Armée d'Orient (1915–19)

The Armée d'Orient (AO) was a field army of the French Army during World War I who fought on the Macedonian front.

The Armée d'Orient was formed in September 1915 during the Conquest of Serbia by German-Austrian-Bulgarian forces, and shipped to the Greek port of Salonika where its first units arrived on 5 October. Despite several offensives, the front stabilized on the Greek-Serbian border until September 1918, when the Bulgarian army disintegrated after defeat in the Battle of Dobro Pole.

On 11 August 1916, all allied troops on the Salonika Front came under a united command, and named Allied Army of the Orient. Supreme commander became the French commander of the Armée d'Orient Maurice Sarrail. He was replaced as commander of the Armée d'Orient by Victor Cordonnier, and the army itself was renamed the Armée française d'Orient (AFO).

Commanders

• General Maurice Sarrail (5 October 1915 – 11 August 1916)
• General Victor Cordonnier (11 August 1916 – 19 October 1916)
• General Paul Leblois (19 October 1916 – 1 February 1917)
• General Paul François Grossetti (1 February 1917 – 30 September 1917)
• General Charles Louis Jacques Régnault (30 September 1917 – 31 December 1917)
• General Paul Prosper Henrys (31 December 1917 – April 1919)

Units

• 156th Infantry Division (France) (since October 1915), was formerly part of the Corps expéditionnaire d'Orient[1]
• 57th Infantry Division (since October–November 1915)
• 122nd Infantry Division (since October–November 1915)
• fr:17e division d'infanterie coloniale (since February 1916), was formerly part of the Corps Expeditionnaire des Dardanelles[lower-alpha 1]
• 30th Infantry Division (since September–December 1916)
• 76th Infantry Division (since September–December 1916)
• 11th Colonial Infantry Division (since September–December 1916)
• 16th Colonial Infantry Division (since September–December 1916)
• A cavalry brigade formed of units from the Army of Africa
• Escadrille N.391[3]

After World War I

After the victory against Bulgaria in the fall of 1918, the AFO is divided in 3 parts :

• Army of the Danube (AD), created on 28 October 1918, operated in Romania and the Crimea. Commanded by :
  • Henri Mathias Berthelot (until May 1919)
  • Jean César Graziani (until January 1920)
• Army of Hungary (AH), created on 1 March 1919 and dissolved on 31 August 1919. Commanded by
  • Paul-Joseph de Lobit
• Expeditionary corps for the Occupation of Constantinople (COC). Commanded by
  • Louis Franchet d'Esperey (November 1918 – January 1919)
  • Albert Defrance (February 1919 – December 1920)
  • Maurice Pellé (1921 – 22 October 1923)

See also

• List of French armies in WWI

Notes, citations, and references

Notes

1. General Jean César Graziani, as Chief of the General Staff of the French Army, was asked to provide statistical information, in respect of in the Gallipoli and Salonika campaigns, to highlight French participation in these theatres of war to the Russians. As at 17 August 1916, French forces comprised 3,075 officers, 113,000 other ranks, 45,593 horses & mules, 6,954 carriages and 1,110 automobiles.[2]

Citations

1. "De Gallipoli à Salonique". Forum pages14-18 (in French). Retrieved 8 September 2020. transcriptions of primary source documents, listing which units redeployed to Salonika
2. Letter from Graziani to Lavergne dated 15 September 1916. '(Enclosure 2) The French war effort in Salonika.' In AFGG 8,1,1 Annexes (1924) Annexe n° 438, p. 728–734
3. Over the Front: The Complete Record of the Fighter Aces and Units of the United States and French Air Services, 1914–1918, p. 221

References

• Franks, Norman; Bailey, Frank (1993). Over the Front: The Complete Record of the Fighter Aces and Units of the United States and French Air Services, 1914–1918. London, UK: Grub Street Publishing. ISBN 978-0-948817-54-0.
• Lepetit, Vincent; Tournyol du Clos, Alain; Rinieri, Ilario, eds. (1923). Les armées françaises dans la Grande guerre. Tome VIII. La campagne d'Orient (Dardanelles et Salonique) Premier Volume. (février 1915-août 1916) [8,1]. Ministère De la Guerre, Etat-Major de l'Armée - Service Historique (in French). Paris: Imprimerie Nationale. OCLC 491775878.
• Les armées françaises dans la Grande guerre. Tome VIII. Premier volume. La campagne d'Orient jusqu'à l'intervention de la Roumanie (février 1915-août 1916). Annexes - 1er Volume [8,1,1]. Ministère De la Guerre, Etat-Major de l'Armée - Service Historique. primary source documents (in French). Paris: Imprimerie Nationale. 1924. OCLC 163166542.
• Pompé, Daniel; et al., eds. (1924). Les armées françaises dans la Grande guerre. Tome X. 2e Volume. Ordres de bataille des grandes unités - Divisions d'Infanterie, Divisions de Cavalerie [10,2]. Ministère De la Guerre, Etat-Major de l'Armée - Service Historique (in French) (1st ed.). Paris: Imprimerie Nationale. Retrieved 6 September 2020.

External links

• Chanoir, Yohann: Army of the Orient, in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.