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27-520: Reformed at Ste Germain-en-Laye on 1 July 1979 under the orders of Général de Barry, with its HQ fused with HQ 1st Military Region. Its major units were 2nd Armored Division and 8th Infantry Division (8 DI) . On 1 July 1979 the Corps was transferred to Lille and its HQ fused with HQ 2nd Military Region. In 1991 the functions were separated, and Generals Arnold, Vaujour, Billot, and Heinrich held command as commanders of 3rd Corps solely. With its transfer to Lille,

54-556: The 15th Infantry Division at Limoges , and the 3rd Logistics Brigade, all reporting to Corps HQ at Lille . On 1 July 1993 three specialist brigades, engineer, artillery, and signals, were created at Lille. In 1994, the 27th DIA left the FAR to rejoin the 3rd Corps as the 27th DIM. In February 1996 the President of the Republic decided on a transition to a professional service force, and as part of

81-582: The D-Day landings, and served under General Patton as part of Third Army . The division played a critical role in the battle of the Argentan-Falaise Pocket (12–21 August), the Allied breakout from Normandy, when it served as a link between American and Canadian armies and made rapid progress against German forces. They all but destroyed the 9th Panzer Division and defeated several other German units. During

108-616: The Saverne Gap and thrust forward boldly, unbalancing German defenses in northern Alsace and liberating Strasbourg on 23 November 1944. The Presidential Unit Citation was awarded to the division for this action. Fighting in Alsace until the end of February 1945, the 2nd Division was later deployed to reduce the Royan Pocket on the western coast of France in March–April 1945. After forcing

135-692: The United States , the United Kingdom , France and the Soviet Union did not recognise it. Following Franco's death in 1975, King Juan Carlos initiated a transition to democracy . In 1977, the exiled Republicans accepted the re-establishment of the monarchy and recognised Juan Carlos's government as the legitimate government of Spain. The key moment came when socialist leaders Felipe González and Javier Solana met Juan Carlos at Zarzuela Palace in Madrid —

162-579: The occupation of France , the government was reconstituted in Mexico , which under the left-wing president Lázaro Cárdenas continued to recognise the Republic, although Negrín spent the war years in London . Negrín resigned as prime minister in 1945 and was succeeded by José Giral . Until 1945, the exiled Republicans had high hopes that at the end of World War II in Europe, Franco's regime would be removed from power by

189-558: The 2nd Brigade of the 8th Armored Division, part of the 1st Corps of the First Army (France) . The 2nd Brigade of the 8th Armored Division 'qui est l'heritière des traditions de la 2e DB' – carried on the traditions of the 2nd Armored Division. The French Army was extensively reorganised in 1977, with three-brigade divisions being dissolved and small divisions of four or five manoeuvre regiments/battalions being created. The 2nd Armored Division appears to have been reformed at this time. From

216-597: The 2nd Division finished its campaigning at the Nazi resort town of Berchtesgaden in Southeastern Germany. According to Defence Historical Service , the unit counted 1,224 dead (including 96 Maghrebis ) and 5,257 wounded (including 584 Maghrebis) at the end of the campaign in northwestern Europe. It had killed 13,000 Axis soldiers, captured 50,000 and destroyed 332 heavy and medium tanks, 2,200 other vehicles, and 426 cannons of various types. According to another source,

243-587: The Battle for Normandy, the 2nd Division lost 133 men killed, 648 wounded, and 85 missing. Division material losses included 76 armored vehicles, 7 cannons, 27 halftracks, and 133 other vehicles. In the same period, the 2nd Division inflicted losses on the Germans of 4,500 killed and 8,800 taken prisoner, while the Germans' material losses in combat against the 2nd Division during the same period were 117 tanks, 79 cannons, and 750 wheeled vehicles. The most celebrated moment in

270-614: The French Army, the Minister of Defence decided to disband 3rd Corps, and the dissolution became effective 1 July 1998. The headquarters transitioned to become Headquarters Commandement de la force d'action terrestre (CFAT) (the Land Forces Action Command). 2nd Armored Division (France) The French 2nd Armored Division (French: 2e Division Blindée, 2e DB ), commanded by General Philippe Leclerc , fought during

297-560: The Germans in the Royan Pocket to surrender on 18 April 1945, the 2nd Division crossed France again to rejoin the Allied 6th Army Group for final operations in Germany. Operating with the U.S. 12th Armored Division , elements of the French 2nd Armored Division pursued the remnants of German Army Group G across Swabia and Bavaria , occupying the town of Bad Reichenhall on 4 May 1945. Eventually,

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324-555: The U.S. 4th Division entered Paris and liberated it. After hard fighting that cost the 2nd Division 35 tanks, 6 self-propelled guns, and 111 vehicles, von Choltitz , the German military governor of Paris, capitulated at the Hôtel Meurice . The following day, 26 August, a great victory parade took place on the Champs Élysées , which was lined with a jubilant crowd acclaiming General de Gaulle and

351-616: The city, with the message that the Second Armored would be there the following day. This party, commanded by Captain Raymond Dronne , consisted of the 9th company ( La Nueve ) of the 3rd Battalion of the Régiment de marche du Tchad . Dronne and his men arrived at the Hôtel de Ville , in the center of Paris, shortly before 9:30 pm on the evening of 24 August. On 25 August, the 2nd Armored and

378-438: The corps took control of a force of 50,000 personnel including reservists, with 380 AMX-30, 1,300 armoured vehicles, 106 artillery pieces, and 56 Roland anti-aircraft missiles. In 1984 the 6th Engineers Regiment joined the corps. At the end of the 1980s, the Corps comprised three major formations, the 2nd and 10th Armoured Divisions and the 8th DI. There was also a logistics brigade stationed at Beauvais. On 1 July 1990, with

405-723: The division liberated Paris, defeated a Panzer brigade during the armored clashes in Lorraine, forced the Saverne Gap and liberated Strasbourg. After taking part in the Battle of the Colmar Pocket , the division was moved west and assaulted the German-held Atlantic port of Royan , before recrossing France in April 1945 and participating in the final fighting in southern Germany, even going first into Hitler's "Eagle's Nest" (Americans captured

432-574: The final phases of World War II in the Western Front for the liberation of France . The division was formed around a core of units that had fought in the North African campaign , and re-organized into a light armored division in 1943. The division embarked in April 1944 and shipped to various ports in Britain. On 29 July 1944, bound for France, the division embarked at Southampton . During combat in 1944,

459-725: The late 1970s until 1999, the 2nd Division was headquartered in Versailles and was subordinated to the III Corps (France) . It became the 2nd Armoured Brigade in 1999. Spanish Republican government in Exile The Government of the Spanish Republic in exile ( Spanish : Gobierno de la República Española en el exilio ) was a continuation, in exile, of the government of the Second Spanish Republic following

486-507: The liberators of Paris. The 2nd Division later fought in the tank battles in Lorraine . On 13 September 1944 at the town of Dompaire 'Groupemont Langlade' destroyed the German 112th Panzer Brigade . Subsequently, the 2nd Division operated with U.S. forces during the assault into the Vosges Mountains . Serving as the armored exploitation force for the U.S. XV Corps , the 2nd Division forced

513-428: The promulgation of the ‘Armées 2000’ plan, the 3rd Army Corps became the only army corps in the metropolitan territory, and the 7th Armored Division joined it, with the grouping rising to 44,000 men with 15,000 vehicles. In 1993, after the disbandment of the 8th DI, the Corps was reorganised to include three armoured divisions, the 2nd, 7th, and 10th, the 12th Light Armoured Division with its command post at Saumur ,

540-420: The resulting changes, ten regiments were dissolved in 1997. The specialist brigades were transferred on 1 July 1997 to Lunéville (signals), Haguenau (the artillery brigade) and Strasbourg (engineers). The 2nd Armoured Division left Versailles on 1 September 1997 and was installed at Châlons-en-Champagne in place of the disbanding 10th Armoured Division. On 5 March 1998, in view of the ongoing structural adoptions of

567-685: The same organizational structure as a US light armored division. The division's 14,454 personnel included men from the 2nd Light Division, which included escapees from metropolitan France, as well as 3,600 Moroccans and Algerians and about 350 Spanish Republicans . Other sources give about 2,000, official records of the 2e DB show fewer than 300 Spaniards as many hid their nationality, fearing retaliation against their families in Spain. Combat formations: Supply and services: The division landed at Utah Beach in Normandy on 1 August 1944, about two months after

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594-486: The town below). Deactivated after the war, the 2nd Division was again activated in the 1970s and served through 1999, when it was downsized to the now 2nd Armored Brigade. The division was formed around a core of units that had raided Italian Libya at the end of 1940 and Tripoli in 1943 under Leclerc, but was most known for its role in the fight at Kufra in 1941; later renamed the 2nd Light Division, in August 1943, it adopted

621-423: The unit counted 1,687 dead, including 108 officers, and 3,300 wounded . On 13 May 1945, SHAEF relinquished operational control of the 2nd Armored Division to France. From 23 to 28 May 1945, the 2nd Division moved to its new garrison in the region of Paris, where it was deactivated on 31 March 1946. There are records from the late 1960s and early 1970s of 501 Régiment de Chars de Combat (501 RCC) being part of

648-537: The unit's history was the Liberation of Paris . Allied strategy emphasized destroying German forces retreating towards the river Rhine and considered that attack on Paris would risk destroying it, but when the French Resistance under Henri Rol-Tanguy staged an uprising in the city from 19 August, Charles de Gaulle threatened to send the division into Paris, single-handedly, to prevent the uprising being crushed as

675-488: The victorious Allies and that they would be able to return to Spain. When these hopes were disappointed, the government-in-exile faded away to a purely symbolic role. The government moved back to Paris in 1946. There was also a Basque government in exile and a Catalan government in exile. In the immediate postwar period, it had diplomatic relations with Mexico , Panama , Guatemala , Venezuela , Poland , Czechoslovakia , Hungary , Yugoslavia , Romania , and Albania , but

702-618: The victory of Francisco Franco 's forces in the Spanish Civil War . It existed until the restoration of parliamentary democracy in 1977 . Following the fall of the Republic in April 1939, the president of Spain , Manuel Azaña and the prime minister , Juan Negrín , went into exile in France . Azaña resigned his post and died in November 1940. He was succeeded as president by Diego Martínez Barrio , who had been prime minister in 1936. Following

729-455: Was then happening in Warsaw . Eisenhower agreed to let the French armored division and the U.S. 4th Infantry Division liberate Paris. In the early morning of 23 August, Leclerc's 2e DB left the south of Argentan on its march to Paris, a march which was slowed by poor road conditions, French crowds, and fierce combat near Paris. On 24 August, General Leclerc sent a small advance party to enter

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