French Air Service Organization

Hello,

I am a little confused on the organization of the French Air Service as it was assigned to the the French Army. Currently I tend to believe that Armee Corps (C.A.'s) were assigned to Armee Groups, and Infantry Divisions (D.I.'s) were attached to the C.A.'s. What about their precedence within a numbered army such as the 7th Armee?

I do not know if I am even close. Could someone straighten me out here? :'( :'( :'(

JASTA75

[Cliff]

Jasta75

I'm not quite sure what you mean by their precedence, but your statement is essentialy correct.
Armee's contained a number of Corps, each of which contained a number of Divisions.
Escadrilles were assigned at the Armee and Corps level.
The 7th Armee had two attached esc. in Apr./18,
the 21st Corps had 4, the 40th Corps had 1 and the City of Belfort was assigned 1 esc.

Hope this helps.
Cliff

[gregoire]

I will first talk about the army organisation and its evolution (in fact how its was in 14 and in 18)
in 14 the french army was made of army the army group is a wartime creation.3 group d'armee were created Nord (GAN) est (east GAE) and centre (GAC) betwen october 14 and june 15 then in January 17 a group d'armee de reserve (GAR)
an army group is made of a certain number of army
in 14 the french army is made of 5 army (I to V) 5 new army will be created (with various lifespand very short for VIII and X)
the army corps in 14 there there 21 of them during the war 12 new corps were to be created (including a colonial one)
the iniatial army corps was 2 divison strong in 14 it was up to 4 in 18
at the end of the war 2 to 3 escadrille de corps d'armee were attached to each corps
then come the division and the brigade (NB the brigade were no more at the end of the war)
and the regiment (or group of battaillon)
NB in the french 14/18 system a regiment is made of 3 battaillon that are fighting together and not individualy (like the british army)

Aviation unit attached to the army
in 14
1st army Bl 3, MF 5, Bl 9, Bl 10, Br 17, Br 18. (with 5 corps)
2nd HF 1, MF 8, HF 19, MF 20, MS 23 (with 5 corps)
3rd MF 2, HF 7, HF 13, MF 16, Do 22 (with 3corps)
4th V14, V21 (with 3orps)
5th Dep 4, Dep 6, C 11, N 12, Rep 15, V 24 (with 5 corps)

in 18
1st Army
fighter Spa 102
Reco Br201, V293
with 5 army corps and 14 independant divisions
2nd army fighter Spa 23
reco Br243 V290 (the 2nd army was under US tactical command)
3rd army spa 79, br 209 (3 corps + 4 division)
4th army GC 12 (capitaine Dupuy): Spa 3, Spa 26, Spa 67, Spa 103, Spa 167, Spa173.
GC 21 (Capitaine Couret) : Spa 98, Spa 157, Spa 163, Spa 164, Spa 175.
GC 22 (capitaine Échard) : Spa 38, Spa 87, Spa 92, Spa 152, Spa 169
with 4 army corps and 5 independant divison
5th army GC 16 (capitaine Menu): Spa 78, Spa 112, Spa 150, Spa 151, Spa 168, Spa176.
Chasse : Spa 76.
Reconnaissance : Br 222.
with 4 corps and 9 divisions
6th army
GC 23 (commandant Verdon): Spa 82, Spa 158, Spa 160, Spa 161, Spa 170.
Chasse : Spa 62.
Reconnaissance : Br 238.
Liaison d'artillerie lourde : Sal 225
with 3 corps and 3 divisons
7th army
Protection de Belfort : Spa 315.
Chasse : Spa 49.
Reconnaissance : Br 245.
Liaison d'artillerie lourde : Br 221, R. 242
with 3 army corps and 1 divisions
8th army
GC 11 (capitaine Bonnevay) : Spa 12, Spa 31, Spa 154, Spa 165, Spa 172.
Protection de Nancy : Spa 314.
Chasse : Spa 90.
Reconnaissance : Br 244, V 292 (nuit), R. 241.
Liaison d'artillerie lourde : Br 241,
with 2 coprs and one divison
and the 10th army
fighter Spa 69
Reco Br 224 V29
with 4 coprs and 9 divisons



It must be nottice that the division aerienne (under general Duval) as well as the bomber general reserve the composition of divison aerienne was not fixed in time and ahad various modification never the less in nov 18 it looked like
Groupement Ménard :Escadre 12 (Bombardement de jour) :
# GB 5 : Escadrilles Br 117, Br 120, Br 127.
# GB 6 : Escadrilles Br 66, Br 108, Br 111, RXI 239, RXI 240.
# GB 9 : Escadrilles Br 29, Br 123, Br 129.
Groupement Féquant :Escadre 13 (Bombardement de jour) :
# GB 3 : Escadrilles Br 107, Br 126, Br 128.
# GB 4 : Escadrilles Br 131, Br 132, Br 134, C 46, R 246.

it also got a 2 groupment de chase (fighter group) attached to it (if you have the OB for the fighter and multi seat plane I will be very interested)

the general reserve was made of
Escadre 11 (Bombardement de nuit) :
# GB 1 : Escadrilles V 25, F 110, F 114.
# GB 7 : Escadrilles V 118, V 119, V 121.
# GB 51 : Escadrilles V 135, V 136, V 137.
# p.m. BG 18 Italien (Esc. 3, 14 et 15 italiennes).
Escadre 14 (Bombardement de nuit) :
# GB 8 : Escadrilles V 109, V 113, V 125.
# GB 10 : Escadrilles V 101, V 116, V 133.
# GB 2 (Bombardement de nuit) : CAP 115, CAP 130

this not intented to be a full OB

Hi Cliff and Gregoire,

You both really hit the nail on the head with your responses.
Thanks for the help. I can see that you both really know your stuff!!!

JASTA75