1918 in France

Incumbents

• President: Raymond Poincaré
• President of the Council of Ministers: Georges Clemenceau

  Events

• 21 March - Operation Michael begins in the vicinity of Saint-Quentin, launching Germany's Spring Offensive.
• 23 March - The giant German cannon, called the Paris Gun, begins to shell Paris from away.
• 27 May - The Third Battle of the Aisne begins, an attempt by the Germans to capture the Chemin des Dames Ridge before the arrival of the American Expeditionary Force to support France.
• 1 June - The Battle of Belleau Wood begins, near the Marne River.
• 6 June - Third Battle of the Aisne ends with the German advance halted after initial gains.
• 26 June - Battle of Belleau Wood ends in Allied victory.
• 15 July - The Second Battle of the Marne begins, the last major German offensive on the Western Front.
• 18 July-22 July - The Battle of Soissons is fought between the French and German armies.
• 5 August - Second Battle of the Marne ends with Allied victory.
• 8 August - Battle of Amiens begins.
• 12 September - British victory in Battle of Havrincourt.
• 12 September-15 September - Battle of Saint-Mihiel, Allied victory.
• 18 September - British victory in the Battle of Épehy.
• 8 October-10 October - The Battle of Cambrai ends in a decisive Allied victory.
• 7 November - The Anglo-French Declaration is signed between France and the United Kingdom, agreeing to implement a "complete and final liberation" of countries that had been part of the Ottoman Empire.
• 11 November - Battle of Amiens ends, when the armistice is signed.

  Births

• 6 February - Marcel Mouly, artist
• 25 April - Alain Savary, politician and Minister
• 25 April - Gérard de Vaucouleurs, astronomer
• 11 May - Roger Trézel, bridge player
• 26 June - Roger Voisin, trumpeter
• 26 August - Marcel Bleibtreu, Trotskyist activist and theorist
• 14 September - Paul Bonneau, composer
• 30 September - René Rémond, historian and political economist
• 6 October - André Pilette, motor racing driver
• 16 October - Louis Althusser, Marxist philosopher
• 7 November - Paul Aussaresses, general
• 8 December - Gérard Souzay, baritone
• 16 December - Pierre Delanoë, songwriter/lyricist
• 30 December - Lucien Leduc, soccer player and manager

  Full date unknown

• Madeleine Giteau, historian
• Gilbert Martineau, author and curator of the French properties on St Helena

  Deaths

• 9 January - Charles-Émile Reynaud, science teacher, responsible for the first animated films
• 23 March — Hans Gottfried von Häbler, World War I German flying ace
• 25 March - Claude Debussy, composer
• 25 August - Henri Chantavoine, writer
• 5 October - Roland Garros, aviator and World War I fighter pilot
• 12 October - Émile Étienne Guimet, industrialist, traveller and connoisseur
• 13 October - Marcel Deprez, electrical engineer
• 9 November - Guillaume Apollinaire, poet, writer and art critic
• 3 December - Étienne Destot, radiologist and anatomist
• 22 December - Philippe Alexandre Jules Künckel d'Herculais, entomologist

  Full date unknown

• Thérèse Humbert, fraudster