page_title: Military history of France during World War II
section_title: Free French airmen in RAF (June 1940–1945)
hierarchical_section_title: Military history of France during World War II / Theatres of World War II / European / Free French airmen in RAF (June 1940–1945)
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Chasseur Français (GC Ile de France) monoplace Spitfire de fabrication britannique (1936), Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace, Paris Le Bourget (France). Notez la Croix de Lorraine. English: British-built French single-seat fighter aircraft Spitfire (1936), Museum of Air and Space Paris, Le Bourget (France)
context_page_description: From 1939 until 1940, the French Third Republic was at war with Germany. The period from 1940 until 1945 saw competition between Vichy France and the Free French Forces under General Charles de Gaulle for control of the overseas empire. In 1944, after the landings of the Allies in France, they expelled the German Army, putting an end to the Vichy Regime.
  France and Britain declared war on Germany when Germany invaded Poland in September 1939. After the Phoney War from 1939 to 1940, within seven weeks, the Germans invaded and defeated France and forced the British off the continent. France formally surrendered to Germany.
  In August 1943, the de Gaulle and Giraud forces merged in a single chain of command subordinated to Anglo-American leadership, meanwhile opposing French forces on the Eastern Front were subordinated to Soviet or German leaderships. This in-exile French force together with the French Forces of the Interior played a variable-scale role in the eventual liberation of France by the Western Allies and the defeat of Vichy France, Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, and the Japanese empire.
context_section_description: The first Free French pilots flew from Bordeaux to rally de Gaulle in England on June 17, 1940. These individuals served in British squadrons until there were sufficient pilots to create All-Free French RAF flights.
caption: No.340 Free French RAF Squadron Spitfire bearing the Cross of Lorraine marking.
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