@@indianajones4321 just when they thought ALL the stories of WW2 were told, the French decided to explore how the colonials got Effed over. some real interesting takes on warfilms from that era. i hope you enjoy Days of Glory!
@@kiwigaming1605 G’Day mate. Hope your doing well. Traditional Enemies talks briefly about it which is how I learnt about it. But this video provides way more information.
I rewatched this after reading a book on Free French Africa. Here’s the larger problem: educating younger people about WW2 as it recedes into the past. Thanks for doing your part.
WW2 vets were everywhere in the 1970s when I started to care about world history/politics. One ('Froggy') lived right next to me. Being retired, he was always home and ready to converse. *That's a lost asset now.*
My grand father, René Gaillot, was a teacher in Douala, where my father was born on May 22nd 1940. My grand father joined the 1ere compagnie de milice du Cameroun on April 16th 1940, which changed name to 1er Régiment de Tirailleurs du Cameroun in October .. by then he was enlisted in the French French forces. He was sent to Brazaville to get a training as an officer and joined as Lieutnant into the Bataille de Marche du Cameroun 5 on Dec 1st 1941. He fought in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, became an instructor in Syria and Lebanon. He survived, went to France in 1945, and was sent back to his teacher job in 1946 in Cameroun. I'm amazed with the elements you've found, and the pictures ! You did a really good job.
Very detailed and informative. A great video. Although at 9:41 there's a little mistake: On 4th of March 1916 during WWI the French Republic 🇨🇵 conquered the gabonese region of Neukamerun back from the German Empire who's colonial troops capitulated on this day.
Fun fact ! Gabon didn't want to be independent. They wanted to become a French department like Mayotte, Guyane, Normandy etc. At least the president of Gabon (who wasn't a puppet, a regular gabonese guy) wanted that. The French kindly asked him to become independent cuz France didn't want Gabon to slow down France.
@@parodyclip36 Its not even a theory, Léon M'ba was a francophile, he worked in the colonial government of Gabon before its independence. He gave special privileges to french companies. When he got Coup the french government literally reinstalled him by using gabonese forces(whose officers where Frenchmen).
Civil wars. Always a romantically and moodily pleasing series of events in historical and media value, yet also personally and emotionally heartwrenching to the people involved. I wonder how the British identified which French units are Free or Vichy, especially with the naval battles. It's not like flags can be proudly raised on submarines and intense ground warfare, you know. 10:12: You know, what did the native locals feel during this "white man's war" fought in their proverbial backyard?
The attacking Free French forces consisted of Legionnaires, Senegalese tirailleurs, and Cameroonian tirailleurs. They employed H35/39 tanks during the battle. The Vichy French Gabonese defenders lacked armor, although they may have possessed a few armored cars (e.g., AMD 50's and/or AMD 80's) and some Laffly trucks, and perhaps some artillery pieces (e.g. Model 1918 75mm guns), mortars, and MG's, as would have been typical for French colonial forces of the period - this is speculation in my part due to lack of historical records, including photographic evidence. And, you acknowledged the intensity of the fighting for Libreville where the Vichy forces offered some stiff resistance. The casualties for the war are estimated to be around 100 Vichy killed vs 30 Free French killed. No data on numbers of wounded or missing. And, someone else here commented about the refugee situation where a great number of Gabonese civilians fled the country as a result of the conflict.
I'm reading a James Holland book about WW2 and got to the bit about operation Torch. My wife is from Cameroon and so I wondered if there was any activity as Cameroon would have been administered from Vichy. I totally had no idea of this battle! I've read a lot of WW2 history and it was always stated that Torch was the first major Free French involvement, but obviously that wasn't true. Is there a book on this part of history?
Torch was far from being the first major Free French involvement. They had been continuously fighting against the Italians and Germans in Africa from 1940 to 1942 when operation Torch was launched, and then continued the fight along with allied forces.
Petain remains one of the most hated collaborators in the history of WW2. DeGaulle was a bastard, but at east he killed Nazis. Thanks for highlighting this conflict!
Often, people are ignoring about the French Civil War 🇫🇷 1940-1942. After which. All French army was back unified and fought as a unique France on allied side. 112 000 French soldiers in Italy Campaign (the third of the effectives) 300 000 soldiers involved in France Liberation in addition of the million of resistants (3/5 of the effectives) 1,2 Million soldiers involved in German invasion (the third of the effectives involved).
How the French colonials like Les Goumiers were treated was terrible, but their contribution was massive, like climbing mountains in central Italy the Italians declared unclimbable to the Germans
@@markgarrett3647 I am fully aware of crimes committed by Goumiers and others in World war 2, however the French government would hardly feed or support Goumiers or Legionnaires in WW2, and encouraged them to loot to support themselves, abroad mostly, but do the same on French soil or on French people abroad, they'd end up under a Guillotine, or firing squad
You didn't even make mention of felix Ebou the governor general of Chad who made decision to join free French and this help alotnin tgeballied cause. By tte way felix ebou is the African dude that was shaking de gaul hand
The arguement can also be made that the "French Colonial Style" being a unionary republic left a lot of room for interpretation about what to do. Other Colonial Governments like the British were a direct governance from the Crown while France was a representative democracy without clear instruction or command. It makes sense that clashes would eventually happen.
I love your videos and I learn new things watching them, however, you might want to reconsider the use of the term "Blitzkrieg". I'll let you do your research on the use of that term, since I entirely trust your abilities in that matter.
Should be mentioned that the arrogant French also caused the battle of Mers El Kebir. Because they refused to sail under the British flag or sail to a neutral port. It stuns me that France committed brothers against brothers and allies against allies.
@@holdencross5904 no fidelity for the wrong side and the briths choot ther allied and take ther chip that was docked in england without free french government accord
Hitler: "Now we ze colonized ze French, me will ze make it facist regime on ze south!" Officer: "Actually mein furhrer, there are ze three frances" Hitler: "whatz?!!" Officer: "There is ze Vichy, ze Resistance, and.. AFRIKA?!"
Good and very interesting video. Let's be honest, France and Free France roll in WW2 against Axis was marginal and unimportant. Their resistance movement was also very infective and ridiculous, compared to Partizan in Yugoslavia, or Poland resistance. They didn't deserve status of important winning nation of WW2, like USSR, USA, Britain and China. Chinese killed around million Japanese soldiers in intensive and long war against them. How many Germans or Italian soldiers did French kill? Few in serious numbers.
You joking right 😴 The French allowed the brits to escape at Dunkirk and they crippled the Luftwaffe before the battle of Britain. It were free French who allowed the brits to win at the 1st battle of El Alamein, thanks to Bir Hakeim. It were free French who broke the stalemate at Monte Cassino. At the end of the war there were 1 300 000 free French soldier. It was the resistance who allowed D Day to happen, at the extent of a lot of deaths and intense fighting. The first soldier to die on operation Ovelord was a French SAS. The French weren't nearly as useful as the US or the USSR but without them there is no telling if the UK would have continue the war. 500k Frenchman died in that war and they sure as hell took as many Germans and Italians as they could. Want to talk about the Polish resistance ? Warsaw uprising went great didn't it ? Resistance is futile without coordination with the allies. France had that."Throughout France the Free French had been of inestimable value in the campaign. … Without their great assistance the liberation of France and the defeat of the enemy in Western Europe would have consumed a much longer time and meant greater losses to ourselves", Dwight Eisenhower, head of the Allies
The French covering the British evacuation at Dunkirk saved a huge portion of the British army which lived to fight another day. Britain would've performed poorly in North Africa without those troops saved at Dunkirk and as a result could've lost entirely to Rommel. The Free French victory at the Battle of Bir Hakeim had a significant contribution to the allied victory in North African campaign. Same goes for the Free French participation in the battle of Monte Casino where they broke the deadlock. The French resistance played a very important role during the D-Day campaign, severely hampering German logistics which contributed to the slowdown of German response to allied invasion. And it is absurd to compare French resistance to resistance movements of Eastern Europe. Because each of these resistance movements had different objectives which were dictated by the different circumstances which they found themselves in. There was already a land front in Eastern Front from day one which allowed eastern resistance movements to cooperate with the Soviets against the Germans. But there was no land front in the Western front until 1944 which explains why the French resistance couldn't do much direct fighting until then. And most importantly, France started participating actively in the war with 1.5 million troops after it was liberated in 1944. Together with American and British troops, the French also invaded Germany and at the end of the war were occupying German territories. Therefore even though you may argue that French participation was relatively less important to the axis defeat than the participation of other allied countries, you simply cannot argue against the fact that the France fulfilled every condition necessary to be considered as a victor of the war and be treated as such.
Glad you’re covering the situation in French African colonies
were you aware of this movie? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Days_of_Glory_(2006_film)
@@beepboop204 I was not, thank you very much!
@@indianajones4321 just when they thought ALL the stories of WW2 were told, the French decided to explore how the colonials got Effed over. some real interesting takes on warfilms from that era. i hope you enjoy Days of Glory!
Glad Chad offered unyielding support for Free France
Chad shows that they are absolute chads time and again throughout history
GIGA CHAD
It was a very Chad thing to do.
@@vnolan633 it’s not like there would have been a difference otherwise
From Supporting deGaulle to stopping Gaddaffi's invasion Chad has lived up to its name.
Finally someone’s covered this little known conflict. I’ve been searching for more info on this one. Thanks Front.
I've never heard of this part of WWII, it was great learning more about it.
@@kiwigaming1605 G’Day mate. Hope your doing well. Traditional Enemies talks briefly about it which is how I learnt about it. But this video provides way more information.
@@crocodiledundee8685 Interesting, I plan on reading Traditional Enemies later in the future!
Madagascar and Somaliland campaign are not talked about
nice video this is a largely forgotten theater on ww2 african front
Most people should know about forgotten conflicts n theaters of war.
I rewatched this after reading a book on Free French Africa. Here’s the larger problem: educating younger people about WW2 as it recedes into the past. Thanks for doing your part.
WW2 vets were everywhere in the 1970s when I started to care about world history/politics. One ('Froggy') lived right next to me. Being retired, he was always home and ready to converse. *That's a lost asset now.*
My grand father, René Gaillot, was a teacher in Douala, where my father was born on May 22nd 1940. My grand father joined the 1ere compagnie de milice du Cameroun on April 16th 1940, which changed name to 1er Régiment de Tirailleurs du Cameroun in October .. by then he was enlisted in the French French forces. He was sent to Brazaville to get a training as an officer and joined as Lieutnant into the Bataille de Marche du Cameroun 5 on Dec 1st 1941. He fought in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, became an instructor in Syria and Lebanon. He survived, went to France in 1945, and was sent back to his teacher job in 1946 in Cameroun. I'm amazed with the elements you've found, and the pictures ! You did a really good job.
Very detailed and informative. A great video. Although at 9:41 there's a little mistake: On 4th of March 1916 during WWI the French Republic 🇨🇵 conquered the gabonese region of Neukamerun back from the German Empire who's colonial troops capitulated on this day.
Very cool video about the battle of Gabon
Well done. One of the forgotten conflicts of the war
Fun fact ! Gabon didn't want to be independent. They wanted to become a French department like Mayotte, Guyane, Normandy etc. At least the president of Gabon (who wasn't a puppet, a regular gabonese guy) wanted that. The French kindly asked him to become independent cuz France didn't want Gabon to slow down France.
France was slowing down many colonies who wanted them to leave and I think USA paid the price for their failed Vietnam project
@@binder946 In today's episode of "American blame everything on everyone but themselves"
"Who wasnt a puppet, a regular Gabonese guy". Bro had french companies fund his election campaign."Not a puppet" my ass.
@@charlesuzozie5747 Yeah the famous french puppet who was kindly asked to fuck off by the French. Interesting theory sure
@@parodyclip36 Its not even a theory, Léon M'ba was a francophile, he worked in the colonial government of Gabon before its independence. He gave special privileges to french companies. When he got Coup the french government literally reinstalled him by using gabonese forces(whose officers where Frenchmen).
Please do more videos on the war in Africa. How successful were the Free French and the Allies in recruiting troops in these areas.
Should’ve also mentioned that a mass exodus of Gabonese fled to Spanish equatorial Africa during the conflict
Highly interesting and well narrated video. You should do more on WW2 and how it related to sub-saharan Africa.
I am always finding out something new that happened during World War Two. Thanks for the information. Great photos.
French fighting French is seldom discussed as it does not suit the allies post war narrative
Really interesting video. Thank you
The Chad Unyielding Support
Gabon wanted to stay with France before independence.
French soldiers also played a significant role during the battle of El-Alamein.
When your country gets invaded by your neighbor but you fight a civil war in a different continent and conflict 🤔
Can we get some covering of the Finnish-Soviet War?
Your French pronunciation is excellent!
Civil wars. Always a romantically and moodily pleasing series of events in historical and media value, yet also personally and emotionally heartwrenching to the people involved.
I wonder how the British identified which French units are Free or Vichy, especially with the naval battles. It's not like flags can be proudly raised on submarines and intense ground warfare, you know.
10:12: You know, what did the native locals feel during this "white man's war" fought in their proverbial backyard?
Pretty simple. Rondelle (rondel) was the ally recognizance sign, marked everywere
The attacking Free French forces consisted of Legionnaires, Senegalese tirailleurs, and Cameroonian tirailleurs. They employed H35/39 tanks during the battle. The Vichy French Gabonese defenders lacked armor, although they may have possessed a few armored cars (e.g., AMD 50's and/or AMD 80's) and some Laffly trucks, and perhaps some artillery pieces (e.g. Model 1918 75mm guns), mortars, and MG's, as would have been typical for French colonial forces of the period - this is speculation in my part due to lack of historical records, including photographic evidence. And, you acknowledged the intensity of the fighting for Libreville where the Vichy forces offered some stiff resistance. The casualties for the war are estimated to be around 100 Vichy killed vs 30 Free French killed. No data on numbers of wounded or missing. And, someone else here commented about the refugee situation where a great number of Gabonese civilians fled the country as a result of the conflict.
Fun fact the h35/39 fight in norway and later join the free french
I'm reading a James Holland book about WW2 and got to the bit about operation Torch. My wife is from Cameroon and so I wondered if there was any activity as Cameroon would have been administered from Vichy. I totally had no idea of this battle! I've read a lot of WW2 history and it was always stated that Torch was the first major Free French involvement, but obviously that wasn't true. Is there a book on this part of history?
Torch was far from being the first major Free French involvement. They had been continuously fighting against the Italians and Germans in Africa from 1940 to 1942 when operation Torch was launched, and then continued the fight along with allied forces.
It's insane to me there are no actual photos or footage from these battles of Vichy colonies.
2:50 the Chad Free French vs the virgin Vichy French.
Didn't French forces clash in Syria, too?
Little clash, no real battle like in the vid
Very interesting, never heard of this. Thanks
Petain remains one of the most hated collaborators in the history of WW2. DeGaulle was a bastard, but at east he killed Nazis.
Thanks for highlighting this conflict!
Was a bastard ?
De Gaulle just save the honor of France. He is the greatest French personality of the 20th century
The "honor of France"? What?@@ziib9883
Agent of civil war. Butcher of his own countrymen. More against Pétain than the germans. The purge of 1944.@@ziib9883
1:25: Wrong armistice. 🙃
(Newspaper talks about the WWI 1918 armistice.)
This is some Dr. Mark Felton level coverage. Definitely an obscure theater of the war from a Western perspective.
Often, people are ignoring about the French Civil War 🇫🇷 1940-1942. After which. All French army was back unified and fought as a unique France on allied side.
112 000 French soldiers in Italy Campaign (the third of the effectives) 300 000 soldiers involved in France Liberation in addition of the million of resistants (3/5 of the effectives) 1,2 Million soldiers involved in German invasion (the third of the effectives involved).
How the French colonials like Les Goumiers were treated was terrible, but their contribution was massive, like climbing mountains in central Italy the Italians declared unclimbable to the Germans
Well a large portion of them are rapists, looters and murderers of Italian civilians.
@@markgarrett3647 I am fully aware of crimes committed by Goumiers and others in World war 2, however the French government would hardly feed or support Goumiers or Legionnaires in WW2, and encouraged them to loot to support themselves, abroad mostly, but do the same on French soil or on French people abroad, they'd end up under a Guillotine, or firing squad
You didn't even make mention of felix Ebou the governor general of Chad who made decision to join free French and this help alotnin tgeballied cause.
By tte way felix ebou is the African dude that was shaking de gaul hand
The arguement can also be made that the "French Colonial Style" being a unionary republic left a lot of room for interpretation about what to do. Other Colonial Governments like the British were a direct governance from the Crown while France was a representative democracy without clear instruction or command. It makes sense that clashes would eventually happen.
I love your videos and I learn new things watching them, however, you might want to reconsider the use of the term "Blitzkrieg". I'll let you do your research on the use of that term, since I entirely trust your abilities in that matter.
*When* was oil discovered in Gabon?
After WW2
Should be mentioned that the arrogant French also caused the battle of Mers El Kebir. Because they refused to sail under the British flag or sail to a neutral port. It stuns me that France committed brothers against brothers and allies against allies.
"ArRoGAnT"
@@maxencebaudoin7889 how would you explain it? It’s arrogance of the Commander.
@@holdencross5904 no fidelity for the wrong side and the briths choot ther allied and take ther chip that was docked in england without free french government accord
Pure BS...
@@Balrog2005 source?
who was fighting WHOM
Hitler: "Now we ze colonized ze French, me will ze make it facist regime on ze south!"
Officer: "Actually mein furhrer, there are ze three frances"
Hitler: "whatz?!!"
Officer: "There is ze Vichy, ze Resistance, and.. AFRIKA?!"
The original Chads
The course of events predicted the future of France. During the war the only that was left of France was Equatorial Africa. It still is.
New Caledonia and french Polynesia ?
Good and very interesting video. Let's be honest, France and Free France roll in WW2 against Axis was marginal and unimportant. Their resistance movement was also very infective and ridiculous, compared to Partizan in Yugoslavia, or Poland resistance. They didn't deserve status of important winning nation of WW2, like USSR, USA, Britain and China. Chinese killed around million Japanese soldiers in intensive and long war against them. How many Germans or Italian soldiers did French kill? Few in serious numbers.
You joking right 😴 The French allowed the brits to escape at Dunkirk and they crippled the Luftwaffe before the battle of Britain. It were free French who allowed the brits to win at the 1st battle of El Alamein, thanks to Bir Hakeim. It were free French who broke the stalemate at Monte Cassino. At the end of the war there were 1 300 000 free French soldier. It was the resistance who allowed D Day to happen, at the extent of a lot of deaths and intense fighting. The first soldier to die on operation Ovelord was a French SAS. The French weren't nearly as useful as the US or the USSR but without them there is no telling if the UK would have continue the war. 500k Frenchman died in that war and they sure as hell took as many Germans and Italians as they could. Want to talk about the Polish resistance ? Warsaw uprising went great didn't it ? Resistance is futile without coordination with the allies. France had that."Throughout France the Free French had been of inestimable value in the campaign. … Without their great assistance the liberation of France and the defeat of the enemy in Western Europe would have consumed a much longer time and meant greater losses to ourselves", Dwight Eisenhower, head of the Allies
The French covering the British evacuation at Dunkirk saved a huge portion of the British army which lived to fight another day. Britain would've performed poorly in North Africa without those troops saved at Dunkirk and as a result could've lost entirely to Rommel.
The Free French victory at the Battle of Bir Hakeim had a significant contribution to the allied victory in North African campaign.
Same goes for the Free French participation in the battle of Monte Casino where they broke the deadlock.
The French resistance played a very important role during the D-Day campaign, severely hampering German logistics which contributed to the slowdown of German response to allied invasion.
And it is absurd to compare French resistance to resistance movements of Eastern Europe. Because each of these resistance movements had different objectives which were dictated by the different circumstances which they found themselves in. There was already a land front in Eastern Front from day one which allowed eastern resistance movements to cooperate with the Soviets against the Germans. But there was no land front in the Western front until 1944 which explains why the French resistance couldn't do much direct fighting until then.
And most importantly, France started participating actively in the war with 1.5 million troops after it was liberated in 1944. Together with American and British troops, the French also invaded Germany and at the end of the war were occupying German territories.
Therefore even though you may argue that French participation was relatively less important to the axis defeat than the participation of other allied countries, you simply cannot argue against the fact that the France fulfilled every condition necessary to be considered as a victor of the war and be treated as such.
Mf really measuring WWII as if it's a war effort to casualty ratio
@@parodyclip36 there wouldn't be a Dunkirk if they weren't stupidly incompetence
@@lqs1w68 there wouldn't be Dunkirk if they weren't incompetent
Bro i never knew this so thanks
Maybe you should cut down the CRT in your videos.
There wasn't that much resistance and a lot of french people agreed with Germany's and hitlers vision anyway :3
Uncomfortable truth