Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T04:28:51.998Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

8 - “Grandi soldati”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 August 2022

Douglas Porch
Affiliation:
Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California
Get access

Summary

By 1942, the Soviet Union and the United States had joined the conflict, further isolating Vichy. Resistance in France was growing, acknowledged by a change of name from la France libre to la France combattante to acknowledge a growing resistance movement inside France. Jean Moulin had been dispatched to organize and harness it to la France combattante’s political agenda, and to define its missions. While de Gaulle’s movement remained small, the FFL had demonstrated fighting resolve at Bir Hakeim, a small but symbolic step toward wiping away the stain of 1940. Vichy’s deepening collaboration with Hitler helped to put la France combattante on firmer political footing, and strengthened de Gaulle’s political standing. Nevertheless, as de Gaulle realized, the Americans in particular posed a more immediate threat to the achievement of his goal of reasserting French grandeur and global influence than did either the Germans or Vichy. It would require all of de Gaulle’s determination and political savvy to keep la France combattante from being relegated to one of the Second World War’s obscure footnotes in the wake of Operation Torch – the November 1942 Anglo-American invasion of French North Africa.

Type
Chapter
Information
Defeat and Division
France at War, 1939–1942
, pp. 385 - 435
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • “Grandi soldati”
  • Douglas Porch, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California
  • Book: Defeat and Division
  • Online publication: 25 August 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781107239098.009
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • “Grandi soldati”
  • Douglas Porch, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California
  • Book: Defeat and Division
  • Online publication: 25 August 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781107239098.009
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • “Grandi soldati”
  • Douglas Porch, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California
  • Book: Defeat and Division
  • Online publication: 25 August 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781107239098.009
Available formats
×