French Army in World War I

During World War I, France was one of the Triple Entente powers allied against the Central Powers. Although fighting occurred worldwide, the bulk of the French Army's operations occurred in Belgium, Luxembourg, France and Alsace-Lorraine along what came to be known as the Western Front, which consisted mainly of trench warfare. During the four-year conflict, French forces inflicted nearly three million casualties on the German Army, more than any other Allied army.

In the early periods of the conflict, the French Army was neither as strong numerically nor as well endowed with heavy guns as was the German Army. By the later stages of the war, however, the French Army had been described as “the most modern army in the world,” as it fielded the most tanks and aeroplanes of any Allied army, vast parks of modern heavy artillery employing barrage tactics, well-equipped modern infantry specialists skilled in fire-and-movement tactics and in cooperating with the supporting arms.

France had lost nearly 1.4 million men killed or missing in action, while another four million had been wounded. Yet, after so much effort and sacrifice, and despite the staggering human cost, French families continued to send their sons into the army. Of those conscripted, the share of young men refusing to serve declined from 2.59 percent in 1915, to 1.08 percent in 1916, to 0.88 percent in 1918. France, which began the war with an antiquated industrial base, went on to become the arsenal of the Entente. With production rates continuously increasing, French industry supplied weapons or munitions to all the allies at one time or another, but it provided the Americans the most—more than three-quarters of all the tanks, field artillery, and airplanes used by the Doughboys in France.