Composition
The First Army was mainly composed of North African units (Maghrebis and French Pied-noirs soldiers) from the Army of Africa which already played a major role in the liberation of Corsica (September - October 1943) and the Italian Campaign (1943–44) in which around 130,000 of their force's men engaged.
During the French and German campaigns of 1944-45 these units formed the core of the First Army which comprised about 260,000 men (including 50% Maghrebis), and eventually more than 320,000 men during its offensive advances in Germany and in Austria.
1st Free French Division (1st DFL, later became the 1st Motorized Infantry Division and finally the 1st March Infantry Division)
2nd Armoured Division (2nd DB, former 2nd Light Division)
2nd Moroccan Infantry Division (2nd DIM)
3rd Algerian Infantry Division (3rd DIA)
4th Moroccan Mountain Division (4th DMM)
9th Colonial Infantry Division (9th DIC)
1st Armoured Division (1st DB)
5th Armoured Division (5th DB)
Moroccan Goums (Four groups of Tabors equivalent to one brigade)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Army_...position_2
The 1st French Army was organized in 2 corps :
- 1st corps under the command of general Béthouart
- 2nd corps under the command of general De Goislard de Monsabert
and they are composed of :
- 1e Division Française Libre (motorized infantry division)
- 2e division d'infanterie marocaine (infantry division)
- 3e division d'infanterie algérienne (infantry division)
- 4e division marocaine de montagne (mountain infantry division)
- 9e division d'infanterie coloniale (infantry division)
- 1e division blindée (armored division)
- 5e division blindée (armored division)
+ not endivisionned elements :
- Bataillon d'Afrique (commandos)
- Bataillon de Choc (commandos)
- Bataillon de France (commandos)
- Four GTM (groupements de tabors marocains) (infantry)
- 9e Régiment de Zouaves (infantry)
- 1e Régiment de Tirailleurs Algériens (infantry)
- Two Régiments de Chasseurs d'Afrique (RCA) (armored regiments)
- Three spahis regiments (recon armored regiments with armored cars and Stuarts)
- One Régiment Colonial de Chasseurs de Chars (armored regiment with tank destroyers)
- 2e Régiment de Dragons (armored regiment)
- 64e, 65e and 66e RAA (Régiment d'Artillerie d'Afrique = African artillery regiment)
- Régiment d'artillerie coloniale d'Afrique occidentale française
- Régiment d'artillerie coloniale du Levant
- Four engineer regiments and one bridging battalion
----> During late war several other divisions joined this Army :
- 27e division alpine (mountain infantry division) who played a role in the Alps in 1944 (formed on the basis of the former 1e division alpine).
- 3e division blindée (armored division) (created sooner but disbanded in September 1944 an recreated in 1945)
- 1e division d'infanterie
- 10e division d'infanterie
- 14e division d'infanterie
- 19e division d'infanterie
- 23e division d'infanterie
- 25e division d'infanterie
- 36e division d'infanterie
- 1e DCEO (Division Coloniale d'Extrême Orient)
- 2e DCEO (Division Coloniale d'Extrême Orient)
All the late infantry divisions for the most part comprised former FFI ("French Forces of the Interior") groups. These division served mostly in security, garrison and occupation roles. I suppose we can avoid to count all these units except perhaps for the alpine division in terms of battle efficiency.