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 Belgians were also undergoing flight training in France and, despite the reluctance of the Belgian government in Bordeaux, 124 reached Britain by August 1940 but few were able to participate in the Battle of Britain. As of December 2014, the RAF officially recognizes 30 Belgians as having participated in the Battle of Britain (of whom 18 did not survive the war) although the Battle of Britain monument (constructed in 2005) includes 28. At the time of the battle, Belgian pilots were mixed into British units and did not have their own squadrons. By the summer of 1940, Belgians made up