Editing Free France (section)

===Operation Torch===
[[File:OPERATION-TORCH-OVERVIEW.png|thumb|upright=1.8|[[Operation Torch]] landings in Morocco and Algeria]]
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.<ref name="Hastings, Max, p.375">Hastings, Max, p.375</ref> 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.<ref name="Hastings, Max, p.376">Hastings, Max, p.376</ref> 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".<ref name="Hastings, Max, p.376" />

After 8 November 1942 [[Coup d'état|putsch]] by the French resistance that prevented the [[19th Army Corps (France)|19th Corps]] from responding 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 {{nowrap|de Gaulle}}, who refused to recognise his status.

[[Henri Giraud]], a general who had escaped from [[French prisoners of war in World War II|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.<ref>Martin Thomas, "The Discarded Leader: General Henri Giraud and the Foundation of the French Committee of National Liberation", French History (1996) 10#12 pp. 86–111.</ref>

Later that day Darlan ordered a ceasefire and Vichy French forces began, en masse, to join the Free French cause. Initially at least the effectiveness of these new recruits was hampered by a scarcity of weaponry and, among some of the officer class, a lack of conviction in their new cause.<ref name="Hastings, Max, p.376" />

After the 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 Vichy [[Army of Africa (France)|Army of Africa]] joined the Allied side. They [[Tunisian campaign|fought in Tunisia for six months]] until April 1943, when they joined [[Italian campaign (World War II)|the campaign in Italy]] as part of the [[French Expeditionary Corps (1943–44)|French Expeditionary Corps in Italy]] (FEC).

Admiral Darlan was assassinated on 24 December 1942 in Algiers by the young monarchist [[Fernand Bonnier de La Chapelle|Bonnier de La Chapelle]]. Although de la Chapelle had been a member of the resistance group led by [[Henri d'Astier de la Vigerie|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 in World War II|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.