London, the 18th of June 1940…. a halting voice issues from the radio via the BBC, speaking in French he addresses the people of France, whose homeland has been invaded by the Germans. Pleading with them to have hope for the future, “…Has the last word been said? Must hope disappear? Is the defeat definitive? No! For France is not alone… She has a vast empire behind her… This war is not limited to the unfortunate territory of our country… This war is a world war…. Whatever happens, the flame of the French resistance must not be extinguished and will not be extinguished.” The man’s name General Charles De Gaulle [music]
The man known to history as Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle* was born in Lille, northern France, on the 22nd of November 1890, the third of five children. De Gaulle belonged to a family of committed academics and intellectuals. His father was Henri de Gaulle, a professor of history, literature, and Latin at a Jesuit college in Paris, who eventually went on to establish his own Catholic private school. Henri’s parents and brothers were also impressive scholars of literature, history, languages, and science, and it was from his family that Charles de Gaulle inherited a love of poetry, history, philosophy, and literature, becoming an avid reader early in his childhood, writing poetry and stories, and even a one-act play, of his own. His mother was Jeanne Maillot, an opinionated woman with an immensely strong personality, whose patriotic fervour strongly influenced her son, Charles. Indeed, both sides of the family maintained a strong sense of nationalism, particularly as it related to their understanding of French identity. The de Gaulles viewed the historic French Revolution very differently to many republicans or socialists, seeing the violence it brought as a deplorable tragedy rather than a necessary evil. As former members of the noblesse de robe or non-hereditary nobles, given a title in recognition of their bureaucratic or administrative work for the monarchy, Henri de Gaulle’s ancestors had lost virtually everything in the Revolution. His great-grandfather had been imprisoned during the Terror and luckily, escaped execution. Both the de Gaulles and the Maillots had remained faithfully Catholic throughout the nineteenth century following the Revolution and looked with condemnation on the violent repression of Catholicism which the Revolution had brought about. Henri de Gaulle encouraged intelligent debate and discussion about history, philosophy and politics amongst his family, and his four sons and daughter were inculcated with a specific and comprehensive cultural picture of France: sovereign and strong, with a shared history and rich culture, a beacon of glory and enlightenment to the world. However, historians have often disagreed about exactly what de Gaulle’s political beliefs were, as he seemed to view or react to policy quite differently, at different times throughout his life, sometimes liberally or progressively, sometimes conservatively. One thing which always informed his politics as well as his actions however, was his patriotism. As a child, Charles would read avidly, especially on subjects such as history and philosophy and was especially influenced by writers such as Kant, Nietzsche, Goethe and Plato, and he received his education primarily in religious and military institutions. He attended a Catholic primary and secondary school, deciding at age fifteen to apply to the military academy at Saint-Cyr. This seems an interesting choice for a boy from such a ferociously intellectual family, but the military path seemed to suit his personality. For most of his academic career, Charles was a good student, but not a great one. His family had given him a passion for the humanities, but his love of reading often interfered with his schoolwork. Moreover, some of his teachers reported that his short attention span and hyperactivity often interfered with his learning. His decision to join the army not only gave him an outlet for all of his energy and patriotism, but it also sharpened his ambitions. Realizing that his grades in math and science would have to improve a great deal, he wrote to his parents of his determination to try harder. It is likely that his attraction to the military was partly inspired by the geopolitical situation between Germany and France which de Gaulle had grown up observing. The loss of the region of Alsace-Lorraine to Germany in 1870, had inspired patriotic outrage in de Gaulle’s family. Further, the French army’s reputation and enlistment levels had suffered significantly in the intervening years, due to the French military’s involvement in anti-labour activities such as strikebreaking, and due to scandals like the Dreyfus Affair, in which a Jewish soldier was knowingly and wrongfully imprisoned. To the de Gaulles, all of this signaled decline. France’s sovereignty and military strength had been undermined by all of these events. Charles had enjoyed his toy soldiers as much as his books as a child and while he remained a lover of history, poetry, literature, and philosophy throughout his life, the young patriot seemed to feel called to a different purpose. The eighteen-year-old Charles de Gaulle spent the summer of 1908 in a small village in Baden, Germany. He had one more year of secondary school left before beginning his studies at Saint-Cyr, and he was keen to perfect his ability, he said, with the language of the “enemy.” He assiduously read the German newspapers, noting their nationalism and generally anti-French perspective. In September of 1909, Charles passed his entrance exams for Saint-Cyr. Because all future officers were required to serve one year in the ranks before being admitted to the academy, he enlisted in France’s 33rd Infantry Regiment, based at Arras which was commanded by Colonel Phillipe Petain, the future Marshal of France, continuing to serve there during his three years at the military academy. De Gaulle stood out among his peers in several respects. He had inherited his mother’s strong personality and opinionated attitude, often striking others as both outspoken and supremely confident, even to the point of egotism. His attitude may have influenced his teachers’ tendencies to be less than generous with his grades. He sometimes received merely “satisfactory” designations for his work and many of his teachers believed, that although he was performing well enough, he could derive more benefit from his studies, and possibly become an excellent student. However, he eventually graduated 13th in his class from Saint-Cyr. When Charles first entered the academy, he had ranked 119th out of 221 students, so his academic commitment had clearly improved. Some of his biographers believe that the young de Gaulle’s perceived bravado hid some insecurities. By his mid to late teens, Charles was six feet, four inches tall. Average male height in early twentieth-century France was five feet, three inches, and so De Gaulle therefore towered over virtually everyone he knew, and it took him several years to develop the confidence and coordination to dispel his physical awkwardness. Even in his twenties, observers often remarked that he looked as if he did not know where to put his exceptionally long arms and legs. Charles was not what many people would call conventionally ‘handsome’ either. His hooded eyes gave him a brooding appearance, and his small head and large protruding nose, in addition to his immense height, made him distinctly unforgettable. De Gaulle’s appearance earned him the nicknames: “the great asparagus” from his schoolmates, which could not have done much to lessen his insecurities. His hard work paid off however and he was praised by his commanding officers as well as his comrades as being intelligent and good spirited as well as fit and well-mannered. His determined confidence had proved justified, graduating with high marks from Saint-Cyr allowing him to choose which branch of the army to serve in. After his graduation in 1912, de Gaulle rejoined the infantry and when the First World War began less than two years later, few young Frenchmen were as ready as de Gaulle to serve their country, and fight against the Germans. Promoted to 2nd Lieutenant within the 33rd Regiment, De Gaulle led a platoon of 65 troops to Dinant, Belgium, arriving on the 15th of August 1914. They secured themselves in trenches on the west bank of the Meuse River and settled down to wait. Charles later wrote that when the German attack came at dawn the next morning, he experienced only an instant of terror as the first volley of shots came from the Germans on the other side of the river. Years later, he wrote: …a feeling of satisfaction came over me. At last, we were going to get them. I sat on a bench in the street where the level-crossing was and remained there out of bravado…Every quarter of an hour, I went to joke with my men who were safe in the trench. Unbeknownst to the French forces on the west bank of the Meuse, the Germans had reinforced their position on the opposite bank, devastating the two French companies which had been sent across the river to engage them. As the remaining French survivors staggered back across the river, de Gaulle was ordered to lead his platoon to overtake the Germans before they could cross the river. “First section, forward with me!” he shouted out and rushed forward as the Germans unleashed their firepower once again. Before his unit could cross the river, however, Charles and four of his men in the vanguard were mown down. Fortunately, Charles was only wounded in the knee. But sadly, he was one of only a few men to survive from his platoon. He managed to drag himself to an abandoned house nearby, and awaited rescue. He had learned much from his first battle and received the Croix de Guerre for gallantry in January 1915. His experience at Dinant had convinced him of the importance of modern artillery, which the French, to their detriment, had left in reserve until it was almost too late for it to be effective. Previously, de Gaulle had agreed with French military officials who advocated an infantry-based offensive as the primary strategy. After Dinant, he began to take a more modern view which prioritized firepower over bold infantry offensives. De Gaulle would spend the next two months recuperating in hospital, impatient with the slowness of the healing process and eager to return to the field of battle. He rejoined his regiment in mid-October, not yet fully healed but able to walk and unwilling to lie in bed any longer. The French Fifth Army was now dug in in northern France, having checked the German advance toward Paris. The two armies now faced each other in two lines of trenches stretching from the Swiss Border to the Channel. Charles was appointed adjutant to the colonel of his regiment, a testament not only to how much he had impressed his superiors thus far, but also to the fact that numerous officers were dying, as much from disease, as from the Germans. De Gaulle was aghast at the trench warfare which characterized the conflict in France in 1915. “What is this war other than a war of extermination?” he wrote to his mother. “The loser will be the one who first exhausts all his moral and material resources.” Between January and March of 1915, de Gaulle’s regiment was involved in several bloody offensives near Champagne. In February, he was promoted to captain. In March, he was wounded again, shot in the left hand. The wound became seriously infected and he was hospitalized once more. Eventually the wound would become so bad that he would have to wear his ring on the opposite hand. In late February of 1916, the Germans launched their offensive at Verdun and De Gaulle’s regiment was promptly called to the front. The Germans had a crucial opportunity to secure victory for themselves in the First World War by taking out the French army alone before English reinforcements could arrive on the scene. If they could defeat the French army by decisively advancing through Verdun, the important fortress city, strategically important for morale, the Allied powers wouldn’t be capable of sustaining resistance on the Western Front, and most likely Germany would secure a victory in the Great War. The Germans took the strategically significant fort at Douamont, and de Gaulle and his men were sent on reconnaissance missions to ascertain how best to re-take it and repel the German advance. De Gaulle’s superiors failed to act on his recommendations, and most of his platoon, sent in to retake Douamont, did not survive. Charles himself, who had led the charge, had been bayoneted in the thigh, and a grenade exploded near him, knocking him off his feet. He then lost consciousness due to the effects of poison gas and was taken prisoner. For nearly three years, Charles de Gaulle remained a prisoner-of-war. For most of this period, he was kept at Fort IX near Ingolstadt, which one formerly incarcerated British soldier dubbed “the escaping club.” Escape from Fort IX was, evidently, not difficult to achieve. The real challenge was to make it back to Allied territory before recapture, which very few managed to do. Most were caught within a few days, and then subjected to severe punishment upon return to captivity. De Gaulle attempted escape from Fort IX no less than five times, once by deliberately swallowing picric acid to give himself the appearance of suffering from hepatitis. The guards transferred him to the infirmary, a section of the fort especially easy to escape from. On other occasions, he attempted tunneling through walls, or hiding in a laundry hamper to evade the guard patrols. His privileges were gradually revoked and the security around him was tightened. During the First World War, French officers in German prison camps were treated fairly well. Privileges included access to books and newspapers, freedom to move about the prison grounds, and even to play sports. Before his captors began to guard de Gaulle more closely, he spent much of the time, reading, writing, and lecturing to his fellow prisoners on the military and political situation. He also had a great deal of time for himself, to read the history, philosophy, and literature that he loved, and to exchange letters and news with his family, particularly his mother. He also wrote his first book, The Enemy’s House Divided, during this time. His letters home were written to reassure his family that he remained strong and well, but they also communicated his restlessness, shame, and rage at being incarcerated while his comrades-in-arms fought on. For de Gaulle, it was a matter of honour. As the war dragged on, de Gaulle bitterly felt as if he was missing out and should be helping to serve his country on the front lines, and in this spirit, he made his creative escape attempts. At one point the Germans had offered imprisoned French officers the opportunity for release and safe passage to Switzerland, as long as they would agree to remain there until the armistice, and not re-engage the enemy. De Gaulle refused to swear, preferring to keep his honour and continue his escape attempts, however ill-fated and three weeks after the armistice was declared in November 1918, de Gaulle was re-united with his family. Miraculously, Charles and his three brothers, all of whom had served throughout the war, had survived. The interwar period was a defining time for the young Charles de Gaulle, who after witnessing the horrors of the First World War, spent many years mulling over French military strategy, and refining his opinions on the state of warfare. Between the end of World War I and the opening of World War II, de Gaulle took up writing, not that he hadn’t been engaged in it before, but his essays were specifically directed towards those generals in the French army who he felt discontent towards, especially for the bloodshed of his comrades on the battlefield. Europe had been massively transformed by Germany’s defeat in World War I, and the continent struggled to rebuild the natural order of independent sovereign nations. In the East, the Second Polish Republic was formed from the remains of Germany’s territorial holdings and Poland was a new, independent country separate from the now defeated and devastated Germany. Between 1918 and 1939, France sought to assist Poland in becoming economically stable, free, and defensible. This effort eventually became known as the French Polish Military Mission. Not only would the mission reaffirm the order in Europe, but Poland could act as a useful ally against Germany if they attempted any further military action, which indeed they would, just twenty years after their first defeat in 1918. During the Polish Soviet War from 1918 to 1921, four hundred French army officers were assigned to units in Poland, as part of the French Polish Military Missions. Serving there for a brief time, they helped to defend Poland against Soviet forces, assisting in the country’s military logistics and organizing its defenses for a while. Among the French officers sent to Poland, was the competent Charles de Gaulle, gradually entering the prime of his life, who had been yearning to get back into the military to become involved in strengthening the European order following the experience of his World War I days. Thanks to his efforts in Poland, de Gaulle was awarded Poland’s highest achievable military decoration, the Virtuti Militari and after proving himself as a Major serving at a position on the River Zbrucz, de Gaulle accepted his praise and returned to his home country. Having come back to a country reeling from the financial and military strain of the Great War, Charles de Gaulle insisted on patriotically helping his nation, to make up for the years he was imprisoned for during the war. He returned to the Saint Cyr Academy, this time as a teacher, where many of those listening to his lectures, were his former professors. Charles advocated a progressive military strategy based on the contemporary state of combat, encouraging the use of airplanes, tanks, and armored vehicles to break through enemy lines and minimize the amount of time spent fighting in trench warfare. After seeing the horrors of the First World War with his own eyes, Charles de Gaulle had become a ferocious supporter of modernized, mechanized combat to reduce bloodshed. He believed that the future of France would be secured by taking up an innovative approach to war, always being prepared to make an advance against her neighbors if necessary, the most threatening of which was Germany. By November 1922, Charles de Gaulle had concluded his round of teaching at Saint Cyr and enrolled at the Ecole de Guerre, or General Staff College, with much of his time there, spent objecting to and criticizing his teachers. De Gaulle took great effort to point out how traditional fighting tactics had become obsolete in the face of mechanical warfare and the advent of trench fighting, predominantly experienced in the First World War. Even after the Great War, the French still clung onto the concept of chivalric glory and the importance of cavalry on the battlefield, which de Gaulle felt strong discontent towards. Very clearly opposed to this thinking, de Gaulle quickly made enemies of many friends and teachers, by voicing his radical, contrasting opinions. During this time, Charles de Gaulle honed his writing skills and became heavily invested in the work of personal essays, detailing his opinions on the state of the French military. Much of his writing focused on how the future of conflict would pan out and outlined his discontent towards the traditional, obsolete ways of many French military commanders. Having seen the bloodshed of fellow French soldiers during the First World War at the hands of German troops, he was very eager to reform France’s military strategy, encouraging the adoption of a policy known as “tactics according to circumstances”. An essay detailing this policy was published by de Gaulle in 1925, against the wishes of his former teachers, many of whom advocated traditional army tactics, rather than tactics according to circumstances. Thanks to his talent in writing and voicing his opinions about the military, de Gaulle caught the eye of a certain Philippe Petain. Having been promoted to Marshall for his leadership in the First World War, especially at the intense Battle of Verdun, Henri-Philippe Petain was an extremely prominent figure in the French military in the twenties, and he had his own opinions on the state of combat and the condition of France’s armed forces. Petain had experience in organizing the front lines of a battle, keeping supplies flowing and inspiring French soldiers. His leadership experience in the First World War gave him a strong sense of what was important on the battlefield. As such, Phillipe Petain was a figure to look up to, especially for the young Charles de Gaulle, who agreed with a great deal of what Petain preached and felt that he was a strong, admirable leader. Philippe Petain also recognized that Charles de Gaulle was a talented leader and fluent writer, with well-articulated thoughts on military strategy. In the early twenties, Petain employed de Gaulle as a ghostwriter for historical material, mostly relating to the traditional tactics of the French military and how they were becoming outdated, with the progression of technological advances in the early twentieth century. Eventually the relationship between the pair soured, firstly because Charles de Gaulle could not respect Petain’s involvement in Morocco in 1925, and because he felt he was not getting nearly enough credit for his huge contributions to the literary work of Petain. Further resentment fermented when Petain attempted to claim primary credit for a descriptive piece about the French soldier, even though the overwhelming majority of the composition had been done by de Gaulle, with just a single additional chapter of Petain’s opinions. After further fallings out in 1925 and 1926, Charles felt that Petain had lost his admirable qualities and even allegedly professed that “Petain didn’t know it, but he died in 1925”. This didn’t stop de Gaulle from making three further talks at the Ecole de Guerre in April of 1927, commenting on the glory of a French soldier and the important qualities in a military leader. Once again, many of those in the audience at these talks had taught him during his early infantry training. On the twenty-fifth of September 1927, Charles de Gaulle was promoted to the rank of commandant, serving as the commanding officer of the 19th battalion of elite light infantry at Trier. It was here, at the Moselle River in particular, that de Gaulle’s determination to craft his men into fine fighting soldiers was proven. In various exercises, he set the bar extremely high, assigning almost unfair targets for his soldiers to reach and placing them into terrible conditions, supposedly to build their character and give them a taste of war. Such was the misery Charles de Gaulle subjected his troops to, that one was even sentenced with a prison term for requesting to be assigned to a less stressful unit. However, it was also during the late twenties that Charles de Gaulle staked out a real place for himself in the French armed forces, truly proving that he had the grit and sheer leadership determination to command a group of highly trained fighters. Although he placed heavy demands on his soldiers, he also cared about the spirit of his unit, using his glowing spirit to raise the troops’ morale and encourage them to extract maximum benefit from their training. Fellow leaders threw much praise in his direction, for the way he led his unit and encouraged the younger soldiers. Eventually Charles de Gaulle took up a position in Syria and Lebanon, serving as the chief of the 3rd Bureau in Beirut for a couple of years and earning great praise and recommendations for future service. By 1931, his term there had ended, and he requested a special position from Philippe Petain to continue teaching at the Ecole de Guerre. However, Petain recognized that de Gaulle’s talents would be better used in a crucial role, advising France’s military, and so recommended that de Gaulle join the Supreme War Council with his support. Thus, in November of 1931, de Gaulle returned to Paris, taking up an initial position as a drafting officer in France’s Supreme War Council. This council dealt with the defense of Europe from Germany by the Allied Powers, including Britain, France, the United States and Japan. Each of these nations had a head of state present at council meetings, and further members to assist in research projects, bills and more. Charles de Gaulle had the opportunity to have an influence on the preparations France was making to defend itself, in case of another European war. It was at this time that France began construction of what they called the “Maginot Line”, a massive series of defensive fortifications lining a broad section of the border. France’s top military commanders expected that if Germany were ever to attempt another invasion, they would try to break through this region and onwards towards Paris. Under this assumption, funding for the Maginot Line was secured and throughout the thirties, France would work hard to reinforce this region. Charles de Gaulle was one official who opposed the Maginot Line. He taught that the effect of France’s fortifications was to incrementally beat down the enemy during their advance and make it tricky for an invader to sustain operations in foreign territory, but he and others with similar opinions were outweighed by military leaders who thought France should economize its defense with the Maginot Line. During the thirties, Charles de Gaulle published various significant works regarding the importance of France’s preparation for war and his thoughts in opposition to the expensive construction of the Maginot Line defensive fortification series. In 1932, he published a book titled Vers l’armee de metier, with his advice on how to reform the advanced forces to be better equipped to fight invaders. Unfortunately, his advice was heeded by very few, and instead of it being read by French military leaders, who could have derived benefit from its content, ironically enough. It is even said that German leaders used Charles de Gaulle’s advice during their military campaigns in the Second World War. It wasn’t long before the Nazi regime rose in the once weak and economically destroyed Germany, under the command of Adolf Hitler, whom many Germans saw as captivating and promising for the future of their country. Charles de Gaulle was still writing in the late thirties, but had fallen out with many close to him, such as Philippe Petain, who disagreed with him over another piece of writing relating to French military history. To the east, Nazi Germany was quickly gaining power – and territory. By early 1939, Hitler was being watched very carefully by the Allied Powers, who were now coming to see him as an immediate threat to the order in Europe, which indeed he would turn out to be. On the first of September that year, German forces rapidly invaded Poland, attacking a weakened and relatively young country which was not prepared for the Nazis’ powerful “Blitzkrieg” tactics. Two days later, Britain and France officially declared war on Nazi Germany, broadcasting the immense but not unexpected news. At the time Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler invaded Poland, Charles de Gaulle was serving in a tank unit, the 4th armored brigade. For the first eight months of the Second World War, Nazi Germany would be relatively neutral regarding France, pre-occupied with the invasion and division of Poland, which they shared with the USSR up until the Russian invasion of 1941. However, on the 10th of May 1940, Nazi Germany launched a massive invasion attempt into France. Having bypassed the Maginot Line series of defensive fortifications, by pushing their units through Belgium, the Nazis managed to take most of Northern France unopposed, as the French military was unprepared. In less than a month, it looked as if France had already lost the fight. At Caumont on the 28th of May, Charles de Gaulle briefly tasted victory, when his unit forced German forces to rapidly retreat in the face of the French armored advance. Although Nazi forces had advanced fiercely thus far, de Gaulle’s valiant efforts managed to temporarily hold them back, but not for long. Just a few days later, on the 5th of June, the president of the Third Republic of France at the time, Paul Reynaud, replaced Edouard Daladier as the minister of war with Charles de Gaulle. During this time, Charles de Gaulle was visiting London, where he talked with prominent about the quickly deteriorating condition in France and the threat of Nazi control of Europe. On the 16th of June, de Gaulle returned to a far more hostile Europe. Nazi armies had swept through Northern France, having occupied the capital city of Paris just two days before Charles’ return. Additionally, Paul Reynaud had been removed from his position as President of the Third Republic, replaced by Henri-Philippe Petain, who was then engaging in negotiations with Germany to mitigate the damage of war and come to a peaceful agreement. It was at this time that Charles de Gaulle broadcast his globally famous Appeal of the 18th of June speech to French citizens, and indeed the world. Having fled to London after French forces capitulated to the Germans, de Gaulle requested to broadcast on British radio. Although Charles de Gaulle’s 18th of June speech may be considered one of the greatest addresses in French history, a recording of the speech was never made, and it remains in the annuls of history only on paper. De Gaulle encouraged his comrades to stand up for what was right and to fight back against the Nazis however they could, to restore the glory of France and to overcome their oppressors. “…Has the last word been said? Must hope disappear? Is the defeat definitive? No! For France is not alone… She has a vast empire behind her… This war is not limited to the unfortunate territory of our country… This war is a world war… The destiny of the world is at stake… I invite the officers…the French soldiers…the engineers… and the special workers of armaments industries who are located in British territory, or who may be in future, to contact me. Whatever happens, the flame of the French resistance must not be extinguished and will not be extinguished.” Unfortunately, most of de Gaulle’s powerful words were lost in the noise and chaos of France’s capitulation to Nazi forces; few listened to the radio broadcast, despite how defining it was to the history of France. The next day, Charles de Gaulle made a further, albeit less important speech to the French people, denouncing those who had capitulated to the Germans and criticizing the government at Bordeaux. He proclaimed that France’s remaining independent politicians should not fall prey to the threatening nature of Nazi Germany and should retain their confidence in standing up to the oppression. Most of all, he repeated the arguments of his 18th of June speech, but additionally requested that the armed forces of the French empire stand up to fight against the Nazis, calling on units in North Africa to ignore commands from the government in Bordeaux and to defend the glory of France under de Gaulle instead. In attempts to raise support for his resistance, de Gaulle opened communications with the General in Morocco and Commander in Chief of North African Forces, Charles Nogues, whom he begged to join him in ignoring the armistice. De Gaulle asked Nogues to send troops to push the Germans back out of Northern France. De Gaulle sent a telegraph to Nogues which was promptly rejected and forbidden to be publicized to the inhabitants of France’s North African colonies. Broadcasting from London again on the 22nd of June, de Gaulle further condemned the armistice, which had been officially signed the day before, and as a result the government in Bordeaux removed his military rank, forcefully retiring him from the French armed forces. In London, de Gaulle sowed the seeds of the Free French movement, comprised of determined, independent French politicians hell-bent on denouncing the armistice and fighting back against the Nazi forces as best they could. The Prime Minister of Britain, Winston Churchill pledged his support to the Free French movement, recognizing the government in Free France, as the legitimate power rather than the Nazi-manipulated Vichy France in the North. Widely criticized for capitulating to the Nazis in the Second World War and refusing to continue the fight against Germany, Vichy France faced strictly enforced laws and tight doctrines which restricted personal rights, limited economic freedoms and ensured no one spoke out against the Nazi regime. However, even though the Vichy government was very evidently under the thumb of Hitler’s armies, they remained de facto at war with Germany, refusing to join the Axis alliance and determined to retain some semblance of French glory, even under the iron fist of the Nazi regime. Meanwhile in London, a movement was quickly forming to keep the remaining French territories independent from Nazi control and to keep up the resistance against German suppression. During June of 1940, prominent French and English figures including Charles de Gaulle drew up plans for the government of “Free France”, Free France would be sustained by France’s old North African colonies, including Algeria, while remaining strongly opposed to Nazi Germany and retaining independent political beliefs. Those who controlled Free France were strongly against the June armistice and hated Vichy France. Even many French people living in Vichy France attempted to flee to Free France when the opportunity arose. Unfortunately for de Gaulle’s hopeful dreams of resistance and freedom, few significant military leaders responded to his nudging, preferring – under fear of Nazi oppression and denunciation from Philippe Petain – to pledge their allegiance to Vichy France and the “puppet government” of Petain. Although de Gaulle had the support of Britain’s Winston Churchill, and was officially recognized as the legitimate leader of France on the 28th of June, there was simply no way Free France could lead any massive attack against Nazi occupied France at that time. Indeed, the only mobilizable forces that Free France controlled, were small units of refugee soldiers from the initial invasion, several navy units stationed far way, and volunteers from southern France and England. De Gaulle was a man of great confidence and even arrogance, who refused to accept any kind of surrender or concession to the Germans, perceiving that the glory of France had been disrespected by his former friends and superiors. Although this attitude was powerful and effective in convincing French citizens to join his movement, it also placed him on the wrong side of other influential politicians, most notably the President of America, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who believed that de Gaulle was acting unreasonably and even dangerously. Roosevelt publicly supported Vichy France as the legitimate government, announcing his support for Philippe Petain. Roosevelt believed that he could persuade Petain to cut ties with Nazi Germany, cautiously liberating France with minimal military intervention. Although Charles de Gaulle had won the hearts and minds of many French people and had the resources to command control over some of the French empire’s troops, he was vastly outnumbered by those who supported the armistice. De Gaulle struggled throughout the war to build any considerable army to fight back against Vichy France and the Nazis, and eventually such was his arrogant nature, that the government of Vichy France de facto sentenced him to death by court martial. Free France continued to be funded by Britain during the Second World War, even though many colonial armies refused to side with de Gaulle. In September of 1941, Charles de Gaulle established the French National Committee based in London, with the ambition to unite all resistance forces under the control of those French politicians who had not recognized the armistice of 1940. Although Churchill continued to support Free France, the relationship between Britain and Free France was shaky at best. Personality clashes between the two characters of Churchill and de Gaulle made it difficult for them to respect each other’s point of view, and Charles de Gaulle was in constant fear that Britain would withdraw their support. One of Charles de Gaulle’s famous quotes from this time was “no nation has friends, only interests”. From 1942 onwards, the question of who should lead Free France was widely disputed. Franklin Roosevelt encouraged General Henri Giraud to lead the movement, while still hoping that he could persuade Philippe Petain of Vichy France to cut ties with Nazi Germany. Charles de Gaulle reluctantly worked alongside Giraud after the Casablanca Conference of 1943, but still hung onto his grand views of uniting the resistance forces and destroying the Nazis with a spontaneous blow. For the most part, de Gaulle commanded respect from French citizens and the provisional government of Free France remained in power over the independent territories of the nation. Once the Allied powers had secured victory on the North African front in 1943, Charles de Gaulle formally moved his government office overbroad to Algiers in Algeria, remotely controlling Free France and continuing to encourage citizens there to fight and resist Nazi oppression. In May, de Gaulle and Giraud established the French Committee of National Liberation, an organization determined to utilize Free France’s few resources to maximum impact in resisting Nazi control. De Gaulle feuded with Giraud over who should oversee the committee. Eventually de Gaulle, thanks to his political savvy and sheer determination to play a heavily involved role in the operations of Free France, became the sole leader of the committee. Speaking with General Dwight Eisenhower in Algiers, Charles de Gaulle was promised that French forces would soon gloriously liberate Paris, with Eisenhower’s support. Troops were shipped overseas from North Africa to France to prepare for this operation, and by early June of 1944, the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom were planning a costly strategic invasion of the beaches of Normandy, attempting to catch the Germans off-guard with well-timed deception tactics and a spontaneous exertion of force. This invasion would become famous in history as D-Day. Britain managed to persuade Charles de Gaulle to move from Algiers to the RAF Northolt air base on the 3rd of June, but de Gaulle was extremely concerned for the future of France, worried that if Germany was immediately removed, that the law of France would collapse, leading to chaos. He also did not respect his position in the eyes of the United States, with President Roosevelt intending to establish a provisional French government managed by the Allied countries, while de Gaulle heatedly argued that France had never capitulated and that the legitimate government was still holding out in Free France. Disagreements between Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle quickly resulted in a massive falling out, with Churchill even accusing de Gaulle of treason and saying that Britain would always choose the United States over France as an ally. Eventually D-Day went ahead, with American, Canadian, and British forces storming the beaches of Normandy and forcing their way into Northern France, beating back the Nazi armies step by step. Meanwhile, an invasion through Italy was proving successful, helping to liberate France from the South. Throughout late 1944 and 1945, Nazi Germany would rapidly lose ground as the Allied powers hammered towards Berlin, pushing Europe closer and closer to the end of the Second World War. During this time, de Gaulle continued to fight for a legitimate position as candidate for France’s next leader. He still kept support from many in France and despite bad relationships from Churchill and Roosevelt, who specifically kept him out of the Yalta Conference negotiating Germany’s surrender, Charles de Gaulle become popular in his homeland. Once Paris was liberated and Nazi Germany disassembled, Charles de Gaulle was selected as president of France’s new provisional government, designed to help the nation rise out of the dust and economic ruin of the Second World War. Germany, formally occupied by the Nazi regime, was then divided into four occupation zones by the Allied powers, one of which France controlled. Eventually, de Gaulle stepped down from his position as president of France’s post-war provisional government over an executive dispute. In Strasbourg in 1947, Charles de Gaulle established his own small political party named “Rally of the French People”, engineered to put him back in charge, restore the former glory of France, and revise the constitution. Rally for the French People received a lot of criticism, as did Charles de Gaulle during this time, as many suspected that he was using the party to put himself into a dictator-like position in charge of France. However, the political party gained little public support and was eventually dissolved eight years later, with Charles de Gaulle publicly retiring from politics and looking to seek out a quieter life. However, when the post-war government of France, the Fourth Republic, collapsed in the fifties, Charles de Gaulle re-entered politics, achieving the position of president once again in 1959. He helped form France’s new government, the Fifth Republic, which is the current governing body today. One of de Gaulle’s contribution to France at this time, inspired by his concept of French glory, was encouragement for the nuclear weapons program to continue, making France one of the few nuclear powers today. Instead of buying nuclear bombs and warheads from the United States, France developed their own. Meanwhile in Algeria, several uprisings against French colonial control, were getting out of hand. In 1962, Charles de Gaulle made the unexpected decision to aid the country in becoming fully independent, a radical decision and very different from the beliefs he held barely a couple of decades before. Four years later, he withdrew French military support from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, not for the first time, showing his discontentment towards the United States. De Gaulle desired that Europe continue to be controlled by independent, separate, and peaceful sovereign countries without the overseas influence of a global superpower such as the United States. By 1968, protests from disgruntled students and workers in France almost threatened to dismantle the Fifth Republic government, and now weary from a lifetime of war, political feuding and constant fighting for his nation’s glory, Charles de Gaulle officially resigned from his position as president of the Fifth Republic in April of 1969. De Gaulle died due to cardiac arrest on the 9th of November 1970, to great mourning from his family and millions in France – and indeed, around the world. Charles de Gaulle was a controversial character to many, and faced his fair share of hardships and oppression, but he was widely recognized as a heroic figure of France – a man who had sacrificed most of his life protecting the glory of his nation and keeping its inhabitants happy. In a famous quote, Queen Elizabeth II of Britain said of Charles de Gaulle that his “courage and tenacity in the allied cause during the dark years of the Second World War will never be forgotten.” The first speech on the 18th of June 1940 of General Charles de Gaulle, leader of the Free French in exile during the Second World War, constitutes a seminal moment in the collective historical consciousness of France, but in reality, no more than a few hundred people actually heard his first broadcast, nor did any of the listeners know who de Gaulle was or what he looked like - an interesting beginning for a man who would become the most recognizable, famous, and influential French person of the twentieth century. What do you think of Charles De Gaulle? Was he a stubborn, opinionated and obstinate leader or was he a friend of the allies and true patriot for his country who fought to the end for his nation? Please let us know in the comment section below. In the meantime, thank you very much for watching.
