Émile Muselier Émile Henry Muselier ( Marseilles , 17 April 1882 - Toulon , 2 September 1965 ) was a French admiral who led the Free French Naval Forces ( " Forces navales françaises libres " , or FNFL ) during World War II . He was responsible for the idea of distinguishing his fleet from that of Vichy France by adopting the Cross of Lorraine , which later became the emblem of all of the Free French . After entering the French Naval Academy ( " École Navale " ) in 1899 , he embarked on a brilliant and eventful military career . He ran unsuccessfully in the legislative elections of 1946 as vice - president of the Rally of Republican Lefts ( " Rassemblement des gauches républicaines " ) , and then entered private life as a consulting engineer before his retirement in 1960 . He is buried in the cemetery of St . Pierre , at Marseilles . Early career . Muselier ' s career started with a campaign in the Far East , several others in the Adriatic , one in Albania , which overlapped with a stay in Toulon . He also fought in Yser , Belgium as the head of a troop of marine fusilliers . Muselier received his first real command , of the aviso " Scape " , in April 1918 . For his service in World War I , Muselier was awarded the Navy Cross . This was followed by the command of the destroyer " Ouragan " in 1925 , that of armoured cruiser " Ernest Renan " in 1927 , then battleship " Voltaire " in 1930 , and " Bretagne " in 1931 . In 1933 , Muselier , by then promoted to rear - admiral , became Major - General of the port of Sidi - Abdalah in Tunisia , where he wrote social commentaries such as " La Mie de Pain " ( " the breadcrumb " ) . In 1938 , he received command of the Navy and the defence sector of the city of Marseilles . Muselier had previously been attached to the cabinets of Painlevé and Clemenceau , then became chief of staff of the naval delegation to Germany . On 10 October 1939 Muselier was promoted to vice - admiral by Admiral Darlan , himself a former fellow student of the École Navale . Darlan retracted the promotion as of 21 November , following libelous charges ranged against Muselier . A similar incident occurred when Muselier was under the orders of General de Gaulle , whom he had rejoined as of 30 June 1940 . He was , however , quickly cleared of the suspicions of treason which the British levelled at him on the base of false documents ; this prompted the British Government to apologise . Role in the Free French . On 1 July 1940 , General de Gaulle named Muselier commander of the Free French naval forces and , provisionally , commander of the air force ; these roles were later confirmed in 1941 with the creation of the " Conseil national " . The same day , Admiral Muselier wrote his own appeal , addressed to sailors and pilots . He assembled an embryonic General Staff with Ship - of - the - Line Captain ( " Capitaine de Vaisseau " ) Thierry d ' Argenlieu and the ship " Voisin " , before leaving on a mission to Alexandria in order to attempt a " coup d ' état " in Syria . In 1940 , the Vichy regime sentenced Muselier to death " in absentia " and confiscated all of his possessions . In 1941 , it forfeited his French citizenship . Under orders of General De Gaulle , Muselier led the conquest of Saint - Pierre and Miquelon on 24 December 1941 , unloading three French corvettes and the submarine cruiser " Surcouf " from Halifax and installing the " enseigne de vaisseau " Alain Savary as Commissaire of Free France . This feat of arms angered Roosevelt . De Gaulle had initially declined the suggestion of invasion made by Muselier , but had desired to affirm French sovereignty after learning of Canadian and British desires for the archipelago . This eventually led the admiral to resign of his post of Commissaire . Not especially loyal to De Gaulle , Admiral Muselier was let down two years later , in Algiers , because of serious political divergences . Preferring to answer under General Giraud , he served as the transitory civil and military person in charge for Algiers in June 1943 , and had even appeared to act as the head of an anti - Gaullist putsch , before General De Gaulle became head of the French Committee of National Liberation ( " Comité français de la Libération nationale " ) on 3 June . After having been the chief of the naval delegation to the military Mission for German Affairs , he retired from the navy in 1946 .