Charles Noguès

Charles Noguès (13 August 1876 - 20 April 1971) was a French general. He graduated from the École Polytechnique, and he was awarded the Grand Croix of the Legion of Honour in 1939.

During World War II, he served as Resident-General in Morocco and Commander-in-Chief in French North Africa. Noguès was appalled by news that the French government was seeking an armistice with Germany. On 17 June 1940 he telegraphed to Bordeaux, where the government was then situated: “The whole of North Africa is appalled. The troops beg to continue the struggle if the government has no objection. I am ready to take responsibility for this attitude with all the risks that it entails,” ie. asking for a hint to carry on fighting. However, he did not approve of General Charles de Gaulle's call from London in 18 June to carry on fighting, telling the British liaison officer that he thought de Gaulle’s attitude “unseemly” and forbidding the North African press from publishing de Gaulle's appeal.

Noguès accepted the armistice on 22 June, partly (he claimed) because Admiral Francois Darlan would not let him have the French fleet to continue hostilities against the Axis powers. He eventually agreed under pressure from Maxime Weygand’s emissary General Louis Koeltz, telegraphing Weygand: “it covers me with shame”.

Book

 * Lacouture, Jean. De Gaulle: The Rebel 1890–1944 (1984; English ed. 1991), ISBN 978-0-841-90927-4