Conference : Rebuilding the French Army and liberating France, from the two shores of the Mediterranean to Germany (1943-1945)

The École Nationale Supérieure Maritime is pleased to invite you to the lecture ‘Rebuilding the French Army and liberating France, from both shores of the Mediterranean to Germany (1943-1945)’ by Tristan Lecoq, Inspector General (History-Geography), member of the Académie de Marine, associate member of the Inspectorate General of Maritime Affairs.

‘Reconstructing the French Army, from the beginning of 1943 to Victory in 1945, means standing at the confluence of three issues. Rebuilding an army to liberate the country: this is the military and inter-allied dimension of the Liberation; rebuilding the Army of the Republic: this is the question of the military ‘tool’, at the orders of political power; rebuilding the Army of France, this is rebuilding an instrument of a power to be rebuilt.

The Army is first and foremost a political instrument, at the orders of a political power, in the service of a State’s policy. It is at the heart of the exercise of sovereignty and therefore of the means of exercising it. ‘Defence! This is the primary raison d’être of the State. It cannot fail to do so without destroying itself’ said General De Gaulle in Bayeux on 14 June 1952.

Rebuilding the Army meant rebuilding a military tool. Liberating France and marching on the Rhine meant using the Army as a political instrument, even if it was integrated into a coalition. The question of operational control of French troops by the Allied command is at the confluence of these two sides of the same political, military and war complexity: it is the question of the military dependence, interdependence and independence of the French Army in combat between 1943 and 1945.

Charles De Gaulle Discours et messages Tome II Dans l’attente 1946-1958 Paris, Plon 1970 p.527.