Outline of the French Army at the end of the Cold War

The President of the French Republic François Mitterrand and the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany Helmut Kohl reviewing French troops during maneuvers in West Germany in 1987.

The following is a hierarchical outline for the French Land Army at the end of the Cold War. It is intended to convey the connections and relationships between units and formations. The theoretical combat strength of the army was 295,989 soldiers, of the 557,904 individuals available for service across the entire French Armed Forces in 1989.[1]

In 1967 with the withdrawal of French forces from the NATO Military Command Structure, agreements were reached between the SACEUR at the time, General Lyman Lemnitzer, and the French Chief of Staff, General Charles Ailleret (fr:Charles Ailleret), under which the French forces in Germany might in certain circumstances fight alongside Allied Forces Central Europe.[2]

In 1977 the Army had changed its military organisation in accordance with a short war-fighting strategy in Europe, and divisions lost their component brigades. Under army headquarters in 1985 were the First Army, with three corps, the Rapid Action Force, an independent corps-level rapid deployment command, six military regions in the metropole (including the former Défense opérationnelle du territoire territorial defence forces), and forces overseas, including DOM-TOM, in Guyana, Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, Djibouti, Seychelles/Mayotte, New Caledonia, and French Polynesia.[3][4]

  1. ^ "Ordre de bataille". Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  2. ^ https://archives.nato.int/exchange-of-letters-between-saceur-and-the-french-commander-in-chief-concerning-cooperation-with-french-forces-in-germany-lemnitzer-ailleret-agreement, see also Jean Lacouture, Charles de Gaulle – Le souverain 1959-1970, p. 476-477.
  3. ^ Isby and Kamps, 1985, 111
  4. ^ "index - armee-francaise-1989". Retrieved 24 November 2020.