Free French Forces

The armed French resistance movement led by General Charles de Gaulle following the Nazi occupation of France. On June 16, 1940, the government of France was constitutionally transmitted to the collaborationist Vichy regime of Marshal Philippe Pétain, who agreed to an armistice with Germany. General de Gaulle, who had fled to England, was recognized by the British as the leader of Free France on June 28, 1940. French soldiers and civilians in France and in exile abroad, as well as in French colonial territories in Africa, began underground resistance operations to continue the fight against Germany.

Free French Forces, or Forces Françaises Libres, remained a small underground force for two years, loosely organized under the banner of the Résistance. But by 1943 more than 100,000 Free French troops fought in the Allies' campaign in Italy, and by the time of the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944, Free French forces had grown to more than 300,000 troops. In August 1944 they mounted an anti-German insurrection in Paris, and the Free French 2nd Armored Division marched into the city to bring an official end to the Nazi occupation.