a group of territorial divisions under the command of Gen. d'Amade in the region W. of the Oise was dignified by the name of an army.
Each army had a number of army corps varying according to the different missions of these corps. Thus, for example, the IV. Army, which under Plan 17 (wherein this army was in reserve) had only 3 army corps, had 6 army corps in the Ardennes battles, with, in addition, 2 reserve divisions. A temporary army was formed for the invasion of Alsace under Gen. Pau ; this was broken up when Joffre observed how seriously the left flank of the Allies was com- promised. An army, called the Lorraine Army, existed for some days in Woevre; it was broken up before even the neighbouring forces knew of its existence. A sixth army was organized near Amiens; this was the army which, reconstituted at Paris, fought the battle of the Ourcq. A ninth army, which at first was an "army detachment" under the IV. Army, was formed during the retreat and fought glori- ously at the Marne. In the course of the war, armies were created, broken up, and created anew as the needs of the case demanded. Thus there was formed at Salonika an Army of the East.
After the loss of the Meuse heights, which followed the loss of St. Mihiel, the commander of the III. Army was for a time brought under the authority of the commander of the I. Army. This was the origin of the creation of " Groups of Armies." These had the ad- vantage of simplifying the task of the commander-in-chief, which had become heavier and heavier; but it was evident during the offensive of April 1917 that this part of the machinery was capable of bringing its movement to a standstill. Opinions formed on this subject seem unanimous in considering the army group a temporary formation intended to achieve coordination of movement when many armies were seeking the same objective while the commander-in- chief had too many other urgent occupations to act himself. In 1915 there were three groups of armies, East, Centre, North. For the offensive of 1917, and again for the spring campaign of 1918, groups of armies designated " reserve " (G.A.R.) were formed. In the final advance of Sept.-Oct. 1918 a group of armies of Flanders was formed of Belgian, French and British troops under King Albert.
An " Army Corps " in principle was composed of two divisions of the active army and corps troops and included especially one brigade of the reserve. But certain army corps in Aug. 1914 had 3 divisions the VI. Army Corps for example. The II. Corps mobi- lized 5 brigades, but it lost almost at once the 8th Bde., which was attached to the cavalry corps. In the course of the campaign during the stationary period, an army corps was often no more than a sector where troops collected either for battle or for enjoying a period of comparative rest. The number of divisions was extremely variable, as was also the allotment of artillery in a sector.
An infantry " division " originally consisted of 2 brigades of infantry, a company of engineers and a regiment of artillery. In order to give greater mobility and to decrease the proportion of infantry in comparison to the number of guns, one regiment of infantry was suppressed. The ternary order prevailed not only in the regiment of infantry but also in the battalion. The cavalry divi- sion did not undergo any great change during the war, although in 1915 two sections of machine-guns were added. The proportion of engineers was increased while many regiments of cavalry were dis- mounted or broken up.
A cavalry corps was composed of a variable number of divisions of cavalry. On the left wing of the French army the general-in-chief constituted, from the concentration, a cavalry corps in strength of 3 divisions. During the battle of the Meuse, the commander of the IV. Army created a cavalry corps from 2 divisions which had been at that moment attached to him. In front of the I. and II. Armies a cavalry corps was also created for a brief time. In fact, the cavalry corps did not exist as an organized formation ; when two or more divi- sions of cavalry were placed under the same commander the group thus formed was often called a cavalry corps. A division of cavalry had 3 brigades of cavalry and a group of batteries.
Many were the variations through which the order of battle passed in the course of the war. But it is of special interest to mention what the French army of 1914 had become in 1918 when the war was ended ; the numbers can be compared with those shown above.
In 1918 there were at the front: 88,488 officers and 2,846,000 men 450,000 rifles only (about one-third of the number in 1914), 400,000 carbines, 33,500 sabres, 19,149 heavy machine-guns, 46,800 light machine-guns (an arm which had not been employed in 1914), 936 guns of 37 mm. calibre, 1,872 Stokes mortars, 36 motor-mounted 37 mm. guns, 208 motor-mounted machine-guns, 6,618 field guns (75 mm.), 7,100 heavy guns, 260 mountain guns, 2,275 guns of position and trench artillery, 3,379 aeroplanes (which the programme for 1919 increased to 6,000), 77 balloons, and 2,385 (a little later 4,626) tanks. In 1914 the army had 19,000 vehicles; in 1918 there were 88,500.
Under the law of Dec. 23 1912, the French infantry in peace-time comprised 173 regiments, of which 164 had 3 battalions of 4 com- panies each; 8 "fortress" regiments had 4 battalions, and one regiment stationed in Corsica had a variable number of battalions. There were 31 battalions of chasseurs-d-pied, of which 18 (6-com- pany) battalions were on the N.E. frontier and 13 were Alpine battalions (6-company also). Four regiments of Zouaves had a variable number of battalions (^-company). Twelve regiments of native tirailleurs were composed like the Zouave regiments, but with
a depot company in addition. Further, there were 2 foreign regi- ments, 5 battalions of African light infantry and a number of Sahara companies. The single regiment of firemen engineers of Paris fur- nished excellent cadres for the units dispatched to the front when after the Marne a shortage occurred of non-commissioned officers and subaltern officers. In principle each active regiment of infantry formed a reserve regiment of 2 battalions. The territorial army was formed of 145 regiments of varying composition according to the resources of the recruiting district ; it included 7 territorial bat- talions of Chasseurs, and 12 territorial battalions of Zouaves. The infantry was armed with the Lebel rifle, model 1886-93. There was one machine-gun section for each battalion of infantry and Chasseurs. Owing to the slowness with which the French Parliament granted the necessary sums, territorial units were not provided with machine-guns at the outset of the war.
The cavalry was composed of 91 regiments, of which 10 were African troops. Each regiment had 5 squadrons in peace and 4 in war. However, the 6 Spahi regiments continued with 5 squadrons. In principle each army corps had a regiment of cavalry, and each division of infantry had a squadron. The other regiments of cavalry formed 10 divisions of cavalry of 6 regiments each. The term " Heavy Cayalry Division " was sometimes applied to those com- prising 4 regiments of dragoons and 2 regiments of cuirassiers; that of " Mixed Division " to those composed of 2 regiments of cuiras- siers, 2 regiments of dragoons and 2 of light cavalry; and that of " Light Division " to those of 4 regiments of dragoons and 2 of light cavalry. The cavalry was armed with the sabre, carbine, and, in certain regiments of dragoons, with the lance. Each division of cavalry was allotted a group of horse artillery and a cyclist company.
The artillery comprised 62 regiments of field artillery, in 3 or 4 groups of 3 four-gun batteries and 5 autonomous groups in Algeria and Tunis. There were 635 field batteries, 24 batteries of mobile medium howitzers, 35 batteries of heavy artillery, 22 batteries of mountain guns, 30 batteries of horse artillery, 75 batteries of foot artillery altogether 820 batteries.
The engineers were composed of 8 regiments, of which one was a railway and one a telegraph regiment. These regiments formed 26 battalions, varying from 3 to 7 companies.
The air force had 4 balloon companies and 3 aviation companies; and in addition 10 aeronautical sections and one transport company.
The colonial troops formed 16 regiments of colonial infantry, of which 12 were in France and 4 in the colonies. There were 5 in- dependent battalions and 2 independent companies in the colonies; one regiment of Annam rifles, 4 regiments of Tonkin rifles, 4 regi- ments and 8 battalions of Senegal rifles, 3 regiments of Madagascar rifles. The colonial cavalry consisted of 2 squadrons of Senegal Spahis, one squadron of natives of Congo and Chari, and one squad- ron of Indo-China natives. The colonial artillery comprised in France 3 regiments forming 36 batteries, of which 18 were field and 6 mountain ; in the colonies were 4 regiments and 2 independent groups. Finally in Morocco there were 6 mixed regiments with 3 battalions, of which one was a colonial battalion and 2 were Senegal rifles.
The French army had 21 army corps, but the XIX. Corps (Al- geria) was not, during the World War, brought into the field armies as such. However, 2 African divisions were brought over and at- tached to the V. Army, so that the troops figured at the front.
The active divisions of the metropolitan army (including 19 corps) were numbered from I to 43 ; some special designations were given to new divisions formed on mobilization from active troops not included in the 20 corps of the metropolitan army present in France. The reserve divisions were numbered from 51 to 75- The designation " reserve " was abolished in 1915. Territorial divisions were given numbers above 80. Higher-numbered divisions were formed by reconstitutions from existing divisions, from 1915 onwards. These had numbers above 100.
The only exterior theatres of war in which France employed large formations were the Dardanelles, Salonika and Italy.
In the Dardanelles campaign the expeditionary force was even- tually of about the strength of 2 divisions. These were afterwards regularly constituted as the I56th and the I7th Colonial Divs. At Salonika there were, in addition to the two Gallipoli divisions, the 57th Div. and the I22nd and nth Colonial Divs., to which were added in 1917 the l6th Colonial, 3Oth and 76th Divs. In Italy, in the winter of 1917-8, there were 6 divisions detached from the French front, of which 2 remained to the end of the war, being re- placed in France by 2 Italian divisions. Smaller forces were em- ployed at Cyprus (1916), and in Syria and Palestine; in the African campaigns; in North Russia, and elsewhere. (V. L. E. C.)
III. BELGIAN ARMY
In 1910 recruiting for the Belgian army was still regulated, under legislation of 1902, on a voluntary basis, completed by drawing by lot. The peace effective strength was 42,800 men, and the effective total of the field army on mobilization was fixed at 100,000 men.
By the statute of 1913 Parliament established the principle that the defence of the home country was an obligation charge on the family. Each family must furnish one son at least for military serv-
