Military history of France during World War II the end of the war in Europe (May 1945), the Free French forces comprised 1,250,000, including seven infantry and three armoured divisions fighting in Germany. Other Free French units were directly attached to Allied forces including the British SAS, RAF and the Soviet air force. The "Forces Expéditionnaires Françaises d'Extrême-Orient" (FEFEO) was a French expeditionary corps created on 4 October 1943 to fight in the Asian theatre of World War II and liberate French Indochina which was still occupied by the Japanese since 1940. Recruiting posters of the FEFEO depicted a US-built M4 Sherman tank of general Leclerc's Free French
Tanks of the U.S. in the World Wars late 1942, Stuart units still formed a large part of its armor strength. After the disastrous Battle of the Kasserine Pass the US quickly disbanding most of their light tank battalions and subordinating the Stuarts to medium tank battalions performing the traditional cavalry missions of scouting and screening. For the rest of the war, most US tank battalions had three companies of M4 Shermans and one company of M3s or M5/M5A1s. In the European theater, Allied light tanks had to be given cavalry and infantry fire support roles since their main cannon armament could not compete with heavier enemy AFVs.