France Establishes Control

WHILE THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT WORKED to obtain Allied approval of their claims on the Saar and its mines, military governor Gilbert Grandval wasted little time in setting up a new administration. Civilian administrators were recruited from France to run Grandval's government and the Saar's mines. Grandval also had at his disposal French soldiers who stayed behind to occupy the territory. Although the Allies had feared that Nazi guerrillas called Werewolves might attack occupying forces, this did not occur. Thus French soldiers in the Saar did not encounter any armed resistance. French troops performed tasks such as maintaining order, seizing and destroying Wehrmacht munitions and equipment, and arresting high-profile Nazis and war criminals. By September 1949 most of this work was complete, and French forces in the Saar consisted of one battalion of 580 soldiers, the thirty-seventh infantry battalion. Relations between French troops and the Saar population improved over time to such a degree that Grandval concluded in 1949 that Saarlanders “no longer consider French soldiers as occupiers, but as friends.” When the French Defense Ministry considered sending an additional battalion and a regiment of tank-destroyers to the Saar that same year, however, Grandval successful convinced it to drop such plans, arguing that one battalion was sufficient for France's security needs and that Saarlanders would take a dim view of a larger military presence.

The gradual drawdown of troops in the Saar in part reflected the French military's overall approach to the occupation of Germany as well as its increasing focus on conflicts in France's colonial empire. When the war ended in May of 1945, France had more than a million troops in Germany. By May 1948 this number had been reduced to 53,000.