Editing Free France (section)

==History==

===Prelude===
[[File:De Gaulle-OWI.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.9|[[Charles de Gaulle]] was an armoured division commander and a minister in the [[Paul Reynaud|Reynaud]] government during the [[Battle of France]].]]

On 10 May 1940, [[Nazi Germany]] invaded France and the [[Low Countries]], rapidly defeating the Dutch and Belgians, while armoured units attacking through [[Battle of Sedan (1940)|the Ardennes]] cut off the Franco-British strike force in Belgium. By the end of May, the British and French northern armies were trapped in a series of pockets, including [[Battle of Dunkirk|Dunkirk]], [[Siege of Calais (1940)|Calais]], [[Battle of Boulogne (1940)|Boulogne]], [[Saint-Valery-en-Caux]] and [[Siege of Lille (1940)|Lille]]. The [[Dunkirk evacuation]] was only made possible by the resistance of these troops, particularly the French army divisions at Lille.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Horne |first1=Alistair |title=To Lose a Battle; France, 1940 |date=1969 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0141030654 |page=[https://archive.org/details/tolosebattlefran00sira/page/604 604] |edition=2007 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/tolosebattlefran00sira/page/604 }}</ref>

From 27 May to 4 June, over 200,000 members of the [[British Expeditionary Force (World War II)|British Expeditionary Force]] and 140,000 French troops were evacuated from Dunkirk.<ref>Taylor, p.58</ref> Neither side viewed this as the end of the battle; French evacuees were quickly returned to France and many fought in the June battles. After being evacuated from Dunkirk, [[Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke|Alan Brooke]] landed in [[Cherbourg]] on 2 June to reform the BEF, along with the [[1st Canadian Division]], the only remaining fully equipped formation in Britain. Contrary to what is often assumed, French morale was higher in June than May and they easily repulsed an attack in the south by [[Kingdom of Italy#Fascist regime (1922–1943)|Fascist Italy]]. A defensive line was re-established along the Somme but much of the armour was lost in Northern France; they were also crippled by shortages of aircraft, the vast majority incurred when airfields were over-run, rather than air combat.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Alexander|first=Martin|year=2007|title=After Dunkirk: The French Army's Performance Against 'Case Red', 25 May to 25 June 1940|journal=War in History|volume=14|issue=2|pages=226–227|doi=10.1177/0968344507075873|s2cid=153751513|issn=1477-0385}}</ref>

On 1 June, Charles {{nowrap|de Gaulle}} was promoted to brigadier general; on 5 June, Prime Minister [[Paul Reynaud]] appointed him Under Secretary of State for Defence, a junior post in the [[Cabinet of France|French cabinet]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jackson |first1=Julian |title=A Certain Idea of France: The Life of Charles de Gaulle |date=2018 |publisher=Allen Lane |isbn=978-1846143519 |pages=110–111}}</ref> {{nowrap|De Gaulle}} was known for his willingness to challenge accepted ideas; in 1912, he asked to be posted to [[Philippe Pétain|Pétain]]'s regiment, whose maxim 'Firepower kills' was then in stark contrast to the prevailing [[orthodoxy]] of [[Attaque à outrance]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Horne |first1=Alistair |title=The Price of Glory; Verdun 1916 |date=1962 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0140170412 |page=150 |edition=1993}}</ref> He was also a long-time advocate of the modern [[armoured warfare]] ideas applied by the [[Wehrmacht]], and commanded the [[4e Division cuirassée|4th Armoured Division]] at the [[Battle of Montcornet]].{{sfn|Munholland|2007|p=10}} However, he was not personally popular; significantly, none of his immediate military subordinates joined him in 1940.<ref>Jackson, p. 110</ref>

The new French commander [[Maxime Weygand]] was 73 years old and like Pétain, an Anglophobe who viewed Dunkirk as another example of Britain's unreliability as an ally; de Gaulle later recounted he 'gave up hope' when the Germans renewed their attack on 8 June and demanded an immediate Armistice.<ref>Jackson, p. 112</ref> {{nowrap|De Gaulle}} was one of a small group of government ministers who favoured continued resistance and Reynaud sent him to London in order to negotiate [[Franco-British Union|the proposed union between France and Britain]]. When this plan collapsed, he resigned on 16 June and Pétain became President of the Council.<ref name="shlaim197407">{{cite journal|last=Shlaim|first=Avi|title=Prelude to Downfall: The British Offer of Union to France, June 1940|journal=Journal of Contemporary History|date=July 1974|volume=9|issue=3|series=3|pages=27–63|jstor=260024|doi=10.1177/002200947400900302|s2cid=159722519}}</ref> {{nowrap|De Gaulle}} flew to [[Bordeaux]] on the 17th but returned to London the same day when he realised Pétain had already agreed to an armistice with the [[Axis Powers]].{{sfn|Munholland|2007|p=10}}

===De Gaulle rallies the Free French===
{{Main|Appeal of 18 June}}
[[File:De Gaulle - à tous les Français.jpg|thumb|In [[Occupied France]] during the war, reproductions of the [[Appeal of 18 June|18 June appeal]] were distributed through [[Clandestine press of the French Resistance|underground means]] as pamphlets and plastered on walls as posters by supporters of the [[Résistance]]. This could be a dangerous activity.]]
[[File:4 carlton gardens.jpg|thumb|230px|right|4 Carlton gardens, London. During WWII the building served as provisional headquarters of the Free French Resistance movement.]]

On 18 June 1940, General {{nowrap|de Gaulle}} spoke to the [[French people]] via [[BBC radio]], urging French soldiers, sailors and airmen to join in the fight against the [[Nazism|Nazi]]s:
:"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".{{sfn|Munholland|2007|p=10}}

Some members of the [[Cabinet of the United Kingdom|British Cabinet]] had reservations about {{nowrap|de Gaulle}}'s speech, fearing that such a broadcast could provoke the Pétain government into handing the French fleet over to the Nazis,<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/greatspeeches/story/0,,2059384,00.html "A Mesmerising Oratory"], ''[[The Guardian]]'', 29 April 2007.</ref> but British Prime Minister [[Winston Churchill]], despite his own concerns, agreed to the broadcast.

In France, {{nowrap|de Gaulle}}'s "Appeal of 18 June" ({{lang|fr|Appel du 18 juin}}) was not widely heard that day but, together with his BBC broadcasts<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2007/apr/29/greatspeeches1 | work=The Guardian | location=London | title=The flame of French resistance | date=28 April 2007 | access-date=27 March 2010 | first=Charles | last=de Gaulle | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130831052026/http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2007/apr/29/greatspeeches1 | archive-date=31 August 2013 | url-status=live | df=dmy-all }}</ref> 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, {{nowrap|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.{{sfn|Munholland|2007|p=11}}

This would form the essential legal basis of {{nowrap|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.{{sfn|Munholland|2007|p=11}} On the other hand, if Vichy was the legal French government as some such as [[Julian T. Jackson]] have argued, {{nowrap|de Gaulle}} and his followers were revolutionaries, unlike the [[Dutch government-in-exile|Dutch]], [[Belgian government-in-exile|Belgian]], and other [[governments in exile]] in London.{{sfn|Jackson|2001|p=31, 134–135}} A third option might be that neither considered that a fully free, legitimate, sovereign, and independent successor state to the [[French Third Republic|Third 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.{{Citation needed|date=December 2017}} In Vichy's case, underlying reasons were compounded by ideals of a {{lang|fr|[[Révolution nationale]]}} stamping out France's republican heritage.

On 22 June 1940, Marshal Pétain signed an [[Second Compiègne|armistice with Germany]], followed by [[Franco-Italian armistice|a similar one with Italy]] on 24 June; both of these came into force on 25 June.<ref>P. M. H. Bell, ''France and Britain 1900–1940: Entente & Estrangement'', London, New York, 1996, p.&nbsp;249</ref> After a parliamentary vote on 10 July, Pétain became the leader of the newly established authoritarian regime known as [[Vichy France]], the town of [[Vichy]] being the seat of government. {{nowrap|De Gaulle}} was [[trial in absentia|tried ''in absentia'']] in Vichy France and sentenced to death for treason.<ref>Axelrod & Kingston, p. 373.</ref> He, on the other hand, regarded himself as the last remaining member of the legitimate Reynaud government and considered Pétain's assumption of power to be an unconstitutional coup d'état.