Photos WW2 French Forces

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1er REC of the Free French Forces during the battle for Strasbourg and the Alsace region.

 

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1940, Mouchin, France. A pillbox being cleverly camouflaged with stencilled "bricks" and roof tiles.

 

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American medics giving aid to a wounded Free French soldier. He was badly injured and his comrades killed by German artillery fire in Colleferro, Italy, 2 June, 1944.

 

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Knocked out French Army AMR 33, 1940

General Walther von Reichenau inspects a destroyed Char B1bis (No 236, "Le Glorieux", May 1940

Battle of Hannut, May 12-14, 1940. French Somua S35's and an artillery piece being inspected by German troops

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This day in 1940, the Armistice of 22 June 1940 and cease-fire went into effect, ending the Battle of France. Western Europe was conquered in just six weeks. Some 1,750,000 Allied soldiers fell into German captivity

 

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French Army Char B1 bis heavy tank.

 

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French battle tank B-1bis "Indochine", 1940.

 

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M10 Tank Destroyer 'Audacieux' commanded by second-maître mécanicien Mèté, of the 1st plat., 3rd sq., Régiment Blindé de Fusiliers-Marins (RBFM) near Baccarat on the way to Strasbourg, 1944.

 

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Free French Foreign Legionnaires "leap up from the desert to rush an enemy strong point", Bir Hacheim, 12 June 1942.

The Battle of Bir Hakeim took place at Bir Hakeim, an oasis in the Libyan desert south and west of Tobruk, during the Battle of Gazala (26 May – 21 June 1942). The 1st Free French Brigade under Général de brigade Marie-Pierre Kœnig defended the position from 26 May – 11 June against much larger Axis forces of Panzerarmee Afrika commanded by Generaloberst Erwin Rommel. The Panzerarmee captured Tobruk ten days later. The delay imposed on the Axis offensive by the defence of Bir Hakeim influenced the cancellation of Operation Herkules, the Axis invasion of Malta.

 

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General de Lattre de Tassigny (1889-1952) during the campaign of Alsace. The beginning of 1945.

 

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A picture taken on 27 December 1944 shows a Moroccan "tabor", a battalion of Moroccan soldiers, part of the French Allied troops posing with their pennant and military decoration on the front of the Vosges, eastern France.

 

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A Char B1 ‘bis’ tank from the 3rd Cuirassiers Division in a street of Cauroy (Ardennes) trying to halt the German advance. May 1940.

 

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The commander of a French "Renault Char B1" heavy tank surrenders to German Infantrymen during the Battle of France ( Northern France ). May, 1940.

 

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Free French Mobile Surgical Unit in Italy - 1944
The “FCM” on the nurses uniforms stands for “FORMATION DE CHIRURGIE MOBILE”
FCM n'1 left Tunisia to Napoli Italy in December 1943 attached to 3 DIA
Original Color Pictures
Thanks to José-Daniel Cabanilles for the information
LIFE Magazine Archives - George Silk Photographer

 

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M3 Half-Track (Resistance) of the 9th Company (La Nueve - consisting of Republican Spanish Civil War Veterans) of the Régiment de Marche du Tchad in Paris - 1944

 

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Firing squad of Maquis, French Resistance fighters, gathered to execute six members of Nazi collaborationist Milice, Vichy police, near the spot where twenty-three patriots were executed by the Germans months before. 1944.
Photo by Carl Mydans

 

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The battle of Saumur. French Cavalry Cadet stand against German 1-st Cavalry Division.
The Battle of Saumur occurred during the last stages of the Battle of France, when officer cadets from the Cavalry School at Saumur, led by superintendent Colonel Michon, made a defensive stand along the Loire River at Saumur and Gennes. For two days the Cavalry School, and other assorted units which had fallen back before the German advance, held off a German attack. Since the battle occurred after the message by Marshal Pétain which called for an end to fighting (on 17 June, 1940), the event is often considered one of the first acts of the French Resistance.
By coincidence, the German troops advancing into the area were from the 1st Cavalry Division, a horseborne unit. The battle therefore set graduates of the German cavalry school against their counterparts from the French cavalry school. French troops took up defensive positions on four bridges of the Loire on 18 June, 1940, and held off the Germans until 20 June.
General Feldt praised the resistance of the students in his report, in which he is the first to call them "cadets of Saumur". The 218 students captured by the Germans were released in the following days instead of being interned. The school was mentioned in Despatches at the Order of the Army by General Weygand.

 

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Bennwihr France - January 1949
The village was leveled in December 1944 during fighting leading up to the battle known as the Colmar Pocket
The memorial commemorated the residents of Bennwihr who were killed or missing in the WW1
Patrick Bianchin found the modern day picture of the Memorial
LIFE Magazine Archives - N R Farbman Photographer

 

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De Gaulle on a visit to Canada.