Charles Andre Joseph Marie de Gaulle (more commonly referred to as Charles de Gaulle) is famed for being the leader of the Free French Resistance to Nazi-occupied France during WWII.
De Gaulle had wanted to join the military from a young age, and, after completing his military education at Saint-Cyr academy, he joined the infantry. While in the infantry, de Gaulle's lieutenant was Philippe Petain, a man who de Gaulle would repeatedly encounter throughout his life.
De Gaulle fought in WWI, and was captured by the Germans at the Battle of Verdun. He learned much from his experience in WWI, and wrote many books about the French military after the wars end. In one of his books, de Gaulle outlined the weaknesses of the French military in the hopes that they would be changed, but the French government paid little attention to his book. Ironically, Germans did pay attention to the book, following some of his recommendations as they geared up for WWII.
During WWII, France was occupied by the Nazi's, and the puppet Vichy France was installed in 1940 with no other than Philippe Petain as the French leader. De Gaulle, however, refused to recognize Petain's government, so he fled to Britain where he tried to further French resistance. From London, de Gaulle made a radio announcement asking the French people to resist against the Vichy government.
That same year, de Gaulle was recognized by the British as the leader of the Free France resistance movement. De Gaulle successfully united other resistance movements to create a shadow government that helped to defeat the Germans.
After WWII, de Gaulle took on a very politcally active life, notably serving as president of France, until his resignation from the presidency in 1969. De Gaulle is largely regarded as a French hero, and has been memorialized (the Paris airport bears his name, among other things).
Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Free-French
https://www.biography.com/people/charles-de-gaulle-9269794
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-de-Gaulle-president-of-France
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/britain-recognizes-general-charles-de-gaulle-as-the-leader-of-the-free-french
Image:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Second_World_War_Personalities-_Charles_De_Gaulle_D1966.jpg
Anya, I really liked your post about Charles de Gualle. After reading your post I still had some questions about the french resistance and de Gualles role because I remembered that he was given the honor of capturing Paris. Using the source https://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=153 I found that the french resistance was composed of violent militia groups who killed Germans and others who helped the war in a non-violent way. An example was saboteurs who destroyed 300 tons of tires at a plant. Charles de Gualle inspired them with the radio message you mentioned. The liberation of Paris occurred when British and Americans both wanted honor of freeing Paris so decided to give it to the French. The French Forces of the Interior, with help from the others, advanced on Paris and de Gualle declared himself head of the new Provisional Government.
ReplyDelete