Osprey Men-at-Arms 318 : The French Army (2) 1939-1945

When Charles de Gaulle launched his celebrated appeal via the BBC on 18 June 1940, he was quite unknown to most French people. This brilliant theorist of armoured warfare - whose 1935 book Vers l'armée métier was said to have been read by Guderian - had initially been given the command of the 4e Division Cuirassée, then forming. On 6 June, by now a temporary général de brigade, he became Under-Secretary of State for War in the government of Paul Reynaud, who placed great faith in him. During those dramatic days of June, the government he joined was split between those who advocated resistance to the last, with Algiers as a temporary capital (the line supported by Reynaud and de Gaulle), and the military commanders Pétain and Weygand, who favoured an armistice, with the government remaining in France. By 16 June, with Reynaud in the minority and driven from power, the political and legal battle was lost. It was then that de Gaulle, with the decisive support of Churchill, came to the conclusion that, whatever happened, France could not stand to one side in the struggle. And so, Free France was born. In this companion book to Men-at-Arms 315 : The French Army (1) 1939-1945, Ian Sumner and François Vauvillier examine the history, uniforms and insignia of the Free French, Fighting French and the Army of Liberation. Illustrations by Mike Chappell.

Contents

• De Gaulle and the Free French 1940-43
• Free French Ground Forces Uniforms and Insignia
• Secret Resistance Within the Vichy Army
• A Rematch for the Army of Africa
• Rearming the French
• Uniforms and Insignia 1943-44
• The Revival of an Army
• The Plates
• Bibliography