. On 17 June 1940, five days before the signing of the
Franco-German Armistice, the first exodus of 10 airmen took flight from
Bordeaux-Mérignac Airport to England. Others rallied to General
Charles de Gaulle from
France and
French North Africa between June 1940 and November 1942. A contingent of volunteers from South American countries such as
Uruguay,
Argentina and
Chile was also created, as Free French officials recruited there personally. From a strength of 500 in July 1940, the ranks of the FAFL grew to 900 by 1941, including 200 flyers. A total of 276 of these flyers were stationed in
England, and 604 were stationed in overseas theaters of operation. In the summer of 1940 General de Gaulle named then-Colonel
Martial Henri Valin as commander-in-chief of the FAFL. Valin was at the French military mission in
Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil at the time of his appointment and he had to complete his assignment there by February 1941. It took him 45 days to get to London to see de Gaulle and it was not until 9 July that Valin formally took office, taking over from the caretaker commander, Admiral
Emile Muselier. was the symbol adopted for the Free French forces during
World War II and
West Africa between 1940 and 1943 bore this design of the cross. All FAFL aircraft were identified differently from those of the Vichy French air force, which continued to use the pre-war
tricolor roundel. In order to distinguish their allegiance from that of Vichy France, the
Cross of Lorraine - a cross with two parallel horizontal arms, with the lower arm slightly longer than the upper one - was the symbol of Free France chosen by Charles de Gaulle. The cross could be seen in the same places on FAFL aircraft where the
roundels had been on all French military aircraft, that is, on the fuselage and upper and lower surfaces of the wings. The FAFL was formed with one “mixed” unit at
RAF Odiham on August 29, 1940, under the command of
Commandant (Major)
Lionel de Marmier. One of its first jobs was to try to persuade the governors-general of colonies in
French West Africa to not submit to the orders of the
Vichy government, and instead join the Free French in their fight against the
Axis powers.
Operation Menace was an Allied plan to either persuade
Dakar to join the Allied cause, or capture it by force. De Gaulle believed this was possible. Among the units taking part was the newly formed FAFL
Groupe de Combat Mixte (GMC) 1, code-named "Jam", consisting of four squadrons composed of
Bristol Blenheim bombers and
Westland Lysander liaison/observation aircraft. The
Battle of Dakar was a failure, however. The port remained in Vichy hands, the FAFL envoys were arrested and imprisoned at Dakar by the Vichy authorities, and de Gaulle's standing was damaged. However, French forces in Cameroon and Chad in
French Equatorial Africa, rallied to the Gaullist cause. Three detachments of French air force units based at Fort-Lamy (now
N’Djamena in Chad),
Douala in Cameroon, and
Pointe-Noire in the
Congo, operating a mixed bag of
Potez and
Bloch aircraft, which became part of the FAFL. But
Gabon remained loyal to Vichy, so, in mid- to late October 1940, FAFL squadrons set out on photo-reconnaissance and leaflet-dropping missions. The first combat between Vichy and the FAFL took place on 6 November 1940, when two Vichy air force aircraft took on two FAFL Lysanders near
Libreville. Both aircraft sustained damage but made it back to base. Two days later, the first FAFL airmen were shot down and taken prisoner. Two days after that, Libreville was taken by Free French army troops, so the FAFL aircraft could now operate from the air base that had been used by their opponents a few days before. The French considered the fighting a “civil war” that
Free France was winning, since now Libreville had joined the Gaullist cause. This would be the only time when opposing factions within FEA territory would fight each other openly.
Philippe de Hauteclocque, better known by his French resistance name of "Leclerc", later became one of the most famous French army generals in history, and had strong ambitions in North Africa. But he often revealed a complete lack of understanding of what the air force could actually do. When he wanted to bomb the Italian-held airfield at
Koufra in
Libya, he was told, matter-of-factly, that the squadrons could not carry out such a major mission, especially given their lack of experience in navigating over vast desert territory. Leclerc's reaction, based on his fury at the lack of air support during the German invasion of France, was ugly, and relations between him and the FAFL deteriorated rapidly. A mission carried out by the recently formed
Groupe de Bombardement (GRB) 1 (
Lorraine), 1941, ended disastrously on February 4, 1942, when, out of four Blenheims sent to bomb Koufra, only a single one returned – and, even then, it was because of engine trouble. (One of the other three planes wasn't found until 1959.) On February 27, the Free French took Koufra airfield, and the enemy garrison surrendered two days later. Leclerc, for his part, still regarded aviation as a kind of appendage, of such minor importance that it might as well not be there to support the ground forces at all. Following the
Fall of France in 1940, there were French airmen who were determined to continue the fight against Nazi Germany. Some joined the RAF, whereas others joined the FAFL. Those who joined the RAF were fighting in the armed forces of a foreign nation, and technically breaking French civil law. They could have been considered
mercenaries or
filibusters, or charged with
desertion in a court martial. On 15 April 1941, de Gaulle issued a formal declaration, requesting that French nationals in the RAF were to apply to be reincorporated in the FAFL by the 25th of April 1941. Any personnel making the transfer would be exempted from any wrongdoing. Not all French personnel complied with this ruling. Some that had left Syria and Lebanon had specifically done so to join the RAF, and opposed de Gaulle. The RAF considered granting British citizenship to these men, so as not to alienate them. Whilst the FAFL certainly had a number of aircrew (several of whom had flown to the allies), it was weakened by its lack of ground crew, and a lack of spare parts for their French-built machines. While the aircrew of GRB 1 were all French, the ground crew were initially British airmen. The arrival in the Middle East of the former
Aéronavale ground crew from Tahiti in July 1941 was seen as a boost to the FAFL's maintenance personnel. The
Groupe Bretagne was formed on 1 January 1942, with certain objectives in mind: U.S.-built Maryland aircraft would carry out long-range reconnaissance missions, the Lysanders close-support missions and the Potez liaison and transport missions. Yet it was not until March 3 that the first operational missions were carried out from Uigh el-Kébir, which had only been captured the previous day. The very next day, however, a Lysander crashed on landing, injuring its pilot, who had to be evacuated to hospital. On March 7, the FAFL had some success when some Lysanders successfully destroyed three enemy aircraft on the ground at Um el-Aranel; one of them was chased by an Italian fighter plane, but it managed to get back to base, albeit sustaining considerable damage. reviews Free French Air Forces' airmen during Bastille Day parade at
Wellington Barracks, 14 July 1942 For most of 1942, the
Groupe Bretagne concentrated mostly on liaison and training flights, yet, in late autumn, Leclerc wanted to count on the FAFL to support ground offensives against the Italians in the wake of the victory of the British 8th Army against the Afrika Korps at the
Second Battle of El Alamein and the Anglo-American invasion of
Morocco during
Operation Torch. However, lack of co-operation between Leclerc's general staff based at Algiers and the Allies seemed to indicate a power struggle between him and de Gaulle since the latter was in charge of the Free French forces in London. Though FAFL airplanes from the “Rennes” squadron of the
Groupe Bretagne did engage Italian forces towards the end of 1942 and the beginning of 1943, problems with both weapons and the aircraft themselves (mostly engine trouble resulting in forced-landings) dogged the efforts of the aircrews. January 23, 1943, witnessed the fall of
Tripoli – and the end of the air war for the
Groupe. The Anglo-American landing in North Africa in November 1942 was the starting point for the rebirth of the French Air Force, thanks to the commitment by U.S. President
Franklin D. Roosevelt, of 1,000 planes, and the French began to receive U.S.-built aircraft to replenish its squadrons. GCII/5 was the first unit organized, at first consisting of a single squadron of
P-40 Tomahawk fighters acquired from the
United States Army Air Forces, because of its ties to the
Lafayette Escadrille in World War I. Operating from a forward base at
Thelepte, Tunisia, the two squadrons of GCII/5 fought alongside American units in clearing North Africa of Axis forces in 1943. On July 1, 1943, the
Algiers-based ''Armée de l'Air'' general staff (which received its orders from de Gaulle and General
Giraud) and the FAFL general staff were merged and placed under the command of General Bouscat. He conducted the reorganization of the French Air Force, incorporating all elements coming from the ex-Vichy French Army in North Africa and the FAFL. Those forces included about twenty various Groups equipped mainly with Dewoitine D.520s, LeO 45s,
Glenn Martin bombers, Bloch MB.175 reconnaissance aircraft, and an assortment of Amiots, Farmans, and Potez 540 transport aircraft. ==One squadron, two identities: GC 2/7 (No.326 “Nice” Squadron) (1943–1945)==