1940 Campaign 1st Army Corps was constituted on August 27, 1939, in
Lille under the command of
Major General Sciard as part of the French
mobilization for war. Initially assigned as part of the
First Army, the corps was transferred to the
Seventh Army and moved to coastal regions near
Calais and
Dunkerque by mid-November 1939. On May 10, 1940, the Corps commanded the 25th Motorised Infantry Division (25e DIM) in addition to its organic units.
Order of Battle (May 1940) I Corps Assets (May 1940) • Infantry: 601st Pioneer Regiment (
601e Régiment de Pionniers) • Artillery: 101st Heavy Horse-Drawn Artillery Regiment (''101e Régiment d'Artillerie Lourde Hippomobile'') – 1st & 2nd Groups 105mm L36, 3rd Group 155 GPF • 12th Divisional Reconnaissance Group (''12e Groupe de Reconnaissance de Division d'Infanterie'') The period from May 19 to 26 saw the corps falling back to the line of the river
Somme, where the French Army intended to make a stand. Because of German advances, the 1st Army Corps had to deploy its divisional
reconnaissance units to cover positions on the river that the slower-moving infantry divisions (4th Colonial Infantry Division - 4e DIC, 7th North African Infantry Division - 7e DINA, and the 19e DI) could occupy. The corps reached positions near Le Hamel, Aubigny and along the road between
Amiens and
Saint-Quentin. During May 24 to 25, troops of the corps seized and lost Aubigny twice. The Germans had held onto a large bridgehead at
Peronne. The Germans broke out of this bridgehead on June 5, 1940, and continued their advance into the heart of France. A counter-attack by armored elements of the corps on June 6 was halted by the Germans. From June 9, the corps was involved in withdrawals that were meant to form lines of defense along the rivers
Avre,
Oise,
Nonette,
Seine, and
Loire. The crossing of the Oise River was made under German air attack, some bridges were destroyed by the
Luftwaffe, and portions of the corps' infantry had to surrender north of the Oise. After the Germans crossed the Loire on June 18, the 19e DI of the corps was largely destroyed near
La Ferté. This was followed by capture of the bulk of the infantry of the 29th (29e DI) and 47th Infantry Divisions (47e DI) on June 19 near Lamotte-Beuvron. The final week of the campaign was a constant retreat for the remnants of the corps, with elements crossing the river
Dordogne near
Bergerac on June 24, 1940. The following day, an armistice was declared and the corps assembled in the region of Miallet and
Thiviers. On July 1,
Brigadier General Trancart assumed command of the corps. The 1st Army Corps was demobilized on July 10, 1940.
Corsica 1943 The 1st Army Corps was reconstituted on August 16, 1943, in Ain-Taya,
French Algeria. Now commanded by Lieutenant General Martin the primary combat units of the corps were provided American equipment and weapons as part of the rearmament of the French
Army of Africa. During the
Allied invasion of Italy the 1st Army Corps, comprising Headquarters,
4th Moroccan Mountain Division (4e DMM), the 1st Regiment of Moroccan
Tirailleurs (1er RTM), the 4th Regiment of Moroccan
Spahis (4e RSM) (light tank), the
2nd Group of Moroccan Tabors (2e GTM), the Commandos de Choc battalion and the 3rd Battalion, 69th Mountain Artillery Regiment (69e RAM), landed on
Fascist-occupied Corsica in the same month. To the south, the German
90. Panzergrenadier-Division and the
Reichsführer-SS assault infantry brigade were evacuating
Sardinia and landing on the southern coast of Corsica. Wishing to cut off the German troops, and informed on September 10, 1943, that the
Royal Italian Army troops on Corsica were willing to fight on the side of the Allies, the French launched Operation
Vésuve and landed elements of the 1st Army Corps at
Ajaccio on September 13, meeting Corsican
partisans who also wanted enemy troops off the island. German General
Fridolin von Senger und Etterlin hoped to obtain reinforcements with which to hold the island. After the Germans began disarming Italian soldiers, General Magli of the Italian Army ordered Italian forces to consider the Germans as an enemy rather than as allies. Thereafter, Italian units on the island cooperated with the French forces. Surprising the Italian
Friuli Division in the northern port of
Bastia on the night of September 13, 1943, the SS troops took 2,000 Italian prisoners and secured the port from which the Germans could evacuate their forces. Although supported by the
Royal Navy, the French were unable to land forces quickly enough on Corsica to prevent the bulk of the German troops from reaching their exit ports on the east coast of the island. The final combat took place around Bastia, with the island secured by French forces on October 4, 1943. The bulk of the German forces had made good their escape. The Germans took 700 casualties and lost 350 men to POW camps. The Italians lost 800 men in the fighting (mostly
Friuli Division troops), and the French had 75 killed, 12 missing, and 239 wounded. From October 1943 until May 1944, the 1st Army Corps defended Corsica, conducted training, and moved units between Corsica and North Africa. On April 18, 1944, the 1st Army Corps was subordinated to General
de Lattre's Armée B.
Elba 1944 Following the liberation of Corsica, the French proposed to invade the island of
Elba, possession of which would allow the Allies to dominate by gunfire ships in the
Piombino Channel and vehicles on the coastal road of the
Italian Peninsula, both transportation arteries essential to the supply of German
Wehrmacht forces in western Italy. Initially, the proposal was denied by General
Eisenhower, who considered it a dispersal of resources while the planning for the
Anzio landings was underway. After British General Sir
Henry Maitland Wilson took over the Mediterranean Theater, however, attitudes at Allied headquarters changed and the operation was approved. By this time, though, the Germans had strongly fortified Elba, an island dominated by rugged terrain in any case, making the assault considerably more difficult. At 0400 hours on June 17, 1944, the 1st Army Corps assaulted Elba in Operation
Brassard. French forces comprised the 9th Colonial Infantry Division (9e DIC), two battalions of French
commandos (''Commandos d'Afrique
and Commandos de Choc
), a battalion and supplementary battery of the Colonial Artillery Regiment of Morocco (R.A.C.M.) and the 2nd Group of Moroccan Tabors (2e GTM), in addition to 48 men from "A" and "O" commandos of the Royal Navy. French Choc
(lightly armed fighters who had the mission of operating behind enemy lines) units landed at multiple points before the main landing force and neutralized coastal artillery batteries. Landing in the Gulf of Campo on the south coast, the French initially ran into difficulties because of the German fortifications and extremely rugged terrain that ringed the landing area. Falling back on an alternate plan, the landing beach was shifted to the east, near Nercio, and here the troops of the 9th Colonial Infantry Division seized a viable beachhead. Within two hours, French commandos reached the crest of the 400-meter Monte Tambone Ridge overlooking the landing areas. The RN commandos boarded and seized the German Flak
ship Köln'' and also landed to guide in other troops headed for the beaches, but a massive blast from a German demolition charge killed 38 of their men.
Portoferraio was taken by the 9th Division on June 18 and the island was largely secured by the following day. Fighting in the hills between the Germans and the Senegalese colonial infantry was vicious, with the Senegalese employing
flamethrowers to clear entrenched German troops. The Germans defended Elba with two infantry battalions, fortified coastal areas, and several coastal artillery batteries totaling some 60 guns of medium and heavy caliber. In the fighting, the French seized the island, killing 500 German and Italian defenders, and taking 1,995 of them prisoner. French losses were 252 killed and missing, and 635 men wounded in action, while the British lost 38 of their 48 commandos, with nine others wounded by the blast of the demolition charge. a veteran of the
1940 campaign in Norway and an officer who had actively assisted the
Allied landings in French North Africa in November 1942. For the remainder of the war in Europe, many French divisions would be subordinated to 1st Army Corps, but the divisions that spent the most time with the corps were the
2nd Moroccan Infantry Division (2e DIM), the
9th Colonial Infantry Division (9e DIC), the 4th Moroccan Mountain Division (4e DMM), and the
1st Armoured Division (1re DB). The 1st Army Corps drove north along the east bank of the river
Rhône, but the push lacked strength as the 4e DMM was still deploying to France (and would be further engaged securing the alpine frontier with Italy for several months) and the 1re DB was still assembling in
southern France. In mid-September, the corps secured the Lomont Mountains, a range about long running from the river
Doubs to the
Swiss border. German resistance was spotty in September, but rapidly coalesced in front of the Belfort Gap, a corridor of relatively flat terrain that lies between the
Vosges and
Jura mountains on the Swiss frontier, and a gateway to the river
Rhine. Operating with one division and experiencing the same logistics problems as other Allied units in Europe, the advance of the 1st Army Corps was slowed in front of the Belfort Gap by the German
11. Panzer-Division. Compounding the distance that supplies had to travel from the ports in southern France were the north–south railway lines with destroyed bridges and sections of track. Early October 1944 also saw the unseasonably early arrival of cold and wet weather more characteristic of November. All of these factors served to force a halt to the 1st Army Corps' advance in October while the corps improved its supply situations and resolved manpower issues caused by the French high command's decision to rotate the Senegalese troops to the south and replace them with
French Forces of the Interior manpower. The supply situation had improved by early November, coinciding with orders from General Eisenhower, now in charge of all Allied forces in northwestern Europe, directing a general offensive all along the
Western Front. Believing that the relative inactivity of 1st Army Corps meant the corps was digging in for the winter, the Germans reduced their forces in the
Belfort Gap to a single, not-at-full strength infantry division. The 1st Army Corps launched their attack to force the Belfort Gap on November 13, 1944. By a stroke of fate, the French attack caught the German division commander near the front lines, who perished under a hail of Moroccan gunfire. The same attack narrowly missed capturing the commander of the German
IV. Luftwaffen-Feldkorps. Although desperate German troops formed islands of resistance, most notably at the fortified city of Belfort, troops of the 2e DIM, 9e DIC, and the 1re DB pushed through gaps in the German lines, disrupting their defense and keeping the battle mobile. French tanks moved through the Belfort Gap and reached the Rhine at
Huningue on November 19. The battle cut off the German
308. Grenadier-Regiment on November 24, forcing the German troops to either surrender or intern themselves in Switzerland. On November 25, 1st Army Corps units liberated both
Mulhouse (taken by a surprise armored drive) and Belfort (taken by assault of the 2e DIM). Realizing the German defense had been too static for their own good, General De Lattre (commander of the First Army) directed both corps of his army to close on Burnhaupt in order to encircle the German
LXIII. Armeekorps (the former
IV. Luftwaffe Korps). This maneuver succeeded on November 28, 1944, and resulted in the capture of over 10,000 German troops, crippling the
LXIII. Armeekorps. French losses had also been significant, and plans to immediately clear the Alsatian Plain of German forces had to be shelved while both sides gathered strength for the next battles. The November offensives of the French First Army and the
U.S. Seventh Army had collapsed the German presence in Alsace to a roughly circular pocket around the town of
Colmar on the Alsatian Plain. This
Colmar Pocket contained the German
19. Armee. As the southernmost corps of Allied forces in
northwestern Europe, the French 1st Army Corps now faced the Rhine at Huningue and held Mulhouse and the southern boundary of the
Colmar Pocket. A French offensive in mid-December designed to collapse the Colmar Pocket failed for lack of offensive power and the requirement to cover more of the Allied front line as U.S. units were shifted north in response to the
Ardennes Offensive. On January 1, 1945, the Germans launched
Operation Nordwind, an offensive with the goal of recapturing Alsace. After the U.S. Seventh and French First Armies had held and turned back this offensive, the Allies were ready to reduce the Colmar Pocket once and for all. The 1st Army Corps led the attack against the Colmar Pocket on January 20, 1945. Fighting in woodlands and dense urban areas, the 1st Army Corps' attack stalled after the first day, meeting a German defense in depth and attracting
19. Armee reinforcements. By the end of the month, however, other attacks by U.S. and French forces against the Colmar Pocket had forced the Germans to redistribute their troops, and an early February attack by the 1st Army Corps moved north through weak German resistance, reaching the bridge over the Rhine at Chalampé and making contact with the
U.S. XXI Corps at
Rouffach, south of Colmar. The final German forces in the 1st Army Corps' area retreated over the Rhine into
Baden on February 9, 1945. Thereafter, the thrust of the Allied offensive moved to the north, and the 1st Army Corps was assigned the defense of the Rhine from the area south of
Strasbourg to the Swiss frontier until mid-April 1945.
Germany 1945 On April 15, 1st Army Corps was given the mission of crossing the Rhine, traversing the
Black Forest, and sweeping
South Baden of
German Army troops. The 4e DMM drove directly on
Freudenstadt, an important
Black Forest road junction, capturing it on April 17, 1945. The 9e DIC, crossing the Rhine north of
Karlsruhe, raced south along the east bank of the Rhine and then swung east, paralleling the course of the Swiss frontier. From Freudenstadt, the 4e DMM turned south and met the 9e DIC near Döggingen on April 29, cutting off the German
XVIII. SS-Armeekorps in the Black Forest. Frantic attempts at escape by the encircled German troops came to naught among French roadblocks and the formidable terrain of the forest, and they were left no options save death or surrender. From Freudenstadt, elements of the 1re DB pushed east and south, capturing
Ulm on April 24, and then pushed south again with elements of the 2e DIM into the Alps, crossing into Austria and marching into
Sankt-Anton on May 7, 1945. Elements of the 5e DB and the 4e DMM drove southeast along the north shore of
Lake Constance, capturing
Bregenz and then turning east toward Sankt-Anton. The following day was
VE Day, ending Allied military operations in Europe. During the course of its operations in France and Germany in 1944 - 1945, the 1st Army Corps lost 3,518 men killed, 13,339 wounded, and 1,449 missing, for a total of 18,306 casualties. Although not all casualties inflicted on the Germans by 1st Army Corps are known, the corps is credited with taking 101,556 Germans prisoner during the campaigns to liberate France and invade Germany.
Commanders in WW II • 2 September 1939 – 2 July 1940 : General Sciard • 2–10 July 1940 : General Trancart • .— • 30 August 1943 – 10 August 1944 :
General Martin • 10 August 1944 – 8 July 1945 :
General Béthouart • 1 September 1945 – 6 June 1946 :
General Sevez == Postwar ==