page_title: Free France
section_title: Creation of the French Committee of National Liberation (CFNL)
hierarchical_section_title: Free France / First successes / Creation of the French Committee of National Liberation (CFNL)
caption_attribution_description: English: Free French Force leaders, General Charles de Gaulle shaking the hand of General Henri Giraud in front of Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill (Casablanca Conference January 14th 1943). Screenshot taken from the 1943 United States Army propaganda film Divide and Conquer (Why We Fight #3) directed by Frank Capra and partially based on, news archives, animations, restaged scenes and captured propaganda material from both sides. Original photo taken by Sammy Shulman. See The American Presidency Project, 17: Excerpts from the Press Conference for the Society of Newspaper Editors, 2/12/43; referenced in Winston Spencer Churchill: Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965, William Manchester, Paul Reid Français&#160;: Les commandants des Forces Françaises Libres, le Général Charles de Gaulle serrant la main du Général Henri Giraud devant Franklin Roosevelt et Winston Churchill (Conférence de Casablanca 14 Janvier 1943). Capture d'écran du film de propagande de l'Armée Américaine de 1943 Divide and Conquer (Why We Fight #3) réalisé par Frank Capra et basé en partie sur des archives des actualités de l'époque, des animations, des reconstitutions de scènes, et du matériel de propagande capturé provenant des deux bords.
context_page_description: Free France and its Free French Forces was the government-in-exile led by Charles de Gaulle during the Second World War, and its military forces, that continued to fight against the Axis powers as an Allied nation, following the Fall of France. Set up in London in June 1940, it organised and supported the Resistance in Occupied France, and established a foothold within several French colonies in Africa.
  Charles de Gaulle, a French general and government minister, rejected the armistice being negotiated by Marshal Philippe Pétain and fled to Britain. There he exhorted the French to resist in his BBC broadcast "Appeal of 18 June".
  On 27 October 1940, the Empire Defense Council was constituted to organise the rule of the territories in central Africa, Asia, and Oceania that had heeded the 18 June call. It was replaced on 24 September 1941 by the French National Committee. On 13 July 1942, "Free France" was officially renamed Fighting France to mark that the struggle against the Axis was conducted both externally by the FFF and internally by the French Forces of the Interior.
context_section_description: The Vichy forces in North Africa had been under Darlan's command and had surrendered on his orders. The Allies recognised his self-nomination as High Commissioner of France (French military and civilian commander-in-chief, Commandement en chef français civil et militaire) for North and West Africa. He ordered them to cease resisting and co-operate with the Allies, which they did. By the time the Tunisia Campaign was fought, the ex-Vichy French forces in North Africa had been merged with the FFF.
  After Admiral Darlan's assassination, Giraud became his de facto successor in French Africa with Allied support. This occurred through a series of consultations between Giraud and de Gaulle. The latter wanted to pursue a political position in France and agreed to have Giraud as commander in chief, as the more qualified military person of the two. It is questionable that he ordered that many French resistance leaders who had helped Eisenhower's troops be arrested, without any protest by Roosevelt's representative, Robert Murphy.
  Later, the Americans sent Jean Monnet to counsel Giraud and to press him into repeal the Vichy laws. The Cremieux decree, which granted French citizenship to Jews in Algeria and which had been repealed by Vichy, was immediately restored by General de Gaulle. Democratic rule was restored in French Algeria, and the Communists and Jews liberated from the concentration camps.
  Giraud took part in the Casablanca conference in January 1943 with Roosevelt, Churchill and de Gaulle. The Allies discussed their general strategy for the war, and recognised joint leadership of North Africa by Giraud and de Gaulle. Henri Giraud and Charles de Gaulle then became co-presidents of the French Committee of National Liberation (Comité Français de Libération Nationale, CFLN), which unified the territories controlled by them and was officially founded on 3 June 1943.
  The CFLN set up a temporary French government in Algiers, raised more troops and re-organised, re-trained and re-equipped the Free French military, in co-operation with Allied forces in preparation of future operations against Italy and the German Atlantic wall.
caption: Henri Giraud and de Gaulle during the Casablanca Conference in January 1943. Churchill and Roosevelt are in the background.
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