, constituted during the Second French Empire, and during the First and the Second World War.
The Fortified Sector of the Vosges was the French military organization that in 1940 controlled the section of the Maginot Line at the northern end of the Vosges Mountains in northeastern France. The sector was bordered to the west by the Fortified Sector of Rohrbach and to the east by the Fortified Sector of Haguenau. The sector featured two gros ouvrages mounting heavy artillery at either end of the sector and one petit ouvrage mounting infantry weapons, linked by a line of casemates. The sector was attacked in 1940 by German forces in the Battle of France. German forces penetrated the casemate line and moved behind French lines. Despite the withdrawal of the mobile forces that supported the fixed fortifications, the three ouvrages successfully fended off German assaults before the Second Armistice at Compiègne, but were unable to hinder German activities to their south. The positions and their garrisons finally surrendered on 1 July 1940. Following the war several positions were reactivated for use during the Cold War. One position, Ouvrage Four-à-Chaux, is open to the public and may be visited.
17th Army Corps is a French Army corps, which fought in the Franco-Prussian War and both World Wars. During World War I, 17th Army Corps formed part of the Fourth Army.
The Dépôt de la Guerre was France's military archive and cartography department, set up in 1688 under Louis XIV and expanded during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars.
The Army of the Armistice(Armée de l'Armistice) was the army of the French State, more commonly known as Vichy France. It was in existence from the Armistice of 22 June 1940 to the start of Operation Anton when it was officially 'disbanded'.
