Call of June 18: Who was De Gaulle? - 20 Minutes

80 years ago, General de Gaulle called for resistance from London on the BBC microphone, in response to the request to negotiate an armistice with the Germans of Marshal Pétain. But who was this stranger who organized the Free French Forces during the Second World War? 20 Minutes explains in pictures the route of the general version 39-45.

Born in Lille on November 22, 1890, little Charles quickly grew up. As a young man, he joined the military school at Saint-Cyr, which trains army officers. When he left in 1912, he chose infantry. During the First World War, he was wounded and taken prisoner. He will try to escape four times. Already a well-tempered character, the great Charles! He became colonel in 1937 then general in May 1940. We don't waste time with the de Gaulle family.

The appeal of June 18, 1940

When he learned, on June 16, 1940, that France, led by Marshal Pétain, was preparing to request an armistice with the Nazis, Charles de Gaulle left for England with the idea of ​​continuing the fight. On June 18, he launched the call live on the BBC: "The flame of French resistance must not be extinguished and will not be extinguished". The British and the Americans being at first very suspicious about the wishes of Charles de Gaulle, the general however obtains the support of the English Prime Minister, Winston Churchill. He sees in Charles de Gaulle's love for France, his own love for him in the United Kingdom.

The head of free France

Charles de Gaulle organized the Free French Forces and took over as head of the Provisional Government of the French Republic, while Marshal Pétain established the collaborationist Vichy regime in France. From London, he asked Jean Moulin to achieve the union of resistance movements in France. The war ended, in 1945, he took the head of the government which will put in place many measures from the National Council of the Resistance (nationalization, health insurance, women's vote). In 1946, he resigned from his post after a disagreement, however, considering that he had fulfilled the mission he had set for himself on June 18, 1940. He began crossing the desert until his "comeback" in 1958 .

  • Second World War
  • History
  • Charles de Gaulle
  • France