Escadron de Chasse 2/30 Normandie-Niemen Air Base (BA 118). During the rallying of général Charles de Gaulle through the Appeal of 18 June 1940 inviting Frenchmen to join him in London, some went on to Great-Britain in order to continue the fight with the Allies. Great-Britain became the most important « Free French military base and rallying point. Following the rupture of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact by Operation Barbarossa on June 22, 1941, representatives of Vichy were declared as Persona non grata by the Soviet Authorities and were asked to return to France. Colonel Charles Luguet, the air attaché of the Vichy Government in Moscow, changed
Non-British personnel in the RAF during the Battle of Britain aircraft and was himself shot down on two occasions. He enjoyed a successful career in the RAF after 1940, retiring as an Air Commodore in 1973. He died in 2014. Following the German invasion of Poland, many Polish pilots escaped and made their way to France and Britain. During the German invasion of France in May 1940, of the 1,600 Polish pilots available to the "Armée de l'Air" it is estimated that only about 150 took an active part in combat. This was mostly due to the fact that the French By June 1940, the Poles had over 85,000 men