Corps des Volontaires françaises

Corps des Volontaires françaises
Hélène Terré, the second commanding officer of the CVF, pictured in uniform.
Active	1940-1944
Country	Free France
Size	430 women (1943)
Commanders
Notable commanders	Simonne Mathieu, Hélène Terré

The Corps of French Female Volunteers (French: Corps des Volontaires françaises, or CVF) was a military auxiliary service established by the Free French forces in the United Kingdom during World War II. It was founded on 7 November 1940 as the Female Corps (French: Corps féminin, CF) and was inspired by the precedent of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) and was the first female unit in the military history of France. It was initially commanded by Simonne Mathieu and later by Hélène Terré. Initially only 26-strong, the CF was intended to provide personnel to serve in clerical and secretarial functions that would enable male personnel to be dispatched to front-line units. The CF was renamed on 16 November 1941 and formally integrated into the Free French Forces. It numbered 430 women by July 1943.^[1] It was disbanded in May 1944 at the start of the Liberation of France and was superseded by the the following month.^[1]

Notable personnel[]

• Simonne Mathieu (1908-1980), tennis player and first commanding officer
• Hélène Terré (1903-1993), second commanding officer
• Tereska Torrès (1920-2012), author of the fictionalised memoir Women's Barracks (1950).
• Éliane Brault (1895-1982), politician and freemason.

References[]

Bibliography

• Benoît, Christian (2014). "Les corps féminins". Corps (12): 113–114.

Further reading[]

• Albertelli, Sébastien (2020). Elles ont suivi de Gaulle : Histoire du Corps des volontaires françaises (1940-1946). Paris: Perrin. ISBN 9782262075880.
• Jauneau, Elodie (14 December 2008). "Des femmes dans la France combattante pendant la Deuxième Guerre mondiale : Le Corps des Volontaires Françaises et le Groupe Rochambeau". Genre & Histoire (in French) (3). ISSN 2102-5886.