Under General de Gaulle’s direction, while municipal, departmental and legislative elections were being held, numerous economic and social reforms were carried out. He also went to Moscow in December 1944 and signed a pact of alliance and mutual assistance with Stalin. The constituent Assembly elected in November 1944 confirmed him as head of the Provisional Government and unanimously voted him full powers to form a Government.ĭuring this period, General de Gaulle made two official visits to the United States (July 1944 and August 1945). This was a prelude to the reception he was to be given on Autust 25 by Paris, liberated by the Resistance with the help of General Leclerc’s Second Armored Division. On June 6, 1944, the Allies landed in Normandy, and on June 14 General de Gaulle made a triumphar entry into Bayeux. Lastly, at the Brazzaville Conference in 1944, de Gaulle laid the foundations of the future Community. In France, resistance movements were organized under the National Resistance Council, which gave its support to General de Gaulle. After the liberation of North Africa in the first few months of 1943, he set up at Algiers, on June 3, a Committee of National Liberation which, one year later, became the "Provisional Government of the French Republic," assisted by a Provisional Consultative Assembly. In June 1942, the heroic resistance of the First Brigade of the Free French Forces at Bir Hakeim reminded the world that France was still fighting. One by one the French Overseas Territories rallied to General de Gaulle and, in December 1940, he created the Free French Movement. On June 17, 1940, General de Gaulle flew to London and the following day, on the BBC, launched his "Appeal of June 18": "France has lost a battle, but France has not lost the war". The Reynaud Government, which had been transferred to Bordeaux, resigned. In this capacity, he made several trips to Great Britain to confer with Sir Winston Churchill. On June 6, he was urgently summoned to Paris to take up the post of Under Secretary of State for National Defense and War in the Cabinet of Paul Reynaud. At the age of 49, he was the youngest general in the French Army. Following this action, he was promoted to the rank of acting brigadier general. War broke out again in 1939, and Colonel de Gaulle was given command of the Fourth Armored Division five days after the invasion of Belgium and Holland and repulsed a German attack at Laon on May 17. Promoted to colonel in 1937, he took command of a tank regiment stationed at Metz. Between the two World Wars, he also published a number of books and articles on the subject, particularly Vers l’Armée de Métier (The Army of the Future), in which he announced the birth of a new type of mechanized military force.īetween 19, he was promoted successively to major and lieutenant-colonel and was posted to the staff of the Levant Forces in Beirut, where he acquired a knowledge of the Moslem countries that was to be of great value to him. He began to become known in military circles for his theories on the reorganization of the army. On leaving the War College in 1924, he was assigned to the staff of the Army of the Rhine and later attached to the Supreme War Council. On Aphe married Mademoiselle Yvonne Vendroux. Cyr Military Academy to teach military history. Liberated by the Armistice of November 11, 1918, he accompanied General Weygand on a mission to Poland and was subsequently posted to St. He was finally sent to a reprisal camp, where he stayed until the end of the war. After being taken prisoner, he made five attempts at escape, but was recaptured each time. He was twice wounded before being promoted to captain in September 1915. War broke out in 1914 qnd Lieutenant de Gaulle distinguished himself in the earliest battles. Cyr Military Academy at the age of eighteen, Charles de Gaulle graduated high in his class in 1912 as a second lieutenant in the 33rd Infantry Regiment His father, a professor of literature and history, "a hardworking man imbued with a feeling for the dignity of France," communicated his love of country to his five children.Įntering St. French Culture and Education in the U.S.Ĭharles André Marie Joseph de Gaulle was born in Lille on November 22, 1890.
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