In 2015, in an exceptional operational context, the armed forces command underwent a major transformation, with the ministry's separate commands and services being transferred to a single address, in Balard, in Paris's 15th arrondissement. Since then, the Chief of the General Staff has had his whole command team gathered around him in one place, and the Centre for Planning and Execution of Operations is at the heart of this new command headquarters.

In Iraq, Syria, Sahel, the Gulf of Guinea and Somalia, with a UN mandate and acting alongside its NATO or EU partners, France mobilises troops, material and equipment to carry out peacekeeping or humanitarian missions, fight terrorism or protect French nationals. Part of our history, French overseas operations continue to make the headlines today.

From 1963 to the present, dozens of overseas operations have been carried out, involving military personnel from across all the armed forces, directorates and services: army, navy, air force, joint armed forces directorates and services, and Gendarmerie Nationale. By telling the story of certain military operations of recent decades and the reasons that led to France’s involvement in these foreign theatres, a genuine history of French overseas operations, or ‘OPEX’, can be written.

A civil and military mission set up by the United Nations to restore peace and stability in Lebanon, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL, was established in 1978 and had its objectives redefined in 2006.

In November 1989, the fall of the Berlin Wall brought an end to 40 years of Cold War. But the global situation had not stabilised and interstate conflicts persisted, leading to the mobilisation of the international community. The French armed forces then saw a multitude of operational engagements, beginning with the First Gulf War, in 1991.

In 1992, the French armed forces engaged in a theatre of operations just an hour and a half's flight away from France. The powder keg of the Balkans of 1914 reared its head and the international community decided to act. The successive operations would give rise to a ”Balkans generation”, particularly among the ranks of the French army.

Following the attack on the twin towers of the World Trade Center, on 11 September 2001, the international community turned its attention to Afghanistan, a country marked by a succession of violent wars. The United States located the leader of Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, in that country, where he was offered protection by the Taliban regime.

The Chemins de Mémoire website invites you to listen online to the earliest testimonies of First World War flying aces!

They are among the first oral accounts gathered by the French Air Force history service in the 1970s.  The aim at the time was to preserve the history of the French Air Force, through the individual recollections of those who witnessed the early days of aviation. Digitised a few years ago, these records can now be consulted on our website.

By charting the careers of these men, from enlistment to the end of the war, this living memory is sure to delight young people, as they learn of the aerial exploits of these early fighter pilots.  Letting them speak for themselves is, above all, a way of paying tribute to their courage and tenacity.

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?French overseas operations

Following a period of two major overlapping commemorative cycles (the WWI centenary and the 70th anniversary of WWII), 2017 is an important year for laying the foundations of remembrance of the French soldiers who have participated in overseas operations.

In June 1941, after the launch of Operation Barbarossa (22 June 1941), the collaborationist parties demanded to be part of the ”crusade against Bolshevism” in the USSR. The Légion des volontaires français was created with this goal on 6 July 1941. About 6,000 Frenchmen would fight in German uniform after enlisting in this organisation. The archives of the special services provide a better understanding of how it worked.

In Vichy at the beginning of January 1944, the Germans promoted Joseph Darnand, head of the Milice (militia), to the post of secretary general responsible for keeping order. With the Allied landings expected at any time, and Pétain having lost the occupier's confidence, radicalisation was the order of the day with this appointment of an unconditional collaborator.