France takes part in joint military exercises in United States

 

For the past month, more than 200 French military personnel have been stationed at Fort Irwin in California's Mojave Desert. For the first time, France has been invited to take part in joint exercises with five allied countries: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. Initiated by the Pentagon, the project, dubbed "Convergence", is designed to enable all these armies to cooperate in conflict zones and act as an effective coalition. Now that war has returned to Europe, the stakes are high for France. Our correspondents Valérie Defert and Pierrick Leurent followed the French army in the field, with Wassim Cornet.

https://www.france24.com/en/tv-shows/focus/20240319-france-takes-part-in-joint-military-exercises-in-united-states

 

 

MAKE A DEAL PRONTO BEFORE THE SHIT HITS THE FAN:

 

 

NO NATO IN "UKRAINE" (WHAT'S LEFT OF IT)

THE DONBASS REPUBLICS ARE NOW BACK IN THE RUSSIAN FOLD — AS THEY USED TO BE PRIOR 1922. THE RUSSIANS WON'T ABANDON THESE AGAIN.

THESE WILL ALSO INCLUDE ODESSA, KHERSON AND KHARKIV.....

CRIMEA IS RUSSIAN — AS IT USED TO BE PRIOR 1954

A MEMORANDUM OF NON-AGGRESSION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE USA.

 

EASY.

 

THE WEST KNOWS IT.

 

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First he flexed his muscles on Ukraine. Now Emmanuel Macron has gone one further, releasing photos of him hitting a punchbag with bulging biceps in a show of his strength in action.

The French president's photographer posted two images on Instagram, days after he began to take a far more hawkish public line against Russia.

It was not long before "Rocky" began to trend on social media.

Perhaps inevitably, others questioned whether the photos had been "enhanced". 

Doubters pointed to the size of his biceps, and re-posted the boxing picture alongside an image of Mr Macron, 46, with a skinnier arm.

 

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-68618722

 

 

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Russian Foreign Intelligence Chief Sergey Naryshkin said on Tuesday that thousands of French troops are being prepared for deployment in the Odessa region of Ukraine.

French President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to put around 2,000 troops in Odessa would only serve as a “human tripwire force” and would be “the equivalent of NATO, like a dog, urinating on Odessa, marking it as NATO’s territory,” Mark Sleboda, an international relations and security expert, told Sputnik’s The Critical Hour on Wednesday. He added that in this analogy, France is like “a poodle.”

On Tuesday, French ground army chief of staff General Pierre Schill said in an op-ed that his forces are ready to respond to “the toughest engagements” and said the country could engage a division of 20,000 troops within 30 days.

 

“He’s wrong. The French army is most certainly not ready for this,” Sleboda said, commenting on the general’s assertion. “If they were engaged in a high-intensity conflict such as the Kiev regime is engaged in, firing many less artillery shells than Russia, then France would have enough artillery shells for four days of conflict with Russia. Four days,” Sleboda explained.

 

By comparison, Russia has more than 600,000 troops deployed in the special operation zone, according to both Russian and Western analyses. “There is a likelihood that the French believe that Russia will not fire on these French troops, [because] they are under uniform, out of fear of striking a NATO member, even though of course, NATO’s Article Five would not apply,” Sleboda explained.

Sleboda added that he believes Macron thinks that if French troops are killed by Russia, then that will create more support for the conflict domestically and “help politically mobilize” other European countries to join the fight.

 

“I think if Macron sent his troops to Odessa, obviously not a force that could be able to engage Russia in a slugfest on the battlefield, but as kind of a human tripwire force. It would be the equivalent of NATO, like a dog, urinating on Odessa, marking it as NATO’s territory,” Sleboda said.

 

“Of course, with NATO troops officially in uniform dying in Ukraine, that would take us to a whole other level,” he warned.

Sleboda predicted that there will be a “very big information warfare game, the targets of which will be the French people,” and other NATO member states, noting that Finland, the Czech Republic, the Baltics and Canada “have all already suggested that they might” join the French.

Co-host Wilmer Leon asked if Macron could seriously believe a “behind whopping isn’t on the horizon,” Sleboda responded by describing NATO’s “salami-slicing tactics” of incrementalism.

“We now have NATO leaders openly admitting, ‘yeah, we’ve got troops all over Ukraine. They’ve been heavily involved in all operations of combat,’” he said, citing a Spanish newspaper. “Russia has still not taken any retaliatory actions against NATO outside of Ukraine, outside of the parameters of the proxy war. So, I think this is one more escalation they believe they can get through [using] incrementalism.”

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240321/macron-sending-troops-to-ukraine-like-a-dog-urinating-on-odessa-1117460033.html

 

 

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The claims by the head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence confirmed the reports by SouthFront, according to which, the French military is already conducting the combat training of the special tactical battalion group for Ukraine. The training is ongoing on the training ground la Courtine. The group should include about 1,500 servicemen of the French Foreign Legion, but Paris failed to find enough servicemen ready for their deployment in Ukraine. That’s why  the French military leadership was forced to fill the ranks of the group with personnel from the Ministry of the Armed Forces.

https://southfront.press/russian-foreign-intelligence-service-confirms-f...

 

IT IS A BIT INSANE THAT THE FRENCH TROOPS BEING PREPARED TO FIGHT THE RUSSIANS IN UKRAINE ARE TRAINING IN THE SAME CAMP WHERE THE RUSSIAN TROOPS HAD A MUTINY, DURING WORD WAR ONE, AFTER HAVING BEEN SENT TO FIGHT THE GERMANS ALONGSIDE THE FRENCH…

 

La Courtine (French pronunciation: [la kuʁtin]; Auvergnat: La Cortina) is a commune in the Creuse department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in central France.

La Courtine military camp

The foundation of the camp in 1904 transformed the town: the inhabitants remained peasants during the day but became bar-keepers at night and soon there were more bars than inhabitants.[3]

A military camp, established in 1904, housing up to 4000 soldiers, site of the 1917 mutiny by troops of the Russian Expeditionary Force in France.

 

 

The Russian Expeditionary Force [REF] (French: Corps Expéditionnaire Russe en France, Russian: Экспедиционный корпус Русской армии во Франции и Греции) was a World War I military force sent to France and Greece by the Russian Empire. In 1915, the French requested that Russian troops be sent to fight alongside their own army on the Western Front. Initially they asked for 300,000 men, an unrealistically high figure, probably based on assumptions about Russia's 'unlimited' reserves. General Mikhail Alekseev, the Imperial Chief of Staff, was opposed to sending any Russian troops, although Nicholas II finally agreed to send a unit of brigade strength. The first Russian brigade finally landed at Marseille in April 1916.

A second brigade was also sent to serve alongside other Allied formations on the Salonika front in northern Greece. In France, the First Brigade participated in the Nivelle Offensive; with news of the Russian Revolution affecting morale within the French Army following the failure of that offensive, the 1st and 3rd Brigades participated in the wave of mutinies spreading across France. The First Brigade was disbanded before the end of the year. The Honorary Russian Legion of the 1st Moroccan Division continued to maintain a Russian presence in the west and in the First World War, until the Armistice of 11 November 1918.

 

Before March 1917

In December 1915 the French politician, Paul Doumer while on a visit to Russia, proposed that 300,000 Russian troops be sent to fight in France in exchange for French munitions. While the Russian High Command showed little enthusiasm for this proposal, Tsar Nicholas II supported it. General Alexeyev, the Russian chief of staff from August 1915, made an offer to send Russian troops to France, as long as they remained under Russian officers (while operating under the French High Command). Another requirement was that the French Navy transport them.[1]

The 1st Russian Brigade formed in January, 1916 under the command of General Nikolai Aleksandrovich Lokhvitsky. It did not consist of regiments already in existence but was made up mostly of drafts from various reserve units incorporated into the newly formed 1st and 2nd Regiments, from Moscow and Samara respectively. The 1st Regiment's troops were mainly conscripted factory workers while the 2nd's were generally drawn from rural areas. The brigade totaled 8,942 men. It left Moscow on February 3, 1916, and arrived in Marseille on April 16 of the same year.[1]

The regiments were divided into three battalions of four companies each. Each regiment also had a liaison and a service section. The reserve battalion had six companies. The First Brigade was commanded by General Lokhvitsky, and was composed of 180 officers and 8762 enlisted men. Each brigade had a double supply of clothing and a kitchen on wheels. The French Navy and Army undertook to provide shipping, supplies, and equipment.

The 3rd, 4th and 5th Brigades soon followed. The 2nd and 4th Brigades arrived on the Salonika front in August and November 1916. The 3rd Brigade comprised serving soldiers plus reserve units formed in Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk under the command of Fyodor Fyodorovich Palitzin; it left for France in August 1916.[1]

General Aleksei Brusilov, commander of the Russian Southwest Front from March 1916, was responsible for the four brigades, which contributed a total of 44,319 men to the Entente effort in western and southern Europe. The 6th, 7th and 8th Brigades were never formed due to the outbreak of the Russian Revolution.[1]

Approximately 450 Estonian troops also served with the REF, mostly in the 1st and 3rd Brigades. After February 1917 these troops wore small Estonian flags to distinguish themselves from their Russian counterparts.[2]

 

The Russians in action

Order of battle

In January 1916, the 1st Infantry Brigade of the Russian expeditionary Force (REF) was formed and included two regiments, the 1st under Colonel Mikhaïl Netchvolodov, and the 2nd under Colonel Dyakonov, each of 3 battalions in strength. The brigade was under the overall command of Major-General Nikolai Aleksandrovich Lokhvitsky. Transported by rail, 8,942 men reached Dalian, on the Korea Bay of the Korean peninsula and embarked on French naval vessels (including the transports Amiral Latouche-Tréville and Himalaya). The 1st Brigade reached Marseille on April 16, 1916.

In July 1916, the 2nd Infantry Brigade, commanded by General Mikhail Dieterichs, was sent via France to the Salonika Front. It arrived there, in parts, between August 1 and September 16, 1916. It was formed of the 3rd and 4th Infantry Regiments, of 3 battalions each, for a total of 9560 men.[3]

The 3rd Infantry Brigade, formed of the 5th and 6th regiments, under, respectively, Colonels Narbout and Simonov, was formed in June 1916, and was sent to France in August via Arkhangelsk. This brigade was commanded by General Vladimir Marouchevski.

The 4th Infantry Brigade, formed of the 7th and 8th regiments, was commanded by Major-General Maxime Leontiev [fr]. It was part of the Expédition de Salonique, stopping first at Brest aboard the ocean liner La Lorraine and finally arriving at Thessaloniki in October 1916, and at the front in November.

In July 1917, the two brigades operating on the Macedonian front were grouped together to form the 2nd Infantry Division. This formation was dissolved in January 1918,[4] due to the men and officers being greatly troubled by events on the Russian home front[a] and the Allied commanders similarly fearful of the effect of communist propaganda on the troops, and reports of fraternisation with the Bulgarians on the front. The Russians were relieved of duty on the frontline between January 2 and January 20. Of the remaining soldiers, 784 volunteered to join the Russian Legion in France in March, while 2196 men, formed into two battalions, remained available for work. Over 17500 others refused either position, and were sent away to Bizerte and then further on.[5]

 

Formations

Readying and equipping was done with the French Army in Camp de Mailly, France. The Russian brigades also found themselves engaged in combat in the Balkans; where British, French, Italian, Albanian, Greek, Portuguese and Serbian forces were already serving together.

 

Battle fronts

In France the Russian brigade prepared in camp de Mailly, in Champagne and was sent between Suippes and Aubérive on the Western Front. Russian units held the front of Champagne while French units were fighting the Battle of Verdun. Russians occupied the Fort de la Pompelle near Reims.

Following heavy losses during the offensive of April 1917 (Second Battle of the Aisne, also known as bataille du Chemin des Dames) for the taking of Courcy and the Fort of Brimot, the 1st and 3rd Russian Brigades which had been placed under the French 7th Army Corps (General Georges de Bazelaire),[6] were both cited at the orders of armed forces and paused at camp de La Courtine. Both Russian infantry brigades became the Russian Division, commanded by Lokhvitski.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Expeditionary_Force_in_France

 

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