20231220_Vocabulaire militaire français-anglais.pdf — page 126

Page 126 
 
M I L I T A R Y ,  N A V A L  A N D  A I R  
A C A D E M I E S  
 
Perhaps the first country to develop a comprehensive [=complet] and modernly 
efficient scheme [=système] of military education was Prussia, which had such early brilliant 
reformers as Gerhard von Scharnhorst, August von Gneisenau, and Carl von Clausewitz 
and whose complex of military institutions in the 19th century would elicit [=obtenir, provoquer] 
the respect (and often the imitation) of other military powers. At the base of the officer-
training system were eventually 8 cadet schools, more or less for the upper class or elite, 
and 10 war schools for the less select [=privilégiés] - both training men for commission [=to 
get one's commission, to be commissioned (as) an officer = être nommé officier]. At the apex [=point 
culminant, sommet] of the system was the venerable War Academy, or Kriegs Akademie, at 
Berlin, founded in 1810 and offering the highest advanced education for commissioned 
officers. A great complex of technical and auxiliary schools, such as for cavalry and 
engineering, filled in [=constituer] the system. After World War I the entire complex was 
disrupted [=interrompre], though the military tradition persisted. 
In France the system developed in simpler form, with two traditional channels 
[=voies] for men seeking commissions. Military engineers, artillerymen, and other technical 
officers were trained at the École Polytechnique, an engineering school that was 
founded in 1794. Staff and other officers for the infantry and cavalry were trained at the 
École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr, founded by Napoleon in 1803. The École Navale 
at Brest trains officers for the navy, and the École de l'Air at Salon-de-Provence is the air 
force academy. 
Until 1939 potential officers for the British army were trained at either the Royal 
Military Academy at Woolwich (founded 1741), offering training in artillery, engineering, 
and communications, or the Royal Military College at Sandhurst (founded 1802), offering 
cavalry and infantry training. From 1940 the functions of these schools were combined at 
Sandhurst, which in 1947 was officially designated the Royal Military Academy, 
Sandhurst. British naval cadets are enrolled at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth; and 
air force cadets train at the Royal Air Force College, Cranwell (founded 1920). Selected 
commissioned officers are educated in higher strategy and policy at the Imperial Defence 
College. 
The United States has four major academies: the United States Military 
Academy at West Point, N.Y. (founded 1802); the United States Naval Academy at 
Annapolis, Md. (founded 1845); the United States Air Force Academy at Colorado 
Springs, Colo. (founded 1954); and the United States Coast Guard Academy at New 
London, Conn. (founded 1876). There is also the United States Merchant Marine 
Academy at Kings Point, N.Y. (founded 1943), whose graduates [=diplômés] may apply for 
commissions in the naval reserve. At the apex of the system, for training commissioned 
officers of the three basic services [=armées] in higher strategy and policy, are the National 
War College and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, the latter for study of 
economic aspects of mobilization. Advanced training is also offered at the several 
[=différentes] academies and at non-military universities. 
 
Source : Encyclopædia Britannica.