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
1940 Bow and Bromley by-election 1940 Bow and Bromley by-election The Bow and Bromley by-election, 1940, was a parliamentary by-election held on 12 June 1940 for the British House of Commons constituency of Bow and Bromley in the Metropolitan Borough of Poplar in the East End of London. The seat became vacant when the constituency's Labour member of Parliament (MP), George Lansbury, died on 7 May 1940, aged 81. A leader of the Labour Party, he had held the seat since the 1922 general election, and previously from 1910 to 1912. During World War II, the political parties in the coalition government agreed not to