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France in the First World War

For over four years France fought on a Western Front that ran across its own soil, with part of the country occupied, and emerged victorious but bled white.

Side:
The Entente
At war:
3 August 1914 – 11 November 1918
Author:
Łukasz Skowroń
Updated:
30 October 2026

In numbers

Men mobilised by country
7.9–8.4m
Military deaths by country
1.4–1.4m
Deaths as a share of the pre-war population
4.3–4.4%
The war in numbers →

France fought the First World War above all on the Western Front, which for more than four years ran across its own territory. Germany declared war on it on 3 August 1914, and the French army, although it lost the Battles of the Frontiers, stopped the Germans on the Marne. In 1918 the French general Ferdinand Foch, as commander of the Allied armies, led them to victory. It cost France the lives of about 1.4 million soldiers.

The road to war

After its defeat in the war with Prussia, France lost Alsace and Lorraine in 1871, and recovering them remained one of the aims of its policy. For a long time it was isolated in Europe, until on 4 January 1894 the alliance with Russia came into force, although St Petersburg had no intention of supporting French hopes of regaining the lost provinces.

In 1904 the Entente Cordiale ended colonial disputes with Britain. Germany tried to break this understanding in two Moroccan crises: in 1905, when Wilhelm II landed at Tangier, and in 1911, when the gunboat Panther entered Agadir. From 1907 the French and British armies worked together on plans to move a British Expeditionary Force to France.

Entering the war

In July 1914 President Raymond Poincaré and Prime Minister René Viviani were on a visit to Russia and returned to France only on 29 July. On the evening of 31 July the socialist leader Jean Jaurès, who had called to the last for the crisis to be contained, was shot in Paris. On the afternoon of 1 August France ordered general mobilisation, and on 3 August Germany declared war on it, citing invented French air raids.

In a message to parliament Poincaré declared that the “sacred union” (union sacrée) of the French would not break in the face of the enemy, and at the end of August socialists entered the government for the first time.

The Western Front, 1914–1916

The French Plan XVII provided for an offensive in Alsace and Lorraine. On 8 August the French entered Mulhouse but had to withdraw after two days, and in the August Battle of the Frontiers their offensives collapsed while the Germans marched through Belgium. 22 August was the bloodiest day in the history of the French army: some 27,000 soldiers were killed. The commander-in-chief, Joseph Joffre, lost the Battles of the Frontiers but soon won on the Marne.

On the night of 2–3 September the government moved to Bordeaux. In the Battle of the Marne the French and British stopped the Germans and on 9 September forced them to retreat. After the Race to the Sea, by the end of 1914 an unbroken line of trenches ran from Switzerland to the sea.

In 1915 Joffre tried to break the German line in Artois and Champagne. In spring the French Tenth Army attacked Vimy Ridge, and on 25 September the Second Battle of Champagne and the Third Battle of Artois began simultaneously. The French took the first lines and thousands of prisoners, but there was no breakthrough. For France the deadliest year of the war was 1915, with about 350,000 dead.

On 21 February 1916 the Germans attacked at Verdun. The defence was organised by General Philippe Pétain, and the battle lasted until 18 December and after ten months ended with the front back almost on its old lines. The French lost some 360,000–380,000 killed, wounded, missing and prisoners there. Even so, from 1 July 1916 they attacked alongside the British in the Battle of the Somme. In December Joffre was replaced by General Robert Nivelle, who had earlier retaken the forts at Verdun.

Crisis in 1917 and victory in 1918

Nivelle promised a breakthrough in 48 hours. His offensive, launched on 16 April 1917 on the Aisne and in Champagne, ended in enormous losses. On 3 May near Soissons soldiers of the 2nd Colonial Division shouted “Down with the war!” and mutinies swept the French army. On 15 May the government dismissed Nivelle, and Pétain became commander-in-chief and brought the mutinies under control. Behind the lines prices were rising: in the first quarter of 1917 by 25 per cent on average.

On 16 November 1917 the 76-year-old Georges Clemenceau became prime minister and minister of war. He promised war until victory and had politicians accused of defeatism, Louis Malvy and Joseph Caillaux, brought to trial. In spring 1918 the Germans broke through the British front in Operation Michael, in May the French front on the Aisne, and from 23 March they shelled Paris with a long-range gun.

On 14 April Foch received the title of commander-in-chief of the Allied armies. In the Second Battle of the Marne, from 15 July, the last German offensive collapsed, and Foch’s counter-offensive opened the Hundred Days Offensive. On 11 November 1918 the Germans signed the armistice in Foch’s railway carriage in the forest of Compiègne.

France also fought beyond its own territory. Its ships and soldiers took part in the Gallipoli campaign, and on 5 October 1915 the French 156th Division began landing at Salonika. The Entente forces in Macedonia, commanded by Frenchmen, first Maurice Sarrail and in 1918 Louis Franchet d’Espèrey, broke the Bulgarian front in September 1918 and forced Bulgaria into the Armistice of Salonika. In Africa the French took the German colonies of Togo and Cameroon. In the talks on the partition of Turkey that ended in the Sykes–Picot Agreement, France laid claim to Syria and Cilicia.

The home front

The front divided the country into three parts: front-line France, occupied France and the rear. The Germans entered ten departments. On 12 October 1914 Lille capitulated, and for the city four years of occupation began. The population of the occupied departments lived on aid from the American Commission for Relief in Belgium, and at Easter 1916 the Germans deported 15,000 women from the occupied areas.

From May 1915 the war economy was run by the socialist Albert Thomas, as under-secretary of state for artillery, munitions and military equipment. By the end of the war 1.7 million people worked in the armaments industry, including more than 420,000 women. France, which began the war with an antiquated industry, became the arsenal of the Entente. Some 200,000 workers came from the colonies, and 600,000 colonial soldiers joined the army, of whom about 500,000 fought in Europe.

The Polish Army was also formed in France. On 4 June 1917 Poincaré signed a decree creating an autonomous Polish army fighting under the Polish flag, and on 20 September 1917 France became the first to recognise the Polish National Committee of Roman Dmowski, based in Paris. In July 1918 General Józef Haller arrived in France, and on 28 September France and the Committee recognised the Polish Army as allied and co-belligerent. In November 1918 it numbered about 17,000 men, and most of its later 70,000 joined only after the armistice.

The end of the war and the cost

The armistice of 11 November obliged the Germans to withdraw their troops within 15 days from France and Alsace-Lorraine, which France regained. During the war between 7.94 million (according to the International Labour Office) and 8.41 million men (according to the US War Department) were called up into the French army.

According to the government report of 1919 the army lost 1.36 million killed and missing, and 1.40 million including the navy and those who died of wounds after the armistice. The US War Department also counted 4,266,000 wounded. Together with civilian victims the war took 4.3–4.4 per cent of France’s population.

Sources

  1. encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net · france
  2. libraryofsocialscience.com · white first world war casualties
  3. France in World War I · Wikipedia (en)
  4. World War I casualties · Wikipedia (en)
  5. French entry into World War I · Wikipedia (en)

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Battles

(103)
  1. 6–12 September 1914First Battle of the MarneIn September 1914 the French and British halted the Germans on a front from Paris to Verdun and forced them to retreat. The plan for a quick victory collapsed.
  2. 12–15 September 1914First Battle of the AisneIn September 1914 the Germans, retreating from the Marne, held the heights above the Aisne against the French and British. Trench warfare began in the west.
  3. 10 October – 2 November 1914Battle of La BasséeFrom 10 October to 2 November 1914 the British tried to take La Bassée. Stopped by the Germans, they held the front with the help of Indian troops.
  4. 12 October – 2 November 1914Battle of Messines (1914)From 12 October to 2 November 1914 British cavalry fought in Flanders for the Messines ridge. On 1 November the Germans took Messines and the heights.
  5. 13 October – 2 November 1914Battle of ArmentièresFrom 13 October to 2 November 1914 the British III Corps retook Meteren, Bailleul and Armentières, then defended itself on the Lys against the Germans.
  6. 16 October – 10 November 1914Battle of the YserFrom 16 October to 10 November 1914 the Belgians and French held the Yser line. Flooding the plain stopped the Germans and saved a strip of free Belgium.
  7. 19 October – 22 November 1914First Battle of YpresFrom 19 October to 22 November 1914 the Allies held Ypres against new German armies. The old British army bled to death in front of the town.
  8. 21–24 October 1914Battle of Langemarck (1914)From 21 to 24 October 1914 Haig's British I Corps at Ypres repulsed an attack by new German reserve corps, made up partly of volunteers.
  9. 29–31 October 1914Battle of GheluveltOn 29–31 October 1914 the Fabeck Group tried to break the front at Ypres. On 31 October the British line broke at Gheluvelt, but a counter-attack closed it.
  10. 11 November 1914Battle of Nonne BosschenOn 11 November 1914 the Prussian Guard broke the British line at Ypres and got into Nonne Bosschen, but was driven out. It was the last big German attack.
  11. 20 December 1914 – 17 March 1915First Battle of ChampagneFrom 20 December 1914 to 17 March 1915 the French Fourth Army assaulted German trenches in Champagne, paying over 90,000 men for a few kilometres of ground.
  12. 8–14 January 1915Battle of SoissonsIn January 1915 the French took Hill 132 at Crouy, north of Soissons. A German counter-attack and the flooded Aisne pushed them back across the river.
  13. 19 February – 18 March 1915Dardanelles naval operationFrom 19 February to 18 March 1915 the British and French fleets tried to force the Dardanelles. The attack ended with three battleships sunk by mines.
  14. 22–23 April 1915Battle of Gravenstafel RidgeOn 22–23 April 1915 Canadians and British troops closed the gap at Ypres left by the first chlorine attack, paying for it with thousands killed and wounded.
  15. 22 April – 25 May 1915Second Battle of YpresFrom 22 April to 25 May 1915 the Germans, using chlorine for the first time in the west, cut the Ypres salient by several kilometres but did not take the town.
  16. 24 April – 4 May 1915Battle of St. JulienFrom 24 April to 4 May 1915 Canadians, British, Indians and French defended the northern edge of the Ypres salient against Germans attacking with chlorine.
  17. 9 May – 18 June 1915Second Battle of ArtoisFrom 9 May to 18 June 1915 the French 10th Army tried to take Vimy Ridge. On day one it reached the crest, then fought for weeks over single villages.
  18. 20 July – 16 October 1915Battle of Le LingeFrom 20 July to 16 October 1915 French chasseurs alpins stormed the Linge ridge in the Vosges. They took a scrap of mountain; both sides lost thousands of men.
  19. 25 September – 6 November 1915Second Battle of ChampagneFrom 25 September to 6 November 1915 two French armies attacked in Champagne. They took the German first line and 20,000 prisoners, but the second line held.
  20. 25 September – 15 October 1915Third Battle of ArtoisFrom 25 September to 15 October 1915 the French 10th Army attacked Vimy Ridge again. It took Souchez and part of the slopes, but the Germans kept the crest.
  21. 18 December 1915 – 9 January 1916Evacuation of GallipoliFrom 18 December 1915 to 9 January 1916 the Allies secretly withdrew their last troops from Gallipoli. The Turks noticed only as the boats were pulling away.
  22. 21 February – 18 December 1916Battle of VerdunFrom 21 February to 18 December 1916 Germans and French fought for the heights above the Meuse. After ten months the front was back almost on the old lines.
  23. 1 July – 18 November 1916Battle of the SommeFrom 1 July to 18 November 1916 the British and French attacked on the Somme. They gained 10 km at most, and the two sides together lost over a million men.
  24. 1–13 July 1916Battle of Albert (1916)First phase of the Somme, 1–13 July 1916. In bloody fighting the British took La Boisselle, Contalmaison and Mametz Wood, below the German second line.
  25. 3–6 September 1916Battle of GuillemontOn 3–6 September 1916 the British on the Somme took Guillemont, Falfemont Farm and Leuze Wood, for which they had fought without success since late July.
  26. 15–22 September 1916Battle of Flers–CourceletteOn 15–22 September 1916 British and Dominion troops took Flers, Martinpuich, Courcelette and High Wood on the Somme. Tanks fought for the first time.
  27. 25–28 September 1916Battle of MorvalOn 25–28 September 1916 the British Fourth Army took Morval, Lesbœufs and Gueudecourt on the Somme, and Combles with the French. Its best attack since July.
  28. 1–18 October 1916Battle of the Transloy RidgesOn 1–18 October 1916 the British Fourth Army attacked towards Le Transloy on the Somme in rain and mud. It took Eaucourt l’Abbaye and Le Sars, but no more.
  29. 24 October – 18 December 1916First Offensive Battle of Verdun24 October – 18 December 1916. The French under Nivelle and Mangin retook Forts Douaumont and Vaux and in December drove the Germans several km from Verdun.
  30. 22 February – 5 April 1917German retreat to the Hindenburg LineFrom 22 February to early April 1917 the Germans fell back from the Ancre and Somme to the Hindenburg Line, shortening the front and leaving devastation behind.
  31. 16 April – 9 May 1917Second Battle of the AisneFrom 16 April to 9 May 1917 the French assaulted the Chemin des Dames. Nivelle promised a breakthrough in 48 hours; he won a few km for over 100,000 men.
  32. 17 April – 20 May 1917Third Battle of ChampagneFrom 17 April to 20 May 1917 the French 4th Army took the Moronvilliers heights east of Reims. It denied the Germans observation but did not break the front.
  33. 31 July – 2 August 1917Battle of Pilckem RidgeOn 31 July – 2 August 1917 the Allies took Pilckem Ridge near Ypres, but the British stalled on the Gheluvelt plateau, and on 31 July rain began to fall.
  34. 31 July – 10 November 1917Third Battle of YpresFrom 31 July to 10 November 1917 the British attacked from Ypres towards Passchendaele. In rain and mud they gained a few km, losing a quarter of a million men.
  35. 16–18 August 1917Battle of Langemarck (1917)On 16–18 August 1917 the British took Langemarck and the French the Drie Grachten bridgehead, but on the Gheluvelt plateau and at Frezenberg the attack failed.
  36. 9 October 1917Battle of PoelcappelleOn 9 October 1917 Plumer's exhausted divisions attacked the Passchendaele ridge in the mud and were repulsed. In the north the Allies reached Houthulst Forest.
  37. 21–23 March 1918Battle of St QuentinOn 21–23 March 1918 three German armies broke through the British Fifth Army in fog at Saint-Quentin and drove it back behind the Crozat Canal and the Somme.
  38. 21 March – 5 April 1918Operation MichaelFrom 21 March to 5 April 1918 three German armies broke the British front on the Somme and advanced more than 60 km, but did not take Amiens.
  39. 25–26 March 1918Battle of NoyonOn 25–26 March 1918 Hutier's German 18th Army took Noyon on the Oise and drove back French reinforcements, but stopped at Mont Renaud on the road to Paris.
  40. 26–27 March 1918Battle of RosièresOn 26–27 March 1918 British XIX Corps held the Santerre on the road to Amiens. The Germans took Albert, Chaulnes, Roye and Montdidier but did not break through.
  41. 4 April 1918Battle of the AvreOn 4 April 1918 the Germans struck at Amiens for the last time. The French lost villages on the Avre, but Australians and British held Villers-Bretonneux.
  42. 9–29 April 1918Battle of the LysOn 9–29 April 1918 the Germans struck in Flanders, routed the Portuguese and took Kemmel, but failed to break through to Hazebrouck or the Channel ports.
  43. 17–19 April 1918First Battle of Kemmel RidgeOn 17–19 April 1918 the Germans attacked the Flanders hills, Kemmelberg included, and the Belgians at Merkem. All attacks failed; the French took over Kemmel.
  44. 24–25 April 1918Battle of Villers-BretonneuxOn 24 April 1918 the Germans, helped by A7V tanks, took Villers-Bretonneux near Amiens. In the night of 25 April, Anzac Day, the Australians retook the town.
  45. 25–26 April 1918Second Battle of Kemmel RidgeOn 25–26 April 1918 the Germans stormed Kemmelberg, held by the French. The counter-attack of 26 April failed, but the Germans got no further.
  46. 29 April 1918Battle of the ScherpenbergOn 29 April 1918 the Germans struck in Flanders for the last time, at the Scherpenberg and Mont Rouge. The Allies held, and Ludendorff ended "Georgette".
  47. 27 May – 6 June 1918Third Battle of the AisneFrom 27 May to 6 June 1918 the German 7th Army took the Chemin des Dames, broke the French and British on the Aisne and reached the Marne at Château-Thierry.
  48. 9–14 June 1918Battle of the MatzOn 9–14 June 1918 the German 18th Army struck between Montdidier and Noyon towards Compiègne. After early success it was halted by Mangin's counter-attack.
  49. 15–24 June 1918Second Battle of the PiaveOn 15–24 June 1918 Austria-Hungary attacked at Asiago, the Grappa and across the Piave. It crossed the river, but floods and counter-attacks forced it back.
  50. 15 July – 6 August 1918Second Battle of the MarneFrom 15 July to 6 August 1918 the last German offensive on the Marne collapsed, and Foch's counter-offensive drove the Germans from the Soissons–Reims salient.
  51. 23 July – 2 August 1918Battle of the Soissonnais and of the Ourcq23 July – 2 August 1918 the British 15th and 34th Divisions fought in Mangin's army south of Soissons until the Germans fell back behind the Vesle.
  52. 8–11 August 1918Battle of AmiensOn 8–11 August 1918 Rawlinson's Canadians, Australians and British with tanks, and Debeney's French, broke the German front east of Amiens.
  53. 8–15 August 1918Battle of MontdidierFrom 8 to 15 August 1918 Debeney's French First Army, joined on 10 August by Humbert's Third Army, attacked beside the British at Amiens and retook Montdidier.
  54. 17–29 August 1918Second Battle of NoyonOn 17–29 August 1918 Mangin's and Humbert's armies struck between the Oise and the Aisne, pushed the Germans behind the Ailette and retook ruined Noyon.
  55. 21 August – 3 September 1918Second Battle of the SommeFrom 21 August to 3 September 1918 the British Third and Fourth Armies drove the Germans across the old Somme battlefield, retaking Albert, Bapaume and Péronne.
  56. 12–16 September 1918Battle of Saint-MihielOn 12–16 September 1918 Pershing's US First Army, with the French II Colonial Corps, eliminated the German Saint-Mihiel salient, held since 1914.
  57. 12 September – 12 October 1918Battles of the Hindenburg LineFrom 12 September to 12 October 1918 three British armies, with Canadians, Australians and Americans, broke the Hindenburg Line and reached the Selle.
  58. 15–17 September 1918Battle of Dobro PoleOn 15–17 September 1918 the Serbs and French stormed the Dobro Pole–Sokol–Vetrenik mountain ridge and broke the Bulgarian front in Macedonia.
  59. 15–29 September 1918Vardar offensiveIn September 1918 General Franchet d'Espèrey's Allied armies broke the front in Macedonia, reached Skopje in two weeks and forced Bulgaria to sign an armistice.
  60. 19–25 September 1918Battle of MegiddoOn 19–25 September 1918 Allenby broke the Turkish front by the sea and his cavalry cut off its retreat in the Jezreel Valley. Two Turkish armies were destroyed.
  61. 26 September – 11 November 1918Meuse–Argonne offensive26 September – 11 November 1918 the US First and French Fourth Armies attacked between the Meuse, the Argonne and Champagne. The largest battle in US history.
  62. 28 September – 2 October 1918Fifth Battle of Ypres28 September – 2 October 1918 Belgian, British and French troops under Albert I retook the heights around Ypres and reached the Lys, then stuck in the mud.
  63. 14–19 October 1918Battle of KortrijkOn 14–19 October 1918 the Flanders Army Group broke the German front, retook Roeselare, Menen and Kortrijk, and the Germans gave up the whole Belgian coast.
  64. 24 October – 4 November 1918Battle of Vittorio VenetoOn 24 October – 4 November 1918 Italy and its allies crossed the Piave and broke the Austro-Hungarian army, which fell apart with the Habsburg monarchy.
  65. 4 November 1918Battle of the SambreOn 4 November 1918 three British armies forced the Sambre–Oise Canal, went through the Forest of Mormal and took Le Quesnoy. It was the BEF's last great battle.
Other battles (38)

People

(25)

Key dates

(68)
  1. 3 August 1914Germany declares war on France
  2. 6 August 1914Battle of the Frontiers begins
  3. 8 August 1914French troops take Mulhouse
  4. 12 August 1914Britain and France declare war on Austria-Hungary
  5. 14 August 1914Battles of Morhange and Sarrebourg begin
  6. 21 August 1914Battle of Charleroi begins
  7. 22 August 1914Battle of the Ardennes begins
  8. 25 August 1914Battle of the Meuse begins
  9. 25 August 1914Battle of the Mortagne begins
  10. 26 August 1914Battle of Le Cateau
  11. 29 August 1914Battle of Guise begins
  12. 4 September 1914Battle of the Grand Couronné begins
  13. 5 September 1914Battle of the Ourcq begins
  14. 6 September 1914Battle of the Marne begins
  15. 9 September 1914Germans retreat from the Marne
  16. 12 September 1914Battle of the Aisne begins
  17. 22 September 1914First Battle of Picardy begins
  18. 22 September 1914First Battle of Albert begins
  19. 27 September 1914First Battle of Artois begins
  20. 1 October 1914Battle of Arras begins
  21. 10 October 1914Battle of La Bassée begins
  22. 12 October 1914Battle of Messines begins
  23. 13 October 1914Battle of Armentières begins
  24. 5 November 1914Britain and France declare war on Turkey
  25. 20 December 1914First Battle of Champagne begins
  26. 8 January 1915Start of the battle of Soissons
  27. 22 April 1915Second Battle of Ypres begins
  28. 9 May 1915Second Battle of Artois begins
  29. 20 July 1915Start of the Battle of Le Linge
  30. 25 September 1915Third Battle of Artois begins
  31. 25 September 1915Second Battle of Champagne begins
  32. 5 October 1915Entente landing at Salonika
  33. 18 February 1916Surrender of Mora
  34. 21 February 1916Start of the Battle of Verdun
  35. 24 March 1916Torpedoing of the Sussex
  36. 26 April 1916Sykes–Picot Agreement
  37. 1 July 1916First day on the Somme
  38. 25 September 1916Start of the Battle of Morval
  39. 24 October 1916The French recapture Fort Douaumont
  40. 18 November 1916End of the Battle of the Somme
  41. 18 December 1916End of the Battle of Verdun
  42. 25 February 1917Germans withdraw from the Ancre
  43. 16 April 1917Nivelle offensive begins
  44. 17 April 1917Battle of the Hills begins
  45. 3 May 1917Start of the French Army mutinies
  46. 15 May 1917Pétain becomes commander-in-chief
  47. 12 June 1917Abdication of King Constantine
  48. 31 July 1917Third Battle of Ypres begins
  49. 16 August 1917Battle of Langemarck (1917) begins
  50. 15 October 1917Execution of Mata Hari
  51. 25 March 1918Germans capture Noyon
  52. 4 April 1918Fighting on the Avre
  53. 17 April 1918Start of the First Battle of Mount Kemmel
  54. 25 April 1918Germans take Mount Kemmel
  55. 29 April 1918Fighting for the Scherpenberg
  56. 27 May 1918Third Battle of the Aisne begins
  57. 3 June 1918Versailles declaration
  58. 9 June 1918Start of the Battle of the Matz
  59. 15 July 1918Second Battle of the Marne begins
  60. 18 July 1918Mangin's counter-offensive
  61. 23 July 1918Start of the Battle of the Soissonnais and the Ourcq
  62. 8 August 1918Start of the Battle of Montdidier
  63. 17 August 1918Second Battle of Noyon begins
  64. 26 September 1918The Meuse–Argonne offensive begins
  65. 30 September 1918Armistice of Salonica
  66. 14 October 1918Battle of Kortrijk begins
  67. 11 November 1918Armistice of Compiègne
  68. 20 October 1921Conference of Ambassadors divides Upper Silesia
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