Charles de Gaulle, part the first.
Hitler attacks France on May 10th, on the 4th Sedan falls, by the 18th Paris becomes the next target. Within a few days, the whole French State collapses in a state of disarray and chaos. De Gaulle's warnings have been proven beyond any doubt but it's too late. On June 7th, what is left of the French government in Bordeaux names de Gaulle under secretary of state to the War cabinet. As such he is sent to London to discuss a Franco-British alliance. Three days later Marshall Pétain takes command of the government and asks for an Armistice with Germany. On the 18th of June, de Gaulle broadcasts his famous speech, which asks all Frenchmen to join him and to keep fighting. The Free French Resistance is born. Winston Churchill decides on June 22nd to name him head of the Free French. In July this alliance between Churchill and de Gaulle is seriously affected by the British attack of France's navy at Mers el-Kébir.
From this point on, two conceptions of France will co-exist until liberation, collaboration and résistance, Pétain and de Gaulle. De Gaulle's solitary crusade at first meets little success. Only 7000 men manage to join his Free French army. However many intellectuals and officers such as René Cassin, Emile Muselier, Georges Catroux, Georges Mandel, and Leclerc join De Gaulle. Félix Éboué from Chad gives his unconditional support.
During the course of the War, Churchill and de Gaulle will find them at odds as competing interests in the Middle East come to the forefront, however the two men never broke off political relations. The United-States under Roosevelt however was another matter. Roosevelt harboured deep mistrust for de Gaulle and the Free French. The Free French liberation of St Pierre et Miquelon in December 1941 set off a tempest in Washington. Roosevelt even went as far as threatening a naval attack on the French islands but public opinion was strongly in favour of the actions of de Gaulle. Events in North Africa complicated everything as Vichy; the United States, French royalists and Free France are involved in intrigue. Roosevelt decides to take things in hand and tries to force an alliance between de Gaulle and their protégé Giraud in Anfa.
By 1943, de Gaulle moves his provisional government to Algiers and prepares the return of the French Republic to France. Corsica is liberated by the end of the year,
Latest Articles