Free France Free France Free France and its Free French Forces (French: "France Libre" and "Forces françaises libres") were the government-in-exile led by Charles de Gaulle during the Second World War and its military forces, that continued to fight against the Axis powers as one of the Allies after the fall of France. Set up in London in June 1940, it organised and supported the Resistance in occupied France. Charles de Gaulle, a French government minister who rejected the armistice concluded by Marshal Philippe Pétain and who had escaped to Britain, exhorted the French to resist in his BBC broadcast "Appeal of
Free Belgian forces (older) officers to other ranks. Since the Belgian military had officially surrendered in May 1940 and the Belgian Constitution specifically forbade Belgians from joining foreign militaries, the Free Belgian forces were officially committing treason; the charge was only annulled in 1948 and nobody was prosecuted. Despite the formation of all-Belgian ground units from late 1940, many Belgian volunteers – especially those in the Royal Air Force – served in majority British units, particularly in the early years after the formation of the Free Belgian forces. In 1940, the Belgian government-in-exile decided to raise a military unit from pre-war Belgian émigrés