Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

The French resistance movement can be said to have begun on June 18, 1940 with Charles de Gaulle's appeal to Frenchmen everywhere to continue the struggle against Nazi Germany . De Gaulle had been one of the few French military commanders to have success against the invading blitzkrieg (“lightning”) strategy. Promoted to brigadier general on June 1, 1940, he was later appointed under-secretary of state for national defense. With the French army collapsing, however, he had to flee in exile and issue his appeal for resistance from London. Initial French resistance to the Nazi occupation was limited. While de Gaulle established a Free French movement in the French colonies with the backing of the British, most notably in French Equatorial Africa, resistance at first had little support in France itself. The overwhelming defeat of the French army in May-June of 1940 had deeply shocked and demoralized the French. Hitler also allowed a Zone Libre in the southern part of France, where a collaborationist French state was established under Marshal Philippe Pétain at Vichy. Pétain's authoritarian government was popular, at least initially, with conservative and reactionary groups in France. Resistance was made more difficult by the ill-considered British attack on the French fleet at Mers-el-Kebir in July of 1940. This attempt to prevent the French navy from falling into German hands, along ... log in or subscribe to read full text