Philippe de Gaulle - Free French Naval Officer

Free French Naval Officer

A student at the École Navale at the time of the invasion of France in 1940, he did not hear his father's appeal of 18 June, but escaped to the United Kingdom and declared his allegiance to the Free French Naval Forces. During the Second World War he fought in the Channel campaign and in the Battle of the Atlantic. Promoted to sub-lieutenant in 1943, de Gaulle participated in the Battle of France (1944-1945) as a platoon commander of the armored regiment of marines of the 2nd Armored. On 25 August 1944 he participated in the liberation of Paris and was sent from the Montparnasse station to carry the order to surrender to the Germans entrenched at the Palais Bourbon in the premises of the National Assembly. Risking being shot if things went wrong, he negotiated among them, alone and unarmed. He fought in the Vosges during the winter of 1944-1945.

Read more about this topic:  Philippe De Gaulle

Famous quotes containing the words naval officer, free, french, naval and/or officer:

    It is now time to stop and to ask ourselves the question which my last commanding officer, Admiral Hyman Rickover, asked me and every other young naval officer who serves or has served in an atomic submarine. For our Nation M for all of us M that question is, “Why not the best?”
    Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)

    I struck the board, and cried, ‘No more,
    I will abroad!
    What? shall I ever sigh and pine?
    My lines and life are free, free as the road,
    Loose as the wind, as large as store.
    Shall I be still in suit?
    George Herbert (1593–1633)

    Central heating, French rubber goods, and cookbooks are three amazing proofs of man’s ingenuity in transforming necessity into art, and of these, cookbooks are perhaps most lastingly delightful.
    M.F.K. Fisher (b. 1908)

    It is now time to stop and to ask ourselves the question which my last commanding officer, Admiral Hyman Rickover, asked me and every other young naval officer who serves or has served in an atomic submarine. For our Nation M for all of us M that question is, “Why not the best?”
    Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)

    That’s all right, sir. A commanding officer doesn’t need brains, just a good, loud voice.
    Cyril Hume, and Fred McLeod Wilcox. Dr. Morbius (Walter Pidgeon)