Free France

A government created by one man on a radio broadcast, which ended the war as a recognised great power. De Gaulle was an undersecretary of state who had been in office for two weeks when France fell; he flew to London and on 18 June 1940 broadcast an appeal saying that France had lost a battle but not the war. Almost nobody heard it and it was not recorded. He was condemned to death in absentia. His position was extraordinarily weak - no territory, few troops, no legal standing, and an American government that regarded him as a nuisance and dealt with Vichy until 1942 - and his answer was to be intransigent on every point of French sovereignty, which is the pattern of his whole career. The movement gained substance when the African colonies rallied, beginning with Chad under Felix Eboue, giving it territory, taxes and soldiers. Free French troops held Bir Hakeim in the Libyan desert for two weeks in 1942, which mattered mainly as proof that France was still fighting. Jean Moulin unified the internal resistance under de Gaulle's authority before being captured and tortured to death. The provisional government installed itself in Paris in August 1944 without waiting for Allied permission. France was given an occupation zone in Germany and a permanent Security Council seat. The Cross of Lorraine was its emblem. The republic was never held to have ceased to exist. The movement ran from June 1940 to 1944, when it became the provisional government of the republic. London was its base and Brazzaville its African capital from 1940. Free French forces numbered several hundred thousand by 1944. De Gaulle led France again as president from 1959.

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