title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: The expeditionary force moved into the Nablus–Jenin–Tulkarm strategic triangle in May, that being the West Bank region of northern Samaria. That was a key sector for the Arab war effort because it was the ideal jumping point for an attack westward against Haifa to split the narrow Israeli corridor along the Mediterranean coast (which was only 15 km wide) and break the country in half; it would also guard the right flank of the Transjordanian Arab Legion, which was concentrated to the south, around the Jerusalem corridor. Previously, this sector had been held by elements of the ALA that were too weak to pose much of a threat to the Israelis, but the arrival of the powerful Iraqi force led the Arabs to believe they would be able to cut Israel in two. While setting down the Iraqis were reinforced by another infantry brigade and another armoured battalion. The build-up continued steadily, with the expeditionary force reaching seven or eight infantry brigades, an armoured brigade and three air force squadrons.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: In late May, the Haganah launched a major assault against the Arab Legion's positions in the Latrun police fort on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv road. The Israeli attacks were extremely heavy, prompting the Jordanians to plead with the Iraqis to attack to draw off Israeli forces from Latrum; either northwest toward Haifa or north into Galilee. The Iraqi army was slow to respond and only launched two half-hearted attacks that were easily defeated by local Israeli forces. Nevertheless, Haganah commanders pinpointed the Iraqi presence, by its size and location, to be a dangerous threat in a possible offensive. The Israelis decided to launch a preemptive attack south from Galilee to take Jenin, and possibly Nablus, and cut the Iraqi supply lines across the Jordan River. To achieve that the Israelis would employ three brigades: Alexandroni, Carmeli and Golani.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: At the same time, the Iraqis were planning the exact offensive the Israelis feared. As the first truce was approaching, the general headquarters of the Arab forces in Zarqaa ordered the commander of the Iraqi forces in Shechem to take control of a number of Israeli settlements in order to strengthen their position at the ceasefire talks. It was decided to take control of the port of Netanya, as it was considered an essential target and an important commercial center, and it would split Israeli communications between north and south - thus denying the Israelis movement between their internal lines.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: The Israeli preemptive offensive began on the night of 28 May and caught the Iraqis by surprise. The plan called for the Alexandroni Brigade to make a diversionary attack against Tulkarm, while the Golanis would drive south toward Jenin; holding the high ground to the north. Then, the Carmeli Brigade would exploit the success passing though the Golani's lines and seize the town itself. The Golani attack to the north made good progress - despite the Alexandronis failing to execute their feint - and took a series of hills, villages and police posts en route to Nablus. The Iraqi defenders responded slowly and Israeli infantry repreatedly occupied key positions before Iraqi armoured car battalions arrived. The Golanis outmaneuvered the Iraqi forces in a series of skirmishes, outflanking and mauling them before they could retreat on multiple occasions. The Iraqis kept launching determined attacks against positions already occupied by the Israelis who, by then dug in, easily threw them back. The Israelis were now in a good position to assault Jenin.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: Iraqi reinforcements kept arriving north and when the Carmeli Brigade took over the spearhead of the Israeli attack, it began to run into them. An Iraqi brigade had fortified itself in the city by the time the Israelis reached Jenin on 3 June, and on the two hills dominating the city from the south. The Carmelis launched a clumsy frontal night assault but still managed to push off the Iraqis off both hills in a protracted battle. The next morning the Iraqis brought up fresh forces and counterattacked with a reinforced battalion, with artillery support and inaccurate (albeit helpful) airstrikes, that eventually retook the southwestern hill from the exhausted Israelis. A fierce battle developed for control of Jenin itself, and although in a continuous stalemate, the Iraqi commander kept feeding fresh troops into the fight until the Israelis concluded that holding the town was not worth the price in casualties and pulled back to the hills north of Jenin. They suffered heavy casualties in the Israeli attack on Jenin, but they managed to hold on to their positions and could absorb the losses. Overall, the Iraqi troops distinguished themselves at Jenin, even impressing their Israeli opponents. Active Iraqi involvement in the war effectively ended at this point.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: By the beginning of 1951, British General Sir Brian Robertson, Commander-in-Chief, Middle East Land Forces, was keen to upgrade the Iraqi Army as part of a wider effort to defend against a feared Soviet invasion in the event of war. A British MELF advisory team was dispatched there in November–December 1950. The team estimated that Iraqi's forces of the time, two divisions and a mechanized brigade, but deemed ill-equipped and 'not up to establishment' [full strength] would have to be increased, and a total of four divisions, three additional brigades, and more artillery units would be needed. The shortage of trained technical personnel was 'grave,' and the Iraqis were 'incapable of maintaining even the limited equipment already in their possession.' In January 1951 the British Military Attaché deemed that the Iraqi Army's ability '..to wage modern warfare against a first class enemy is practically nil ... in its present state, the Iraqi army would be entirely incapable of remaining an effective force for more than ten hours of battle ... [it] must be used in war in cooperation with a field force of efficiency and stamina' which would have to do most of the fighting.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: In May 1955 the British finally withdrew from Iraq. The Iraqi authorities said during the withdrawal negotiations that a motorised infantry brigade was to be formed, based at the previous RAF Habbaniya, a location that had been occupied by the British Iraq Levies.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: The Hashemite monarchy lasted until 1958, when it was overthrown through a coup d'état by the Iraqi Army, known as the 14 July Revolution. King Faisal II of Iraq along with members of the royal family were murdered. The coup brought Abd al-Karim Qasim to power. He withdrew from the Baghdad Pact and established friendly relations with the Soviet Union.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: When Qāsim distanced himself from Abd an-Nāsir, he faced growing opposition from pro-Egypt officers in the Iraqi army. `Arif, who wanted closer cooperation with Egypt, was stripped of his responsibilities and thrown in prison. When the garrison in Mosul rebelled against Qāsim's policies, he allowed the Kurdish leader Barzānī to return from exile in the Soviet Union to help suppress the pro-Nāsir rebels.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: The creation of the new Fifth Division, consisting of mechanized infantry, was announced on 6 January 1959, Army Day. Qāsim was also promoted to the rank of general.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: In 1961, an Army build up close to Kuwait in conjunction with Iraqi claims over the small neighbouring state, led to a crisis with British military forces (land, sea, and air) deployed to Kuwait for a period. In 1961, Kuwait gained independence from Britain and Iraq claimed sovereignty over Kuwait. As in the 1930s, Qasim based Iraq's claim on the assertion that Kuwait had been a district of the Ottoman province of Basra, unjustly severed by the British from the main body of Iraqi state when it had been created in the 1920s. Britain reacted strongly to Iraq's claim and sent troops to Kuwait to deter Iraq. Qāsim was forced to back down and in October 1963, Iraq recognized the sovereignty of Kuwait.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: Qāsim was assassinated in February 1963, when the Ba'ath Party took power under the leadership of General Ahmed Hasan al-Bakr (prime minister) and Colonel Abdul Salam Arif (president). Nine months later `Abd as-Salam Muhammad `Arif led a successful coup against the Ba'ath government. On 13 April 1966, President Abdul Salam Arif died in a helicopter crash and was succeeded by his brother, General Abdul Rahman Arif. Following the Six-Day War of 1967, the Ba'ath Party felt strong enough to retake power (17 July 1968). Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr became president and chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC).


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: During the Six-Day War, the Iraqi 3rd Armoured Division was deployed in eastern Jordan. However, the Israeli attack against the West Bank unfolded so quickly that the Iraqi force could not organise itself and reach the front before Jordan ceased fighting. Repeated Israeli airstrikes also held them up so that by the time they did reach the Jordan River the entire West Bank was in Israeli hands. During the course of the Jordanian Campaign ten Iraqis were killed and 30 Iraqis were wounded, especially as the main battle was in Jerusalem. Fighting also raged in other areas of the West Bank, where Iraqi commandos and Jordanian soldiers defended their positions.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: Barzānī and the Kurds who had begun a rebellion in 1961 were still causing problems in 1969. The secretary-general of the Ba`th party, Saddam Hussein, was given responsibility to find a solution. It was clear that it was impossible to defeat the Kurds by military means and in 1970 a political agreement was reached between the rebels and the Iraqi government.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: Following the Arab defeat in 1967, Jordan became a hotbed of Palestinian activity. During this time PLO elements attempted to create a Palestinian state within Jordan caused the Jordanians to launch their full military force against the PLO. As they were doing this Syria invaded Jordan and Iraq moved a brigade in Rihab, Jordan. Otherwise the only Iraqi activity was that they fired upon some Jordanian aircraft.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: Iraq sent a 60,000 man expeditionary force to the Syrian front during the Yom Kippur War. It consisted of the 3rd and 6th Armoured Divisions, two infantry brigades, twelve artillery battalions, and a special forces brigade. The two armoured divisions were, Pollack says, 'unquestionably the best formations of the Iraqi Army.' Yet during their operations on the Golan Heights, their performance was awful in virtually every category of military effectiveness. Military intelligence, initiative, and small unit independent action was virtually absent.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: After the war, Iraq started a major military build-up. Active duty manpower doubled, and so did number of divisions, from six to twelve, of which four were now armoured and two mechanised infantry.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: Later, Saddam Hussein, looking to build fighting power against Iran soon after the outbreak of the Iran–Iraq War doubled the size of the Iraqi Army. In 1981, Pollack writes it numbered 200,000 soldiers in 12 divisions and 3 independent brigades, but by 1985, it reached 500,000 men in 23 divisions and nine brigades. An April 1983 CIA estimate suggests that Iraq had at that time five armoured; seven infantry; and two mechanised infantry divisions with ten more forming ("several are probably already operational"). The first new divisions were created in 1981 when the 11th and 12th Border Guard Divisions were converted into infantry formations and the 14th Infantry Division was formed. Yet the rise in number of divisions is misleading, because during the war Iraqi divisions abandoned a standard organisation with permanent ('organic') brigades assigned to each division. Instead division headquarters were assigned a mission or sector and then assigned brigades to carry out the task - up to eight to ten brigades on some occasions.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: The war came at a great cost in lives and economic damage - a half a million Iraqi and Iranian soldiers as well as civilians are believed to have died in the war with many more injured and wounded - but brought neither reparations nor change in borders. The conflict is often compared to World War I, in that the tactics used closely mirrored those of the 1914–1918 war, including large scale trench warfare, manned machine-gun posts, bayonet charges, use of barbed wire across trenches and on no-mans land, human wave attacks by Iran, and Iraq's extensive use of chemical weapons (such as mustard gas) against Iranian troops and civilians as well as Iraqi Kurds.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: By the eve of the Invasion of Kuwait which led to the 1991 Persian Gulf War, the army was estimated to number 1,000,000 men. Just before the Persian Gulf War began, the force comprised 47 infantry divisions plus 9 armoured and mechanised divisions, grouped in 7 corps. This gave a total of about 56 army divisions, and total land force divisions reached 68 when the 12 Iraqi Republican Guard divisions were included. Eisenstadt notes that four Republican Guards security divisions were formed between the invasion of Kuwait and the outbreak of war. They remained in Iraq during the war. Although it was said at the time in Western media that Iraqi troops numbered approximately 545,000 (even 600,000) Friedman (1992) writes that the quantitative descriptions of the Iraqi army at the time were exaggerated, for a variety of reasons. Many of the Iraqi troops were also young, under-resourced and poorly trained conscripts. Saddam did not trust the army; among counterbalancing security forces was the Iraqi Popular Army.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: The wide range of suppliers of Iraqi equipment resulted in a lack of standardization. It additionally suffered from poor training and poor motivation. The majority of Iraqi armoured forces still used old Chinese Type 59s and Type 69s, Soviet-made T-55s & T-62s from the 1950s and 1960s, and some T-72s from the 1970s in 1991. These vehicles were not equipped with up-to-date equipment, such as thermal sights or laser rangefinders, and their effectiveness in modern combat was very limited. The Iraqis failed to find effective countermeasures to the thermal sights and the sabot rounds used by M1 Abrams, Challenger 1 and other tanks of the Allied forces. U.S. M1A1s could effectively engage and destroy Iraqi tanks from well outside the distance (e.g. 8,200 ft to Iraqi ranges of 6,600 ft) that Iraqi tanks could engage.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: The Iraqi tank crews used old, cheap steel penetrators against the advanced Chobham Armour of these US and British tanks, with disastrous results. The Iraqi forces also failed to utilize the advantage that could be gained from using urban warfare — fighting within Kuwait City — which could have inflicted significant casualties on the attacking forces. Urban combat reduces the range at which fighting occurs and can negate some of the technological advantage that well equipped forces enjoy. Iraqis also tried to use Soviet military doctrine, but the implementation failed due to the lack of skill of their commanders and the preventive air strikes of the USAF and RAF on communication centers and bunkers.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: While the exact number of Iraqi combat casualties has yet to be firmly determined, sources agree that the losses were substantial. Immediate estimates said up to 100,000 Iraqis were killed. More recent estimates indicate that Iraq probably sustained between 20,000 and 35,000 fatalities, though other figures still maintain fatalities could have been as high as 200,000. A report commissioned by the U.S. Air Force, estimated 10,000-12,000 Iraqi combat deaths in the air campaign and as many as 10,000 casualties in the ground war. This analysis is based on Iraqi prisoner of war reports. It is known that between 20,000 and 200,000 Iraqi soldiers were killed. According to the Project on Defense Alternatives study, 3,664 Iraqi civilians and between 20,000 and 26,000 military personnel were killed in the conflict. 75,000 Iraqi soldiers were wounded in the fighting.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) estimated the army's composition immediately after the 1991 war as six 'armoured'/'mechanised' divisions, 23 infantry divisions, eight Republican Guard divisions and four Republican Guard internal security divisions. Jane's Defence Weekly for 18 July 1992 stated that 10,000 troops from five divisions were fighting against Shia Muslims in the southern marshlands.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: The IISS gave the Iraqi Army's force structure as of 1 July 1997 as seven Corps headquarters, six armoured or mechanised divisions, 12 infantry divisions, six RGF divisions, four Special Republican Guard Brigades, 10 commando, and two Special Forces Brigades. It was estimated to number 350,000 personnel, including 100,000 recently recalled reservists.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: In the days leading up to the U.S. 2003 invasion of Iraq and the following Iraq War, the army consisted of 375,000 troops, organized into five corps. In all, there were 11 infantry divisions, 3 mechanized divisions, and 3 armored divisions. The Republican Guard consisted of between 50,000 and 60,000 troops (although some sources indicate a strength of up to 80,000).


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: In January 2003, before the start of the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the force was primarily located in eastern Iraq. The five corps were organised as follows:


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: During the 2003 invasion of Iraq the Iraqi Army was defeated in a number of battles, including by Task Force Viking in the north, and the Battle of Nasiriyah and the Battle of Baghdad. The Iraqi Army was disbanded by Coalition Provisional Authority Order Number 2 issued by U.S. Administrator of Iraq Paul Bremer on May 23, 2003, after its decisive defeat. Bremer said that it was not feasible to reconstitute the armed forces. His justifications for the disbandment included postwar looting, which had destroyed all the bases; that the largely Shiite draftees of the army would not respond to a recall plea from their former commanders, who were primarily Sunnis, and that recalling the army "would be a political disaster because to the vast majority of Iraqis it was a symbol of the old Baathist-led Sunni ascendancy".


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: The 65th Special Forces Brigade, 66th Special Forces Brigade, 68th Special Forces Brigade, and 440th Marine Brigade were active during the Persian Gulf War.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: Based on Bush administration expectations that coalition forces would be welcomed as liberators after the overthrow of the Hussein regime, prewar planners had only been expecting little if any resistance from the Iraqi people. Thus the new army was initially focused on external defence operations. The new Army was originally intended to comprise 27 battalions in three divisions numbering 40,000 soldiers in three years time. Vinnell Corporation was engaged to train the first nine battalions.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: The Coalition Military Assistance Training Team (CMATT), headed by Major General Paul Eaton, was organized by the Department of Defense with the responsibility of training and development of the new army. On August 2, 2003, the first battalion of new Iraqi Army recruits started a nine-week training course at a training base in Qaraqosh. They graduated on October 4, 2003. In the interim, the new army had been formally established by Coalition Provisional Authority Order 22 of August 18, 2003.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: In April 2004, several Iraqi battalions refused to fight as part of the force engaged in the First Battle of Fallujah. The Fifth Battalion was among the new Iraqi units that fought in Fallujah. In June 2004, the CMATT was dissolved, and passed on its responsibilities to the Multi-National Security Transition Command – Iraq (MNSTC-I) (initially headed by Lt. Gen. David Petraeus) with the new focus on providing security for the Iraqi people from the emerging threat posed by the Iraqi insurgency.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: While the regular army was being formed, U.S. commanders around the country needed additional troops more quickly, and thus the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps (which became the Iraqi National Guard by July 2004) was formed. Coalition commanders formed these militia-type units separately in each area; only later were they gradually brought together as one force. There were several instances where they have refused to take military action against fellow Iraqis, such as in Fallujah, deserted, or allegedly aided the resistance. It is alleged that most guardsmen were drawn from the Shia majority in Southern Iraq or the Kurdish majority in northern Iraq, rather than from the Sunni area which they were ordered to attack. In September 2004, a senior member of the National Guard, General Talib al-Lahibi was arrested on suspicion of having links with insurgent groups. In December 2004, it was announced that the Iraqi National Guard would be dissolved. At this time its strength was officially over 40,000 men. Its units became part of the army. The absorption of the ING by the regular army appears to have taken place on January 6, 2005, Iraqi Army Day.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: On August 14, 2004, the NATO Training Mission - Iraq was established to assist the Iraqi military, including the army. On September 20 the provisional Fallujah Brigade dissolved after being sent in to secure the city. The Fallujah Brigade experiment of using former insurgents to secure a city was not repeated.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: Army training was transferred from Vinnell Corporation to the United States Department of Defense supported by U.S. allies. It was impeded by domestic instability, infiltration by insurgents, and high desertion rates. By June 2005, the number of battalions in the new army had grown to around 115. Out of this number, it was deemed that 80 were able to carry out operations in the field with Coalition support limited to logistics and strategic planning, whilst another 20-30 battalions still needed major Coalition support to carry out their operations. As of October 5, 2005 the Iraqi Army had 90 battalions trained well enough to be "deployed independently", without United States help.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: On May 3, 2006, a significant command-and-control development took place. The Iraqi Army command and control center opened in a ceremony at the Iraqi Ground Forces Command (IFGC) headquarters at Camp Victory. The IGFC was established to exercise command and control of assigned Iraqi Army forces and, upon assuming Operational Control, to plan and direct operations to defeat the Iraqi insurgency. At the time, the IFGC was commanded by Lt. Gen. Abdul-Qadar. In 2006 the ten planned divisions began to be certified and assume battlespace responsibility: the 6th and 8th before June 26, 2006, the 9th on June 26, 2006, the 5th on July 3, 2006, the 4th on August 8, 2006, and the 2nd on December 21, 2006. After divisions were certified, they began to be transferred from U.S. operational control to Iraqi control of the IGFC. The 8th Division was transferred on September 7, 2006, and the 3rd Division on December 1, 2006. Another unspecified division also was transferred to IGFC control. Also transferred to the Iraqi chain of command were smaller logistics units: on November 1, 2006, the 5th Motor Transport Regiment (MTR) was the fifth of nine MTRs to be transferred to the Iraqi Army divisions. 2007 plans included, MNF-I said, great efforts to make the Iraqi Army able to sustain itself logistically.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: As of June 26, 2006, three Iraqi divisions, 18 brigades and 69 battalions were responsible for their own areas of operations (including two police commando battalions).


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: On March 25, 2008, the Iraqi Army launched its first solely planned and executed high-profile division-level operation, Operation Charge of the Knights in Basra. They received Multi-National Force – Iraq support only in air support, logistics and via embedded advisors. Also, a British infantry brigade, part of Multi-National Division South-East, and stationed in Basra, were ready in a tactical overwatch role. Their participation was limited to the provision of embedded training teams.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: In April–June 2008, two brigades of the Iraqi Army 11th Division, supported by US forces, moved into the southern third of Sadr City. They were tasked to stop rocket and mortar attacks on US bases and the Green Zone. Following the Siege of Sadr City—a month of fighting—the Mahdi Army agreed to let Iraqi forces into the remaining portion of the city. On May 20, troops from the Iraqi Army 3rd Brigade of the 1st (Iraqi Reaction Force) Division and a brigade from the 9th Division moved into the northern districts of Sadr City and began clearing operations.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: In May, Iraqi army forces launched Operation Lion's Roar (later renamed to Operation Mother of Two Springs) in Mosul and surrounding areas of Nineveh Governorate. Iraq became one of the top purchasers of U.S. military equipment with the Iraqi army trading its AK-47 assault rifles for the more accurate U.S. M-16 and M-4 rifles, among other equipment.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: In June 2008 the army moved troops to the southern Maysan Governorate. Following a four-day amnesty for insurgents to turn over weapons, the Iraqi Army moved into the provincial capital Amarah.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: Each of the joint and multi-agency operational commands also include the Department of Border Enforcement (DBE), Federal Police, Emergency Police, Oil Police, FPS, etc. in their command as well as Iraqi Army.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: Up until 2010–2011, all Iraqi Army battalions were supposed to have had embedded U.S. Military transition teams. The MiTTs provided intelligence, communications, fire support, logistics and infantry tactics advice. Larger scale operations were often done jointly with U.S. forces. The training aimed to make the battalion self-sustainable tactically, operationally and logistically so that the battalion would have been prepared to take over responsibility for a particular area.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: As of March 2007, the United States Department of Defense reported that 6000 advisors in 480+ teams were embedded with Iraqi units.<ref name="DOD 03/07">U.S. Department of Defense, "Measuring Stability and Security in Iraq (March 2007)", p. 23, p. 25</ref> However, in April, the Congressional Research Service reported that only around 4000 U.S. forces were embedded with Iraqi units at a rate of 10 per battalion. Former U.S. Army analyst Andrew Krepinevich argued that the roughly twelve advisors per Iraqi battalion (approximately 500 troops) was less than half the sufficient amount needed to efficiently implement the combat advisory effort. Krepinevich argues that officers try to avoid taking on advisory tasks due to the US Army's practice of prioritising the promotion of officers that have served with a U.S. unit over ones that have served with foreign forces.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: Advisors remained after all U.S. combat brigades left Iraq in August 2010. These troops were required to leave Iraq by 31 December 2011 under an agreement between the U.S. and Iraqi governments.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: In the summer of 2014, large elements of the Iraqi army were routed by a much smaller and less well-equipped force from the Islamic State. Islamic State managed to conquer large swaths of Anbar Province and Iraq's second largest city, Mosul.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: Budget problems continued to hinder the manning of combat support and combat service support units. The lack of soldiers entering boot camp is forcing Iraqi leaders at all levels to face the dual challenge of manning and training enabler units out of existing manpower. In the 2015 Pentagon budget, a further $1.3 billion has been requested to provide weapons for the Iraqi Army. However, the New York Times reported that "some of the weaponry recently supplied by the army has already ended up on the black market and in the hands of Islamic State fighters". The same November 2014 article contended that corruption is endemic in the Iraqi Army. It quoted Col. Shaaban al-Obeidi of the internal security forces, who told the paper's David D Kirkpatrick: "Corruption is everywhere." The article claimed that one Iraqi general is known as "chicken guy" because of his reputation for selling the soldiers' poultry provisions.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: Divisions are forming engineer, logistics, mortar, and other units by identifying over-strength units, such as the Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) battalions and other headquarters elements, and then transferring them as needed.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: Problems include infiltration and an insufficient US advisory effort. The new army aimed to exclude recruits that are former regime security and intelligence organizations members, personnel of the Special Republican Guard, top-level Ba'ath Party members, and Ba'ath Party security and militia organizations. However the army was infiltrated by a multitude of groups ranging from local militias to foreign insurgents. This led to highly publicized deaths and compromised operations.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: The Iraqi Special Operations Forces are a Ministry of Defence (Iraq) funded component that reports directly to the Prime Minister of Iraq.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: In late June 2014, after the large-scale Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant offensive in the north of Iraq, it was reported that ISIL ""took the weapons stores of the 2nd and 3rd [Iraqi army] divisions in Mosul, the 4th division in Salah al Din, the 12th division in the areas near Kirkuk, and another division in Diyala (the 5th Division)," said Jabbar Yawar, secretary-general of the Kurkish Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: Reuters reported that the 5th Division (Iraq), located in Diyala Governorate, was by October 2014 reporting to informal "militias' chain of command," not to the Iraqi Army, according to several U.S. and coalition military officials.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: A much later report from Small Wars Journal said that in "..2013 and 2014 the 7th Division of the Iraqi Army, 99% Sunni, fought IS virtually alone, until it was almost completely destroyed."


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: The October 2014 Reuters report quoted Lieutenant General Mick Bednarek, Chief of the Office of Security Cooperation, in Iraq from 2013 until July 2014, as estimating that "the army has only five functioning divisions ... whose fighting readiness ranges between 60 and 65 percent."


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: Michael Knights wrote in 2016 that the rebuilding from the mid-2014 disaster had been steady but "very slow". "By January 2015 a fair number of brigades had been salvaged and a couple of new brigades were built but the overall frontline combat strength of the ISF was halved due to attrition in the manning of each brigade. [U]nits were weaker and many were too demoralized or lightly equipped to do more than hold in place. A year later, by January 2016, significant progress has been made in terms of available forces albeit largely by shuffling around personnel and raising around a dozen new and very small 1,000-strong brigades." The new 15th and 16th Divisions have been identified, which appear to comprise some of the new brigades that Knights mentions, including the 71st, 72nd, 73rd, 75th, and 76th.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: The Institute for the Study of War said in their 29 December 2014 situation report that "..The 19th Division is a new military formation intended to include members from the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 12th IA divisions that melted away during the rapid advance of ISIS in June 2014. This formation will almost certainly include volunteer fighters, most likely displaced persons from Mosul, who reside in refugee camps. The.. sectarian composition of the unit will be important to watch. The formation of the division was initially proposed by Defense Minister Khaled al-Obaidi on November 4, 2014 during a visit to Iraqi Kurdistan. During that visit he requested assistance from the Kurdistan Regional Government [with] basing the new division in Iraqi Kurdistan and giving the force responsibility for clearing Mosul."


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: The Iraqi Army began the Anglo-Iraqi War with a force of four divisions. A fifth was formed in 1959. By the outbreak of the Iran–Iraq War, the force had grown to nine divisions. By 1990, with wartime expansion, the force had grown greatly to at least 56 divisions, making the Iraqi army the fourth largest army in the world and one of the strongest in the Middle East. After the defeat in the Persian Gulf War in 1991, force size dropped to around 23 divisions, as well as Republican Guard formations. The new army formed after 2003 was initially planned to be three divisions strong, but was then raised to ten divisions, and the force is now expected to grow to 20 divisions.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: The U.S. House Armed Services Committee commented in 2007 that "It is important to note that in the initial fielding plan, five army divisions would be tied to the regions from where they were recruited and the other five would be deployable throughout Iraq. This was partially due to the legacy of some army divisions being formed from the National Guard units and has caused some complications in terms of making these forces available for operations in all areas of Iraq, and the military becoming a truly national, non-sectarian force."


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: According to the United States Department of Defense "Measuring Safety and Security in Iraq" report of August 2006, plans at that time called for the Iraqi Army to be built up to an approximately 300,000-person force. This was based around an Army with 10 infantry divisions and 6 mechanised infantry division consisting of 36 brigades and 113 battalions (91 infantry, 12 special forces, 24 mechanised infantry, 60 armored battalions, 1 security). Nine Motorized Transportation Regiments, 5 logistics battalions, 2 support battalions, 5 Regional Support Units (RSUs), and 91 Garrison Support Units (GSUs) are intended to provide logistics and support for each division, with Taji National Depot providing depot-level maintenance and resupply. Each battalion, brigade, and division headquarters will be supported by a Headquarters and Service Company (HSC) providing logistical and maintenance support to its parent organisation. The army will also include 17 SIBs and a Special Operations Forces Brigade consisting of two special operational battalions.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: The Iraqi Army consists of nine regional joint commands. The Joint Operational Commands fall under the command of the National Operations Center. The Iraqi Ground Forces Command does not directly command the army's divisions.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: As of July 2009, the Iraqi Army had 14 divisions (1st-12th, 14th, and 17th, the designation 13 not being used), containing 56 brigades or 185 combat battalions. Each division had four line brigades, an engineering regiment, and a support regiment. However both the 6th Division and the 17th Division only had three manoeuvre brigades each. By April 2010, the combat battalion total had risen to 197 combat battalions.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: Three of the 56 brigades are not Iraqi Ground Forces Command combatant brigades and are not assigned to a division. They are the Baghdad Brigade formed in the fall of 2008, the 1st Presidential Brigade formed in January 2008, and the 2nd Presidential Brigade formed in the spring of 2009.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: In late 2020, the International Institute for Strategic Studies estimated that the Army was about 180,000 strong, with three SF brigades, a ranger brigade HQ which supervised one ranger battalion; the 9th Armoured Division (2 armd bde, 2 mech bdes); the 5th, 8th & 10th Divisions with four mechanised infantry brigades each; the 7th Mechanised Division with 2 mech inf bde and 1 inf bde; the 6th Motorised Division with three motorised infantry brigades and an infantry brigade; the 14th Motorised Division with five motorised and infantry brigades; the 1st Infantry Division with two infantry brigades; the 11th Inf Div with three light inf brigades; the 15th Infantry Division with five infantry brigades; the 16th Infantry Division with two infantry brigades; the 17th Commando Division with four infantry brigades; the independent 17th Infantry Brigade; and the Prime Minister's Security Force division of three infantry brigades.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: There are three levels of troop capability in the new army: one, two, and three. Level three refers to troops that have just completed basic training, level two refers to troops that are able to work with soldiers, and level one refers to troops that can work by themselves.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: Members of NATO Training Mission – Iraq (NTM-I) opened a Joint Staff College in ar Rustamiyah in Baghdad on September 27, 2005, with 300 trainers. Training at bases in Norway, Italy, Jordan, Germany, and Egypt has also taken place and 16 NATO countries have allocated forces to the training effort.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: The Multi-National Force Iraq has also conducted a variety of training programs for both enlisted soldiers and officers including training as medics, engineers, quartermasters, and military police. Beyond the various courses and programs being held in-country, both American staff colleges and military academies have begun taking Iraqi applicants, with Iraqi cadets being enrolled at both the United States Military Academy and the US Air Force Academy.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: Iraqi Army recruits undergo a standard eight-week basic training course that includes basic soldiering skills, weapons marksmanship and individual tactics. Former soldiers are eligible for an abbreviated three-week "Direct Recruit Replacement Training" course designed to replace regular basic training to be followed by more training once they have been assigned to a unit.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: Soldiers later go on to enroll in more specific advanced courses targeted for their respective fields. This could involve going to the Military Intelligence School, the Signal School, the Bomb Disposal School, the Combat Arms Branch School, the Engineer School, and the Military Police School.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: The Iraqi Armed Service and Supply Institute located in Taji plays a significant role in training aspiring Iraqi non-commissioned officers and commissioned officers. The training is based on a Sandhurst model, chosen in part due to its shorter graduation time compared to West Point. Much of the Iraqi officer training programme is copied directly from the Sandhurst course.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: CMATT's main recruiting stations are located in Baghdad, Basra and Mosul. The most desired recruits are individuals who have prior military service or are skilled in specific professions such as first aid, heavy equipment operation, food service and truck driving. A recruitment target of approximately one thousand soldiers is desired to eventually form a 757-man battalion. Soldier fallout usually occurs due to voluntary withdrawal or failure to meet training standards.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: Due to the current demand for these battalions to become active as soon as possible, the first four battalions' officers, non-commissioned officers, and enlisted soldiers are being trained simultaneously (in separate groups). Notable differences in training between CAATT and former training under Saddam's regime include schooling in human rights, the laws of land warfare, and tolerance in a multi-ethnic team.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: Based on the philosophy used by the U.S. military to boost its own size in response to World War II — that an army can be built faster by focusing on the training on its leadership rather than enlisted soldiers — CMATT has pursued a similar strategy of focusing recruitment and training on commissioned and non-commissioned officers for the remaining 23 Iraqi battalions. Upon successful completion of officer training, these groups of officers will form the battalion's leadership cadre, which will then be responsible for overseeing its own recruitment, training, and readiness of its enlisted men. It is hoped that having the Iraqi leadership train its own will overcome problems faced by CAATT's training process; namely recruitment, desertion, and unit loyalty.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: Virtually all of the equipment used by the former Iraqi Army was either destroyed by the U.S. and British forces during the 2003 invasion, or was looted during the chaotic aftermath shortly after the fall of the Hussein regime. Among these were more than 20,000 sets of body armor. Four T-55 tanks however have been recovered from an old army base in al-Muqdadiyah and are now in service with the 1st Division.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: In February 2004 the U.S. government announced that Nour USA was awarded a $327,485,798 contract to procure equipment for both the Iraqi Army and the Iraqi National Guard; however, this contract was canceled in March 2004 when an internal Army investigation (initiated due to complaints from losing bidders) revealed that Army procurement officers in Iraq were violating procedures with sloppy contract language and incomplete paperwork. On May of that same year the U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) stated that they would award a contract worth $259,321,656 to ANHAM Joint Venture in exchange for procuring the necessary equipment (and providing its required training) for a minimum of 15 and a maximum of 35 battalions. The minimum bid would begin to be delivered immediately and further orders could be placed until the maximum of 35 battalion sets or September 2006 after the first order was fully delivered.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: In May 2005, Hungary agreed to donate 77 T-72s to the Iraqi Army, with the refurbishment contract going to Defense Solutions to bring the tanks up to operational status for an estimated 4.5 million dollars US. After a delay in the payment of funds from the Iraqi government, the 9th Mechanised Division received the tanks at its headquarters in Taji over a three-day period starting on November 8, 2005.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: On July 29, 2005, the United Arab Emirates gained approval to purchase 180 M113A1 APCs in good condition from Switzerland, with the intent to transfer them to Iraq as a gift. Domestic political opposition in Switzerland successfully froze the sale, fearing that the export would violate the country's longstanding tradition of neutrality as well as perhaps make Switzerland a target for terrorism.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: 173 M113s, 44 APC Talhas, and 100 FV103 Spartans were donated by Jordan, Pakistan and UAE. 600 AMZ Dzik-3 ("Ain Jaria") APCs were ordered in Poland (option for 1,200) for delivery by Jan 2007. 573 Otokar Akrep APCs for delivery by Jan 2007. 756 Iraqi Light Armored Vehicles (option for 1,050) for delivery by November 2008. Greece donated 100 BMP-1 to the Iraqi Army.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: Serbia has signed a US$230m deal with Iraq to sell weapons and military equipment, the defence ministry said in March 2008. It did not specify the weapons but Serbian military experts believe they include Serbian-made CZ-99 hand guns, Zastava M21 5.56 mm assault rifles, Zastava M84 machine guns, anti-tank weapons (M79 "Osa", Bumbar, and M90 "Strsljen"), ammunition and explosives and about 20 Lasta 95 basic trainer aircraft. Iraq's defence Minister Abdul-Qadir al-Obaidi visited Belgrade in September and November to discuss boosting military ties with Serbia.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: In August 2008, the United States proposed military sales to Iraq, which will include the latest upgraded M1A1 Abrams battle tanks, attack helicopters, Stryker armored vehicles, modern radios, all to be valued at an estimated $2.16 billion.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: In December 2008, the United States approved a $6 billion arms deal with Iraq that included 140 M1A1 Abrams tanks and 400 Stryker combat vehicles for elite Iraqi army units.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: In December 2009, Ukraine has signed a deal to deliver $550 million worth of arms to Iraq, the agreement with the Iraqi ministry of defense calls for Ukraine to produce and deliver 420 BTR-4 armored personnel carriers, six AN-32B military transport planes and other military hardware to Iraq.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: In February 2009, the United States Department of Defense announced it had struck deals with Iraq that would see Baghdad spend $5 billion on U.S.-made weapons, equipment and training.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: In 2016, Iraq finalized an order with Uralvagonzavod for 73 T-90S and SK tanks. The T-90SK is a command variant equipped additional radios and navigation equipment. As of 2018, 36 had been delivered and have been assigned to 35th Brigade of the 9th Armored Division.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: The average Iraqi soldier is equipped with an assortment of uniforms ranging from the Desert Camouflage Uniform, the 6 color "Chocolate Chip" DBDU, the woodland-pattern BDU, the U.S. Marine Corps MARPAT, or Jordanian KA7. Nearly all have a PASGT ballistic helmet, Generation I OTV ballistic vest, and radio. Their light weapons consist of stocks of Cold War-era arms, namely the Tabuk series of Zastava M-70 copies and derivatives like the Tabuk Sniper Rifle, the Soviet AKM and the Chinese Type 56 assault rifles, the Zastava M72 and PKM machine guns, and Al-Kadesih sniper rifle though they have received assistance from the U.S. in the form of American-made weapons, including M16A2 and M16A4 rifles and M4 carbines.


title: Iraqi Ground Forces

text: However weapons registration is poor. A 2006 report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) notes that out of the 370,000 weapons turned over to the U.S. since the fall of Saddam's regime, only 12,000 serial numbers have been recorded. The lack of proper accounting for these weapons makes the acquisition of small arms by anti-governmental forces such as insurgents or sectarian militias much easier.


title: Military history of France during World War II

text: From 1939 to 1940, the French Third Republic was at war with Nazi Germany. In 1940, the German forces defeated the French in the Battle of France. The German occupied the north and west of French territory and a collaborationist régime under Phillipe Pétain established itself in Vichy. General Charles de Gaulle established a government in exile in London and competed with Vichy France to position himself as the legitimate French government, for control of the French overseas empire and receiving help from French allies. He eventually managed to enlist the support of some French African colonies and later succeeded in bringing together the disparate "maquis", colonial regiments, legionnaires, expatriate fighters and Communist snipers under the Free French Forces in the Allied chain of command. In 1944, after the Allies had landed in Normandy and the southern front moved from North Africa across the Mediterranean into Italy and Provence, these forces routed the German Army, and Vichy officials fled into Germany.


text: France and Britain had both declared war on Germany two days after the invasion of Poland in September 1939. To divert German forces from Poland, France invaded the Saarland region of Germany on 7 September 1939, but was forced to retreat. The Phoney War ensued until 1940 when the Germans invaded and overran northern France, forcing the British from the continent. France formally surrendered. Germany sent two million French prisoners of war to forced labor camps in Germany.


text: In August 1943, the forces under De Gaulle and Giraud forces merged into a single chain of command under Allied leadership. French forces on the Eastern Front had Soviet or German leadership. These forces of French exiles and the French Forces of the Interior (FFI) played varying roles in the liberation of France and the defeat of Vichy, Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, and the Japanese Empire. Control of the French colonial empire proved critical. Free French forces won control, helped by Britain and the U.S., and used it to attack Nazi-occupied France. All French colonies except Indochina eventually joined the Free French. The number of Free French troops grew with their successes in North Africa and the invasion of Italy by the Army of Africa. The Allies demanded unconditional surrender from the Axis Powers at the Casablanca Conference. On 30 October 1944, Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union officially recognized de Gaulle as head of the Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF), and eventually as elected president of the French Fourth Republic. The GPRF stepped into the vacuum left when the Vichy administration fled to Sigmaringen in Germany.


text: Recruitment in liberated France led to an expansion of the French armies. By the end of the war in Europe in May 1945, France had 1,250,000 troops, 10 divisions of which were fighting in Germany. An expeditionary corps was created to liberate French Indochina, then occupied by the Japanese. During the course of the war, French military losses totaled 212,000 dead, of whom 92,000 were killed through the end of the campaign of 1940, and 58,000 from 1940 to 1945 in other campaigns, 24,000 lost while serving in the French resistance, and a further 38,000 lost while serving with the German Army (including 32,000 "malgré-nous").


text: France had many regular and irregular armed forces in World War II, in part due to the German occupation. In 1940, General Maurice Gamelin commanded the French Army, headquartered in Vincennes on the outskirts of Paris. It consisted of 117 divisions, with 94 committed to the northeastern front and a commander, General Alphonse Georges, at La Ferte-sous-Jouarre. General Joseph Vuillemin commanded the French Air Force, headquartered in Coulommiers.


text: Following its disastrous loss in the 1940 Battle of France, the French Third Republic that had fought as one of the Allies fell into the hands of an authoritarian regime, Vichy France, that willingly collaborated with Germany and opposed the Allies. The Free French forces who opposed Vichy included the grassroots "maquis", made of various rebel factions with ancient regional allegiances, a government in exile, and regiments from the French colonial empire, who at times found themselves fighting other French people.


text: French ground armies, navies, and air forces fought on the Allied side in each theater of World War II before, during, and after the Battle of France. Even though those forces participated in varying degrees, the Allies considered France a World War II victor and did not impose a US-run military occupation (AMGOT). However, United States Air Force bases were maintained in France until 1967, when Charles de Gaulle's government rejected NATO.


text: French colonial units consisted of some non-French mercenaries from the Foreign Legion and conscripted indigenous people recruited by tribe, ethnicity, or region.


text: The Corps Expéditionnaire Français was equipped with Allied weapons such as the 45 mm. Thompson submachine gun and 12.7 mm Browning machine gun. The Moroccan fighters also carried a traditional curved dagger called a koumia.


text: The Free French Forces were created in 1940 as a rebel army, refusing both the armistice with Germany and Vichy's authority. Its allegiance was to General de Gaulle in London; later the headquarters moved to Algiers. The Forces started as a limited group of volunteers from metropolitan France, West African colonies, Belgium, and Spain. It evolved to a full army after its merger with Giraud's Army of Africa, which had new recruits from the French Resistance.


text: General Charles de Gaulle was a member of the French cabinet during the Battle of France in 1940. As French defence forces were increasingly overwhelmed, de Gaulle found himself part of a group of politicians who argued against surrender to Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. The president of the council, Paul Reynaud, sent de Gaulle as an emissary to Britain, where de Gaulle was working when the French government collapsed.


text: On 18 June 1940, de Gaulle spoke to the French people on BBC Radio. He asked French soldiers, sailors, and airmen to join in the fight against the Nazis. De Gaulle's "Appel du 18 juin" was not widely heard in France, but his subsequent discourse was heard nationwide. His speech remains one of the most famous orations in French history. Regardless, Pétain's representative signed the armistice on 22 June and Pétain became leader of the new regime, known as Vichy France.


text: De Gaulle was tried "in absentia" for treason and desertion in Vichy France and sentenced to death. But de Gaulle regarded himself as the last remaining member of the legitimate Reynaud government able to exercise power. He saw Pétain's rise to power as a coup d'état.


text: On 15 September 1940, Free French Captain Georges Bergé created the airborne unit called "1 compagnie de l'air, 1 CIA" (1st Marine Infantry Paratroopers Regiment) in Great Britain. This unit, later known as "1 compagnie de chasseurs parachutistes, 1 CCP" (1st Parachute Light Infantry Company) joined the British Special Air Service airborne unit with Charles de Gaulle in 1942, becoming the SAS Brigade's French Squadron.


text: The 3rd SAS and 4th SAS are also known as 1st Airborne Marine Infantry Regiment (1 RPIMa) and "2 régiment de chasseurs parachutistes" (2 RCP) respectively.


text: Leclerc's Free French Forces met Giraud's Army of Africa for the first time near Tripoli, Libya, in 1943.


text: When the Americans landed in Algiers in 1942 as part of Operation Torch, colonial soldiers of the Vichy-controlled Army of Africa surrendered without firing a shot. Charles de Gaulle drew from them to create the Corps Expéditionnaire Français (CEF) under General Alphonse Juin. The CEF was two-thirds Moroccan, Algerian and Senegalese, and one-third Pied-Noir, totalling 112,000 men in four divisions. This unit took part in the 1943 Italian Campaign and in Operation Dragoon, the August 1944 Allied invasion of southern France.


text: Most African soldiers of the CEF grew up in the Atlas Mountains and were the only Allied units skilled and equipped for mountain warfare. Some exclusively Moroccan units of goumiers (from Arabic ) from the Rif mountains were grouped in units called "tabors" with tribal or direct family ties. There were 7,833 goumiers.


text: The CEF was equipped with Allied weapons such as the 45 mm. Thompson submachine gun and 12.7 mm. Browning machine gun. The Moroccan fighters also carried a traditional curved dagger called a koumia.


text: By September 1944, the Free French forces had 560,000 soldiers. They grew to one million by the end of the year. They fought in Alsace, the Alps and Brittany. When the war in Europe ended in May 1945, the Free French forces numbered 1.25 million, including seven infantry divisions and three armoured divisions fighting in Germany.


text: Other Free French units were directly attached to Allied forces, including the British SAS and RAF, and the Soviet Air Forces.


text: The "Forces Expéditionnaires Françaises d'Extrême-Orient" (FEFEO) was a French expeditionary corps created on 4 October 1943 to fight in the Asian theatre of World War II and liberate French Indochina, which Japan had occupied since 1940. Recruiting posters for the FEFEO depicted a US-built M4 Sherman tank of general Leclerc's Free French 2nd Armoured Division, famous for its role in the 1944 liberation of Paris and Strasbourg. The posters were captioned, "Yesterday Strasbourg, tomorrow Saigon: Join the Far East French Expeditionary Forces".


text: In 1945, after Japan surrendered and China was in charge in Indochina, the Provisional French Republic sent the French Far East Expeditionary Corps to Indochina to pacify the Vietnamese liberation movement and to restore French colonial rule.


text: Free French commando groups called "Corps Léger d'Intervention" (CLI) were created by de Gaulle in November 1943 as part of the FEFEO. They trained in French Algeria, then in British India after the British Chindits, to fight the Japanese forces in occupied French Indochina. They served in French Indochina under General Roger Blaizot beginning in 1944, and were airdropped by the British Force 136's B-24 Liberator. The first CLI commandos were known as "Gaurs", named after the Indian bison.


text: Free French aircrews formed squadrons under the operational control of the Royal Air Force with British and Lend-Lease equipment. Britain lent warships to the Free French Naval Forces. In addition to providing materiel, the British trained some Free French pilots and airborne commandos such as the 3rd SAS (French) and 4th SAS (French) and the CLI.


text: In 1941, while still neutral, the United States began providing Lend-Lease munitions to Britain and China. Some went to the Free French in North Africa, starting in 1942. Among the large inventories of American equipment given to Free French Forces were several versions of the M4 Sherman medium tank. French armored divisions were organized and equipped the same way as US Army armored divisions and were sizable offensive commands. In 1943, the French decided to raise a new army in North Africa and had an agreement with the Americans to equip it with modern American weapons. The French 2nd Armored Division () entered the Battle of Normandy fully equipped with M4A2 medium tanks.


text: The 1st and 5th DB, which entered southern France as part of the First French Army were equipped with a mixture of M4A2 and M4A4 medium tanks. The 3rd DB, which served as a training and reserve organization for the three operational armored divisions, was equipped with roughly 200 medium and light tanks. (Of these, 120 were later returned to the U.S. Army's Delta Base Section for reissue.) Subsequent combat losses for the 1st, 2nd, and 5th Armored Divisions were replaced with standard-issue tanks from US Army stocks.


text: The US Army also supplied the Free French Forces and Army of Africa with hundreds of US-built aircraft and materiel such as vehicles, artillery, helmets, uniforms, and firearms, as well as fuel and rations for many thousands of troops.


text: The Armistice Army, the official name of the army of the Vichy régime, had bases throughout the worldwide French colonial empire. It was created in July 1940 after Germany occupied the northern part of the metropolitan French territory under the armistice in June 1940. Apart from the Armistice Army, the French State created irregular forces to fight the French Resistance and internal and external communists, whom both Vichy and German authorities considered enemies.


text: The "" ("French Legion of Fighters") was the French State's first paramilitary force, created on 29 August 1940 by Xavier Vallat.


text: On 19 November 1941, the force changed its name to "Légion française des combattants et des volontaires de la Révolution nationale" ("French Legion of Fighters and Volunteers of the National Revolution"). The National Revolution was the French State's official ideology.


text: The Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism (French: Légion des volontaires français contre le bolchévisme, or LVF) was a unit of the Wehrmacht army recruited from French collaborationist movements for the German invasion of the Soviet Union in July 1941. Officially designated the 638th Infantry Regiment ("Infanterieregiment 638"), it was one of a number of units formed at the same time in other parts of German-occupied Western Europe.


text: The Legion began as part of a coalition of far-right political factions including Marcel Déat's National Popular Rally, Jacques Doriot's French Popular Party, Eugène Deloncle's Social Revolutionary Movement and Pierre Costantini's French League which explicitly supported Nazi ideology and collaborated with Nazi Germany. By contrast, the conservative and authoritarian Vichy regime considered itself neutral and was more ambivalent about its dependence on Germany. However, the Vichy regime tolerated the LVF and gave it some endorsement.


text: The Légion Tricolore was created by Pierre Laval and Jacques Benoist-Méchin in July 1941 and was disbanded in December 1942.


text: Originating as the shock unit of the "Service d'Ordre Légionnaire" (French Legion of Volunteers), "la Milice" ("the militia") was a Vichy French paramilitary force created on 30 January 1943 by the Vichy régime as an auxiliary of the German occupation. It aimed to hunt down members of the French Resistance and the maquis. Its commander was Joseph Darnand, a veteran of the Battle of France and volunteer brigade; he took an oath of loyalty to Adolf Hitler in October 1943 and received the rank of "Sturmbannführer" (major) in the Waffen SS. By 1944, the Milice had over 35,000 members.


text: Just like Vichy police agents, the national police forces collaborated with the German authorities. French Youth Workings alumni had to swear allegiance to Marshal Pétain. The gesture was the Nazi salute while saying "Je le jure!" (I swear it!) instead of cheering Hitler.


text: The "Chantiers de la jeunesse française" were a paramilitary youth organization created on 30 July 1940 by former Scout Movement Chief General of the 42nd Infantry Division as a substitute for a French army draft. Its members acted under Vichy army officers and dressed in military uniforms similar to those of the French Milice (béret included) and had to claim allegiance to Marshal Pétain with an arm salute.


text: The French Youth Workings were available in all French departments which means they were also in French Algeria and apply to European settlers and Muslim locals. However, advised to reject young Jews, and so they were barred from the French Youth Workings by the decree of 15 July 1942, twenty-four hours before the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup.


text: In November 1942, La Porte du Theil and van Hecke were both in French Algeria when the Allies invaded Algiers and Oran. , loyal to Pétain, flew to metropolitan France, while the second sided with the Free French and joined the Army of Africa. Local French Youth Workings became units of this military force, the most famous being the ", 7e RCA" (7th Africa Light Infantry Regiment), created in 1943, which fought the Italians, French, and Germans in Allied campaigns from 1944 to 1945. The famous battle song "Le Chant des Africains" is dedicated to van Hecke and his 7e RCA.


text: The Reserve Mobile Group ("Groupe mobile de réserve, GMR") was a paramilitary force of Vichy France under René Bousquet. It was a police version of the Mobile Gendarmerie that served as French Milice and German Army auxiliary during battles against the French Resistance's "maquisards". In December 1944, the GMR were disbanded. Some members joined the French Forces of the Interior. The unit was replaced with the CRS riot police.


text: "Carlingue" was the name of the French Gestapo. It was headed by Henri Lafont, Pierre Loutrel and Pierre Bonny. A famous Vichy French agent of the Gestapo was "Scharführer-SS" Pierre Paoli, who served in central France's Cher department. Michael Mould wrote, "It was staffed by the dregs of the French underworld."


text: The "8th Sturmbrigade SS Frankreich" 'French assault brigade' was created in 1943. Its surviving troops were incorporated into the 286th Security Division in 1944.


text: The French State's L.V.F. and the Milice merged to become a full division of the German army. The division's name is a reference to the Frankish emperor Charlemagne, seen as an important Germanic figure in French history.


text: The was created in French Tunisia in November 1942 to fight against the Allies, Free French Forces, and Army of Africa following Operation Torch. This unit, led by Lieutenant-colonel , Lieutenant-colonel Simon Petru Cristofini and Captain André Dupuis, was also called the "Französische Freiwilligen Legion" 'Legion of French Volunteers' or "Compagnie Frankonia" 'Frankonia company'.


text: The ""(LNA), or "Brigade nord-africaine" (BNA), was a paramilitary force of Parisians of Arab and Kabyle descent, created by French Gestapo agent Henri Lafont and Muslim Algerian nationalist Mohamed el-Maadi.


text: The first French Resistance groups were created in June 1940 following Marshal Pétain's call to stop fighting on 17 June. More groups formed after the signing of the French–German–Italian armistices in July 1940. There were myriad paramilitary groups of various sizes and political ideologies which made it difficult to later unify them under a single chain of command. Famous groups included communist "Francs-Tireurs et Partisans, FTP" 'Partisan irregular riflemen' and rebel police force "Honneur de la police" 'Honour of the Police'.


text: The French Resistance gradually grew in strength. Charles de Gaulle set a plan to bring together the different groups under his leadership. He changed the name of his movement to "Forces Françaises Combattantes" 'Fighting French Forces' and sent Jean Moulin back to France to unite the eight major French Resistance groups into one organisation. Moulin got their agreement to form the "Conseil National de la Résistance" 'National Council of the Resistance'. He was eventually captured and killed under torture.


text: During World War II, the French colonies were administered by the Minister of the Navy and Colonies. On 16 June 1940, Minister César Campinchi resigned and Admiral François Darlan took over authority for the colonies.


text: On 21 June, Campinchi and other government members such as Minister of the Interior Georges Mandel left metropolitan France on the ocean liner SS "Massilia" from Bordeaux. They arrived on 24 June in Casablanca, French Morocco. Mandel wanted to establish a government-in-exile in French North Africa and continue to fight Nazis with the power of the colonies. However, they were arrested on arrival by the administrator of French Morocco, General Charles Noguès, on orders from General Maxime Weygand and Marshal Philippe Pétain. Pétain had signed a French–German–Italian armistice on 22 June, becoming the chief "de facto" of state, so the French colonial empire had become a Nazi possession.


text: Inspired by Mandel, General Charles de Gaulle succeeded in creating a French government-in-exile in London. He tried to rally the colonies to his cause, hoping to gain troops and strategic bases to liberate metropolitan France. In 1940, a few colonies joined the Free French, but others remained under Vichy control. De Gaulle's reputation was then as a military man with no political experience or following. His charisma wasn't sufficient to gather the allegiance of senior colonial administrators or generals. As a result, Free French colonies fought Vichy French colonies, each one siding with the Axis or the Allies.


text: Created in 1830, the Army of Africa was a colonial expeditionary force that conquered the Regency of Algiers in 1847. It fought in 1939 and 1940 as a force of the French Third Republic. After France surrendered, it became a Vichy force that fought the Allies from 1940 to 1942 at the battle of Mers-el-Kébir and in Operation Torch. It evolved into a rebel faction of the Vichy forces in 1942 and eventually merged with the Free French Forces prior to 1944 operations in mainland Europe.


text: Formed of European settlers and indigenous colonial units of French North Africa, French West Africa, and French Equatorial Africa, the Army of Africa received ample supplies from the United States through a lend-lease plan. This new force, well-equipped with US materiel, was nicknamed the "Nouvelle armée française" 'New French Army'. On 26 December 1942, Giraud became head of the French Civil and Military High Command of French North Africa forces after the assassination of Vichy admiral François Darlan.


text: During Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of Vichy-controlled French North Africa in November 1942, many Vichy troops surrendered and joined the Free French. The French Resistance captured Vichy coastal defences. Giraud became head of the Army of Africa, joining the Allies as the French XIX Corps, based in French Algeria.


text: The Nazis suspected Vichy involvement after Operation Torch. They occupied the southern French "zone libre" in November 1942, during "Case Anton". The Luftwaffe units based in Libya also several times bombed the harbour of Algiers and cities in eastern French Algeria, including Annaba and Jijel.


text: In the autumn of 1940, the French colonies of Cameroon, French India and French Equatorial Africa joined the Free French. New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon and the New Hebrides joined later.


text: French Indochina was under Vichy control and Japanese oversight 1940-44 and then under total Japanese rule. Guadeloupe and Martinique in the West Indies remained under Vichy government control until 1942.


text: Starting with Operation Catapult on 3 July 1940, the British pre-emptively seized French vessels. Both combatants and merchant ships docked in British harbours of the English Channel (Plymouth), Mediterranean (Gibraltar) and Canada were abruptly taken over by armed sailors and soldiers. Their crews were interned and the vessels were appropriated and distributed to the British or Polish fleets. Later, if they were willing to recognize Charles de Gaulle as the legitimate leader of the French government-in-exile, the interned personnel were set free and assigned to new ships by the British. American aid under Lend-Lease made possible a rebuilt and expanded French Navy as one of the Western Allies.


text: French ships in British ports were boarded by armed sailors. These included the "Surcouf", a submarine in Plymouth for repairs in July 1940. "Surcouf"'s repairs were completed and it was turned over to the Free French by August. In 1941 she acted as an escort for trans-Atlantic convoys. In November 1940 she caused four deaths (three British, one French) and the capture of the merchant ship MV "Charles Plumier" in Gibraltar. This later became the , a command ship in several amphibious landings.


text: In Operation Lila the Germans attempted to seize the remains of the French navy. In Toulon, the French ships were scuttled rather than surrendered. Seventy-seven vessels, including three battleships, seven cruisers, and fifteen destroyers were deliberately sunk. Some submarines ignored their orders to scuttle themselves and escaped to fight with the Allies.


text: France declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939 under the Franco-Polish Military Alliance following the invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939. A French force invaded the Saarland in western Germany, in the Saar Offensive led by general Louis Faury, who prior to the war had been head of the French Military Mission to Poland.


text: Although tactically successful, as the advance into German territory reached 8 km, the Saar operation was abandoned on 12 September when the Anglo French Supreme War Council decided to halt all offensive actions immediately. This SWC was composed of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and Lord Chatfield as the British delegation while Prime Minister Édouard Daladier and General Maurice Gamelin formed the French delegation. General Gamelin ordered French troops to withdraw to the Maginot Line in France, leaving Poland to face the Germans and Soviets alone; the latter entered Poland on 17 September. On 16 October, German general Erwin von Witzleben started a counter-offensive against France, entering a few kilometers into its territory, and the last French forces left Germany the following day to defend their country.


text: Under the "Dyle plan", the 1st, 7th and 9th armies with the British Expeditionary Force between the 7th and 9th Armies moved into Belgium and the Netherlands to counter a German attack similar to the Schlieffen Plan in the last world war.


text: The unsuccessful defence of Belgium and the surrender of King Leopold III of Belgium on 28 May spurred the creation of the Free Belgian Forces.


text: The French 7th Army under General Henri Giraud fought the Germans in support of French ally the Netherlands.


text: Neither the French nor the British had foreseen the rapid defeat of Poland. The speed of the Nazi victory, relying on blitzkrieg, disturbed some generals in London and Paris. But the Allies still expected to contain the Germans in a war reasonably like the First World War, and that even without an Eastern Front the Germans could be defeated by blockade, as in the previous conflict. Paris had suffered more severely in the First World War, and had doubts.; Prime Minister of France Édouard Daladier noted the large gap between France's resources and those of Germany.


text: French commander Maurice Gamelin also expected a repeat of World War I's Schlieffen Plan. Much of the French army in the 1930s had been designed for offensive warfare, but the French military staff believed the country was not militarily or economically equipped for a decisive offensive, and that it would be better to wait until 1941, when the combined Allied economic superiority over Germany could be fully exploited. The expected German plan – a move into the Low Countries, outflanking the fortified Maginot Line – could be countered by sending the best units of the French army and the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) to halt the Germans near the river Dyle, east of Brussels, until a decisive victory could be achieved with the support of the united British, Belgian, French and Dutch armies. The original German plan in fact closely followed Gamelin's expectations.


text: The crash in Belgium of a light plane carrying two German officers with a copy of the then-current invasion plan forced Hitler to scrap the plan and search for an alternative. The final plan for "Fall Gelb" (Case Yellow) had been suggested by General Erich von Manstein, then serving as Chief of Staff to Gerd von Rundstedt, but initially rejected by the German General Staff. It proposed a deep penetration south of the original route, taking advantage of the speed of the Panzer divisions to separate and encircle the opposing forces. It had the virtue of being surprising for the defenders, as the Ardennes were heavily wooded and implausible as a route for tanks. Another considerable virtue: it hadn't been intercepted by the Allies, and was dramatic, which seems to have appealed to Hitler.


text: Manstein planned to break through the weak Allied centre with overwhelming force, and trap his opponents to the north in a pocket, and drive on to Paris. The plan would benefit from an Allied response close to what they expected; a large part of French and British strength would be drawn north to defend Belgium and Picardy. To help ensure this result, German Army Group B would still attack Belgium and the Netherlands in order to draw Allied forces east into the developing encirclement and secure bases for a later attack on Britain.


text: After capturing the original invasion plans, the Allies were initially jubilant, thinking that they might have won a key victory before the campaign was even fought. But General Gamelin and Lord Gort, the commander of the BEF, were shaken, realizing that what the Germans did instead would not be what they had planned for. Gamelin became convinced that the Germans would try to attempt a breakthrough, concentrating their mechanized forces. They could hardly hope to break the Maginot Line on the right or to overcome the Allied forces on the left. That left only the centre and the river Meuse. Tanks were useless in defeating fortified river positions. However at Namur, the river made a sharp turn to the east, creating a gap between itself and the river Dyle. This Gembloux Gap, ideal for mechanized warfare, was a very dangerous weak spot. Gamelin decided to concentrate half of his armoured reserves there. Of course the Germans might try to take the Meuse position with infantry. But that could only be achieved by massive artillery support, the build-up of which would give Gamelin ample warning.


text: Germany launched "Fall Gelb" on the night of 9 to 10 May. German forces occupied Luxembourg and in the morning German Army Group B (Bock) launched a feint into the Netherlands and Belgium. German Fallschirmjäger from the 7th Flieger and 22nd Air Landing divisions under Kurt Student executed surprise landings at The Hague, on the road to Rotterdam, and against the Belgian Fort Eben-Emael to facilite Army Group B's advance.


text: The Allied command reacted immediately, sending forces north to combat a plan that, for all the Allies could expect, resembled the earlier Schlieffen plan. This move north committed their best forces, diminished their fighting power through loss of readiness and their mobility through loss of fuel. That evening French troops crossed the Dutch border. The Luftwaffe quickly obtained air superiority, depriving the Allies of key reconnaissance abilities and disrupting Allied communication and coordination.


text: The German invaders secured all the strategically vital bridges in and toward Rotterdam, penetrating "Fortress Holland" and bypassing the Water Line, but their attempt to seize The Hague ended in complete failure, which later led the Germans to skip paratrooper attacks. The airfields surrounding the city (Ypenburg, Ockenburg, and Valkenburg) were taken with heavy casualties on 10 May, only to be lost on the very same day to furious counterattacks launched by the two Dutch reserve infantry divisions.


text: The French marched north to connect with the Dutch army, which came under attack from German paratroopers, but by simply not understanding German intentions they failed to block German armoured reinforcements from the 9th Panzer Division from reaching Rotterdam on 13 May. The Dutch, their poorly equipped army largely intact, surrendered on 14 May after the Germans bombed Rotterdam. However the Dutch troops in Zeeland and the colonies continued the fight while Queen Wilhelmina established a government-in-exile in Britain.


text: The centre of the Belgian defensive line, Fort Eben-Emael, had been seized by German paratroopers using gliders on 10 May, allowing their forces to cross the bridges over the Albert Canal, although the arrival of the British Expeditionary Force managed to save the Belgians for a time. Gamelin's plan in the north was achieved when the British army reached the Dyle; then the expected major tank battle took place in the Gembloux Gap between the French 2nd and 3rd Divisions "Légères mécaniques", (Mechanized Light Divisions), and the German 3rd and 4th Panzer divisions of Erich Hoepner's XVI Motorized Corps, costing both sides about 100 vehicles; the German offensive in Belgium seemed stalled for a moment. But this was a feint.


text: In the centre German Army Group A smashed through Belgian infantry regiments and French Light Divisions of the Cavalry ("") advancing into the Ardennes, and arrived at the river Meuse near Sedan the night of 12/13 May. On 13 May, the Germans forced three crossings near Sedan. Instead of slowly massing artillery as the French expected, the Germans replaced the need for traditional artillery by using the full might of their bomber force to punch a hole in a narrow sector of the French lines with carpet bombing (punctuated by dive bombing). Sedan was held by the 55th French Infantry Division (55e DI), a grade "B" reserve division. The forward elements of the 55e DI held their positions through most of the 13th, initially repulsing three of the six German crossing attempts; however, German air attacks had disrupted the French supporting artillery batteries and created an impression among the troops of the 55e DI that they were isolated and abandoned. The combination of the psychological impact of the bombing, the generally slowly expanding German lodgements, deep penetrations by some small German infantry units and the lack of air or artillery support eventually broke down the 55e DI's resistance and much of the unit went into rout by the evening of 13/14 May. The German aerial attack of 13 May, with 1215 bomber sorties, the heaviest air bombardment the world had yet witnessed, is considered to have been very effective and key to the successful German river crossing. It was the most effective use of tactical air power yet demonstrated in warfare.


text: The disorder begun at Sedan was spread down the French line by groups of haggard retreating soldiers. During the night, some units in the last prepared defence line at Bulson panicked over a false rumour that German tanks were already behind their positions. On 14 May, two French tank battalions and supporting infantry from the 71st Infantry Division (71e DI) counter-attacked the German bridgehead without success. The attack was partially repulsed by the first German armour and anti-tank units which had been rushed across the river as quickly as possible at 7:20 A.M. on pontoon bridges. On 14 May, every available Allied light bomber was employed in an attempt to destroy the German pontoon bridges; but, despite incurring the highest single day action losses in the entire history of the British and French air forces, failed to destroy these targets. Despite the failure of numerous quickly planned counterattacks to collapse the German bridgehead, the French Army was successful in re-establishing a continuous defensive position further south; on the west flank of the bridgehead, however, French resistance began to crumble.


text: The commander of the French Second Army, General Huntziger, immediately took effective measures to prevent a further weakening of his position. An armoured division (3rd "Division Cuirassée") and a motorized division blocked further German advances around his flank. However the commander of XIX Panzer Corps, Heinz Guderian, wasn't interested in Huntziger's flank. Leaving for the moment the 10th Panzer Division at the bridgehead to protect it from attacks by 3rd DCR, he moved his 1st and 2nd Panzer divisions sharply to the west on the 15th, undercutting the flank of the French Ninth Army by 40 km and forcing the 102nd Fortress Division to leave the positions that had blocked the XVI Panzer Corps at Monthermé. The French Second Army had been seriously mauled and rendered impotent, and the Ninth Army began to disintegrate completely, for in Belgium also its divisions, not having had the time to fortify, had been pushed back from the river by the unrelenting pressure of German infantry, allowing the impetuous Erwin Rommel to break free with his 7th Panzer Division. A French armoured division, the 1st DCR, was sent to block him, but advancing unexpectedly fast, he surprised it while refuelling on the 15th and dispersed it, despite some losses caused by the heavy French tanks.


text: On the 16th, both Guderian and Rommel disobeyed their explicit direct orders to halt in an act of open insubordination against their superiors and moved their divisions many kilometres to the west, as fast as they could push them. Guderian reached Marle, 80 kilometres from Sedan, and Rommel crossed the river Sambre at Le Cateau, a hundred kilometres from "his" bridgehead, Dinant. While nobody knew the whereabouts of Rommel (he had advanced so quickly that he was out of range of radio contact, earning his 7th Panzer Division the nickname "Gespenster-Division", (Ghost Division), an enraged von Kleist flew to Guderian on the morning of the 17th and after a heated argument relieved him of all duties. However, von Rundstedt would have none of it and refused to confirm the order.


text: The Panzer Corps slowed their advance considerably but were stretched out, exhausted and low on fuel; many tanks had broken down. There was now a dangerous gap between them and the infantry. A determined attack by a fresh large mechanized force could have cut them off and wiped them out. The French high command, however, was reeling from the sudden offensive and stung by defeatism. On the morning of 15 May, French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud telephoned the new British prime minister, Winston Churchill, saying "We have been defeated. We are beaten; we have lost the battle." Churchill reminded him of the times the Germans had broken through Allied lines in World War I, only to be stopped. However, Reynaud was inconsolable. Churchill flew to Paris on 16 May and recognized the gravity of the situation; the French government was already burning its archives and preparing for an evacuation of the capital. In a sombre meeting with the French commanders, Churchill asked General Gamelin, "Where is the strategic reserve?" which had saved Paris in the First World War. "There is none", Gamelin replied. Later, Churchill described hearing this as the single most shocking moment in his life. Churchill asked Gamelin when and where the general proposed to launch a counterattack against the flanks of the German bulge. Gamelin simply replied "inferiority of numbers, inferiority of equipment, inferiority of methods".


text: Gamelin was right; most reserve divisions had by now been committed. The only armoured division still in reserve, 2nd DCR, attacked on the 16th. However the French armoured infantry divisions, the "Divisions Cuirassées", were despite their name very specialized breakthrough units, optimized for attacking fortified positions. They could be quite useful for defence, if dug in, but had very limited utility for an encounter fight: they could not execute combined infantry-tank tactics as they simply had no large motorized infantry component; they had poor tactical mobility as the heavy Char B1 bis, their main tank in which half of the French tank budget had been invested, had to refuel twice a day. So 2nd DCR divided itself in a covering screen. Small subunits fought bravely but without strategic effect.


text: Of course, some of the best units in the north had yet seen little fighting. Had they been kept in reserve they could have been used for a decisive counter strike. But now they had lost much fighting power simply by moving to the north; hurrying south again would cost them even more. The most powerful allied division, the 1st DLM ("Division Légère Mécanique"), deployed near Dunkirk on the 10th, had moved its forward units 220 kilometres to the northeast, beyond the Dutch city of 's-Hertogenbosch, in 32 hours. Finding that the Dutch had already retreated to the north, it had withdrawn and was now moving to the south. When it would reach the Germans again, of its original 80 SOMUA S35 tanks only three were operational, mostly as a result of breakdown.


text: Nevertheless, a radical decision to retreat to the south, avoiding contact, could probably have saved most of the mechanized and motorized divisions, including the BEF. However, that would have meant leaving about thirty infantry divisions to their fate. The loss of Belgium alone would be an enormous political blow. Besides, the Allies were uncertain of German intentions. They threatened in four directions: to the north, to attack the allied main force directly; to the west, to cut it off; to the south, to occupy Paris and even to the east, to move behind the Maginot Line. The French decided to create a new reserve, among which a reconstituted 7th Army, under General , using every unit they could safely pull out of the Maginot Line to block the way to Paris.


text: De Gaulle, in command of France's hastily formed 4th Armoured Division, attempted to launch an attack from the south and achieved a measure of success that would later accord him considerable fame and a promotion to brigadier general. However, de Gaulle's attacks on the 17th and 19th did not significantly alter the overall situation.


text: While the Allies did little either to threaten them or escape from the danger they posed, the Panzer corps used 17 and 18 May to refuel, eat, sleep and repair some more tanks. On 18 May, Rommel made the French give up Cambrai by merely feinting an armoured attack.


text: On 19 May, the German High Command grew very confident. The Allies seemed incapable of coping with events. There appeared to be no serious threat from the south – indeed General Franz Halder, Chief of Army General Staff, toyed with the idea of attacking Paris immediately to knock France out of the war in one blow. The Allied troops in the north were retreating to the river Scheldt, their right flank giving way to the 3rd and 4th Panzer Divisions. It would be foolish to remain inactive any longer, allowing them to reorganize their defence or escape. Now it was time to bring them into even more serious trouble by cutting them off. The next day the Panzer Corps started moving again, smashed through the weak British 12th and 23rd Territorial divisions, occupied Amiens and secured the westernmost bridge over the river Somme at Abbeville isolating the British, French, Dutch and Belgian forces in the north. In the evening of 20 May, a reconnaissance unit from 2nd Panzer Division reached Noyelles, to the west, where they could see the estuary of the Somme flowing into The Channel.


text: On 20 May, French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud dismissed Maurice Gamelin for failing to contain the German offensive and replaced him with Maxime Weygand, who immediately attempted to devise new tactics to contain the Germans. More pressing, however, was his strategic task: he formed the Weygand Plan to pinch off the German armoured spearhead by combined attacks from the north and the south. On the map, this seemed feasible: the corridor through which von Kleist's two Panzer Corps had moved to the coast was a mere wide. On paper, Weygand had sufficient forces to execute it: in the north, the three DLM and the BEF; in the south, de Gaulle's 4th DCR. These units had an organic strength of about 1,200 tanks, The Panzer divisions were very vulnerable again. The mechanical condition of their tanks was rapidly deteriorating but the condition of the Allied divisions was far worse. Both in the south and the north they could in reality muster but a handful of tanks. Nevertheless, Weygand flew to Ypres on the 21st, trying to convince the Belgians and the BEF of the soundness of his plan.


text: Also 21 May, a detachment of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) under Major-General Harold Franklyn had already attempted to at least delay the German offensive and, perhaps, to cut off the leading edge of the German army. The resulting Battle of Arras demonstrated the value of the heavily armoured British Matilda tanks, as the German 37 mm anti-tank guns proved ineffective against them, and the limited raid overran two German regiments. The panic that resulted—the German commander at Arras, Erwin Rommel, reported being attacked by 'hundreds' of tanks, though there were only 58 at the battle—temporarily delayed the German offensive. German reinforcements pressed the British back to Vimy Ridge the following day.


text: Although this attack wasn't part of any coordinated attempt to destroy the Panzer Corps, the German High Command panicked a lot more than Rommel. For a moment they feared they had been ambushed, and a thousand Allied tanks were about to smash their elite forces. But the next day they had regained confidence and ordered Heinz Guderian's XIX Panzer Corps to press north and push on to the Channel ports of Boulogne and Calais, behind the British and Allied forces to the north.


text: That same day, the 22nd, the French tried to attack southwards east of Arras with some infantry and tanks, but the German infantry had begun to catch up and the attack was, with some difficulty, stopped by the 32nd Infantry Division.


text: On the 24th the first attack from the south was launched when the 7th DIC, supported by a handful of tanks, failed to retake Amiens. On 27 May, part of the British 1st Armoured Division, hastily brought over from England, attacked Abbeville in force but was beaten back with crippling losses. The next day de Gaulle tried again, with the same result. But by now even a complete success couldn't have saved the forces in the north.


text: In the early hours of 23 May, Gort ordered a retreat from Arras. He had no faith in the Weygand plan nor in the proposal of the latter to at least try to hold a pocket on the Flemish coast, a "Réduit de Flandres". The ports needed to supply such a foothold were already threatened. That day, the 2nd Panzer Division assaulted Boulogne and 10th Panzer assaulted Calais. The British garrison in Boulogne surrendered on 25 May, although 4,368 troops were evacuated. Calais, though strengthened by the arrival of the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment equipped with cruiser tanks and the 30th Motor Brigade, fell to the Germans on 27 May.


text: While the 1st Panzer Division was ready to attack Dunkirk on the 25th, Hitler ordered it to halt on 24 May. This remains one of the most controversial decisions of the entire war. Hermann Göring had convinced Hitler the Luftwaffe could prevent an evacuation; Rundstedt had warned him that any further effort by the armoured divisions would lead to a very long refitting period. Attacking cities wasn't part of the normal task for armoured units under any operational doctrine. Also, the terrain around Dunkirk was thought unsuitable for armour.


text: Encircled, the British, Belgians and French launched Operation Dynamo (26 May – 4 June) and later Operation Aerial (14–25 June), evacuating Allied forces from the northern pocket in Belgium and Pas-de-Calais, beginning on 26 May. The Allied position was complicated by King Leopold III of Belgium's surrender the following day, which was postponed until 28 May.


text: Confusion still reigned however, as after the evacuation at Dunkirk and while Paris was enduring its short-lived siege, the First Canadian Division and a Scottish division were sent to Normandy and penetrated 200 miles inland toward Paris before they heard that Paris had fallen and France had capitulated. They retreated and re-embarked for England. At the same time as the Canadian 1st division landed in Brest, the Canadian 242 Squadron of the RAF flew their Hawker Hurricanes to Nantes, 100 miles south-east, and set up there to provide air cover.


text: The best and most modern French armies had been sent north and lost in the resulting encirclement; the French had lost their best heavy weaponry and armoured formations. Maxime Weygand was faced with a hemorrhage in the front stretching from Sedan to the English Channel, and the French government had begun to doubt that the Germans could still be defeated, particularly as the remaining British forces were retreating from the battlefield and returning to Great Britain, a particularly symbolic event for French morale, intensified by the German anti-British propaganda slogan "The British will fight to the last Frenchman".


text: The Germans renewed their offensive on 5 June on the Somme. A panzer-led attack on Paris broke the scarce reserves that Weygand had put between the Germans and the capital, and on 10 June the French government fled to Bordeaux, declaring Paris an open city.


text: On June 10, Italy declared war on France and Britain; Italian Royal Air Force (Regia Aeronautica) started its bomb raids over France. On June 13, French ace pilot Pierre Le Gloan shot down two Fiat BR.20 bombers with his Dewoitine D.520 fighter. On June 15, Le Gloan, along with another pilot, attacked a group of twelve Italian Fiat CR.42 Falco fighters, and shot down three of them, while Cpt. Assolent shot down another. While returning to the airfield, Le Gloan shot down another CR.42 and another BR.20 bomber. For this achievement of destroying five aircraft in one flight, he was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant.


text: The following week, an Italian army crossed the Alps and fought with the French "Chasseurs Alpins" (Alpine Hunters), the Regia Aeronautica carried out 716 bombing missions in support of the invasion of France by the Italian Royal Army (Regio Esercito). Italian aircraft dropped a total of 276 tons of bombs.


text: Churchill returned to France on June 11, meeting the French War Council in Briare. The French, in a panic, wanted Churchill to give every available fighter to the air battle over France; with only 25 squadrons remaining, Churchill refused to further help his ally, believing that the decisive battle would be fought over Britain (the Battle of Britain started on July 10). The British ended their support and left France to its fate, facing the Germans and Italians alone. Concerned about an upcoming German invasion of his own country, Churchill, at the meeting, obtained promises from French admiral François Darlan that the French Navy fleet would not fall into German hands.


text: Paul Reynaud resigned because he believed a majority of his government favoured an armistice. He was succeeded by a patriarchal figure, 84-year-old World War I veteran "Maréchal" Philippe Pétain. On June 16, the new French President of the council, Philippe Pétain (the President of the Republic office had been vacant from July 11, 1940, to 16 January 1947), began to negotiate with Axis officials. On June 17, 1940, Marshal Pétain delivered an infamous radio appeal to the French people urging them "we must stop fighting" (""il faut cesser le combat"").


text: On June 21, Italian troops crossed the border in three places. Roughly thirty-two Italian divisions faced just four French divisions. Fighting continued in the east until General Prḗtelat, commanding the French Second Army group, was forced by the armistice to surrender on June 22. France formally surrendered to the Germans on June 22 in the same railroad car at Compiègne in which Germany had been forced to surrender in 1918. This railway car was lost in Allied air raids on the German capital of Berlin later in the war.