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
Resistance in the German-occupied Channel Islands had abandoned the Islands and declared them neutral territory in June 1940. King George VI and Queen Elizabeth made a special visit to the Islands on 7 June 1945. Early on in the war, Islanders were given a salutary lesson in resistance. On 28 June 1940 German Heinkel bombers from Cherbourg made an armed reconnaissance, they bombed and strafed the harbours of Saint Peter Port and Saint Helier killing 38 and wounding 45 civilians. On 13 December 1940, sixteen young Frenchmen, soldiers on probation, set out in a boat from occupied Brittany with the intention of joining the Free French