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.

In a series of interviews given to the Army Historical Service in 1998 and 1999, Jean-Louis Crémieux-Brilhac retraced his path from mobilisation to enlistment in the Free French Forces in London and then operations with the National Interior Commission. His statement sheds light on how a young man, a history student unsurprised by the declaration of war in September 1939, came to enlist.

For a free Frenchman, joining the ranks of the Central Bureau of Intelligence and Operations meant giving priority to clandestine activities in France. The mission orders testify to the diversity of forms these activities took. The special services archives conserved by the Defence Historical Service still have their surprises, even for Daniel Cordier, who acquired a well-deserved reputation as a discoverer of the archives in the 1980s.

Even before the liberation of France, the need was felt to explain and justify the action of the BCRA. In late 1944, this task was entrusted to Daniel Cordier, who discharged it under sometimes farcical conditions. Assisted by Vitia and Stéphane Hessel, he soon realised the importance of his work: writing the Livre Blanc du Bureau central de renseignements et d'action.

In Hitler's mind, the ”V weapons” were to change the course of the war. The design and conditions of use of these ”miracle bombs” (Wunderwaffen), a type that was revolutionary for the period, were among the Reich's most closely-guarded secrets. An exceptional service was entirely dedicated to protecting this secrecy. The French special services nicknamed it ”the guardian angel” of the V1s. Analysis of the archives has lifted the veil on this hitherto-unknown organisation.

The repression of the Resistance was particularly efficient. Its success can be measured in the numbers of arrests, deportations and executions. The archives of the Defence Historical Service (SHD) help us to understand its logic and identify the players involved. They shed new light on the subject, paying particular attention to the organisations and men responsible for the mission of repression. The Abwehr and SIPO-SD files seized at the end of the war describe techniques for penetrating resistance organisations, teaching us a great deal about double agents and the role they played. The German archives conserved by the SHD also record the decisions of the German military tribunals throughout the national territory, adding to our knowledge of the occupier's legal system.