Returning to London in April 1942, he was made commander of all Free France's naval forces and national commissioner for the navy. He inspected French naval units in Equatorial Africa, the Levant, Madagascar and Djibouti. At the start of the campaign in North Africa, he was made chief of the naval staff, then major general within General Henri Giraud's supreme civil and military command. This made him one of the main architects of the merger of Free France's naval forces and Vichy France's North African fleet. He then left that role to command the 3rd Cruiser Division, heading it for Operation Dragoon in August 1944. In 1945, he became a vice admiral and was put in command of France's naval forces in the Far East, where he transported and supported General Leclerc's troops in South Annam and led the landings at Tonkin.