History of the French Army — from 1914 to the Present Day

With the clarity, precision and analytical rigour that have made his reputation, Philippe Masson recounts the fortunes and misfortunes of the French Army from 1914 to 1994 — in other words, across the entire twentieth century. 1914: it is the dawn of the Great War, the army narrowly avoids disaster before winning the titanic battle that earned it the reputation, from 1918 through to 1940, of the finest army in the world. 1994: it is the last year before the announcement of the abolition of compulsory military service, which led to professionalisation and, consequently, to a new chapter in the history of the French Army. In between: the collapse of 1940, the split into three armies (armistice army, Free French Forces, Army of Africa), the honour restored in Italy, Provence, the Vosges and Alsace, the tearing conflict between the demands of integration into the Atlantic Pact and those of the Indochina War, then the agonising Algerian War. Then the army had to forget the lost Empire, change its soul and its skin, to become, in the nuclear age, the deterrent force envisioned by General de Gaulle. Today, in the grip of a sweeping reform that does not command unanimous support within its ranks, the French Army enters a new era.