British Army during the Napoleonic Wars led to the Battle of Trafalgar, a French fleet carrying 6,500 troops briefly captured Dominica and other islands but subsequently withdrew. In 1808, once the British were allied to Portugal and Spain, they were able to concentrate their forces and capture the French possessions one by one; Cayenne and Martinique in 1809, and Guadeloupe in 1810. Haiti was left to the insurgent armies. In 1805 news arrived in London that Napoleon had broken up his invasion camp at Boulogne, and was marching across Germany. The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom William Pitt immediately equipped an army of 15,000 men,
Free French Naval Forces 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. To distinguish the FNFL from the Vichist forces, Vice-Admiral Émile Muselier created the bow flag displaying the French colours with a red Cross of Lorraine, and a cocarde 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