In 1991 the division participated in
Operation Desert Storm guarding the left flank of the allied advance. After
Iraq surrendered the division's units returned to France and the division itself was disbanded on 30 April 1991.
History
After the
Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 the United States and its allies began to deploy forces to
Saudi Arabia to protect the country from a feared Iraqi invasion. As Iraq's dictator
Saddam Hussein refused to remove his forces from Kuwait the
United NationsSecurity Council accepted
UNSC Resolution 678, which authorized UN member nations in to evict Iraqi forces from Kuwait with force after 15 January 1991.
France had already dispatched troops to Saudi Arabia in September 1990 to help deter Iraq from further military adventures, but with war drawing closer, the French contingent was rapidly reinforced all through fall of 1990. Most of the initial units of the Division Daguet were drawn from the
6th Light Armoured Division (France) (6 DLB), but ultimately the division was made up mixed units from 20 regiments with troops and equipment coming from 57 regiments in total.
Initially the commander of 6th Light Armoured Division, Major General
Jean-Charles Mouscardès, commanded Division Daguet, but after a medical emergency on 7 February 1991 he was replaced by Brigadier General
Bernard Janvier the next day. Overall commander of French forces in Saudi Arabia and Opération Daguet was General
Michel Roquejeoffre, commanding officer of the French Army's
Rapid Action Force.[1] Initially, the French operated independently under national command and control, but coordinated closely with General Schwarzkopf, Commander-in-Chief,
United States Central Command, coordinating the non-Arab forces. In January, the Division was placed under the tactical control of the US
XVIII Airborne Corps and reinforced for the ground war with the following units from the
US Army: 2nd Brigade,
82nd Airborne Division,
18th Field Artillery Brigade, and 27th Engineer Battalion.
Operation Desert Storm
On 24 February 1991, the ground phase began. Reconnaissance units of Division Daguet advanced into Iraq. Three hours later, the French main body attacked. The initial objective of the division was an airfield 90 miles (140 km) inside Iraq at As-Salman. Reinforced by the US
82nd Airborne Division, the French crossed the border unopposed and attacked north. The French then came across elements of the Iraqi
45th Infantry Division. After a brief battle, supported by
French Army missile-armed
Aérospatiale Gazelle attack helicopters, they controlled the objective and captured 2,500 prisoners. By the end of the first day Division Daguet had secured its objectives and continued the attack north, securing the highways from
Baghdad to southern Iraq.
Division Structure
The division's staff was mostly drawn from the staff of the
6th Light Armoured Division (France) based in
Nîmes. After the arrival of most units the division was split into two tactical groups: Group West (Groupement Ouest) and Group East (Groupement Est). At the outset of hostilities the division was composed as follows:[2] Other sources, including Dinackus, name the two command posts as "CP Verte" (Green) and "CP Rouge" (Red).