DE GAULLE CHARLES: (1890-1970) ´ any Legionnaire who leaves.......would be a deserter and designated as such to the ...

DE GAULLE CHARLES: (1890-1970) ´ any Legionnaire who leaves.......would be a deserter and designated as such to the English authorities´

DE GAULLE CHARLES: (1890-1970) French General and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. President of the French Republic 1959-69. A World War II date Autograph D.S., C. de Gaulle, one page, 4to, n.p., 9th April 1940, in French. De Gaulle writes concerning the organisation of legionnaires, (translated) ´General de Gaulle points out that the engagement of six months contracted by the Legionnaires who signed the collective act of engagement is valid for 6 months. Consequently, any Legionnaire who leaves the corps prior to the expiration of these 6 months would be a deserter and designated as such to the English authorities. It goes without saying that no deserter from the Foreign Legion would be able to be re-engaged in French, English, or Allied troops units´. A document of good content, and written at an important stage of World War II. The ink is a little faded, although remains reasonably legible. Several neat, lengthy splits at the folds and a few very small holes, only FR

While De Gaulle was organising legionnaires for the Foreign Office, and while his own division was being established, the British were reviving "a scheme put forward months before by Winston Churchill, which consisted of first laying mines and then of landing on the coast of Norway, which was then neutral, to prevent supplies of Swedish iron-ore from reaching the Third Reich....But the moment the Royal Navy began the operation on 8th April [1940] the German staff - which had been preparing its own northern attack since December - forestalled the Allies, landing forces which seized all the Norwegian ports in three days, while the Wehrmacht occupied Denmark in a few hours. In what Reynaud called the race against time in Scandinavia, the French and British had let the enemy get away first.....On 3rd May Reynaud received a fresh letter from Colonel de Gaulle, urging him once more to carry out the reorganisation of the military system at last" (from De Gaulle: The Rebel 1890-1944, by Jean Lacouture).