Second Armistice at Compiègne
In May 1939, after the Spanish Republic had already lost the civil war, Miguel Buiza asked the French government for permission to join the French Foreign Legion ("Légion étrangère"), where he was admitted as foreign officer with the rank of captain. At the beginning of World War II, Buiza had been promoted to commander, but in mid 1940, he resigned following the Second Armistice at Compiègne between Nazi Germany and the Third French Republic. Certain sources claim though that he was forced out of the French Foreign Legion by the new authorities of Vichy France because of his antifascist past.