Free France

Free France and its Free French Forces (French: La France Libre and Forces françaises libres) was the government-in-exile led by Charles de Gaulle during the Second World War and its military forces that continued to fight against the Axis powers on the Allies' side after the Fall of France. It was set up in London in 1940 and also organised and supported the résistance in occupied France.

De Gaulle, a French government minister who rejected the armistice concluded by Marshal Philippe Pétain and who had escaped to Britain, exhorted the French to resist in his BBC broadcast "Appeal of 18 June" (Appel du 18 juin), which had a stirring effect on morale throughout France and its colonies, although initially relatively few French forces responded to de Gaulle's call.

On 27 October 1940, the Empire Defense Council (Conseil de défense de l'Empire) was constituted to organise the rule of the territories in central Africa, Asia and Oceania that had heeded the 18 June call. It was replaced on 24 September 1941 by the French National Commitee (Comité national français or CNF). From 13 July 1942, "Free France" was officially renamed France combattante ("Fighting France"), to mark that the struggle against the Axis was conducted both externally by the FFF and internally by the French Forces of the Interior (FFI). After the liberation of North Africa, this was in turn formally merged with de Gaulle's rival general Henri Giraud's command in Algiers to form the French Committee of National Liberation (Comité français de Libération nationale or CFNL). Exile officially ended with the capture of Paris by the 2nd Armoured Free French Division and resistance forces on 25 August 1944, ushering in the Provisional Government of the French Republic (gouvernement provisoire de la République française or GPRF). It ruled France until the end of the war and afterwards to 1946, when the IVth Republic was established, thus ending the series of interim regimes that had succeeded the IIIrd Republic after its fall in 1940.

The free French fought Axis and Vichy regime troops and served on battlefronts everywhere from the Middle East to Indochina and North Africa. The Free French Navy operated as an auxiliary force to the Royal Navy, and there were free French units in the Royal Air Force, Soviet Air Force, and British SAS, before larger commands were established directly under the control of the government in exile.

From a few colonial outposts in Africa, India, and the Pacific, Free France steadily took over more and more Vichy possessions, until the latter after the allied landings in North Africa (Operation Torch) in November 1942 only ruled over the zone libre in southern France and a few possesions in the West Indies (and nominally over Japanese-occupied French Indochina). This caused the Axis to occupy Vichy, and in reaction the French Army of Africa switched allegiance to Free France.

On 1 August 1943, the Armée d'Afrique was formally united with the Free French Forces to form the Armée française de la Liberation. By mid-1944, the forces of this army numbered more than 400,000, and they participated in the Normandy landings and the invasion of southern France, eventually leading the drive on Paris. Soon they were fighting in Alsace, the Alps and Brittany, and by the end of the war in Europe, they were 1,300,000 strong –  the fourth-largest Allied army in Europe – and took part in the Allied advance through France and invasion of Germany. The Free French government re-established a provisional republic after the liberation, preparing the ground for the IVth Republic in 1946.

Definition
Historically, an individual became "Free French" by enlisting in the military units organised by the CFN or by employment by the civilian arm of the Committee. On 1 August 1943 after the merger of CFN and and representatives of the former Vichy regime in North Africa to form the CFLN earlier in June, the FFF and the Armée d'Afrique (constituing a major part of the Vichy regular forces allowed by the 1940 armistice) were merged to form the French Liberation Army, Armée française de la Libération, and all subsequent enlistments were in this combined force.

In many sources, Free French describes any French individual or unit that fought against Axis forces after the June 1940 armistice. Postwar, to settle disputes over the Free French heritage, the French government issued an official definition of the term. Under this "ministerial instruction of July 1953" (instruction ministérielle du 29 juillet 1953), only those who served with the Allies after the Franco-German armistice in 1940 and before 1 August 1943 may correctly be called "Free French".

Prelude
On 10 May 1940 Wehrmacht forces invaded France and the Low Countries after the long period of inactivity in autumn and winter 1939–40 known as the Phoney war, rapidly defeating the French, Belgian, Dutch and British armies. German armoured units attacked in a surprise thrust through the Ardennes in a successful move to cut off and surrounded the Allied units that had advanced into Belgium by advancing along the Somme river.

Forced to retreat and facing certain defeat, the British government decided to evacuate the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), along with several French divisions, from the coastal port of Dunkirk in Operation Dynamo. Between 27 May and 4 June around 200,000 British soldiers and 140,000 French troops were successfully evacuated from the beaches to safety in England.

General Charles de Gaulle was a minister in the French cabinet during the Battle of France, only recently promoted to brigadier general. However, he favoured continued resistance against the Germans and had been a pre-war proponent of the revolutionary modern armoured warfare ideas, so sucessfully put in practice by the Wehrmacht to defeat Poland and France with their Blitzkrieg concept, and commanding the 4th armoured division at the Battle of Montcornet. As France was overwhelmed by the stunning German victory, he found himself part of a small group of politicians who argued against a negotiated surrender to Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Prime Minister Paul Reynaud sent de Gaulle as an emissary to London to negotiate a union between France and Britain, but lack of support for the plan and defeatism in his cabinet forced Reynaud to resign on 16 June.; That same day the new French President of the Council, former First World War marshal Philippe Pétain, began negotiations for an armistice with Axis officials. De Gaulle briefly travelled to Bordeaux to continue the fight but, realising that Petain would surrender, he returned to London on 17 June.

De Gaulle rallies the Free French


On 18 June, General de Gaulle spoke to the French people via BBC radio, urging French soldiers, sailors and airmen to join in the fight against the Nazis:
 * "France is not alone! She is not alone! She has a great empire behind her! Together with the British Empire, she can form a bloc that controls the seas and continue the struggle. She may, like England, draw upon the limitless industrial resources of the United States".

Some members of the British Cabinet had reservations about de Gaulle's speech, fearing that such a broadcast could provoke the Pétain government into handing the French fleet over to the Nazis, but British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, despite his own concerns, agreed to the broadcast.

In France, de Gaulle's "Appeal of 18 June" (Appel du 18 juin) was not widely heard that day but, together with his BBC broadcasts in subsequent days and his later communications, came to be widely remembered throughout France and its colonial empire as the voice of national honour and freedom.

Armistice
On 19 June de Gaulle again broadcast to the French nation, saying that in France "all forms of authority had disappeared" and since its government had "fallen under the bondage of the enemy and all our institutions have ceased to function", that it was "the clear duty" of all French servicemen to fight on.

This, then, would form the essential legal basis of de Gaulle's government in exile; that the armistice soon to be signed with the Nazis was not merely dishonourable but illegal, and that in signing it the French government would itself be committing treason. On the other hand, if Vichy was the legal French government as some such as Julian T. Jackson have argued, de Gaulle and his followers were revolutionaries, unlike the Dutch, Belgian, and other governments in exile in London. A third option might be that neither considered that a fully free, legitimate, sovereign, and independent successor state to the IIIrd Republic existed following the Armistice, as both Free France and Vichy France refrained from making that implicit claim by studiously avoiding using the word "republic" when referring to themselves and republicanism had been a core ideological value and central tenet of the French state ever since the French Revolution and especially since the Franco-Prussian War. In Vichy's case those reasons were compounded with ideas of a Révolution nationale about stomping out France's republican heritage.

On 22 June 1940 Marshall Pétain signed an armistice with Germany, followed by a similar one with Italy on 24 June; both of these came into force on 25 June. After a parliamentary vote on 10 July, Pétain became leader of the newly established authoritarian regime known as Vichy France, the town of Vichy being the seat of government. De Gaulle was tried in absentia in Vichy France and sentenced to death for treason; he, on the other hand, regarded himself as the last remaining member of the legitimate Reynaud government able to exercise power, seeing the rise to power of Pétain as an unconstitutional coup d'état.

The beginnings of the Free French forces
Despite de Gaulle's call to continue the struggle, few French forces, at least initially, pledged their support. Of the tens of thousands of French soldiers evacuated from Dunkirk in June 1940, only about 3,000 chose to continue the fight by joining de Gaulle's Free French army in London. Three-quarters of French servicemen in Britain requested repatriation.

The fact was that France was bitterly divided by the conflict. Frenchmen everywhere were forced to choose sides, and often deeply resented those who had made a different choice. One French Admiral, Rene Godfroy, voiced the opinion of many of those who decided not to join the Free French forces, when in June 1940 he explained to the exasperated British why he would not order his ships from their Alexandria harbour to join de Gaulle:
 * "For us Frenchmen the fact is that a government still exists in France, a government supported by a Parliament established in non-occupied territory and which in consequence cannot be considered irregular or deposed. The establishment elsewhere of another government, and all support for this other government, would clearly be rebellion".

Equally, few Frenchmen believed that England could stand alone. In June 1940 Petain and his generals told Churchill that "in three weeks England will have her neck wrung like a chicken". Few in the summer of 1940 could foresee German defeat. Of France's far-flung empire, only a few distant African colonies rallied behind de Gaulle's initial call to arms.

In the summer of 1940, as Britain fought the Battle of Britain, around a dozen free French pilots volunteered in the RAF to help fight the Luftwaffe; for comparison, about 140 Polish pilots did the same (though it should be noted that Polish airmen and pilots had had much more time to join the allied cause, since October 1939, and had begun to create an embryonic independent air force in France during the Phoney War).

France's surrender found her only aircraft carrier, Béarn, en route from the United States loaded with a precious cargo of American fighter and bomber aircraft. Unwilling to return to occupied France, but likewise reluctant to join de Gaulle, Béarn instead sought harbour in Martinique, her crew showing little inclination to side with the British in their continued fight against the Nazis. Already obsolete at the start of the war, she would remain in Martinique for the next four years, her aircraft rusting in the tropical climate.

However, following repeated broadcasts, by the end of July 1940, seven thousand people had volunteered for the Free French Forces. The Free French Navy manned some 50 ships with about 3,700 men operating as an auxiliary force to the British Royal Navy.

Composition


Initially at least, the Free French forces were drawn mostly from the French colonial empire, rather than from metropolitan France. In numerous cases, contacts sent out to convince people on the continent to provide assistance, were instead delivered to the Gestapo. French nationals from the tropical African colonies formed a large part of the forces at the beginning, as were nationals from French Algeria. Later, many combatants were drawn from the native populations of French colonies. Sixty-five percent were conscripts from French West Africa, primarily Senegal. Other contingents were natives of Morocco, Algeria, and Tahiti (the Tahitians served with particular distinction in the western Sahara). The Free French forces also included units of the Foreign Legion.

The Free French units in the Royal Air Force, Soviet Air Force, and British SAS were mainly composed of men from metropolitan France.

Cross of Lorraine


Capitaine de corvette Thierry d'Argenlieu suggested the adoption of the Cross of Lorraine as a symbol of the Free French. This to recall, the perseverance of Joan of Arc, patron saint of France, whose symbol it had been, the province where she was born, and now partially annexed into Alsace-Lorraine by the Third Reich, and as a response to the symbol of national-socialism, the Nazi swastika.

In his general order № 2 of 3 July 1940, vice admiral Émile Muselier, two days after assuming the post of chief of the naval and air forces of the Free French, created the naval jack displaying the French colours with a red cross of Lorraine, and a cockade, which also featured the cross of Lorraine. Modern ships that share the same name as ships of the FNFL (such as the nuclear attack submarine Rubis and nuclear ballistic missile submarine Le Triomphant), are entitled to fly the Free French naval jack as a mark of honour.

A monument on Lyle Hill in Greenock, in the shape of the Cross of Lorraine combined with an anchor, was raised by subscription as a memorial to the Free French naval vessels which sailed from the Firth of Clyde to take part in the Battle of the Atlantic, and is also locally associated with the memory of the loss of the Maillé Brézé which blew up at the Tail of the Bank.

Mers El Kébir and the fate of the French navy


After the fall of France, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill feared that, in German or Italian hands, the ships of the French Navy would pose a grave threat to the Allies. He therefore insisted that French warships either join the Allies or else adopt neutrality in a British, French, or neutral port. Churchill was determined that French warships would not be in a position support a German invasion of Britain, though he feared that a direct attack on the French navy might cause the Vichy regime to actively ally itself with the Nazis.

On 3 July 1940 Admiral Marcel-Bruno Gensoul was given an ultimatum by the British, which he rejected. British warships commanded by Admiral James Somerville therefore attacked French ships at Mers El Kébir in Algeria, sinking or crippling three battleships. This attack caused great bitterness in France, particularly in the Navy (over 1,000 French sailors were killed), and helped to reinforce the ancient stereotype of perfide Albion. Such actions discouraged many French soldiers from joining the free French forces.

Despite this, some French warships and sailors did remain on the Allied side or join the FNFL later, such as the mine-laying submarine Rubis, which voted almost unanimously to fight alongside Britain, the destroyer Le Triomphant, and the then largest submarine in the world, the Surcouf. The first loss of the FNFL occured on 7 November 1940, when patrol boat Poulmic struck a mine in the English Channel.

Most ships that had remained on the Vichy side and were not scuttled with the main French fleet in Toulon, mostly those in the colonies that had remained loyal to Vichy until the end of the regime through the Case Anton Axis invasion and occupation of the 'zone libre and Tunisia, changed sides then.

In November 1940 around 1,700 officers and men of the French navy took advantage of the British offer of repatriation to France, and were transported home on a hospital ship travelling under the international Red Cross. This did not stop the Germans from torpedoeing the ship, and four hundred men were drowned.

The FNFL, commanded first by admirals Emile Muselier and then by Philippe Auboyneau and Georges Thierry d'Argenlieu, played a role in the liberation of French colonies throughout the world including Operation Torch in French north Africa, escorting convoys during the Battle of the Atlantic, in supporting the French resistance in non-Free French territories, in Operation Neptune in Normandy and Operation Dragoon in Provence for the liberation of mainland France, and in the Pacific War.

In total during the war, around 50 major ships and a few dozen minor and auxiliary ships were part of the free French navy. It also included half a dozen battalions of naval infantry and commandos, as well as naval aviation squadrons, one aboard HMS Indomitable and one squadron of anti-submarine Catalinas. The French merchant marine siding with the allies counted over 170 ships.

The struggle for control of the French colonies


With metropolitan France firmly under Germany's thumb and the Allies too weak to challenge this, de Gaulle turned his attention to France's vast overseas empire.

African campaign and the Empire Defence Council
De Gaulle was optimistic that France's colonies in western and central Africa, which had strong trading links with the British, might be sympathetic to the Free French. By the end of August, all of French Equatorial Africa (including the League of Nations mandate French Cameroun) had joined Free France, with the exception of French Gabon.

With these colonies came vital manpower – a large number of African colonial troops, who would form the nucleus of de Gaulle's army. From July to November 1940, the FFF would engage in fighting with troops loyal to Vichy France in Africa, with success and failure on both sides. In September 1940 an Anglo French naval force fought the Battle of Dakar, also known as operation Menace, an unsuccessful attempt to capture the strategic port of Dakar in French West Africa. The local authorities were not impressed by the Allied show of strength, and had the better of the naval bombardment which followed, leading to a humiliating withdrawal by the Allied ships. So strong was de Gaulle's sense of failure that he even considered suicide.

There was better news in November 1940 when the FFF achieved victory at the Battle of Gabon (or Battle of Libreville) under the very skilled General Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque (General Leclerc). De Gaulle personally surveyed the situation in Chad, the first African colony to join Free France, located on the southern border of Libya, and the battle resulted in free French forces taking Libreville, Gabon.

By the end of November 1940 French Equatorial Africa was wholly under the control of Free France, but the failures at Dakar had led French West Africa to declare allegiance to Vichy, to which they would remain loyal until the fall of the regime in November 1942.

On 27 October 1940 the Empire Defence Council was established to organise and administrate the imperial possesions under Free French rule, and as an alternative provisional French government. It was constitued of high-ranking officers and the governors of the free colonies, notably governor Félix Éboué of Chad. Its creation was announced by the Brazzaville Manifesto that day. La France libre was what de Gaulle claimed to represent, or rather, as he put it simply, "La France"; Vichy France was a "pseudo government", an illegal entity.

In 1941-2, the African FFF slowly grew in strength and even expanded operations north into Italian Libya. In February 1941, Free French Forces invaded Cyrenaica, again led by Leclerc, capturing the Italian fort at the oasis of Kufra. In 1942, Leclerc's forces and soldiers from the British Long Range Desert Group captured parts of the province of Fezzan. At the end of 1942, Leclerc moved his forces into Tripolitania to join British imperial and other FFF forces in the Run for Tunis.

Asia and the Pacific
France also had an empire in Asia and the Pacific, and these far-flung colonies would experience similar problems of divided loyalties. French India and the French South Pacific colonies of New Caledonia, French Polynesia and the New Hebrides joined the Free France in the summer 1940, drawing official American interest. These South Pacific colonies would later provide vital Allied bases in the Pacific Ocean during the war with Japan.

French Indochina was invaded by Japan in September 1940, although for most of the war the colony remained under nominal Vichy control. On 9 March 1945, the Japanese threw a coup in the French possessions and took full control of Indochina.

From June 1940 until February 1943, the concession of Guangzhouwan (Kouang-Tchéou-Wan or Fort-Boyard), in South China, remained under the administration of Free France. The Republic of China, after the fall of Paris in 1940, recognised the London-exiled Free French government as Guangzhouwan's legitimate authority and established diplomatic relations with them, something facilitated by the fact that the colony was surrounded by the Republic of China's territory and was not in physical contact with French Indochina. In February 1943 the Imperial Japanese Army invaded and occupied the leased territory.

North America
In North America, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon (near Newfoundland) joined the Free French after an "invasion" on 24 December 1941 by Rear Admiral Emile Muselier and the forces he was able to load onto three corvettes and a submarine of the FNFL. The action at Saint-Pierre and Miquelon created a serious diplomatic incident with the United States, despite this being the first French possesion in the Americas to join the Allies, which doctrinally objected to the use of military means by colonial powers in the western hemisphere and recognised Vichy as the official French government.

Mainly because of this and of the often very frosty relations between Free France and the USA (with president Roosevelt's profound distrust of de Gaulle playing a key part in that, with him being firmly convinced that the general's aim was to create a South-American style junta and become the dictator of France ), other French possessions in the new world were among the very last to defect from Vichy to the Allies (with Martinique holding out until July 1943).

Syria and East Africa
During 1941, Free French Forces fought with a British Empire army against Italian troops in Italian East Africa during the East African Campaign.

In June 1941, during the Syria-Lebanon campaign generally known as operation Exporter, Free French Forces fighting alongside British Commonwealth forces faced substantial numbers of troops loyal to Vichy France – this time in the Levant. De Gaulle had assured Churchill that the French units in Syria would rise to the call of Free France – but this was not the case. After bitter fighting, with around 1,000 dead on each side (including Vichy and Free French Foreign Legionnaires fraticide when the 13th Demi-Brigade (D.B.L.E.) clashed with the 6th Foreign Infantry Regiment near Damascus). General Henri Dentz and his Vichy Army of the Levant were eventually defeated by the largely British imperial allied forces in July 1941.

The British did not themselves occupy Syria; rather, the Free French General Georges Catroux was appointed High Commissioner of the Levant, and from this point, Free France would control both Syria and Lebanon until they became independent in 1946 and 1943 respectively. However despite this success, the numbers of the FFF did not grow as much as has been wished for. Of nearly 38,000 Vichy French prisoners of war, just 5668 men volunteered to join the forces of General de Gaulle; the remainder chose to be repatriated to France.

Despite this bleak picture, by the end of 1941 the United States had entered the war, and the Soviet Union had also joined the Allied side, stopping the Germans outside Moscow in the first major reverse for the Nazis. Gradually the tide of war began to shift, and with it the perception that Hitler could at last be beaten. Support for Free France began to grow, though the Vichy French forces would continue to resist Allied armies – and the Free French – when attacked by them until the end of 1942.

Creation of the French National Comitee (CNF)
Reflecting the growing strength of Free France was the foundation of the French National Commitee (CNF) in September 1941 and the official name change from France Libre to France combattante  in July 1942.

The United States granted Lend-Lease support to the CNF on 24 November.

Madagascar
In June 1942 the British attacked the strategically important colony of French Madagascar, hoping to prevent its falling into Japanese hands and especially the use of Diego-Suarez's harbour as a base for the Imperial Japanese Navy. Once again the Allied landings faced resistance from Vichy forces, led by Governor-General Armand Léon Annet. On 5 November 1942 Annet at last surrendered. As in Syria, only a minority of the captured Vichy soldiers chose to join the Free French. After the battle, Free French general Paul Legentilhomme was appointed High Commissioner for Madagascar.

Battle of Bir Hakeim


Throughout 1942 in North Africa, British Empire forces fought a desperate land campaign against the Germans and Italians to prevent the loss of Egypt and the vital Suez canal. Here, fighting in the harsh Libyan desert, Free French soldiers distinguished themselves. General Marie Pierre Koenig and his unit—the 1st Free French Infantry Brigade— resisted the Afrika Korps at the Battle of Bir Hakeim in June 1942, although they were eventually obliged to withdraw, as Allied forces retreated to El Alamein, their lowest ebb in the North African campaign. Kœnig defended Bir Hakeim from 26 May to 11 June against superior German and Italian forces led by Generaloberst Erwin Rommel, proving that Free French forces could be taken seriously by the Allies as a fighting force. British General Claude Auchinleck said on 12 June 1942, of the battle: "The United Nations need to be filled with admiration and gratitude, in respect of these French troops and their brave General Koenig". Even Hitler was impressed, announcing to the journalist Lutz Koch, recently returned from Bir Hakeim:
 * "You hear, Gentlemen? It is a new evidence that I have always been right! The French are, after us, the best soldiers! Even with its current birthrate, France will always be able to mobilise a hundred divisions! After this war, we will have to find allies able to contain a country which is capable of military exploits that astonish the world like they are doing right now in Bir-Hakeim!".

The Tide Turns
From 23 October to 4 November 1942 Allied forces under general Bernard Montgomery, including the FFF, won the Second battle of El Alamein, driving Rommel's Afrika Korps out of Egypt and back into Libya. This was the first major success of an Allied army against the Axis powers, and marked a key turning point in the war.

Operation Torch


Soon afterwards, in November 1942, the Allies launched operation Torch in the west, an invasion of Vichy-controlled French North Africa. An Anglo-American force of 63,000 men landed in French Morocco and Algeria. The long-term goal was to clear German and Italian troops from North Africa, enhance naval control of the Mediterranean, and prepare an invasion of Italy in 1943. The Allies had hoped that Vichy forces would offer only token resistance to the Allies, but instead they fought hard, incurring heavy casualties. As a French foreign legionnaire put it after seeing his comrades die in an American bombing raid: "Ever since the fall of France, we had dreamed of deliverance, but we did not want it that way".

After the 8 November 1942 putsch by the French resistance that prevented the XIXth Corps to respond effectively to the allied landings around Algiers the same day, most Vichy figures were arrested (including General Alphonse Juin, chief commander in North Africa, and Vichy admiral François Darlan). However, Darlan was released and U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower finally accepted his self-nomination as high commissioner of North Africa and French West Africa, a move that enraged de Gaulle, who refused to recognise his status.

Henri Giraud, a general that had evaded from military captivity in Germany in April 1942, had negotiated with the Americans for leadership in the invasion. He arrived in Algiers on 10 November, and agreed to subordinate himself to Admiral Darlan as the commander of the French African army.

The same day there was a ceasefire and, at last, Vichy French forces began, en masse, to join the Free French cause. Initially at least the effectiveness of these new recruits would be hampered by a scarcity of weaponry and, among some of the officer class, a lack of conviction in their new cause.

After Darlan's signing of the cease-fire, the Germans lost faith in the Vichy regime, and on 11 November 1942 German and Italian forces occupied Vichy France (Case Anton), violating the 1940 armistice, and triggering the scuttling of the French fleet in Toulon on 27 November 1942. In response, the 60,000-strong Vichy Army of Africa joined the Allied side. They fought in Tunisia for six months until April 1943, when they joined the campaign in Italy as part of the French Expeditionary Corps in Italy (FEC).

Admiral Darlan was assassinated on 24 December 1942 in Algiers by the young monarchist Bonnier de La Chapelle. Although de la Chapelle had been a member of the resistance group led by Henri d'Astier de La Vigerie, it is believed he was acting as an individual.

On 28 December, after a prolonged blockade, the Vichy forces in French Somaliland were ousted.

After these successes, Guadeloupe and Martinique in the West Indies—as well as French Guiana on the northern coast of South America — finally joined Free France in the first months of 1943. In November 1943, the French forces received enough military equipment through Lend-Lease to re-equip eight divisions and allow the return of borrowed British equipment.

Creation of the French Committee of National Liberation (CFNL)


The Vichy forces in North Africa had been under Darlan's command and had surrendered on his orders. The Allies recognised his self-nomination as High Commissioner of France (French military and civilian commander-in-chief, Commandement en chef français civil et militaire ) for North and West Africa. He ordered them to cease resisting and cooperate with the Allies, which they did. By the time the Tunisia Campaign was fought, the ex-Vichy French forces in North Africa had been merged with the FFF.

After Admiral Darlan's assassination, Giraud became his de facto successor in French Africa with Allied support. This occurred through a series of consultations between Giraud and de Gaulle. The latter wanted to pursue a political position in France and agreed to have Giraud as commander in chief, as the more qualified military person of the two. It is questionable that he ordered that many French resistance leaders who had helped Eisenhower's troops be arrested, without any protest by Roosevelt's representative, Robert Murphy.

Later, the Americans sent Jean Monnet to counsel Giraud and to press him into repeal the Vichy laws. The Cremieux decree, which granted French citizenship to Jews in Algeria and which had been repealed by Vichy, was immediately restored by General de Gaulle. Democratic rule was restored in French Algeria, and the Communists and Jews liberated from the concentration camps.

Giraud took part in the Casablanca conference in January 1943 with Roosevelt, Churchill and de Gaulle. The Allies discussed their general strategy for the war, and recognised joint leadership of North Africa by Giraud and de Gaulle. Henri Giraud and Charles de Gaulle then became co-presidents of the French Committee of National Liberation (Comité Français de Libération Nationale, CFLN), which unified the territories controlled by them and was officially founded on 3 June 1943.

The CFLN set up a temporary French government in Algiers, raised more troops and re-organised, re-trained and re-equipped the Free French military, in cooperation with Allied forces in preparation of future operations against Italy and the German Atlantic wall.

The Forces Françaises Combattantes and National Council of the Resistance
The French Resistance gradually grew in strength. General de Gaulle set a plan to bring together the different groups under his leadership. He changed the name of his movement to "Fighting French Forces" (Forces Françaises Combattantes) and sent Jean Moulin back to France to unite the eight major French Resistance groups into one organisation. Moulin got their agreement to form the "National Council of the Resistance" (Conseil National de la Résistance). Moulin was eventually captured, and died under brutal torture by the Gestapo.

Later, the Resistance was more formally referred to as the "French Forces of the Interior" (Forces Françaises de l'Intérieur, or FFI). From October 1944 – March 1945, many FFI units were amalgamated into the French Army to regularise the units.

Italy and Corsica
In September 1943, the liberation of Corsica from Italian occupation began, after the Italian armistice, with the landing of elements of the reconstituted French I Corps (Operation Vésuve). During the Italian Campaign of 1943–1944, 130,000 Free French soldiers, mostly colonial troops, fought on the Allied side, notably in the fighting on the Winter Line and Gustav Line. Another source gives the number of 70,000. Some elements of these colonial troops, the Moroccan Goumiers, were responsible for mass rape and killings of civilians (see Marocchinate) committed after the Battle of Monte Cassino and were subsequently withdrawn from the Italian front.

Normandy and Provence landings
By the time of the Normandy Invasion, the Free French forces numbered more than 400,000 strong. 900 Free French paratroopers landed as part of the British Special Air Service (SAS) Brigade; the 2nd Armoured Division (2e DB) — under General Leclerc — landed at Utah Beach in Normandy on 1 August 1944, and eventually led the drive toward Paris, while the divisions which had been fighting in Italy became part of the French First Army—under General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny—and joined the US 7th Army in Operation Dragoon. This operation was the Allied invasion of southern France. The Allied forces advanced up the line of the Rhône River to liberate the Vosges and southern Alsace. The 1er Bataillon de Fusiliers-Marins Commandos formed from the Free French Navy Fusiliers-Marins landed on Sword Beach and were amongst the first members of the Free French forces to enter Paris.

Liberation of Paris
Fearing the Germans would destroy Paris if attacked by a frontal assault, General Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered his forces to cease their advance and reconnoitre the situation. At this time, Parisians rose up in full-scale revolt. As the Allied forces waited near Paris, General Eisenhower acceded to pressure from de Gaulle and his Free French Forces. De Gaulle was furious about the delay and was unwilling to allow the people of Paris to be slaughtered as had happened in the Polish capital of Warsaw during the Warsaw Uprising. De Gaulle ordered General Leclerc to attack single-handedly without the aid of Allied forces. In response, General Eisenhower—in an attempt to spare de Gaulle's forces heavy casualties during his initiative—granted the Free French forces the honour of spearheading the Allied assault and liberating the capital city of France.

General Leclerc sent a small advance party to enter Paris, with the message that the 2e Division Blindée (composed of 10,000 French, 3,600 Maghrebis and about 350 Spaniards ) would be there the following day. This party was commanded by Captain Raymond Dronne, and was given the honour to be the first Allied unit to enter Paris ahead of the 2e Division Blindée. The 9th company of the 3rd Battalion of the Régiment de Marche du Tchad was made up mainly of Spanish Republican exiles.

In the end, the Germans gave up Paris almost without a fight. The military governor of the city, von Choltitz, surrendered on 25 August, ignoring Hitler's orders to destroy the city and fight to the last man. Jubilant crowds greeted the Liberation of Paris. French forces and de Gaulle conducted a now iconic parade through the city.

In 1944, once the Allies had defeated the German army in Normandy, Free French leaders wanted their troops to lead the liberation of Paris. Allied High Command requested the Free French force in question to be all-white, if possible, but this was very difficult because of the large numbers of black West Africans in their ranks. The 2nd Armored Division was chosen because only about one quarter of its troops were black.

During the winter of 1944 and 1945, many of the African troops in the Free French forces were replaced with whites. This process of blanchiment (whitening) was undertaken for several discriminatory, and a few non-discriminatory reasons. First, the full manpower of metropolitan France was available for the first time since 1940. Second, the original African recruits had suffered heavy casualties, or they had become worn-down by years of fighting, and conscripting or recruiting more was not practical. Third, African troops tended to become ill during the European winter's extreme weather. Fourth, it was politically vital to get all elements of French society involved in the war, including former Vichyites, many of whom had adopted racist attitudes toward Jews, etc., and could be similarly expected to have negative feelings toward the blacks. Finally, the Free French leadership did not want France to be perceived as dependent for its victory on non-white colonial subjects.

Re-establishment of a provisional Republic and its government (GPRF)
The Provisional Government of the French Republic (gouvernement provisoire de la République Française or GPRF) was officially created by the CNFL and succeeded it on 3 June 1944, the day before de Gaulle arrived in London from Algiers on Churchill's invitation, and three days before D-Day. Its creation marked the re-establishment of France as a republic, and the official end of Free France. Among its most immediate concerns were to ensure that France did not come under allied military administration, preserving the sovereignty of France and freeing allied troops for fighting on the front.

After the liberation of Paris on 25 August 1944, it moved back to the capital, establishing a new "national unanimity" government on 9 September 1944, including Gaullists, nationalists, socialists, communists and anarchists, and uniting the politically divided Resistance. Among its foreign policy goals was to secure an French occupation zone in Germany and a permanent UNSC seat. This was assured through a large military contribution on the western front.

Several alleged Vichy loyalists involved in the Milice (a paramilitary militia) — which was established by Sturmbannführer Joseph Darnand who hunted the Resistance with the Gestapo — were made prisoners in a post-liberation purge known as the épuration légale (legal purge or cleansing). Some were executed without trial, in "wild cleansings". Women accused of "horizontal collaboration" because of alleged sexual relationships with Germans during the occupation were arrested and had their heads shaved, were publicly exhibited and some were allowed to be mauled by mobs.

On 17 August, Pierre Laval was taken to Belfort by the Germans. On 20 August, under German military escort, Marshal Philippe Pétain was forcibly moved to Belfort, and on 7 September to the Sigmaringen enclave in Germany, where 1,000 of his followers (including Louis-Ferdinand Céline) joined him. There they established the government of Sigmaringen, challenging the legitimacy of de Gaulle's GPRF. As a sign of protest over his forced move, Pétain refused to take office, and was eventually replaced by Fernand de Brinon. The Vichy government in exile ended when French troops reached the town in Baden-Württemberg and captured its members in April 1945.

As the wartime government of France in 1944-1945, its main purposes were to handle the aftermath of the occupation of France and continue to wage war against Germany as a major Ally. It also made several important reforms and political decisions, such as granting women the right to vote, founding the École nationale d'administration, and laying the grounds of social security in France, and lasted until the establishment of the IVth Republic on 14 October 1946, preparing its new constitution.

Campaigns in France and Germany 1944–1945
By September 1944, the Free French forces stood at 550,000 (including 195,000 French from North-Africa and 295,000 Maghrebis). This number rose to 1 million by the end of the year. French forces were fighting in Alsace-Lorraine, the Alps, and against German garrisons in Hitler-mandated "fortesses" in ports along the Atlantic coast like La Rochelle and Saint-Nazaire and playing a leading role in engagements such as operation Nordwind and the Colmar Pocket. In May 1945, by the end of the war in Europe, the Free French forces comprised 1,300,000 personnel, and included seven infantry divisions and three armoured divisions fighting in Germany making it the fourth largest allied army in Europe behind the Soviet Union, the US and Britain. The French offered to send a division to the Pacific to help fight the Japanese toward the end of the war, but it ended before they could be sent.

At that time, General Alphonse Juin was the chief of staff of the French army, but it was General François Sevez who represented France at Reims on 7 May, while it was General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny who was the leader of the French delegation at Berlin on V-E day, as he was the commander of the French First Army. France was then given an occupation zone in Germany, as well as in Austria and in the city of Berlin, but they were given it slightly later than those of the "Big Three". It was not only the role that France played in the war which was recognised, but its important strategic position and significance in the Cold War as a major democratic, capitalist nation of Western Europe in holding back the influence of communism on the continent.

Approximately 58,000 men died fighting in the Free French forces between 1940 to 1945.

World War II victor
A point of strong disagreement between de Gaulle and the Big Three (Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill), was that the President of the Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF), established on 3 June 1944, was not recognized as the legitimate representative of France. Even though de Gaulle had been recognized as the leader of Free France by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill back in 28 June 1940, his GPRF presidency had not resulted from democratic elections. However, two months after the liberation of Paris and one month after the new "unanimity government", the Big Three recognized the GPRF on 23 October 1944.

In his liberation of Paris speech, de Gaulle argued "It will not be enough that, with the help of our dear and admirable Allies, we have got rid of him [the Germans] from our home for us to be satisfied after what happened. We want to enter his territory as it should be, as victors", clearly showing his ambition that France be considered one of the World War II victors just like the Big Three. This perspective was not shared by the western Allies, as was demonstrated in the German Instrument of Surrender's First Act. The French occupation zones in Germany and in West Berlin cemented this ambition, leading to some frustration on the part of other European nations, which became part of the deeper Western betrayal sentiment. This sentiment was felt by other European Allies, especially Poland, whose proposition that they be part of the occupation of Germany was rejected by the Soviets; the latter taking the view that they had liberated the Poles from the Nazis which thus put them under the influence of the USSR.

Legacy


A monument on Lyle Hill in Greenock, in western Scotland, in the shape of the Cross of Lorraine combined with an anchor, was raised by subscription as a memorial to the Free French naval vessels that sailed from the Firth of Clyde to take part in the Battle of the Atlantic. The memorial is also associated, locally, with the memory of the FRENCH DESTROYER Maillé Brézé which sank at the Tail of the Bank.

To this day, General de Gaulle's Appeal of 18 June 1940 remains one of the most famous speeches in French history.

Free French

 * Dimitri Amilakhvari
 * Georges Thierry d'Argenlieu
 * Josephine Baker
 * Georges Bergé
 * Georges Bidault
 * Pierre Billotte
 * Pierre Bourgoin
 * Claude Hettier de Boislambert
 * René Cassin
 * Georges Catroux
 * Pierre Clostermann
 * Geoffroy Chodron de Courcel
 * Ève Curie
 * Suzanne David Hall
 * André Dewavrin
 * Félix Éboué
 * René Iché
 * Jean Gabin
 * Charles de Gaulle
 * Joseph Kessel
 * Marie Pierre Koenig
 * Edith de La Chevalerie
 * Xavier de La Chevalerie
 * André Laguerre
 * Edgard de Larminat
 * Pierre-Olivier Lapie
 * Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque
 * Paul Legentilhomme
 * Pierre Marienne
 * Anna Marly
 * Pierre Mendès-France
 * Pierre Messmer
 * Susan Travers
 * Martin Valin
 * Raoul Magrin-Vernerey
 * Simone Weil
 * Raymonde Reimbert
 * Pierre Bertaux
 * Raphaël Onana
 * Jean Moulin
 * Émile Muselier
 * Gaston Palewski
 * René Pleven
 * Gabriel Brunet de Sairigné
 * Maurice Schumann
 * Jacques Soustelle
 * Tereska Torres

(More cited on French Resistance)

French who joined after 1942

 * Antoine Béthouart
 * Jean René Champion
 * Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
 * Henri Giraud
 * Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
 * Alphonse Juin
 * Marcel Marceau
 * François Mitterrand
 * Jean Monnet
 * Joseph de Goislard de Monsabert
 * Jean de Lattre de Tassigny
 * Jean Touzet du Vigier