Gladiators of WW II (12/13) : The Free French Forces
For educational purposes
In June 1940, with France about to collapse, General Charles de Gaulle unfurled his Free French banner in London.
His followers were initially few and were regarded as traitors by many of their fellow countrymen, but they grew in number.
Free French forces fought with distinction in North Africa and Italy and went on to play a significant part in the liberation of their own country.
In June 1940, with France about to collapse, General Charles de Gaulle unfurled his Free French banner in London.
His followers were initially few and were regarded as traitors by many of their fellow countrymen, but they grew in number.
Free French forces fought with distinction in North Africa and Italy and went on to play a significant part in the liberation of their own country.
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LearningTranscript
00:30Paris, the 29th of August, 1944.
01:00General Charles de Gaulle, leader of the Free French forces in World War II,
01:05marches triumphantly through the newly liberated streets.
01:09After four years of occupation, the German forces surrender,
01:12and France's capital erupts with joy.
01:22Four years earlier, de Gaulle, then a relatively junior officer,
01:26had escaped to Britain as France collapsed.
01:29Around him gathered a group of men who were determined
01:32to keep the honor and spirit of France alive.
01:35Their symbol became Joan of Arc's Cross of Lorraine.
01:41And two years later, in the Western Desert,
01:44the Free French captured the world's imagination
01:46by holding out for two weeks at Bir Hakeim against Rommel's panzers.
01:51They then fought gallantly in all European combat theaters
01:55until their country was liberated.
02:00The men who had been declared traitors by their own countrymen
02:03were finally vindicated when their leader arrived
02:06to review a victory parade in Paris.
02:09And France took her place again as one of the big four Allied powers.
02:20France was bled white during World War I.
02:26Her leaders were convinced that she could never afford
02:28to fight another major war in Europe.
02:34They pinned their hopes on the Maginot Line,
02:36a belt of fortifications on France's eastern border
02:40to deter future German aggression.
02:49But in September 1939,
02:51France found herself mobilizing again for war with Germany.
02:58While her armed forces appeared strong enough
03:01to repel a second German invasion,
03:03France's military planning had been distorted
03:06by misplaced faith in the defensive power of the Maginot Line.
03:11When the Germans launched their Blitzkrieg in May 1940,
03:15the French had no answer
03:17to this revolutionary high-speed mechanized warfare.
03:31In less than three weeks,
03:33the Germans trapped the Maginot Line
03:37In less than three weeks,
03:39the Germans trapped the northern French armies
03:41together with the British expeditionary force
03:44in the port of Dunkirk.
03:48Among those rescued off the beaches and taken back to Britain
03:52were some 100,000 French soldiers.
04:02On the 5th of June, the Germans turned south
04:05to overrun the remainder of France.
04:16The vast majority of those Frenchmen
04:18who had been evacuated to England
04:20volunteered to return to their country,
04:22but it was too late.
04:25On the 14th of June, the Germans entered Paris.
04:30Two days later, the French decided to seek an armistice.
04:36Most of the people of France were numb with shock
04:39and resigned to their fate.
04:46They put their trust in the elderly Philippe PĂ©tain,
04:49who had saved France in World War I
04:51through his defense of Verdun.
04:54PĂ©tain had been made Prime Minister
04:56and was certain that only by making peace
04:59could he end France's suffering.
05:05On the 22nd of June, an armistice was signed with the Germans,
05:09symbolically and humiliatingly
05:11in the same railway carriage used by the Allies
05:14to accept Germany's surrender in 1918.
05:21While the Germans occupied northern France
05:23and all the west coast,
05:25PĂ©tain's government was allowed relative autonomy
05:28over the remainder of the country.
05:32This became known as Vichy France,
05:34after the town in which PĂ©tain established his regime.
05:43The Germans allowed France's overseas empire to remain intact,
05:47and the colonial administrations accepted Vichy
05:50as France's legitimate government.
05:56However, a few Frenchmen could not stomach defeat
05:59and were determined to fight on.
06:03I refused the idea that we would stop fighting.
06:09We had an empire, we had a navy,
06:13we had good planes, we had gold,
06:17we had every reason to fight on.
06:24On the 16th of June,
06:26the day that the French government decided to seek an armistice,
06:29a virtually unknown officer,
06:31Brigadier General Charles de Gaulle, broadcast from London.
06:35Let us believe that the honour of the French
06:38is to continue the war alongside their allies.
06:47De Gaulle had commanded an armoured division
06:49during the recent campaign.
06:54He had then briefly been Deputy Minister of Defence,
06:57before being smuggled to Britain by the RAF
06:59when he realised that France was facing defeat.
07:04The British gave de Gaulle their official support
07:07as leader of a free French movement.
07:10He made further broadcasts to the French people.
07:14I invite all French people who wish to remain free
07:18to listen to me and to follow me.
07:22Long live France, free in honour and independence.
07:29But de Gaulle's message had little effect.
07:31The Vichy government declared him a traitor
07:34and condemned him to death in his absence.
07:39The prospect of de Gaulle raising forces
07:41to carry on the fight against Nazi Germany looked bleak.
07:49By mid-August 1940,
07:51the free French strength in Britain
07:53was a little over 2,000 men.
07:56They drew their inspiration from Joan of Arc,
07:58the warrior heroine of 15th century France,
08:01adopting her symbol, the Cross of Lorraine.
08:07We were rebels.
08:08The position of a rebel was a very particular one.
08:11We were condemned to death.
08:13Our families were completely cut off from us.
08:16We had no news from them.
08:19Our pain was stopped.
08:22Vichy made it clear that our families
08:24and our children would suffer reprisals.
08:28But these threats were ignored
08:30by an increasing number of French men and women
08:32who rallied to de Gaulle's inspirational leadership.
08:39They were determined to free France from Nazi tyranny.
08:47Among the free French were airmen,
08:49veterans of the battle for France who joined the RAF.
08:58Thirteen French fighter pilots
09:00fought with great courage in the Battle of Britain.
09:09But the situation of the French Navy
09:11proved a major problem.
09:15Churchill was concerned that the French fleet
09:17might be used by the Germans.
09:19The terms of the armistice dictated
09:21that it should be demobilized under Axis control.
09:25Some French ships were in British ports,
09:28both at home and in the Mediterranean
09:30when the armistice came into effect.
09:32But the bulk of the Navy was still in its bases
09:35in French North Africa.
09:40On 2 July 1940,
09:42after an ultimatum to join the British was rejected,
09:45British warships bombarded the French vessels
09:48in the ports of Oran and Mers-el-KĂ©bir.
09:58Some 1,300 French sailors were killed
10:01by their former allies.
10:06Simultaneously, the French warships in British ports
10:09were seized by the Royal Navy.
10:11In most cases, their crews offered no resistance
10:14and allowed their vessels to be taken over.
10:18But scuffles on board the submarine Surcouf, at Plymouth,
10:22resulted in the deaths of three British sailors
10:25and one Frenchman.
10:29The French were forced to retreat
10:32In the Mediterranean,
10:34a French squadron,
10:36which had put into the Egyptian port of Alexandria,
10:39allowed itself to be demilitarized by the British.
10:42But the deaths of so many French sailors
10:45at the hands of their former ally
10:47did little for de Gaulle's cause
10:49and increased vichy French bitterness towards Britain.
10:56In the Mediterranean,
10:58a French squadron,
11:00which had put into the Egyptian port of Alexandria,
11:03allowed itself to be demilitarized by the British.
11:10The first glimmer of hope for the free French
11:13came in the colonies of equatorial Africa,
11:16to which de Gaulle had sent a representative.
11:19Captain Philippe de Haute-Cloch
11:21had been wounded during the battle for France
11:24but managed to escape to England.
11:26Leclerc's first successes
11:28were in Chad and French equatorial Africa,
11:31where he persuaded the colonial government
11:33to join the free French.
11:35Simultaneously, de Gaulle had gained British support
11:38for a joint landing at the West African port of Dakar,
11:41in the hope that it could be won over to the Allied side.
11:48De Gaulle accompanied the Allied force,
11:50which arrived off Dakar on the 23rd of September.
11:57The vichy authorities not only refused demands to surrender,
12:01but opened fire.
12:08In the subsequent engagement,
12:10they damaged a British cruiser and a battleship.
12:13The Anglo-French force withdrew,
12:15its tail between its legs.
12:19It was a terrible failure, a total failure.
12:25The next day, General de Gaulle called us together on his ship,
12:29and morale was very, very low.
12:31General de Gaulle told us,
12:33we were going to die.
12:35We were going to die.
12:37We were going to die.
12:39We were going to die.
12:42General de Gaulle told us,
12:44this is only a temporary setback.
12:47The general was right.
12:49The following month, he went to the Cameroons
12:51to consolidate his hold on the colonies won over by Leclerc.
13:01Gabon was secured in November,
13:03but only after bitter fighting with the local vichy troops.
13:12At the end of 1940, the 13th Demi-Brigade,
13:15the cornerstone of the Free French forces,
13:18which had accompanied de Gaulle to Dakar and the Cameroons,
13:21set sail to join the British in Egypt.
13:28Its tough French Foreign Legion troops
13:30were eager to get into action against the enemy in the desert.
13:35Meanwhile, in Chad,
13:37Free French units under Colonel Jean Donano
13:40began to operate with the British Long Range Desert Group
13:43against the Italian forces
13:45in Libya's southernmost province of Fezzan.
13:53Donano was killed during a raid
13:55on the Italian airfield at Mourzouk in January 1941.
14:05Leclerc took his place
14:07and set off into Libya from Chad with 3,000 men,
14:10supported by 12 elderly bombers.
14:23On 1 March 1941,
14:25the Free French captured the Koufra Oasis.
14:30It was a significant achievement for the Allied campaign.
14:41The Long Range Desert Group could now use Koufra as a forward base,
14:45and Leclerc cooperated with it
14:47on a number of raids on Italian outposts.
14:52While Leclerc's men were making their mark in the desert,
14:55the 13th Demi Brigade had reached Egypt.
14:58Reinforced with a battalion from Chad,
15:01this now formed the Brigade d'Orient
15:03and fought alongside the British
15:05to capture the Italian colony of Eritrea.
15:09The climax of the French campaign
15:11was spearheading the capture of the important Red Sea port of Massawa.
15:20More Free French forces were gathering in Egypt
15:23during the first half of 1941.
15:28But their loyalty to the Allied cause was severely tested in June.
15:38Syria had remained under Vichy French control
15:41and the British had initially left it alone.
15:44But in May 1941,
15:46there was a revolt against the British in neighbouring Iraq.
15:50The Germans supported the rebels
15:52and obtained Vichy French agreement to use airfields in Syria.
15:56Once the British became aware of this,
15:58they decided to invade,
16:00fearing that the Luftwaffe and Vichy French Air Force
16:03would launch attacks against Egypt.
16:13The Allied force included six Free French battalions
16:16and an artillery battery, together with a few tanks.
16:23They attacked on the 8th of June,
16:25but soon faced bitter resistance.
16:37Free French liaison officers
16:39went in with the leading Australian and British units
16:42and tried to persuade the Vichy troops
16:44to come over to the cause of De Gaulle,
16:46but they were ignored.
16:51Frenchmen ended up fighting Frenchmen.
16:54During the battle for Damascus,
16:56Foreign Legion units went into action on both sides.
17:05It took six weeks to achieve victory
17:07and bring General Dentz,
17:09the Vichy governor-general, to the armistice table.
17:18But the majority of his soldiers
17:20continued to believe that De Gaulle and his men
17:22were traitors to France,
17:24and only 6,000 of the 37,000 in Syria
17:27agreed to join the Free French.
17:32The rest were repatriated to Vichy France,
17:35where they were welcomed as heroes.
17:40De Gaulle was furious
17:42at not being consulted about the armistice.
17:45He resented the repatriation,
17:47and, even more, the fact that the British,
17:50rather than the Free French,
17:52would now oversee Syria.
17:59During the autumn of 1941,
18:01the Free French,
18:03led by General Dentz,
18:06During the autumn of 1941,
18:08the Free French airmen in Britain
18:10formed their first dedicated fighter squadron
18:12within the RAF,
18:14No. 340, ĂŽle-de-France,
18:16equipped with Spitfires
18:18and initially based in Scotland.
18:25At the same time,
18:27the airmen who had flown in support of Leclerc
18:29in the deep south of the Libyan desert
18:31became the Lorraine squadron,
18:34Equipped with Blenheim bombers,
18:36this joined the RAF's Desert Air Force
18:38and began to fly operations
18:40in support of the British Eighth Army.
18:50The Free French Navy
18:52was also deeply involved
18:54in the Battle of the Atlantic.
19:00Its ships escorted convoys
19:02and battled against the U-boat menace.
19:07The Corvette Aconie
19:09achieved the almost unique feat
19:11of sinking two U-boats in one day
19:13on the 11th of March, 1943.
19:19She rammed the first one,
19:21which had already been damaged,
19:23and forced a second to the surface,
19:25ramming it as well.
19:33The entry of America into the war
19:35in December 1941
19:37meant that French possessions in the Americas
19:39could be taken from Vichy.
19:42Washington wanted to do this
19:44through negotiation,
19:46but in one instance,
19:48de Gaulle disregarded American wishes
19:50and took unilateral action.
19:57This was over the tiny islands
19:59of Saint-Pierre et Miquelon
20:01off Newfoundland.
20:05De Gaulle ordered Admiral Emile Muselier,
20:07the commander of a Free French Naval Task Force
20:09in the Canadian port of Halifax,
20:11to seize them.
20:15Ignoring U.S. and Canadian opposition,
20:17Muselier's force,
20:19led by the submarine Surcouf,
20:21made an unopposed landing
20:23on the 24th of December, 1941.
20:31Most of the inhabitants were delighted
20:33to join the Free French.
20:45De Gaulle's unilateral action over the islands
20:47outraged the American and Canadian governments,
20:49but for the time being,
20:51this mattered little.
20:53The main theater of Free French operations
20:55was far away,
20:57in the deserts of North Africa,
20:59operating alongside the British.
21:03By the end of 1941,
21:05the Free French ground forces in the Middle East
21:07had been reorganized into two brigades
21:09and placed under the British Eighth Army.
21:13A small contingent also joined
21:15the newly formed Special Air Service
21:17and soon distinguished itself
21:19in raids on Axis airfields.
21:25General Marie-Pierre Koenig's
21:27Free French Brigade became the first
21:29French ground unit to engage the Germans
21:31in battle since the disastrous
21:33summer of 1940.
21:37Koenig was a tough, no-nonsense soldier
21:39and the bulk of his force was from
21:41the Foreign Legion.
21:45By spring 1942,
21:47the British were holding a defensive line
21:49running south from Gazala in eastern Libya
21:51and preparing to mount another
21:53offensive against Rommel and his Axis forces.
21:58The defenses consisted
22:00of a number of fortified boxes.
22:02The southernmost,
22:04based at Bir Hakeim,
22:06was held by the Free French.
22:11This was protected by extensive
22:13minefields and barbed wire.
22:15The garrison was also well-equipped
22:17with field and anti-tank guns.
22:19But, like the other boxes in the Gazala line,
22:21it had a major weakness.
22:23The box to its north
22:25was too far away to support Bir Hakeim
22:27with artillery.
22:29General Koenig
22:31and his men were effectively isolated
22:33with an open desert flank
22:35stretching away to their south.
22:41Soon they faced a crisis
22:43because Erwin Rommel,
22:45the Axis commander,
22:47got his attack in first.
22:49On the night of the 26th of May,
22:51he sent his panzers round the south
22:53of the Gazala line.
23:09Within 24 hours,
23:11they had got astride the Eighth Army's
23:13lines of communication,
23:15creating increasing confusion in the British rear.
23:23Bir Hakeim was totally cut off.
23:35The Italian Trieste Armoured Division
23:37and the German 90th Light Division
23:39attacked the Free French box,
23:41but failed to make much headway.
23:43Rommel was forced to send back
23:45his crack 15th Panzer Division
23:47to help them.
23:50The odds did not look good.
23:55But the Free French were well dug in
23:57and determined to hold on
23:59for as long as their ammunition and supplies
24:01held out.
24:05The Axis armour was allowed to approach
24:07to point-blank range
24:09before being engaged.
24:19Every attack was repulsed.
24:33Eventually, after two weeks,
24:35with ammunition and food
24:37growing desperately short,
24:39Koenig was given permission to break out.
24:50He did so on the night
24:52of the 10th of June,
24:54bringing 2,700 of his
24:563,600 men to safety.
25:03Any doubts about the courage
25:05and determination of the Free French
25:07had been totally dispelled.
25:09They had proved themselves
25:11true gladiators.
25:20The tide of war
25:22in the deserts of North Africa
25:24finally turned in late October 1942,
25:27when General Bernard Montgomery
25:29attacked Erwin Rommel's Axis forces
25:31at El Alamein.
25:33The two Free French brigades
25:35in the British Eighth Army
25:37took part in the advance
25:39which drove the Axis forces
25:41out of Libya.
25:43As they did so,
25:45General Leclerc's force
25:47of 3,000 men,
25:49which had been operating
25:51in southern Libya
25:53for nearly two years,
25:55began to move north.
26:01After an epic 1,500-mile trek
26:03across the desert,
26:05he met Montgomery at Tripoli
26:07on the 23rd of January,
26:09the day on which the British
26:11arrived in the Libyan capital.
26:15Leclerc placed himself
26:17under Montgomery's command,
26:19and his troops joined
26:21other Free French brigades
26:23to become the first
26:25Free French division.
26:29This was soon to expand rapidly,
26:31for a major campaign
26:33had just begun in another part
26:35of France's overseas empire,
26:37which would bring fresh troops
26:39to the French.
26:47After much debate,
26:49the British and Americans
26:51had agreed that their first
26:53major joint operation
26:55would be to land
26:57in Morocco and Algeria.
26:59The aim was to clear
27:01the Axis forces
27:03out of North Africa
27:05by threatening
27:07that the French administrations
27:09in Morocco and Algeria
27:11would come over to their side
27:13without opposing the landings.
27:15So the United States
27:17took the lead in putting out
27:19Felix.
27:21It had maintained diplomatic
27:23relations with Vichy France,
27:25while Britain was still hated
27:27for sinking the French fleet.
27:29The task was given
27:31to General Mark Clark,
27:33the deputy Allied commander
27:35for Operation Torch.
27:43He was secretly landed
27:45by the submarine HMS Seraph
27:47on the Algerian coast
27:49to negotiate with General Charles Mast,
27:51the commander of Vichy forces
27:53in the Algiers area.
27:55But their discussions
27:57were inconclusive.
28:03President Roosevelt
28:05had decided that de Gaulle's
28:07increasingly abrasive behavior
28:09made him an unsuitable figure
28:11to rally the French
28:13North African territories.
28:17Instead, he chose
28:19General Henri Giraud,
28:21who had escaped from German
28:23captivity in April 1942
28:25and taken refuge in Vichy France.
28:27At a secret rendezvous,
28:29HMS Seraph picked up Giraud
28:31and brought him back to Gibraltar.
28:41There he met the Allied
28:43commander of the landings,
28:45General Dwight Eisenhower,
28:47who told him that these would take place
28:49the following day,
28:51the 8th of November.
28:56The Allies landed
28:58near Casablanca in Morocco
29:00and at the ports of Oran
29:02and Algiers in Algeria.
29:06At first, the Vichy French
29:08resisted fiercely,
29:10especially in Algiers.
29:13But the following day,
29:15Admiral Jean Dalland,
29:17the Vichy head of French
29:19Northwest Africa,
29:21agreed to a cease-fire
29:23in Algiers, but not elsewhere.
29:29So, fighting continued
29:31for two more days
29:33before Morocco and Algeria
29:35were secured.
29:38To the disgust of the Vichy French,
29:40Dalland was left in charge,
29:42even though he made it plain
29:44that he still supported PĂ©tain.
29:51He also arrested the Vichy French
29:53supporters who had tried to capture him
29:55as the Allies' leader.
29:59The Vichy French
30:01were forced to surrender
30:03to the Allied forces
30:05who had tried to capture him
30:07as the Allies landed.
30:09Nonetheless, Dalland agreed
30:11to work with Giraud,
30:13who was flown in from Gibraltar
30:15while the Allies prepared to bring
30:17the final Vichy French territory,
30:19Tunisia, onto their side.
30:25But they were now faced
30:27by large numbers of Axis troops
30:29which had been flown into Tunisia.
30:36Their loyalties divided.
30:38The Vichy French forces in the country
30:40offered no resistance at first.
30:49But as the Allies began
30:51to advance into Tunisia,
30:53troops under General Alphonse Jouin
30:55joined them and were put under
30:57First Army command
30:59as the 19th French Corps.
31:06The Vichy French
31:13The Free French fought hard
31:15during the rest of the campaign
31:17in Tunisia. Leclerc's troops
31:19in particular played a leading role
31:21in Montgomery's assault on the
31:23formidable Marath line defences
31:25in March 1943.
31:28While the military strength
31:30of the Free French was being built up,
31:32the political situation
31:34was changing dramatically.
31:36Dallon was assassinated
31:38by a young royalist on Christmas Day
31:401942.
31:43de Gaulle agreed to join Giraud
31:45in a committee of national liberation
31:47but within a few months he had
31:49regained his position as the sole
31:51leader of the Free French.
31:59When the Tunisian campaign
32:01ended in May 1943,
32:03the Allies held a victory parade
32:05in Tunis. A large contingent
32:07of the French Corps took part,
32:09proof that France was beginning
32:11to regain her pride.
32:19It was now planned that the French Corps
32:21would join in the Allied assault on Italy,
32:23but before they could do so
32:25they had to be re-equipped
32:27with modern weapons.
32:30The troops were delighted
32:32with their new American tanks
32:34and other weapons, and trained
32:36enthusiastically to take their place
32:38in the Allied line.
32:44At last, the Free French
32:46were becoming a force to be reckoned with.
32:52It was also becoming clear
32:54that the liberation of their country
32:56was no longer a distant dream.
33:00But well before the Free French
33:02forces based in North Africa
33:04set foot in Europe, a French unit
33:06was already fighting there.
33:08This was the Normandy Aviation Regiment,
33:10which was fighting with the Russians
33:12on the Eastern Front.
33:17De Gaulle was determined to give
33:19active support to the Soviet Union,
33:21and after lengthy negotiations
33:23with the British and Russian governments,
33:25an air force unit was sent via Persia
33:28and Baku.
33:30After training on the Yak-1 fighter,
33:32the regiment went into action
33:34in March 1943.
33:38In 1944, the regiment
33:40was awarded the title Neiman
33:42for its part in supporting the crossing
33:44of that river, and by the time
33:46it returned to France in June 1945,
33:48the Normandy Neiman regiment
33:50had scored 273 victories.
33:58While the Normandy Neiman
34:00was beginning its two-year campaign,
34:02the Free French forces in North Africa
34:04were organized into an 80,000-man
34:06French Expeditionary Corps
34:08under General Alphonse Juin.
34:10This deployed to Italy
34:12as part of General Mark Clark's
34:14U.S. Fifth Army in the autumn of 1943.
34:23The Expeditionary Corps was soon involved
34:25in the grim battles to force
34:27the formidable mountain defences
34:29of the Gustave Line, south of Rome.
34:39The backbone of the Corps
34:41were the Goum, irregular
34:43mountain gendarmerie units
34:45which had traditionally policed
34:47the Moroccan countryside.
34:49They were tough and ruthless,
34:51recruited from peoples who had
34:53never been to Rome, but highly
34:55respected by their French officers.
35:07The Goum's mountain warfare skills
35:09enabled the French Expeditionary Corps
35:11to unlock the Gustave Line
35:13by forcing the German positions
35:15overlooking the river Gareliana.
35:23The French then took part in the advance
35:25on Rome and the liberation
35:27of the Italian capital.
35:33But as 1944 began,
35:35all Free Frenchmen were increasingly
35:37concentrating on the ultimate objective,
35:39the liberation of France itself.
35:53The Free French Air Force in Britain
35:55was now contributing four fighter
35:57and three bomber squadrons
35:59to the Royal Air Force.
36:03Among its aces was Pierre Closterman,
36:05who had been in Brazil
36:07when the war started,
36:09but had made his way to Britain
36:11and trained as a fighter pilot.
36:15Closterman found himself
36:17in a difficult situation.
36:19He trained as a fighter pilot.
36:23Closterman first flew Spitfires
36:25with No. 341 Alsace Squadron.
36:27By the end of the war,
36:29he was commanding an RAF Tempest Squadron
36:31and flying a plane which he called
36:33Vieux Charles,
36:35an allusion to de Gaulle.
36:43He shot down 33 German planes
36:45in just two years of air fighting.
36:50Free French ships
36:52were also preparing
36:54to support the Normandy landings,
36:56their crews well hardened
36:58as a result of the long
37:00and arduous Battle of the Atlantic.
37:12On the ground,
37:14the main Free French formation in Britain
37:16was the 2nd Armoured Division
37:18commanded by General Leclerc.
37:24This had been formed in Morocco
37:26and then deployed to Britain
37:28in the autumn of 1943.
37:38Two Free French Parachute Battalions
37:40had been incorporated
37:42in the British Special Air Service.
37:45All were waiting eagerly
37:47for the moment when they could
37:49set foot once more
37:51on their native land.
37:58The only Free French troops
38:00to land in Normandy on D-Day,
38:02the 6th of June, 1944,
38:04were Commandos.
38:06They were part of the British No. 10
38:08Inter-Allied Commando
38:10led by the dashing Philippe Kieffer,
38:12one of several raids.
38:16Kieffer and his men stormed ashore
38:18side by side with their British comrades.
38:23Soon they were being greeted
38:25by their jubilant countrymen.
38:32Other Free French
38:34did drop into France
38:36as part of small Special Forces teams.
38:43Their task was to liaise
38:45with the French forces of the interior,
38:47the paramilitary resistance forces
38:49based in central France,
38:51and coordinate their operations.
38:53General Leclerc,
38:55whose journey back to France
38:57had begun over three years earlier
38:59in Chad,
39:01had to wait until late July
39:03before he and his division
39:05crossed to France.
39:13His American allies realised
39:15how much it meant to him
39:17to set foot on French soil
39:19after so long.
39:21Leclerc's division
39:23joined General George S. Patton's
39:25U.S. Third Army,
39:27which was poised to break out
39:29from Normandy.
39:31Calvados, the local apple brandy,
39:33spurred Leclerc and his men
39:35on their way,
39:37racing south and then east
39:39across France.
39:43Their ultimate objective
39:45was the French capital.
39:57The leading elements
39:59of 2nd Armoured Division
40:01reached Paris late on the evening
40:03of the 23rd of August.
40:13.
40:20Amid the wild excitement,
40:22Leclerc was able to briefly slip away
40:24and speak to his father on the telephone
40:26for the first time in over four years.
40:30But then it was back to business.
40:38For the French forces of the interior
40:40had risen against the German garrison
40:42in Paris.
40:45Bloody street battles were raging
40:47and there was a danger that complete anarchy
40:49might take over.
40:51.
41:09Early on the 24th,
41:11as the fighting in the streets continued,
41:13Leclerc reached the centre of Paris.
41:22.
41:24He took the surrender
41:26of the German garrison commander,
41:28General von Choltitz.
41:33Many of his garrison
41:35also surrendered,
41:37but other Germans fought on.
41:47On the following day
41:49came the climax of the liberation of Paris.
41:52Charles de Gaulle
41:54visited the Arc de Triomphe
41:56to mark the culmination of his struggle
41:58to restore France's honour.
42:02His triumphant walk down the Champs-Élysées
42:04was punctuated by gun battles
42:06with die-hard Nazis.
42:20But de Gaulle was not to be denied his moment.
42:23For not only had Leclerc's troops
42:25led the liberation of Paris,
42:27but ten days earlier the Free French
42:29had been involved far to the south
42:31in the other great assault
42:33to liberate their country.
42:39Allied forces had landed in the south of France
42:41on the 15th of August.
42:43They included Alphonse Jouin's
42:45French expeditionary corps,
42:47after its campaign in Italy.
42:51This was now part of the French First Army,
42:53under General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny,
42:56who had fought as commander
42:58of an infantry regiment in 1940
43:00and had then commanded Vichy divisions
43:02in Tunisia and southern France.
43:08When German forces occupied southern France
43:10in November 1942,
43:12after Operation Torch,
43:14de Lattre attempted to follow his orders
43:16and resist them.
43:18This resulted in a ten-year prison sentence
43:20from the Vichy regime,
43:22but he managed to escape across the Mediterranean
43:24to Algeria.
43:31De Lattre's first task
43:33was the liberation of the ports of Toulon
43:35and Marseille.
43:38His men rapidly cleared the Germans
43:40from both places
43:42to the delight of the local population.
43:54After this, de Lattre's army
43:56joined the U.S. Sixth Army
43:58in the advance up the RhĂ´ne valley.
44:00This culminated in the liberation
44:02of the port of Toulon
44:04and the liberation of Marseille.
44:07The liberation of Lyon on the 3rd of September.
44:20After bringing Leclerc under his command
44:22and absorbing elements of the forces
44:24of the interior,
44:26de Lattre advanced into the Vosges region
44:28just north of the Swiss border.
44:32The French then fought a grim battle
44:34to eliminate the German forces around Colmar.
44:36The last obstacle
44:38barring their approach to the river Rhine.
44:56Not until early February 1945
44:58was the way to Germany's last
45:00natural obstacle in the West cleared.
45:03In the final headlong advance
45:05into Germany,
45:07the French cleared the Black Forest
45:09and finished their war at Hitler's Alpine retreat,
45:11Berchtesgaden,
45:13now reduced to rubble by Allied bombers.
45:21But the crowning moment
45:23for the free French
45:25came with the formal German surrenders
45:27at Reims and in Berlin.
45:29French representatives proudly
45:31took their places at the table
45:33of the British and Soviet Allies.
45:46De Lattre was a signatory
45:48of the Berlin surrender.
45:55Thereafter, the French were given
45:57their sectors of both Berlin
45:59and Western Germany to govern.
46:01France had regained her self-respect
46:03and was once more
46:05a major power.
46:13None of this would have been possible
46:15without the determination
46:17and vision of Charles de Gaulle
46:19and the few thousand Frenchmen
46:21who refused to accept their country's defeat.
46:25Their war had taken them from Britain
46:27through Central and North Africa,
46:29Italy and Northwest Europe.
46:37It had been a long, hard road.
47:00Outcasts from their own land,
47:02these gladiators had kept the faith
47:04and eventually triumphed.
47:59© BF-WATCH TV 2021