1st Armored Division (France)
The 1st Armored Division () is a unit of the French Army formed during World War II that took part in the Liberation of France. The unit was dissolved for the first time in 1946, and was recommissioned in 1948. It was dissolved again in 1999 as a consequence of the professionalization of the French military. The 1st Mechanised Brigade (1 BM), created on July 1, 1999, inherited the traditions of the 1 DB. The 1 BM was again dissolved on July 21, 2015. The 1st Division (1 DIV) was recreated in 2016. Motto and designation. The  Latin motto of the division, "Nomine et Virtute Prima", translates literally to "La première par le nom et la valeur" in French, and "The first by name and valor" in English. The choice of the insignia, the cross of Saint Louis by général Jean Touzet du Vigier, derives from Tunisia, the place where the unit was formed, and also where King Louis IX of France was laid to rest in 1270. The division is known and referred to as the "Saint-Louis division". The division was cited three times during the Second World War. History. 1943–1946. In 1943, Free-French  armed forces were formed in exile in the French colonies of Africa under the command of General De Gaulle. The units were equipped with modern equipment provided by the United States, and the program anticipated the constitution of several armed divisions. Following the arrival of equipment in North Africa from the US, only three divisions were constituted, each comprising the following units: These divisions were organised according to American customs, in three combat commands. The three French divisions were organised in this way for the duration of 1944-1945 operations. Within this context, the 1st Armored Division (1st DB) was  formed on May 1, 1943. The division was heir to the Light Mechanised Brigade () which saw combat in Tunisia. On January 28, 1943, General Jean Touzet du Vigier (promoted on December 25, 1942) took command of this unit as it was being formed. He left the command of the BLM to General and installed his command post in Mascara, Algeria, the training center for armored brigades. When first established, the 1st DB consisted of a reconnaissance regiment, the 3rd Chasseurs d'Afrique, of Constantine, Algeria; two tank regiments, the and , Oran and Maison Carrée; and a fourth Chasseurs d'Afrique regiment, the  , which was equipped with tank destroyers. Adding to these four formations were one mounted regiment, the 2nd Zouaves, of Oran, the 68th Artillery Regiment, of Tunisia; the 88th Engineer Battalion, recently created at Port-Lyautey, and the 38th FTA group, of Ténès. During May 1943, the transmission and service companies joined, and in August, the train and a squadron group reinforced them. Then the 2nd Chasseurs d'Afrique was divided (doubled) to form 2nd Tank-Cuirassiers Regiment, a regiment that Général du Vigier commanded in 1940. The latter had just been promoted to a divisional general on August 25, and all  the forces under his command were grouped around Mascara. The 2nd Zouaves Regiment disappeared and was replaced, as the infantry of the division, by three independent battalions, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Zouaves, forming a demi-brigade. The division became part of the First Army (then designated Army B) and which participated in the amphibious assault on Provence. The initial embarkation began in Oran and Mers-el-Kébir at the end of July 1944, after several manoeuvres. The naval ships lifted anchor on August 10 and 11. The disembarkment was to take place between Saint-Tropez and Saint-Raphaël. At  dawn on August 15, an enormous naval fleet was assembled north-west of Corsica heading north. The operations of the 1st Armored Division throughout the course of World War II comprised three phases: Mediterranean to the Vosges, August 15 to November 13, 1944. Throughout the course of the first phase of operations, the CC1 was engaged in battle, then the entire division complemented by the VI Corps, fought in the sieges of Toulon and Marseille, and the liberation of Provence. The unit reached the Rhône in a series of rapid advances, then regrouped, west of the river, for fifteen days . After disembarking, the division engaged in an advance of 600 kilometers, which would bring them to the footsteps of the Vosges, following an uninterrupted series of combat engagements, which led to the liberation of Saint-Étienne, Lyon, Anse and Villefranche, Chalon-sur-Saône, Chagny, Beaune, Dijon and Langres. Next began a slow and difficult climb into the valleys of the Vosges, in mud and rain and snow. After 45 days of marching towards Le Thillot, liberating Mélisey, Servance, Haut-du-Them-Château-Lambert, Ramonchamp, Cornimont, , Fresse, the , Recologne, the chapel of Ronchamp, and Bourlémont, the division finally entered the Belfort  Gap on October 18, 1944. Following this first phase of operations, the 1st DB was cited in dispatches for its combat performance. Combat for Alsace November 14, 1944 to February 9, 1945. In the second phase of combat, the 1st DB was the first unit to penetrate Alsace and the first to reach the Rhine River. Advancing on November 14 from the high valley of the Doubs, the 1st DB mounted an offensive on Belfort. Operating under the 1st Army Corps of General Antoine Béthouart, it manoeuvred to Héricourt along the French-Swiss border and captured Delle on November 18 . The next day, the CC3 was in Alsace and, at 1800, the tank platoon of Lieutenant Loisy was able to raise its standard on the banks of the Rhine at Rosenau. He was part of the 4th squadron of the 2nd African Chasseur Regiment and met his end on November 23 when his tank was hit by an anti-tank launcher during the attack on the Lefebvre barracks at Mulhouse. On 20 November, Colonel Caldairou entered the city. Despite the success of the rendezvous of the 1st and 2nd Army Corps near Burnhaupt, Colmar remained well protected. For the next  two months, the division held a defensive sector in the snow on the Dollar River, south of what would later be referred to as the Colmar Pocket. On January 20, the 1st Army relaunched an assault on the two northern and southern flanks of the pocket, in the middle of a snow storm. Following a three-week struggle, Alsace was liberated and Colmar seized on February 2. The division, which had engaged in combat since December 5 under the orders of General Aimé Sudre, following an annoying delay in two minefields, achieved a breakthrough which led to the capture of  Chalampé on the morning of February 9. Accordingly, the division completed its role in the campaign of France, which started on August 15, 1944, and which ended six months later on the Rhine. Following this second phase of operations, the 1st DB was again cited in dispatches for its combat performance. February 10 – May 7, 1945. At the beginning of the third phase, starting April 5, the CC2 was in Germany. The 9th Colonial Infantry Division, cleared a path through the Black Forest, to free for the 1st Army important routes. Later to the turn, the CC3 combat engaged supporting  the colonials. Following a march on Kehl and Offenburg, they made their way south to take Freiburg im Breisgau on April 21. They rejoined the division on the 28th south-west of Ulm. The 1st Armored Division crossed the Rhine on April 17. General Sudre regrouped means at the exception of CC3 around Freudenstadt, and while acting with the cadre of the 1st Army Corps, his unit mounted the assault. The division accordingly made their way to the Danube by Rottweil and Horb am Neckar, crossed the river on April 21 at Mülheim and Tuttlingen, and while engaging Stockach , pushed back along the Danube through Sigmaringen to Ulm, which was taken in liaison with the American 7th United States Army arriving from the north. The 1 DB took Immenstadt on April 30 and on the same day reached the Austrian frontier to occupy Aach and Oberstdorf. With only the field of mountains in plain sight, the division opened the way for the infantry and regrouped around Biberach. First to the Rhine, first to the Danube, the division with the Cross of Saint-Louis reached objectives following a sequence of successful event combat engagement series. The division played a decisive  role towards the final campaign. The CC2 in the Black Forest, the CC3 in the fields of Bade, then the entire division engaged in combat until May 7. Following this ultimate and third phase operations, the 1 DB was cited for a third time at the orders of the armed forces. End of the war. Following the cessation of hostilities, the 1re DB joined Palatinat, around Landau. The division remained there for two months. The division sent to Berlin the first detachment in charge of representing France, on July 1, composed of : a squadron of the 3rd African Chasseur Regiment , a squadron of the 9th, 2 companies of the 1st and 3rd Zouaves, and a train detachment. On September 5, the headquarter staff of the division garrisoned at Trèves. The 1 DB, with reduced effectif by the demobilization, returned to France and garrisoned, October 1945 to March 1946 in the zones of Bourges, Châtellerault, Nantes and Angoulême. The division was dissolved on March 31, 1946. Composition in 1944. The 1 DB which disembarked in Provence in August 1944 was composed of 73% Europeans and 27% Indigènes. Organic units: Organization of the mounted Zouaves battalions. The infantry of the 1 DB  was constituted of three mounted Zouaves battalions () organized within the following: One BZP was assigned to each of the three CC which composed the 1 Armored Division. The effectif was almost 800 men (Pied-Noirs, Metropolitan French and Maghrebis) and consisted of 3 combat companies with almost 180 to 200 men each. Each company consisted of three combat sections (platoons) of almost fifty men mounted by 5 half-tracks (armed with machine guns, mortars and cannon 57 anti-tank). Different and various circumstances governed combats of St-Loup-de-la-Salle, on September 6, 1944, almost 30 kilometers east of  Tailly. The entire BZP endured the heavy attack. In other circumstances, road combats were also expected, which led the Zouave to often progress through mounting tanks. Nevertheless, Zouaves also often mounted assaults by themselves. Such various governing circumstances were taking place on September 9 in front of Nuits-St-Georges. A company of the 3rd BZP was ordered to apprehend Nuits-Saint-Georges. Tanks were occupied in Beaune and could not provide fire support. The resistance was strong and companies without rear support endured heavy losses. As tanks were made available again, assaults were relaunched. These were, briefly evoked, the  types of various circumstances in which the BZPs conducted battle. Losses were heavy. The infantry accompanying the 1 DB endured killed in action and wounded, 1700 men out of 2400, the initial effectif. Almost 72% of the effective. Losses were compensated by reinforcements sent from North Africa as well as numerous volunteers who engaged as villages and cities were being liberated. 1948 to 1999. The 1st Armoured Division was recreated in 1948. In 1951, the general headquarter staff garrisoned at Trèves in Germany. The division was part of the French Forces in Germany (). Composition in 1985: From 1993 to 1999 , the 1re Division Blindée was part of the Eurocorps. 1999–2015. On July 1, 1999, the 1st Armored Division became the 1st Mechanised Brigade. The general headquarter staff garrisoned at Châlons-en-Champagne. The 1st Mechanised Brigade was dissolved on July 21, 2015. Since 2016. After the 1999 reorganisation, EMF 1 was created on l July 1999 at quartier Ruty in Besançon, as a NATO type division headquarters that could supervise 20–30,000 personnel. EMF 1 was dissolved in 2016 and the 1st Division recreated from it. The 1st Division was recreated on July 1, 2016. The division, a combined arms formation , comprises three brigades as well as French units of the Franco-German Brigade and is part of the Scorpion Force alongside the 3rd Division. Composition. The 1st Division is based in Besançon and is subordinated to the Commandement des Forces Terrestres (CFT). The division is made up of 25,000 personnel. Only the French units of the Franco-German Brigade are listed below.