French Government-in-Exile

As a senior army officer in 1940, Charles de Gaulle refused to accept France’s capitulation to Germany and fled to London, where he set up the Frence Government-in-Exile, the Free French. He exhorted French soldiers and citizens to join the resistance and to continue the struggle against the Nazis. With the liberation of Paris in 1944, de Gaulle returned home and soon was named president of the newly created provisional government.