Katana VentraIP

Armistice Army

The Armistice Army (French: Armée de l'Armistice) or Vichy French Army was the armed forces of Vichy France permitted under the terms of the Armistice of 22 June 1940. It was officially disbanded in 1942 after the German invasion of the "Free Zone" (Zone libre) which was directly ruled by the Vichy regime.

Armistice Army

1940–1942

Two military corps, three separate commands and three separate divisions

At the beginning of 1942, the numbers of the Armistice Army reached 550,000 men, including 21,000 officers.[1]

Dissolution of forces in Metropolitan France[edit]

After the Allied invasion of French North Africa (Operation Torch) began, Adolf Hitler ordered the dissolution of the Armistice Army in mainland France on 26 November 1942. Some staff officers clung to the possibility suggested by Hitler to form an army of a new form. On December 23, Hitler finally put an end to this hope by declaring that "the creation of a new French Army [...] is out of the question."[4] The discovery of illegal arms stores had greatly undermined the confidence of the Germans in the French authorities.[5] A deadline of 23 January 1943 was imposed on the French Government: after this date, the commanders of the military regions involved were to be held personally liable. Throughout 1943, a continual stream of active officers passed through Spain to North Africa;[6] Some 12,000 civil or military personnel headed for North Africa.[6]


Despite the German Army's loss of confidence, resulting from the discovery of the camouflaged weapons depots, General Eugène Bridoux, who retained the title of Secretary of State for War, continued his efforts to reconstitute dependent armed units. But Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt refused, and the African Phalange was never to have any connections with a French military organization.[5] Pierre Laval did obtain from Hitler in Berchtesgaden, on April 30, 1943, the permission to create a small military force. The law was promulgated on 15 July 1943 and, on 23 July, Bridoux still managed to form the First Regiment of France composed of three battalions of infantry and cavalry on horseback and bicycle.[5] Designed to maintain traditions, the First Regiment took part in engagements against the Resistance; it eventually became part of the French Forces of the Interior.

Chasseurs

Saône-et-Loire

Saint-Claude

(Terrain d'entraînement de Valbonne) (Valbonne)

Valbonne Training Grounds

4th Squadron, 1st Legion Guard (4e Escadron du 1er Garde de la Légion)

— postwar French tank designed by members of the Armistice Army

ARL 44

Government Army (Bohemia and Moravia)

Guard (Vichy France)

Liberation of France

(Greece)

Security Battalions

Vichy French Military Division order of battle

Vichy French Navy

Clayton, Anthony (1988). France, Soldiers, and Africa. London: Brassey's Defence Publishers.  0-08-034748-7.

ISBN

(2004) [1966]. L'Armée de Vichy - Le corps des officiers français 1940-1944 (in French). Translated by Pierre de Longuemar. éditions Tallandier. p. 588. ISBN 2020679884. (réimpression=Le Seuil/Tallandier)

Paxton, Robert

(1966). Parades and Politics at Vichy: The French Officer Corps under Marshall Pétain. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691623924.

Paxton, Robert O.

Planchais, Jean (1967). Une histoire politique de l'armée: Volume 2: 1940-1967 - de De Gaulle à de Gaulle (in French). Vol. 2. Éditions du Seuil.

(1996). Montoire Les premiers jours de la collaboration (in French). Paris: Éditions Albin Michel. ISBN 2-226-08488-6.

Delpla, François

d’Abzac-Epezy, Claude (1998). L'Armée de l'air des années noires: Vichy, 1940-1944 (in French). éditions Economica.  978-2717836899.

ISBN

de Wailly, Henri (2006). Syrie 1941, La guerre occultée (in French). éditions Perrin.

Ehrengardt, Christian-Jacques; Shore, Christopher F. L'Aviation de Vichy au combat.

Établissement de communication et de production audiovisuelle de la Défense (ECPAD), La photographie de l'armée de Vichy (1941-1943), .

lire en ligne