Jean-Baptiste ESTIENNE (1860-1936), native of Condé-en-Barrois is the father of the tanks. He will be first in the mathematics competition of the colleges of the entire country in 1880 and the same year he will be accepted to the Polytechnique. Thus he enters in the artillery. Curious individual, he is interested in aeronautics, which is a sector of full expansion. He recommends the use of balloons as well as plans to carry out adjustments in the precision of the shootings. Soon he is going to be in charge of the aeronautic service where he will have captain Ferber under his orders, working as inspector. The pilots who leave his service are all patented and will officially participate to the manoeuvres of 1910, conferring to the aviation a real existence in the army. But in the first place he is supported in particular because of his qualities as Officer of the artillery. Indeed, from August 1914 he recommends the establishment of an assault artillery, by the creation of mobile machines, equipped of cuirass and then of chenille, because of their solidity and their aptitude to be driven in very varied soils. In case the British preceded him in the realization of the project, by building tanks, he will end up convincing the General staff to use this mobile artillery to break the front.

Appointed general inspector of the assault artillery, he was also the promoter of the diversification of armoured communication regiments . His idea concerning the assault tanks and its use, inspired the Germans and in particular Heinz Guderian, who was interested on the subject of Estienne's general war strategy of movement. The weapon of the tanks became thus an independent unit it was not anymore only an infantry support.

Bertie Albrecht was born in Marseille on 15 February 1893 into a Protestant family. She qualified as a nurse and worked in a military hospital during the war. In 1919 she married a Dutch financier, Frédéric Albrecht, with whom she had two children. She left for London in 1924. On her return to Paris in 1931, she devoted her time to the League of Human Rights and Women condition. In 1934, she took up the cause of German refugees fleeing fascism, helping them to find work, money, and accommodation. She did the same for the refugees of the Spanish civil war. During the war she was mobilised as superintendent at Usines Fulmen to Vierzon. Profoundly shocked by the armistice, she refused to accept defeat and moved to the free zone where she met up with her friend Henri Frenay who had escaped from Germany and with whom she organised what was to become the major Resistance movement "Combat", first in Vichy and then in Lyon.

She was arrested by the Vichy government, end of November 1942, placed under administrative detention and refused a lawyer or a trial. She went on hunger strike to obtain the right to a trial and her demand was met after 13 days. After being transferred to Saint-Joseph prison in Lyon she was judged six months later and was condemned to spend the rest of the war in an internment camp set up by the Vichy government. She feigned madness, and was interned at the psychiatric hospital in Bron, from which she escaped with the help of a commando raid organised by the Combat movement on 23 December 1942. Hunted by both the French and German police, she spent two months in hiding in the region of Toulouse before joining Henri Frenay in Cluny and taking up the clandestine struggle once again. She was denounced and arrested by the Gestapo in Mâcon on 28 May 1943. She was taken to the Montluc prison in Lyon and then incarcerated at Fresnes, May 31 at 0:15, where she managed to escape the supervision of its guards and commits suicide by hanging in the night.

In May 1945 his body was found in the vegetable garden in the Fresnes prison and buried in the crypt of the Memorial Fighting France Mont Valerian. She was posthumously awarded the 'Croix de Compagnon de la Libération', the 'Médaille Militaire', the 'Croix de Guerre avec Palmes' and the 'Médaille de la Résistance'.

She was arrested by the Vichy government, end of November 1942, placed under administrative detention and refused a lawyer or a trial. She went on hunger strike to obtain the right to a trial and her demand was met after 13 days. After being transferred to Saint-Joseph prison in Lyon she was judged six months later and was condemned to spend the rest of the war in an internment camp set up by the Vichy government. She feigned madness, and was interned at the psychiatric hospital in Bron, from which she escaped with the help of a commando raid organised by the Combat movement on 23 December 1942. Hunted by both the French and German police, she spent two months in hiding in the region of Toulouse before joining Henri Frenay in Cluny and taking up the clandestine struggle once again. She was denounced and arrested by the Gestapo in Mâcon on 28 May 1943. She was taken to the Montluc prison in Lyon and then incarcerated at Fresnes, May 31 at 0:15, where she managed to escape the supervision of its guards and commits suicide by hanging in the night.

In May 1945 his body was found in the vegetable garden in the Fresnes prison and buried in the crypt of the Memorial Fighting France Mont Valerian. She was posthumously awarded the 'Croix de Compagnon de la Libération', the 'Médaille Militaire', the 'Croix de Guerre avec Palmes' and the 'Médaille de la Résistance'.

Charles Delestraint was born in Biache-Saint-Vaaste (Pas-de-Calais) in 1879 and admitted to the Saint-Cyr military academy in 1897. On 1 October 1900, the young second lieutenant chose the 16th infantry battalion as his outfit. In 1914, Delestraint took a brilliant, noteworthy part in the retreating French army's earliest fighting, but the Germans captured him during the attack on Chesnoy-Auboncourt on 30 August 1914. He spent four years in the Plasemburg POW camp and was released in December 1918. Then, Delestraint led a brilliant military career. A passionate interest in heavy cavalry led him to become second in command of the Versailles tank school in 1930. Promoted to the rank of colonel in 1932, he commanded the 505th Vannes tank regiment; in 1936 Delestraint became a general and took over the third tank brigade in Metz. As a reserve officer, he was recalled to active duty when the Second World War broke out in September 1939 and demobilised in July 1940.

Delestraint rejected the armistice, resisted the occupation and fiercely opposed Nazism; his Christian faith led him to loathe theories that debase human beings and espouse racism and anti-Semitism; he refused to believe that barbarism would replace civilisation. His opposition, which crystallised in 1942, was philosophical and theological. When Jean Moulin contacted him on 28 August 1942, both men agreed on the appropriateness of separating the military from the political in the resistance. Under the alias Vidal, he became head of the secret army that grouped together the Combat, Libération and Franc-Tireur networks' fighting units. Delestraint went underground and moved to Lyon, near Gestapo headquarters, where he put together the secret army's general staff: Frenay, Commandant Castaldo, General Desmazes, Hardy, Aubrac and Lassagne. In February 1943, Delestraint and Moulin went to London to coordinate the secret army's actions with those of the inter-allied command. Back in France, he developed the Resistance, in particular in Vercors. "Vidal" tirelessly worked on his troops' unification and operational cohesiveness and prepared demonstrative, occasional actions, preferably in the daytime. A series of arrests on 15 March 1943 decimated his staff. On Tuesday 8 June 1943, the Abwehr arrested Delestraint at the Muette metro stop while he was on his way to a secret meeting. After nine months of interrogation, during which the general disclosed no information, he was sent before the tribunal of Breslau and interned at Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp on 10 March 1944 as part of Nacht und Nebel. As the allies pressed forward, the prisoners were transferred to the Dachau concentration camp, where Delestraint was executed in cold blood on 19 April 1945.

For 23 years Jean Moulin, born into a republican, radical family in the south of France, served the Republic as a sub-prefect and prefect, except for a stint as Air Minister Pierre Cot's chief of staff during the Popular Front (1936), when, already determined to defend his country against Nazism and Fascism, he was involved in sending covert aid to Republican Spain. At the outbreak of war Moulin unsuccessfully tried to join the Air Force, but interior minister Albert Sarraut had no intention of losing one of his best prefects.

Moulin's first act of resistance took place in Chartres on 17 June 1940-he had been the prefect of Eure-et-Loir since January 1939-when he refused to sign a document drafted by the Germans falsely accusing Senegalese troops in the French Army of massacring civilians. Fearful of breaking under torture, he tried to kill himself. The affair was hushed up but Moulin managed to protect civilians from German atrocities. On 2 November 1940 the Vichy government dismissed the left-leaning, faithful servant of the Republic, who moved to Saint-Andiol in the Alpilles and contacted various Resistance movements in the southern zone. In October 1941 he went to London and became the Resistance's messenger to General de Gaulle, asking him for resources to develop propaganda and military action plans. De Gaulle gave Moulin a military mission in France: acting on his behalf as a liaison with the three underground movements to lead each one to create a military branch with links to Free France. Centralisation and coordination would take place in London under his orders. The head of Free France also appointed Moulin his delegate and the National Committee's representative for the unoccupied zone with the mission of uniting the movements' action. On 2 January 1942 he was parachuted into France with funds and transmitting equipment. He succeeded, not without difficulty, in convincing the heads of the three Resistance groups-Combat (Henri Frenay), Libération (Emmanuel d'Astier de la Vigerie) and Franc-Tireur (Jean-Pierre Lévy)-to join forces within the unified Secret Army, placed under the command, with General de Gaulle's consent, of General Delestraint. A coordinating committee was set up that led to their merger into the United Resistance Movements in January 1943. Moulin also set up units indispensable to the functioning of the Resistance: the Air and Sea Operations Service to transport agents to London, the information and propaganda office for exchanges between London and France, and the General Study Committee, a sort of think tank for the postwar government. Moulin was made Compagnon de la Libération on 17 October 1942. De Gaulle gave "Rex" (Moulin's pseudonym) the insignia at a moving ceremony during his second stay in London (14 February-20 March 1943). After the Allied landing in North Africa on 8 November 1942 and the German invasion of the unoccupied zone, De Gaulle appointed him his general representative for all of France and broadened his mission. To overcome Roosevelt's objections and reach an agreement with Giraud in North Africa, De Gaulle understood that he needed backing not just from the entire homeland Resistance, but also from men representing the old parties and trade unions, reconstituted in the National Resistance Council, a sort of underground parliament. On 8 May 1943 "Rex" announced the creation of the council, which made De Gaulle fighting France's only leader. After General Delestraint's arrest on 9 June, Moulin called a meeting of the Secret Army's leaders in Caluire (near Lyon) on 21 June to figure out what to do next. Klaus Barbie arrested all of them. The Lyon Gestapo chief personally tortured Moulin, who knew everything about the Resistance but did not talk. He died, probably at the Metz railway station on 8 July 1943. On 6 October 1946 Georges Bidault gave his sister, Laure Moulin, the military medal and the Croix de Guerre during a ceremony in Béziers. André Malraux paid him the nation's homage when his ashes were moved to the Pantheon on 19 December 1964. The leader of the "Shadow Army" entered history.

Born into a staunchly Republican family, he pursued his studies in history. He achieved the top results in the entrance examination for the École Normale Supérieure in 1922 and the second highest results of his year in the high-level examination for recruiting teachers in 1925, but instead he opted for a career in journalism, notably writing for reviews such as 'Notre Temps', 'l'Europe Nouvelle' and 'Le Populaire', and participating in radio programmes (1936-1939). He specialised in analysing international politics. Like his father, he became a socialist and joined the SFIO (the French Section of the Workers' International) in 1930. He was fiercely opposed to the Munich Agreement in September 1938, which allowed the dismantling of Czechoslovakia, judging it to be dishonourable to the French nation, partisan of what he called 'the spirit of resistance', and he was expulsed from the national radio waves in February 1939 for voicing his opinion. The following September, he was posted as a lieutenant in the 5th Infantry Regiment. He fought bravely in June 1940, and was awarded the 'Croix de guerre'. On his return from the battlefield on 23 August 1940, he and his wife bought a bookstore situated in rue de la Pompe. It is there that he was contacted by Resistance fighters from the 'Musée de l'Homme' group during the winter of 1940-41.

Having become the main writer of the clandestine publication, the 'Bulletin officiel du Comité national de Salut public', he wrote every word of the last edition when the network was dismantled by the Gestapo. His work as a history teacher at the Collège Sévigné led to one of his colleagues putting him in touch with the intelligence network headed by Colonel Rémy, 'La Confrérie Notre Dame', and during the winter of 1941-1942, he used the pseudonym Pedro to organise contacts between 'Libération-Nord', 'Organisation Civile et Militaire' and 'la France Libre'. All these activities made him extremely knowledgeable about events in occupied France, and highly sought after by the intelligence network in London. At the end of the month of April 1942, he left for the English capital where he urged General de Gaulle to return to France to encourage eminent political personalities including Louis Vallon, André Philip and Charles Vallin to rally around 'la France Libre'. Commander Bourgat, as he was known in London, was awarded the honour of 'Compagnon de la Libération' on 17 October 1942 and he joined the French Resistance secret services before taking charge of the Operations Unit, the liaison between the interior and exterior Resistance fighters. Along with Passy, the head of the BCRA (Central Intelligence and Action Office), he was behind the 'Arquebuse' and 'Brumaire' missions, which were initiated at the start of 1943 to organise a coordination committee equivalent to that created by Jean Moulin in the unoccupied zone. This committee was created in March.

In April, he returned to London and to his work at the BCRA. In June-July, he presented the BBC TV programme entitled 'Honneur et Patrie'. In September, he was charged with installing the new representative of the CFLN for movements of interior Resistance, Émile Bollaert (to replace Jean Moulin who had been arrested on 21 June 1943), and to work on the future organisation of the press and radio following the Liberation of France. For three months, the two men tried to repair the damage done to the Resistance movement by the many arrests made during the summer and autumn. They were both called to London, and were arrested on arrival on 3 February 1944. Recognised and taken to the Gestapo headquarters in avenue Foch, Pierre Brossolette threw himself from a 5th floor window to avoid giving away secrets under torture. He died the same day, on 22 March 1944. This combatant of the shadows was without any doubt - to use his own expression - 'an unseen worker for glory'.

Louis de Cormontaigne was born in Strasbourg in 1695. He entered the service of the King in 1713, and began serving as a volunteer in the sieges of Fribourg and Landau, before becoming an engineer in 1715 at the age of twenty, and chief engineer in 1733. He participated in the most memorable sieges up until 1745 when he became brigadier and director of fortifications in the towns of Moselle (Metz, Thionville, Bitche, Verdun, Longwy).

Although he had never known Vauban, Louis de Cormontaigne was one of the most famous successors of this celebrated engineer, developing his ideas and further improving the bases created by his predecessor. Shortly after his death an official report featured the following statement 'All engineers are in agreement that not one of them has all the qualities required for war and the art of fortifications to the extent possessed by Monsieur de Cormontaigne'.

A French general and politician (1890-1970), Charles de Gaulle was the first person to advocate the need for France to have armoured military vehicles. A leader of the French resistance during World War II, he was the founding father of the Fifth Republic, which was particularly noteworthy due to the election of the president under universal suffrage.

Charles de Gaulle was born in Lille on 22 November 1890 to a patriotic Catholic family. He spent his childhood in Paris, studying with the Jesuits and very early opted for a career in the forces. In 1908 he entered the special Military Academy at Saint-Cyr. After four years of study, he was transferred to Arras in 1912 as a sub-lieutenant.

During the First World War he was wounded in combat three times and left for dead in the Battle of Douaumont (1916). Taken prisoner by the Germans, he attempted to escape on five occasions, but was recaptured each time. He was not freed until the Armistice, on 11th November 1918. Pursuing his military career, Captain De Gaulle saw active service in several countries (including Poland and The Lebanon). Between the wars he wrote several works in which he was critical of French defence policy: in particular he believed that the army must be subject to the decisions of politicians and that it was essential for the defence of France, to raise a corps of armoured vehicles in order to face the threat of German mechanised power. At the same time he began his involvement with politics: in 1931 he was seconded to the General Secretariat for National Defence in Paris. Promoted to Colonel in 1937, de Gaulle was given the command of the 507th tank regiment in Metz. When France and Britain declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939, he was given temporary command of the tanks of the 5th army. At the time of the German invasion, de Gaulle distinguished himself several times at the head of his unit, in particular halting the Germans at Abbeville (27-30 May 1940). Appointed General on 1 June 1940, de Gaulle became Under Secretary of State for War and National Defence a few days later, in the Government of Paul Reynaud.

On 17 June, de Gaulle left to continue fighting the war from London; he launched an appeal for resistance over the BBC, on 18 June. As a rebel General, he was sentenced to death in absentia. Recognised by Churchill as the "leader of the Free French", de Gaulle organised armed forces that became the Free French Forces. Meanwhile, he provided Free France with a kind of Government in exile, the French National Committee, which became the French Committee for National Liberation (CFLN) on 3 June 1943, following its arrival in Algiers. From 1942 onwards, De Gaulle gave Jean Moulin the task of organising the National Committee for Resistance (CNR) in France within which political parties of all persuasions, trades unions and resistance movements had to be represented, in order to co-ordinate the struggle. After the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944, de Gaulle insisted with General Eisenhower, supreme commander of allied armies, that Paris should be quickly liberated, although the strategy was to head directly eastwards, bypassing the Capital. Eventually, the 2nd Armoured Division of General Leclerc liberated Paris on 25 August.

Once the fighting was over, de Gaulle began to rebuild the country at the head of the interim government. He introduced several major measures (including the founding of the Social Security system). But, on 20 January 1946, he left power due to a disagreement of the role played by political parties. The Constitution of the 4th Republic, adopted shortly afterwards, greatly displeased him. He criticised it several times (such as in his speech in Bayeux, in June 1946), reproaching it for the weakness of its executive power. De Gaulle then entered the opposition. In 1947, he launched the Rassemblement du peuple français (RPF or Alliance of the French People), a movement that performed badly in elections, despite attracting many members. This was the beginning of the "wilderness years" : de Gaulle withdrew to Colombey-les-Deux-Églises, wrote his memoirs and travelled.

From 1954, France was involved in a war of decolonisation in Algeria. On 13 May 1958, the French Algerians launched an insurrection in Algiers to consolidate their position. They called for de Gaulle to take power. The President of the French Republic, René Coty, fearing that this crisis might descend into civil war, offered de Gaulle the position of Leader of the Cabinet. De Gaulle refused to return to power unless he could change government institutions. During the summer of 1958, he inspired the writing of a new Constitution: this was approved in a referendum on 28 September 1958 by almost 80% of French people. The 5th Republic was born. On 21 December 1958, Charles de Gaulle was elected President of the Republic by indirect universal suffrage.

The most urgent task to be faced was Algeria. De Gaulle offered the Algerians self-government in 1959 and organised a referendum on the subject in 1961: 75% of French people said "yes" to Algerian self-government. In April 1961, disaffected partisans of French Algeria staged an attempted coup that failed. Negotiations between the French and Algerians ended with the Evian agreements, signed on 22 March 1962 and accepted by referendum in both France and Algeria. 1962 was a real turning point, firstly on an institutional level: the General proposed electing the Head of State through universal suffrage. This reform aroused strong opposition, but the referendum on constitutional reform was successful, with a "yes" vote of 62.2%. In 1965, the presidential election was conducted by direct universal suffrage for the first time. Through to the second round (with 43.7% of the vote), de Gaulle was finally elected, beating Mitterrand, with 54.8%. In terms of foreign affairs, de Gaulle pursued a policy of national independence, providing France with its own means of defence: the first French atomic bomb was detonated at Reggane in the Sahara in February 1960. De Gaulle refused the protection of the United States and in 1966 withdrew France from the integrated NATO system - but France remained a member of the Atlantic alliance. At the same time, France entered the European Economic Community (EEC) on 1 January 1959. The country faced a major crisis in May 1968. Students organised huge demonstrations, and were joined by workers, triggering a general strike. De Gaulle succeeded in calming the situation by granting certain benefits to workers. On 27 April 1969, he put a plan for regionalisation and reform of the senate before the French people. His proposal was rejected in a referendum by 52.4% of the vote. Failing to gain the approval of the French people, he felt he lo longer had their trust and preferred to resign. Charles de Gaulle retired to Colombey-les-Deux-Églises and continued to write his memoirs; he died on 9 November 1970. In accordance with his will, de Gaulle was not given a state funeral. He was buried next to his daughter Anne, with a simple inscription on his grave, "Charles de Gaulle 1890-1970".

Born in Rivesalter on January 12th 1852, Joseph Joffre proved to be a brilliant pupil and entered the Ecole Polytechnique (Polytechnic School) at the age of 17. Taking up the military career, he chose the Engineer Corps, which best corresponded to his engineering capacities. After the war of 1870-71, he contributed in the fortification of Paris, enlarged by Séré de Rivières. From here he will leave on 1874 to the colonies. In 1885 he was captain of Indochina, where he participated in the Tonkin campaign and was decorated with the Legion of Honour on September 1985. In the role of sapper he fortifies the Formose island, which at the time was the fleet base of Admiral Courbet. In 1892 in the French Sudan, he created railways Then in the framework of the operations against sultan Samory he conquers Timbuktu. Later he was appointed colonel, under General Galliéni and fortified the Diego-Suarez harbour in Madagascar.

Appointed major general, he reached the position as engineering director of the ministry of war in 1905; after other important assignments such as chief of the 2nd army corps , he became member of the higher Council of war and on 1911 he was appointed chief of staff and future commander-in-chief in the event of a conflict. From this important position he had the possibility to reform the army, the doctrine, the rules, the material, the manpower, the mobilization, etc. he didn't miss any aspect. He reinforced the defence of the country, conscious of an increasingly German threat. With this aim in view, he was a convinced supporter of the military alliance with imperial Russia and who furthermore reinforced this connection in 1913. The hostilities with the II Reich broke out on April 3rd 1914, when Germany declared war to France. The operations started in the East as well as in the West and this conflict soon turned to be of a world dimension. Joffre adopted his Plan XVII from Alsace to Belgium. During the battle known as "border battle" he will suffer heavy retreats, by the time he managed to produce an offensive operation the army had already reached the Parisian suburbs, the Marne and beyond, then stopped in Ourcq, Verdun and on the frontline beyond Nancy, Epinal and Belfort. His armies and generals with the support of the English army, won the Marne battle from the 5th to the 12th September 1914. He led this battle with his general staff and thanks to Gallieni's initiative, governor of Paris.

Then, after the "race to the sea" thanks to General Foch and the support of the British and Belgians, he manages to create a troop barrier, blocking the Calais road in Dixmude on Yser. On November 26th 1914 he received the Military Medal. Once stabilized the battle got stuck on a front of 770 km and became siege war which he led from his General Headquarter in Chantilly, facing also the ammunition and material crises. He succeeded to equip his troops of better arms, uniformes and in particular Adrian helmets, 58 mm trench mortars, hand grenades, gas madks, Chauchat machine guns, Berthier rifles, heavy Schneider and Saint-Chamond tanks, etc.

In 1916 he commanded the entirety of the French armies and no longer only those of the north-eastern front. For several months he had been coordinating the offensive operations with those of the English, Italian and Russian allies, as he was convinced of the advantage of imposing the fact of common actions onto the central empires. In 1916 he led an imperturbable defence in Verdun, thanks to the Generals Castelnau and Pétain and in Somme he passed then to the offensive with Haig, Foch and Foyolle Launching in Verdun the offensives Nivelle-Mangin, in autumn he takes Fleury, Douaumont and Vaux back. Despite everything, in December 1916, the president of the Council, Astrid Briand, replaced him by General Nivelle. Joffre was promoted to the post of Marshal of France.

Keeping its uncontested fame to the allies, Joffre was used in 1917 by the French government as military adviser for the Viviani mission, in charge to integrate the Americans in the conflict. Later he was appointed general Inspector of the U.S. troops in France. Here he had to judge their improvement in the training of the trenches fight, as well as in the utilization of the new arms. On November 13th November 1918, the Unites States decorated him with the Distinguished Service Medal. Once the war was won and the peace signed, Joffre led the Victory procession of July 14th 1919 in Paris. Then he devoted himself to his memoirs and is journeys, he was elected to the French Academy and worked until his last days. He died in 1931 at the age of 79. He was honoured with a state funeral and was buried in his property in Louveviennes (Yvelines) where he still rests.

Guillaumat, Adolphe Marie Louis (Bourgneuf, Charente-Maritime: 4 January 1863 - Nantes, Loire-Atlantique : 18 May 1940)

Adolphe Guillaumat, the son of Louis Guillaumat, an officer, and Marie Noémie Fleury, entered Saint-Cyr military academy in 1882, graduating with the rank of chief warrant officer on 1 October 1884. He chose to serve in the 65th infantry regiment (R.I.) in Nantes. A captain in 1893, in April 1895 he joined the 2nd foreign infantry regiment and left for Tonkin in September 1897. Guillaumat made his mark by occupying Kwang-Chou-Wan (Guangzhouwan), which China leased to France. During the Boxer Rebellion, under General Voyron's orders he participated in the march on Tien-Tsin (Tianjin) and the fighting on 23 June 1900 led by the international column in front of the city's arsenal, opening up the road to Peking, which it reached on 14 August. Commanding the French garrison, he was wounded during the fighting and in December 1900 promoted to major in recognition of his heroism. Back in France, in 1903 Guillaumat taught military history at Saint-Cyr and in 1905 earned the general staff diploma, the brevet direct. He joined the War College staff in 1906 and married Louise Bibent on 17 July of the same year.

Guillaumat, a professor of infantry tactics, became lieutenant-colonel in 1907 and was appointed commander of the military academy in September 1908. He became a colonel on 28 September 1910, commanding the 5th R.I., and joined the Ministry of War's infantry department in January 1913. On 8 October 1913 Guillaumat became brigadier general, continuing his career at the ministry before being appointed Minister Messimy's chief of staff on 14 June 1914. In September, after the war broke out, Guillaumat joined the 4th Army, taking command of the 33rd infantry division (D.I.), with which he participated in the first Battle of the Marne (6 to 11 September 1914) and the bloody fighting at Vitry-le-François before holding a sector in Champagne. Assigned to the 4th D.I., he temporarily became major-general in December 1914. On 25 February 1915 he was appointed commander of the 1st army corps (C.A.), also called the "Guillaumat Group", which he led at the first Battle of Champagne and the Battle of Woëvre (in April), and with which he held the Champagne sector. His unit fought in the Battle of Verdun in February 1916 before being sent in August to the 6th Army north of the Somme, which backed up the English armies' right flank. On 15 December 1916 Guillaumat received command of the 2nd Army and, at the head of 650,000 men, returned to the Verdun front, stopping the German attacks in spring 1917. On 20 April he stormed the enemy positions, taking the French lines north of Hill 304 and Mort-Homme.

On 14 December 1917 Guillaumat succeeded General Sarrail in the Balkans, becoming commander-in-chief of the Allied armies in the East. To cope with a difficult military situation, he reorganised the Allied forces, restoring trust and discipline in the ranks. Taking advantage of the transfer of enemy troops to the Western front after the Treaties of Brest-Litovsk (3 March 1918) and Bucharest (5 March 1918), he launched the French and Greek troops, breaking with the Superior War Council's defensive strategy aligned with the Anglo-American strategy of holding the line on the Stavros-Monastir front. He implemented a general offensive serving as a basis of operations for his successor, Franchet d'Esperey, and compelled Bulgaria to request an armistice. But his main achievement on the Eastern front was turning the Allied armies, which until his arrival belonged to the French forces' superior general staff, into a tool adapted to the command of a multinational force that proved decisive during the ambitious offensive in September 1918. The second defeat at the Chemin des Dames in May 1918 brought the Germans within 75km of Paris and was the reason for Guillaumat's return to France. Appointed military governor and commander of Paris on 15 June 1918, he convinced the general staff to accept the plan of an offensive on the Eastern front. Once Paris was out of danger, Guillaumat was appointed head of the 5th Army, which he engaged in the second Battle of the Marne, in Champagne and in the Meuse in October-November 1918. Guillaumat received the Grand-Croix of the Légion d'honneur on 10 July 1918 and the military medal on 3 October 1918. He became inspector-general in June 1919, a member of the High War Council in 1920 and commander of the Rhine occupation army on du 11 October 1924. At the same time, he chaired the territory defence commissions from 1922 to 1931. The first, which Minister of War André Maginot created in 1922 to develop a plan to defend France, was replaced by a border defence commission, forerunner of the C.O.R.F. (Fortified Regions Organisation Commission) and the "Maginot Line". Minister of war in the Briand-Caillaux cabinet from 23 June to 20 July 1926, he resumed his command until France evacuated the Rhineland on 30 June 1930. He continued participating in the of the Upper War Council's work until being dismissed on 4 June 1933. Guillaumat, who advocated a rigorous policy, constantly drew politicians' attention to the dangers of German rearmament and the need for France to conduct a military policy: longer national service, construction of defensive works along the border and modernisation of the army.? He retired in Nantes, where he died in 1940. His remains were buried in the "governors' vault" (Hôtel National des Invalides) in November 1947.

Associated biographies : Noel Léon Un Chef, Le Général Guillaumat, Alsatia, 1949 - Paul Guillaumat, Correspondance de guerre du Général Guillaumat, L'harmattan, 2006 Sources: R. d'Amat and R. Limouzin-Lamothe, Dictionnaire de biographie française, Paris, Letouzey, 1965, vol. 16, col. 138-139. J.-P. Gomane, "L'expédition internationale contre les Boxers et le siège des légations (June-August 1900)", Revue historique des armées, 230, 2003 (n°1), pp. 11-18. B. Hamard...

Born in Albi May 20th 1815, Politechnician, engineer officer, General of the brigade in 1871.

1862 : he organises the fortified place of Nice.

1864-68 : he builds four forts in Metz.

1869 : he fortifies Langres.

1870 : he fortifies Lyon.

1871 : leads the Army engineers of the East; then he takes part in the operations against the Communards (insurgent soldiers of the Commune of Paris). To achieve this objective he besieged several fortifications. Later on he will have the task preparing the case of Marchal Bazaine's trial.

1872 : he is appointed Secretary of the defence Committee, created by the President of the Republic A. Thiers.

1874 : appointed chef of the army engineers department, he can apply his principles of fortification. Promoted general of the division, between 1874 and 1880 he built a fortified system from Dunkirk in Toulon which bears his name. The purpose of the system is to protect the mobilization and therefore force the potential invaders to go into a predetermined geographical gorge which defense support were expecting them.

1880 : in January ,at the age of 65 years he is replaced by his successor General Cosseron de Villenoisy, who completed his works.

General Sere de Rivieres based to Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris : Division 95, went 4; monument 59