Free France only about 7,000 soldiers had joined the Free French Army in England. Three-quarters of French servicemen in Britain requested repatriation. France was bitterly divided by the conflict. Frenchmen everywhere were forced to choose sides, and often deeply resented those who had made a different choice. One French admiral, René-Émile Godfroy, voiced the opinion of many of those who decided not to join the Free French forces, when in June 1940, he explained to the exasperated British why he would not order his ships from their Alexandria harbour to join de Gaulle: Equally, few Frenchmen believed that England could stand alone.
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