Reprinting of commemorative pamphlet: 70th ANNIVERSARY OF DE GAULLE'S 'APPEL'
Date: 14 June 2010
On 18 June 1940, as the French government prepared to sign an armistice with the Nazi invaders, General Charles de Gaulle broadcast on the BBC to France. He called for a continuation of the war against Germany and made an appeal to all French officers and soldiers, military engineers and armament workers, to rally under his command in London. He ended his broadcast with words that have gone down in history: ‘The flame of French Resistance must not and will not be extinguished'.
To mark the seventieth anniversary of this broadcast, the Franco-British Council is publishing a revised version of their pamphlet published ten years ago. Edited by Dr Anne Corbett and the late Professor Douglas Johnson, it brought together contributions from witnesses, historians and journalists to examine the significance of this event. They include Pierre Lefranc, Jean-Louis Cremieux-Brilhac, Francois Bedarida, Philip Bell, Maurice Vaisse, Alistair Horne, Martyn Cornick, Helen Drake and Maurice Druon.
The version published today for the first time in French as well as in the original English also contains new material illustrating perhaps a less well known aspect of relations between France and Britain following the'appel' by General de Gaulle. This is the support he received from Francophile and Francophone Groups, such as the "Alliance Francaise", from around Britain. One such group flourished in Newcastle-upon-Tyne to which the pamphlet refers and which we, with pleasure, are reproducing for this special commemorative brochure.