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Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle [a] [b] (22 November 1890 – 9 November 1970) was a French military officer and statesman who led the Free French Forces against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Republic from 1944 to 1946 to restore democracy in France.
Henri Philippe Bénoni Omer Joseph Pétain (24 April 1856 – 23 July 1951), better known as Philippe Pétain (French: [filip petɛ̃]) and Marshal Pétain (French: Maréchal Pétain), was a French general who commanded the French Army in World War I and later became the head of the collaborationist regime of Vichy France, from 1940 to 1944 ...
France had lots of armed forces in World War II, in part due to the German occupation. In 1940, General Maurice Gamelin commanded the French Army, headquartered in Vincennes on the outskirts of Paris. It consisted of 117 divisions, with 94 committed to the northeastern front and a commander, General Alphonse Georges, at La Ferte-sous-Jouarre.
Charles de Gaulle and Charles Mast saluting to the French national anthem in Tunis, Tunisia (1943). At the outbreak of World War II, Charles de Gaulle was put in charge of the French Fifth Army's tanks (five scattered battalions, largely equipped with R35 light tanks) in Alsace, and on 12 September 1939, he attacked at Bitche, simultaneously with the Saar Offensive.
Vichy France (French: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State (État français), was a French puppet and rump state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. It was named after its seat of government, the city of Vichy.
France's colonial empire at the start of World War II stretched from territories and possessions in Africa, the Middle East (Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon), to ports in India, Indochina, the Pacific islands, and territories in North and South America. France retained control of its colonial empire, and the terms of the armistice shifted the ...
In World War II, he at first fought against and later collaborated with the Germans by leading the government of Vichy France. Louis Franchet d'Espèrey: 1856–1942 French Known as ‘Desperate Frankie’ by the British, d'Espèrey led the famous Vardar Offensive of 1918 that captured much of the Balkans and knocked Bulgaria out of the war.
Leader of the Free French Forces, 1940–1944. President of the Provisional Government, 1944–1946. Appointed President of the Council by René Coty in May 1958, to resolve the crisis of the Algerian War. Supported by referendum, he adopted a new Constitution of France, thus founding the Fifth Republic.