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Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle [a] [b] (22 November 1890 – 9 November 1970) was a French general 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.
Name (Birth–Death) Term of office; Electoral mandates Time in office Political party 18 Charles de Gaulle [25] (1890–1970) 8 January 1959 28 April 1969 10 years, 110 days Union for the New Republic (renamed Union of Democrats for the Fifth Republic in 1967) 1958, 1965: Leader of the Free French Forces, 1940–1944.
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'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.
The French Committee of National Liberation (French: Comité français de Libération nationale [kɔmite fʁɑ̃sɛ d(ə) libeʁɑsjɔ̃ nɑsjɔnal]) was a provisional government of Free France formed by the French generals Henri Giraud and Charles de Gaulle to provide united leadership, organize and coordinate the campaign to liberate France from Nazi Germany during World War II.
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.
The Order of Liberation was established by General de Gaulle in order n° 7, signed on 16 November 1940 in Brazzaville, the capital of France Libre from 1940 to 1943. The object of the Order was to "reward people, of the military or civilian communities, who will have distinguished themselves in the task of liberating France and her Empire".