6th Army (France)


The Sixth Army 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, the 45th and 37th Infantry Divisions, a native brigade and a cavalry corps.
After Alexander von Kluck rotated his German First Army away from Paris to reinforce Karl von Bülow's 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's British Expeditionary Force to occupy a twenty-mile salient between the two armies beginning the First Battle of the Marne.
France would end up contributing three corps to the opening attack of the Battle of the Somme.

Commanders

World War I