Editing Charles de Gaulle (section)

=== Leader of the Free French in exile ===
{{See also|Free France}}

==== Appeal from London ====
[[File:De-gaulle-radio.jpg|thumb|left|General de Gaulle speaking on [[BBC Radio]] during the war]]De Gaulle landed at [[Heston Airport]] soon after 12:30 on 17 June 1940. He saw Churchill at around 15:00 and Churchill offered him broadcast time on BBC. They both knew about Pétain's broadcast earlier that day that stated that "the fighting must end" and that he had approached the Germans for terms. That evening de Gaulle dined with Jean Monnet and denounced Pétain's "treason".<ref name="jackson2018">{{Cite book |last=Jackson |first=Julian |title=A Certain Idea of France: The Life of Charles de Gaulle |publisher=Allen Lane |year=2018 |isbn=9780674987210 |location=London}}</ref>{{rp|125–128}} The next day the British Cabinet (Churchill was not present, as it was the day of his [[This was their finest hour|"Finest Hour" speech]]) were reluctant to agree to de Gaulle giving a radio address, as Britain was still in communication with the Pétain government about the fate of the French fleet. [[Duff Cooper]] (minister of information) had an advance copy of the address, to which there were no objections. The cabinet eventually agreed after individual lobbying, as indicated by a handwritten amendment to the cabinet minutes.<ref>Lacouture 1991, pp. 221–223</ref><ref name="CDG" />{{break}}
[[File:De Gaulle shot0064.png|thumb|General de Gaulle reviews [[Free French Air Forces|Free French Air Forces']] airmen during Bastille Day parade at [[Wellington Barracks]], 14th July 1942.]]
De Gaulle's ''[[Appeal of 18 June]]'' exhorted the French people not to be demoralized and to continue to resist occupation. He also – apparently on his own initiative – declared that he would broadcast again the next day.<ref name="Lacouture 1991, p208">Lacouture 1991, p. 208</ref> Few listened to the 18 June speech;{{r|jackson2018}}{{rp|4–6}} the speech was published in some newspapers in mainland France. It was largely aimed at French soldiers who were in Britain after being evacuated from [[Norwegian campaign|Norway]] and [[Dunkirk evacuation|Dunkirk]]; most showed no interest in fighting for de Gaulle's [[Free French Forces]] and were repatriated to France to become German prisoners of war.<ref>Lacouture 1991, p. 226</ref> The small audience of the 18 June appeal grew for later speeches,{{r|jackson2018}}{{rp|5–6}} and the press by early August described Free French military as fighting under de Gaulle's command,{{r|sptimes19400803}} although few in France knew anything about him.{{r|jackson2018}}{{rp|5–6}}

The Vichy regime had already sentenced de Gaulle to four years' imprisonment; on 2 August 1940 he was condemned to death by court martial ''in absentia'',<ref name="Lloyd-2003">{{cite book |last=Lloyd |first=Christopher |title=Collaboration and Resistance in Occupied France: Representing Treason and Sacrifice |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CoyDDAAAQBAJ&pg=PR9 |date=16 September 2003 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |location=Basingstoke, Hants. |isbn=978-0-230-50392-2 |oclc=69330013 |access-date=20 February 2021 |archive-date=14 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211214235847/https://books.google.com/books?id=CoyDDAAAQBAJ&pg=PR9 |url-status=live }}</ref> although Pétain commented that he would ensure that the sentence was never carried out.<ref name="Lacouture 1:243-4">Lacouture 1:243-4</ref> De Gaulle said of the sentence, "I consider the act of the Vichy men as void; I shall have an explanation with them after the victory".<ref name="sptimes19400803">{{cite news | url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Dk8wAAAAIBAJ&pg=3148%2C219080 | title=French Take Part in Air Raids | work=St. Petersburg Times | date=3 August 1940 | access-date=9 August 2018 | page=1 | archive-date=16 October 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201016164920/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Dk8wAAAAIBAJ&pg=3148,219080 | url-status=live }}</ref> He and Churchill reached agreement on 7 August 1940, that Britain would fund the Free French, with the bill to be settled after the war (the financial agreement was finalised in March 1941). A separate letter guaranteed the territorial integrity of the French Empire.<ref>Lacouture 1991, p. 261</ref>

[[File:De Gaulle Brazzaville 1944.jpg|thumb|De Gaulle at the inauguration of the [[Brazzaville]] Conference, [[French Equatorial Africa]], 1944]]

De Gaulle's support grew out of a base in the colonial [[French Equatorial Africa]]. In the autumn of 1940, the colonial empire largely supported the Vichy regime. [[Félix Éboué]], governor of Chad, switched his support to General de Gaulle in September. Encouraged, de Gaulle traveled to [[Brazzaville]] in October, where he announced the formation of an [[Empire Defense Council]]<ref name="Shillington-2013" /> in his "Brazzaville Manifesto",<ref name="Brazzaville-1940">{{cite book |author=France libre |title=Documents officiels. &#91;Manifeste du 27 octobre 1940, à Brazzaville. Ordonnances n ° 1 et 2, du 27 octobre 1940, instituant un Conseil de défense de l'Empire. Déclaration organique complétant le manifeste du 27 octobre 1940, du 16 novembre 1940, à Brazzaville. Signé: De Gaulle.&#93;. |trans-title=Official documents. Manifesto of 27 October 1940, in Brazzaville. Orders No. 1 and 2, of 27 October 1940, establishing an Empire Defense Council. Organic Declaration supplementing the Manifesto of 27 October 1940, of 16 November 1940, in Brazzaville. Signed: De Gaulle. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cQjwSAAACAAJ |year=1940 |publisher=Impr. officielle |location=Brazzaville |oclc=460992617 |access-date=3 June 2020 |archive-date=3 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200603033439/https://books.google.com/books?id=cQjwSAAACAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> and invited all colonies still supporting Vichy to join him and the Free French forces in the fight against Germany, which most of them did by 1943.<ref name="Shillington-2013">{{cite book |last=Shillington |first=Kevin |title=Encyclopedia of African History 3-Volume Set |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WixiTjxYdkYC&pg=PA448 |access-date=2 June 2020 |volume=1 A–G |date=4 July 2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-45669-6 |page=448 |oclc=254075497 |quote=There was much support for the Vichy regime among French colonial personnel, with the exception of Guianese-born governor of Chad, Félix Éboué, who in September 1940 announced his switch of allegiance from Vichy to the Gaullist Free French movement based in London. Encouraged by this support for his fledgling movement, Charles de Gaulle traveled to Brazzaville in October 1940 to announce the formation of an Empire Defense Council and to invite all French possessions loyal to Vichy to join it and continue the war against Germany; within two years, most did. |archive-date=3 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200603110616/https://books.google.com/books?id=WixiTjxYdkYC&pg=PA448 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Wieviorka-2019">{{cite book |last=Wieviorka |first=Olivier |title=The Resistance in Western Europe, 1940–1945 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=btGQDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT67 |access-date=2 June 2020 |date=3 September 2019 |publisher=Columbia University Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-231-54864-9 |pages=67– |translator-last=Todd |translator-first=Jane Marie |quote=At the same time, de Gaulle was only one man, and had no eminent political supporters. He therefore had to broaden his base. An order of October 27, 1940, created the Conseil de défense de l'Empire (Empire Defense Council), which included, in addition to de Gaulle, the governors of the territories who had rallied to the cause (Edgard de Larminat, Félix Éboué, Leclerc, Henri Sautot) military leaders (Georges Catroux and Émile Muselier), and three personalities from varied backgrounds: Father Georges Thierry Argenlieu, a friar and alumnus of the E'cole Navale; Rene' Cassin, a distinguished jurist and prominent representative of the veterans movement; and the military doctor Adolph Sice'. |archive-date=3 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200603122521/https://books.google.com/books?id=btGQDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT67 |url-status=live }}</ref>

==== Algiers ====
Working with the [[French Resistance]] and other supporters in France's colonial African possessions after [[Operation Torch]] in November 1942, de Gaulle moved his headquarters to [[Algiers]] in May 1943. He became first joint head (with the less resolutely independent General [[Henri Giraud]], the candidate preferred by the US who wrongly suspected de Gaulle of being a British puppet) and then—after squeezing out Giraud by force of personality—sole chairman of the [[French Committee of National Liberation]].<ref name="CDG" />

De Gaulle was held in high regard by Allied commander General [[Dwight Eisenhower]].<ref name="Keegan298">Keegan p. 298</ref> In Algiers in 1943, Eisenhower gave de Gaulle the assurance in person that a French force would liberate Paris and arranged that the army division of French General [[Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque]] would be transferred from North Africa to the UK to carry out that liberation.<ref name="Keegan298" /> Eisenhower was impressed by the combativeness of units of the [[Free French Forces]] and "grateful for the part they had played in mopping up the remnants of German resistance"; he also detected how strongly devoted many were to de Gaulle and how ready they were to accept him as the national leader.<ref name="Keegan298" />

==== Preparations for D-Day ====
[[File:Winston Churchill with General de Gaulle during an inspection of French troops at Marrakesh in Morocco, January 1944. TR1505.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Winston Churchill with General de Gaulle during an inspection of French troops at Marrakesh in Morocco, January 1944. TR1505.jpg|thumb|left|Winston Churchill and General de Gaulle at [[Marrakesh]], January 1944|link=File:Winston_Churchill_with_General_de_Gaulle_during_an_inspection_of_French_troops_at_Marrakesh_in_Morocco,_January_1944._TR1505.jpg]]
As preparations for the liberation of Europe gathered pace, the US in particular found de Gaulle's tendency to view everything from the French perspective to be extremely tiresome. [[Franklin D. Roosevelt|President Roosevelt]], who refused to recognize any provisional authority in France until elections had been held, referred to de Gaulle as "an apprentice dictator", a view backed by a number of leading Frenchmen in Washington, including [[Jean Monnet]], who later became instrumental in setting up the [[European Coal and Steel Community]] that led to the modern [[European Union]]. Roosevelt directed Churchill not to provide de Gaulle with strategic details of the imminent invasion because he did not trust him to keep the information to himself. French codes were considered weak, posing a risk since the Free French refused to use British or American codes.<ref name="Beevor">Beevor, Antony (2009) ''D-Day: The Battle for Normandy'', Penguin Group, {{ISBN|1101148721}}</ref> De Gaulle refused to share coded information with the British, who were then obliged secretly to break the codes to read French messages.<ref>Singh, Simon (2000). The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography. Anchor; {{ISBN|0-385-49532-3}}. <!-- page(s) needed --></ref>

Upon his arrival at [[RAF Northolt]] on 4 June 1944 he received an official welcome.<ref name=Beevor /> Later, on his personal train, Churchill informed him that he wanted him to make a radio address, but when informed that the Americans continued to refuse to recognise his right to power in France, and after Churchill suggested he request a meeting with Roosevelt to improve his relationship with the president, de Gaulle became angry, demanding to know why he should "lodge my candidacy for power in France with Roosevelt; the French government exists".<ref name="Fenby-2010" />

==== Return to France ====
[[File:HD-SN-99-02715.JPEG|thumb|left|General de Gaulle delivering a speech in liberated [[Cherbourg]] from the hôtel de ville (town hall)]]On 14 June 1944, he left Britain for the city of [[Bayeux]], Normandy, which he [[First Bayeux speech|proclaimed]] as the capital of Free France. Appointing his Aide-de-Camp [[Francois Coulet]] as head of the civil administration, de Gaulle returned to the UK that same night on [[French destroyer La Combattante|a French destroyer]], and although the [[United States military government in France|official position]] of the supreme military command remained unchanged, local Allied officers found it more practical to deal with the fledgling administration in Bayeux in everyday matters<ref name=Beevor /> which set a precedent of the [[Provisional Government of the French Republic|Provisional Government]] running the civil affairs of liberated France. De Gaulle flew to Algiers on 16 June and then went to Rome to meet the Pope and the new Italian government. 
[[File:Crowds of French patriots line the Champs Elysees-edit2.jpg|thumb|The [[2nd Armored Division (France)|2nd Armored Division]] passes through the [[Arc de Triomphe]]. Signs read "Long live de Gaulle" and "De Gaulle to power".]]
At the beginning of July, he visited Roosevelt in Washington, where he received the 17-gun salute of a senior military leader rather than the 21 guns of a visiting head of state.<ref name="Fenby-2010" /> De Gaulle successfully lobbied for Paris to be made a priority for liberation on humanitarian grounds and obtained from Allied supreme commander General [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] an agreement that French troops would be allowed to enter the capital first. A few days later, [[Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque|General Leclerc]]'s division entered the outskirts of the city, and after [[Liberation of Paris|six days of fighting]] in which the resistance played a major part, the German garrison of 5000 men surrendered on 25 August 1944, although some sporadic fighting continued for several days.<ref>{{Cite web |date=12 June 2006 |title=World War II: The Liberation of Paris |url=https://www.historynet.com/a-moment-of-elation-the-liberation-of-paris/ |access-date=5 November 2022 |website=HistoryNet |language=en-US}}</ref>

On the evening of 26 August, the ''Wehrmacht'' launched a massive aerial and artillery barrage of Paris in revenge, leaving several thousand dead or injured.<ref name="Second World War 1966">Mondal, Jacques (1966) ''[[Purnell's History of the Second World War]]'': No. 72 1966.</ref> The situation in Paris remained tense, and a few days later, de Gaulle asked General Eisenhower to send American troops into Paris as a show of strength. On 29 August, the US 28th Infantry Division was rerouted from its journey to the front line and paraded down the Champs Elysees.<ref name="Second World War 1966" /><ref>{{cite web|title=Speech made by General de Gaulle at the Hotel de Ville in Paris on August&nbsp;25th 1944|publisher=Fondation Charles de Gaulle|year=2008|url=http://www.charles-de-gaulle.org/article.php3?id_article=514|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081216141748/http://www.charles-de-gaulle.org/article.php3?id_article=514|archive-date=16 December 2008}}</ref>

The same day, Washington and London agreed to accept the position of the Free French. The following day General Eisenhower gave his de facto blessing with a visit to the General in Paris.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/britain-recognizes-general-charles-de-gaulle-as-the-leader-of-the-free-french|title=Britain recognizes General Charles de Gaulle as the leader of the Free French|website=HISTORY|access-date=18 November 2019|archive-date=22 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191222221957/https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/britain-recognizes-general-charles-de-gaulle-as-the-leader-of-the-free-french|url-status=live}}</ref>