in June 1942 In the wake of the
Armistice and the
Appeal of 18 June,
Charles de Gaulle founded the
Free French Forces (
Forces Françaises Libres, or FFL), including a naval arm, the "Free French Naval Forces" (
Les Forces Navales Françaises Libres, or FNFL). On 24 June 1940, de Gaulle made a separate broadcast specifically to French servicemen overseas, calling for them to join him; two days later the submarine
Narval entered Malta and its crew pledged their allegiance to the FFL. On 30 June, de Gaulle was joined by Vice-Admiral
Émile Muselier, who had come from
Gibraltar by
flying boat. Muselier was the only flag officer of the French Navy to answer the call of de Gaulle. The French fleet was widely dispersed. Some vessels were in port in France; others had escaped from France to British controlled ports, mainly in Britain itself or
Alexandria in Egypt. As part of the first stage of the British effort to capture or neutralise the vessels of the
French Navy, codenamed
Operation Catapult, the ships in the British ports of
Plymouth and
Portsmouth were simply boarded on the night of 3 July 1940. The crew of the then-largest
submarine in the world, , which had sought refuge in Portsmouth in June 1940 following the German invasion of France, resisted the British operation. In capturing the submarine, two British officers and one French sailor were killed. Other ships were the two obsolete
battleships and ; the
destroyers and ; eight
torpedo boats; five submarines (including and ) and a number of other smaller vessels. Some 3,600 sailors operating 50 ships around the world joined with the
Royal Navy and formed the nucleus of the Free French Naval Forces. France's surrender found her only aircraft carrier, , en route from the United States loaded with a precious cargo of American fighter and bomber aircraft. Unwilling to return to occupied France, but likewise reluctant to join de Gaulle,
Béarn instead sought harbour in
Martinique, her crew showing little inclination to side with the British in their continued fight against the Nazis. Already obsolete at the start of the war, she would remain in Martinique for the next four years, her and her aircraft deteriorating in the tropical climate. As early as the summer of 1940, the submarines
Minerve and
Junon, as well as four
avisos, departed from Plymouth. Towards the end of 1940, the destroyers
Le Triomphant and
Léopard followed.
Le Triomphant sailed for
New Caledonia and spent the rest of the war based there and in Australia. The ship saw action in both the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Civilian vessels and crew also rallied to de Gaulle, starting with four cargo ships in Gibraltar - they would be the beginning of the merchant fleet of the FNFL. To distinguish the FNFL from the forces of
Vichy France (which was collaborating with Nazi Germany), Vice-Admiral Émile Muselier created a
bow flag displaying the French colours with a red
Cross of Lorraine, and a
roundel also featuring the Cross of Lorraine for aircraft of the
Free French Naval Air Service (
Aéronavale Française Libre) and the
Free French Air Force (
Forces Aériennes Françaises Libres). A number of ships were leased from the British to compensate for the lack of warships in the FNFL, among them, the and the . The FNFL suffered their first loss when the patrol boat hit a
mine and sank on 7 November 1940 off Plymouth.
Africa Soon after the fall of France, Free France was but a government in exile based in England, with no land of its own to speak of and very few land or sea forces. In an attempt to establish his authority on an important French territory, General de Gaulle attempted to rally
French West Africa by personally sailing to
Dakar with a British fleet which included a few Free French units; at the same time, a
cruiser force had been sent by Vichy France to reclaim African territories which had already announced their support of de Gaulle (notably
Chad). The resulting
Battle of Dakar ended in a Vichyite victory. However, after the occupation of Vichy France by the Germans after the
Allied invasion of North Africa in November 1942, French West Africa also eventually joined the Free French. As a result, important ships based in Dakar were obtained: the modern battleship ; the
heavy cruiser ;
light cruisers , and ; and a few destroyers, including cruiser-sized s.
Role in the French Resistance Captain
Henri Honoré d'Estienne d'Orves answered the call to join de Gaulle and arrived in London on September 1940. Unable to obtain a sea command, he asked to join the
French Resistance and was landed in Western France to organise a Resistance network. Betrayed and arrested by the
Gestapo in January 1941, d'Estienne d'Orves became an inspiring symbol after he was tortured and executed.
D-Day: Operation Neptune In the summer of 1944, the
Invasion of Normandy took place. The FNFL took part in both the naval side of the operations,
Operation Neptune, and the landing itself, with the Naval Commandos (
Commandos Marine) of Captain
Philippe Kieffer climbing cliffs under fire to destroy German shore batteries. Several ships of the FNFL were deployed off the landing sites : •
Utah Beach: corvettes
Aconit and •
Omaha Beach: cruisers
Georges Leygues and
Montcalm; frigates and ; and corvette •
Gold Beach: corvette •
Juno Beach: frigate ; corvette ; and torpedo boat
La Combattante In addition the obsolete battleship
Courbet was
scuttled off
Arromanches to serve as a breakwater for a
Mulberry harbour. The cruisers
Georges Leygues and
Montcalm, along with the battleship provided fire support for the infantry until 10 June.
La Combattante silenced German
coastal artillery deployed at
Courseulles. The next day, she started patrolling the
English Channel. On 14 July, she ferried General Charles de Gaulle to France.
Pacific War Le Triomphant, under the command of
Philippe Auboyneau was transferred to the
Pacific theatre of the war, where in February 1942 it took part in the evacuation of European and Chinese civilians and military personnel from
Nauru and
Ocean Island in anticipation of Japanese invasions
of Nauru and
the Gilbert Islands.
Triomphant was later stationed along the east coast of Australia, where in early 1943 it was involved in the rescue of survivors from , which was sunk by a
torpedo launched by the . After the rescue,
Triomphant then searched for
I-21 for a day, but without success. From 1944, the battleship
Richelieu and destroyer leaders
Le Terrible and
Le Fantasque operated with the British
Eastern Fleet in combat operations against Japan, and later took part in
Operation Tiderace, the takeover of Singapore a month after the end of the war, during which
Richelieu was damaged by a mine. == Technical innovations ==