6th Army (France)

{{short description|Field army of the French Army during World War I and World War II}}

The '''Sixth Army''' ({{langx|fr|6eme Armée}}) was a field army of the [[French Army]] during [[World War I]] and [[World War II]].

==World War I== The Sixth Army was formed 26 August 1914, composed of troops from various disparate French armies: two active army corps, the ([[4th Army Corps (France)|4th]] and 7th respectively detached from the Third Army and First Army, the 5th and 6th groups of reserve divisions (commanded by [[Henri Beaudenom de Lamaze|General de Lamaze]]), the 45th and [[37th Infantry Division (France)|37th Infantry Division]]s, a native brigade and a cavalry corps.

After [[Alexander von Kluck]] rotated his [[1st Army (German Empire)|German First Army]] away from Paris to reinforce [[Karl von Bülow]]'s [[2nd Army (German Empire)|German Second Army]], [[Joseph Gallieni]] ordered the Sixth Army to attack von Kluck's forces. Although the German First Army counterattacked, this allowed [[John French, 1st Earl of Ypres|John French]]'s [[British Expeditionary Force (World War I)|British Expeditionary Force]] to occupy a twenty-mile salient between the two armies beginning the [[First Battle of the Marne]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Robson |first=Stuart |url=http://archive.org/details/firstworldwar0000robs_r5x1 |title=The First World War |publisher=Pearson Longman |others=Internet Archive |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-4058-2471-2 |edition=1 |location=Harrow, England |pages=17–19 |language=en |ref=None}}</ref>

France would end up contributing three corps to the opening attack of the [[Battle of the Somme]] (the [[20th Army Corps (France)|20th Army Corps]], I Colonial and 35th Corps of the Sixth Army).{{sfn|Doughty|2005|p=291}}

==Commanders==

===World War I=== *General [[Michel-Joseph Maunoury]] (26 August 1914 – 13 March 1915) *General [[Pierre Joseph Dubois]] (13 March 1915 – 26 February 1916) *General [[Émile Fayolle]] (26 February – 19 December 1916) *General [[Charles Mangin]] (19 December 1916 – 4 May 1917) *General [[Paul Maistre]] (4 May – 11 December 1917) *General [[Denis Auguste Duchêne]] (11 December 1917 – 10 June 1918) *General [[Jean Degoutte]] (10 June – 11 September 1918) *General [[Antoine Baucheron de Boissoudy]] (15 October – 18 November 1918) *General [[Jean Degoutte]] (18 November 1918)

===World War II===

*General [[Antoine-Marie-Benoît Besson]] (2 September 1939 - 16 October 1939) *General [[René Olry]] (16 October 1939 – 13 February 1940) *General [[Robert-Auguste Touchon]] (13 February – 1 July 1940)

== See also == *[[List of French armies in WWI]]

==Footnotes== {{reflist}}

==References== {{refbegin}} * {{cite book|author1-link=Robert A. Doughty|last=Doughty |first=R. A. |title=Pyrrhic Victory: French Strategy and Operation in the Great War |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=The Belknap Press of Harvard University |year=2005 |isbn=0-67401-880-X}} {{refend}}

[[Category:Field armies of France in World War I]] [[Category:Field armies of France|06]] [[Category:Field armies of France in World War II]] [[Category:Military units and formations established in 1914]] [[Category:1914 establishments in France]]