The 4th Army Corps of the

French Army The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (french: Armée de Terre, ), is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces. It is responsible to the Government of France, along with the other components of the Armed For ...

was reformed in 1873 at

Le Mans Le Mans (, ) is a city in northwestern France on the Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Man ...

under Général

Édouard-Jean-Étienne Deligny Édouard-Jean-Étienne Deligny (12 December 1815 – February 1902) was a French general. 1815 births 1902 deaths French generals Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour People of the French Third Republic People of the Second French Empire ...

, after being surrounded and taken prisoner in the siege of Metz (1870).

World War I

On mobilisation in 1914, it came under control of the Third Army and comprised the 7th and

8th 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. In mathematics 8 is: * a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2. * a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of t ...

Infantry Divisions. The 7th Infantry Division consisted of the 13th Brigade with the 101st and 102nd Infantry Regiments and the 14th Inf Bde with the 103rd and 104th Infantry Regiments. Also part of the Division was a squadron of the 14th Régiment de hussards, the 25e régiment d'artillerie de campagne, and the 1st Engineer Regiment. The 8th Infantry Division had the 15th Brigade (124th and 130th Infantry Regts) and the 16th Brigade (115th and 117th Infantry Regiments) plus the 31e régiment de hussards. Corps units included the 315th and 317th Infantry Regiments, 14e régiment de hussards, 44e régiment d'artillerie de campagne and the 6e régiment du génie. The 60th Infantry Division also came under the command of the corps during the war. Commanders of the Corps were * 1911–1915 : Général Boëlle * 1915–1917 : Général Putz * 1918–1919 : Général Pont After the war, from 11 to 20 February 1919, it was commanded by General

Marie Jean Auguste Paulinier Marie Jean Auguste Paulinier (1861-1927) was a French general who held many different commands and most notable for commanding the VI Corps during World War I. Biography Paulinier began his military career by entering the École spéciale milita ...

World War II

During the 1940

Battle of France The Battle of France (french: bataille de France) (10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign ('), the French Campaign (german: Frankreichfeldzug, ) and the Fall of France, was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of French Third Rep ...

, the 4th Army Corps was part of the French First Army Group's First Army, and included the 32nd Infantry Division. On 10 May 1940 corps headquarters was at Le Cateau under

General de corps d'armee An army corps general or corps general is a rank held by a General officer who commands an army corps. The rank originates from the French (Revolutionary) System, and is used by a number of countries. Normally, the rank is above the divisional g ...

Boris; 15th Infantry Division headquarters was at

Chauny Chauny () is a Communes of France, commune in the Aisne Departments of France, department in Hauts-de-France in northern France. History There has been a settlement on the site, more or less continuously, since at least the Carolingian era. Know ...

. On 7 August 1941, General Doyen was the Head of the French Mission, Armistice Commission at Wiesbaden, Germany. He promptly retired upon this assignment. At some time in 1942 he was arrested. It was around the time that the Allies invaded French North Africa and Germany responded by occupying the whole of France. On 6 June 1944, the Allies invaded Normandy, France; shortly after French Troops under Jean Lattre De Tassigny invaded the coast of Provence in south of France. Paris was liberated on by 25 August and General DeGaulle was reforming the French Military for the invasion of Germany. De Gaulle was very keen on France playing a major role in the war; as a result General Doyen was recalled to service on 1 Feb 1945. General Doyen's first assignment was to be the Inspector General of Mountain Troops along the Franco-Italian border on 21 March 1945; it was under this command that the French 27th Alpine Division was assigned. In general the French divisions on the Franco-Italian border were grouped into the French Alpine Army and invaded northern Italy. Since Italy invaded France in 1940 and since German troops were on the Italian side of the Franco-Italian border De Gaulle order General Doyen to invade Italy. His army advanced attacking border fortification and taking Cuneo; Valle d'Aosta; Tende; several troops swept into the Italian Riviera and advancing as far as Imperia. Other elements of General Doyen's Alpine Army troops marched as far as Turin, Italy where they met up with American and Brazilian troops coming from the southeast. On 15 March 1946, General Doyen was given the command of French Army's IV Corps and shortly after he was made the Military Governor of Lyon, France, only to retire from the military later in 1946.

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Composition

* 1st Infantry Division (motorised) * 15th Infantry Division (motorised) * 7th Groupe de Reconnaissance de Corps d'Armée *

106th Artillery Regiment (France) 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

(Horse) * 604th Régiment de Pionniers Lieutenant General Paul-Andre Doyen commanded the corps in 1945–46.

World War I

World War II

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Composition

References

See also