Appeal of 18 June as the beginning of the Resistance and Free French, historians have shown that the appeal was heard only by a minority of French people. De Gaulle's 22 June 1940 speech on the BBC was more widely heard. General de Gaulle became the "de facto" leader of the Free French Forces that had escaped to London in June 1940. Marshal Philippe Pétain, a hero of World War I, pledged to sign an armistice with Nazi Germany, and led the collaborating Vichy government while the Germans occupied the country's northern portion and several leading politicians, including Georges Mandel, Leon Blum, Pierre Mendès
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