The
Free French Forces ( , FFL) were
French
fighters in World War
II who decided to continue fighting against Axis forces after the surrender of
France and subsequent German
occupation.
Definition
In many sources,
Free French describes any French
individual or unit that fought against
Axis forces after the June 1940
armistice.
The reality is more complex as some French
forces did take part in the fight against the Axis, for example in
Tunisia
in early 1943, without any relationship with
Charles de Gaulle's
organization.
Historically, an individual became Free
French after he enlisted in de Gaulle's Free French organisation
located in London
. Free
French units are units formed by these people.
De Gaulle's
organization stopped accepting members in mid-1943 as Free French
forces were merging with the French forces in North Africa, and the Comité français de
libération nationale (CFLN) was set up in Algiers
.
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".
French forces after July 1943 are therefore correctly designated as
the "forces of Liberation".
This article temporarily includes the activities of French forces
after 1942, in order to maintain continuity.
History
Prelude
General De Gaulle
In 1940,
General Charles de Gaulle was a member of the
French cabinet during the
Battle of France. As French defence forces
were increasingly overwhelmed, de Gaulle found himself part of a
small group of politicians who argued against a negotiated
surrender to
Nazi Germany and
Fascist Italy.
As these
views were shared by the President of the Council, Paul Reynaud, de Gaulle was sent as an emissary
to the United
Kingdom
; it was during this time that the French government
collapsed.
On 16 June, the new French President of the Council,
Philippe Pétain, began negotiations
with
Axis officials. On 18 June, de
Gaulle spoke to the
French people via
BBC radio. He asked French soldiers, sailors and
airmen to join in the fight against the
Nazis.
In France, de Gaulle's "
Appeal of the
18th of June" (
Appel du 18 juin) was not widely heard
that day but, together with
de Gaulle's BBC broadcasts in subsequent days and his later
communications, they echoed throughout France and Her Empire as the
voice of national honour and freedom. Some of the
British Cabinet had attempted
to block the speech, but were overruled by British
Prime Minister Winston Churchill. To this day, the Appeal
of 18 June remains one of the most famous speeches in French
history. Nevertheless, on June 22, Pétain signed the armistice
followed by a similar one with Italy on June 24; both of these came
into force on 25 June. Pétain became leader of the
puppet 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.
Composition
Many of the Free French forces were initially not French nationals.
Overall
65% were West African conscripts - largely from Senegal
. The
Foreign Legion included many non-French soldiers. Other contingents
were Moroccan, Algerian and Tahitian (the latter serving with
particular distinction in the Western Desert). 17,000 Senegalese
died defending France in 1940, many being shot by the Germans after
being taken prisoner.
Finding an all-white division that was available proved to be
impossible due to the enormous contribution made to the French Army
by West African conscripts. The
2nd Armoured Division was
chosen to lead the Liberation of Paris as it had only 25% black
troops.
Cross of Lorraine
Capitaine de
corvette Thierry
d'Argenlieu suggested the adoption of the
Cross of Lorraine as symbol of the Free
French, both to recall the perseverance of
Joan of Arc, whose symbol it had been, and as
an answer to 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 bow flag displaying the French colours with a red cross
of
Lorraine, and a
cockade also featuring the cross of Lorraine.
Following repeated broadcasts, by the end of July that year, 7,000
people had volunteered to join the Free French forces. The Free
French Navy had fifty ships and some 3,700 men operating as an
auxiliary force to the British
Royal
Navy.
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
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 exploded at the Tail of the Bank.
Image:Flag of Free France 1940-1944.svg|The French flag
with the Cross of Lorraine, emblem
of the Free French.Image:Free French Memorial Greenock.jpg|The
Free French memorial on Lyle Hill, Greenock, overlooks Gourock
, Scotland.Image:Naval Ensign of Free France.svg|Free
French Naval ensign and French Naval
Honour Jack.Image:Attributs-FFL-IMG 0933.jpg|Free French Forces
Adrian helmet with the Cross of
Lorraine replacing the 1939-1940 French Republic "RF"
emblem.
Mers El Kébir
British
Prime Minister Winston Churchill deemed that, in German
or Italian hands, the French fleet would have been a grave threat
to the Allies. He ordered the French ships to rejoin the Allies and
agree to be put out of use in a British, French, or neutral port.
As a last resort, Churchill indicated that the French fleet would
be destroyed by British attack.
The
Royal Navy attempted to persuade the
French Navy to agree to these terms but,
when that failed, they attacked the French Navy at Mers El
Kébir
in Algeria
. This
attack on 3 July 1940 caused bitterness and division in France
(over 1,000 sailors had been killed), particularly in the Navy, and
discouraged many French soldiers from joining the Free French
forces in Britain and elsewhere.
Some French warships did remain on the Allied side and others
re-joined later after the Axis occupation of Vichy France
(codenamed
Case Anton) and the
scuttling of the French
fleet in Toulon. Those ships flew a separate flag, the Free
French Naval Ensign, which is still in use as a mark of honour by
ships that continue to use the name of a Free French ship.
The struggle for control of French colonies
After the
fall of France in 1940, the French colonies of Cameroun and French Equatorial Africa (except
for Gabon
) joined the
Free French while the remainder sided with the Vichy Regime.
With the addition of French African colonies came a large number of
African
colonial troops. From July
to November 1940, Free French forces fought French troops loyal to
Vichy France during the
West African Campaign.
The outcome of this campaign was mixed with the Vichy French
claiming victory at the
Battle of
Dakar and the Free French claiming victory at the
Battle of Gabon. The
French West African colonies remained
Vichy French and the
French
Equatorial African colonies remained Free French.
In Asia
and the Pacific, the French South Pacific
colonies of New
Caledonia
, French
Polynesia
and the New Hebrides
joined the Free French later. The South Pacific
colonies would become vital Allied bases in
the Pacific
Ocean
. French
Indochina was
invaded
by Japan in September 1940, although the colony remained under
nominal Vichy control. On 9 March 1945, the Japanese took full
control of
Indochina and launched the
Second French Indochina
Campaign.
In North
America, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon
(near Canada
) 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 Free French Naval Forces (Forces navales françaises libres,
or FNFL).
During
1941, Free French units fought with the British Commonwealth army
against Italian troops in Ethiopia
and Eritrea
during the East African
Campaign. During the
Syria-Lebanon Campaign, Free French
forces fighting alongside British Commonwealth forces once more
faced French troops loyal to Vichy France — this time in the
Levant. By July 1941, General
Henri Dentz and his Vichy
Army of the Levant were defeated. Free
French General
Georges Catroux was
appointed as
High Commissioner of
the Levant.
From this point, Free France controlled both
Syria
and Lebanon
until they became independent.
15,000 Chadian soldiers fought for
Free France during WWII.
In Africa, the Vichy colonies were gradually overthrown as Free
French forces took part in the allied campaigns on the continent.
Free
French soldiers participated in the Allied North African campaign, in Libya
and Egypt
.
General
Marie Pierre Koenig and his
unit, the 1st Free French Brigade, fought well against the Afrika Korps at the Battle of
Bir Hakeim
in June 1942, although eventually obliged to
withdraw. To the west the Allies launched Operation
Torch
, an invasion of Vichy-controlled French North Africa in November
1942. Many Vichy troops surrendered and joined the Free
French cause. Vichy coastal defences were captured by the French
Resistance. Vichy General
Henri Giraud
rejoined the Allies, but he lacked the authority that was required
and de Gaulle kept his leadership of the Free French, despite
American objections.
In late 1942, after the Battle of Madagascar, the Vichy French
forces under Governor-General
Armand Léon Annet were
defeated and Free French General Paul Legentilhomme was appointed High
Commissioner for Madagascar
. On 28 December, after a prolonged blockade,
the Vichy forces in French Somaliland
were ousted.
The Nazi Germans lost faith in the Vichy regime after Operation
Torch and, during
Case Anton in November
1942, German and Italian forces occupied Vichy France. In response,
the 60,000-strong Vichy forces in French North Africa — the
Army of Africa — joined the
Allied side as the
French XIX
Corps within the
British 1st
Army, which also included the
U.S. II Corps and two British corps.
They fought in Tunisia for six months until April 1943. Using
antiquated equipment, the XIX Corps took heavy casualties (16,000)
against modern armour and a desperate
Axis enemy.
After
these successes, Guadeloupe
and Martinique
in the West Indies
, as well as French Guiana
on the northern coast of South America, joined Free France in
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. At this point, the Free French and ex-Vichy French Corps
were merged.
In 1943, Colonel
(later General) Philippe Leclerc and Lieutenant-Colonel Camille d'Ornano led a column of 16,500
colonial troops from Chad
to attack
Italian forces in southern Libya and to
occupy Kufra
in the
Fezzan
region.
The Air War
There
were sufficient Free French pilots to man several squadrons based
in Britain and North Africa, mainly from African colonial bases but
also volunteers from South American countries such as Uruguay
, Argentina
and Chile
.
They were initially equipped with a mixture of British, French and
American aircraft. They had mixed success at first, and French
army-air cooperation was often poor.
At de Gaulle's initiative, the
Groupe de Chasse 3 Normandie was
formed on 1 September 1942, for service on the
Eastern Front. It served with
distinction and was awarded the supplementary title
Niemen
by Stalin.
The War at Sea
The Free French Navy, commanded by
Admiral
Emile Muselier, played a role in the
occupation of French colonies in Africa, in supporting the
French Resistance, in
D-Day (
Operation
Neptune), and the
Pacific War.
The Forces Françaises Combattantes and National
Council of the Resistance
The
French Resistance gradually
grew in strength.
Charles 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 to March 1945, many FFI units were amalgamated
into the
French Army in order to
regularize the units.
Liberation of France
During
the Italian Campaign
of 1943 and 1944, 100,000 Free French soldiers fought on the
Allied side, notably in the fighting on the
Winter Line and Gustav
Line
. 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 in the
British
Special Air Service
Brigade (S.A.S.); the Free French 2nd Armoured
Division, under General Leclerc, landed at Utah Beach
in Normandy on 1 August
1944, and eventually led the drive towards 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 U.S. 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
.
Fearing
the Germans would destroy Paris if attacked
by a frontal assault, General
Dwight 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 North Africans and
3,000 Spaniards) would be there the following day. This party was
commanded by Captain
Raymond Dronne,
and was given the honor 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. After hard fighting that cost the 2nd
Division 35 tanks, 6 self-propelled guns, and 111 vehicles,
von Choltitz, the military governor of
Paris, surrendered the city at the Hôtel Meurice. Jubilant crowds
greeted the
Liberation of Paris.
French forces, and de Gaulle conducted a now iconic parade through
the city.
End of the war
By September 1944, the Free French forces stood at 560,000. This
number rose to 1 million by the end of the year.
French forces were
fighting in Alsace, the
Alps, and Brittany. 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 allied army in Europe behind
the Soviet Union, the USA and the United Kingdom. The French
offered to send a division to the Pacific to help fight the
Japanese towards 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 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 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 recognized, 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.
Units and commands on 8 May 1945
Armies
Corps
Divisions
Notable Free French
(More cited on
French
Resistance)
Notable French who joined after 1942
References
- Pharand (2001), p. 169
- La France Libre et les Français Libres : éléments
de définition
- P. M. H. Bell, France and Britain 1900-1940: Entente &
Estrangement,London, New York, 1996, p 249
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7984436.stm
- www.france-libre.net, Le site de la France-Libre,
"Les origines des FNFL, par l’amiral Thierry d’Argenlieu"
- S. Decalo, 53
- Did not see combat during the Second World War
- Free French origin
- Formed with FFI personnel.
See also
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