Battle of Gabon
Battle of Gabon | |||||||||
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Part of World War II | |||||||||
Free French Hotchkiss H39 tanks during the Battle of Gabon | |||||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||||
Naval support: United Kingdom |
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Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
Strength | |||||||||
Free French: 1,060 men[1] 1 aviso 1 minesweeper 1 cargo ship Royal Navy: 1 heavy cruiser 1 sloop |
1,500 men[2] 1 aviso 1 submarine | ||||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||||
20-100 killed 4 aircraft destroyed |
At least 35 killed[3] 1 aviso destroyed 1 submarine scuttled |
The Battle of Gabon (French: Bataille du Gabon), also called the Gabon Campaign (Campagne du Gabon),[4] occurred in November 1940 during World War II. The battle resulted in forces under the orders of General de Gaulle taking the colony of Gabon and its capital, Libreville, from Vichy France, and the rallying of French Equatorial Africa to Free France.
Background
In June 1940, Germany invaded and defeated France, and subsequently occupied a portion of the country.
On 26 August, the governor and military commanders in the colony of
Prelude
Following the rallying of Cameroon on 27 August, the Gabonese authorities decided to reinforce their frontier with that province along with the
On 11 September, Masson held a meeting with his army and navy commanders at which it was decided to reinforce
On 8 October, De Gaulle arrived in Douala, Cameroon. Four days later he authorised plans for the invasion of French Equatorial Africa. He wanted to use French Equatorial Africa as a base to launch attacks into Axis-controlled Libya. For this reason, he personally headed northward to survey the situation in Chad, located on the southern border of Libya.[13]
Battle
On 27 October, Free French forces crossed into French Equatorial Africa and took the town of Mitzic.
On 5 November, the Vichy garrison at
On 8 November 1940, the
On 9 November, Free French
On 12 November, the final Vichy forces at
Aftermath
The Free French lost four aircraft and six aircrew in the campaign.[23] There is disagreement about the total number of human losses. De Gaulle said "some twenty" died in the campaign. Jean-Christophe Notin claimed 33 were killed. Eliane Ebako wrote that "dozens" lost their lives, while Jean-Pierre Azéma said "roughly one hundred" were killed.[10] Another account states that 35 Vichy troops were killed to 8 Free French.[24]
On 15 November, de Gaulle made a personal appeal that failed to persuade most of the captured Vichy soldiers—including General Marcel Têtu—to join the Free French. As a result, they were interned as prisoners of war in Brazzaville, French Congo for the duration of the war.[13]
With their control consolidated in Equatorial Africa, the Free French began focusing on the campaign in Italian Libya. De Gaulle relieved Leclerc of his post in Cameroon and sent him to Fort Lamy, Chad to oversee offensive preparations.[25]
The conflict in Gabon triggered a mass migration of Gabonese to Spanish Guinea.[14] French Equatorial Africa cut its ties with the Vichy-controlled West African territories, and rebuilt its economy around trade with nearby British possessions, namely Nigeria.[22] Tensions between Vichy and Free French factions remained long after the invasion.[26] The seizure of Gabon and the rest of French Equatorial Africa gave Free France new-found legitimacy; no longer was it an organization of exiles in Britain, as it now had its own sizable territory to govern.[22]
Notes
- ^ Eric Jennings, a historian, speculates that dissatisfaction with Pétain's handshake with German leader Adolf Hitler at Montoire-sur-le-Loir on 24 October 1940 crystallised British resolve to lend military aid to Free France.[14]
Citations
- ^ "Histoires de Français Libres – Ordres de Bataille de la 1ère DFL – Gabon".
- ^ Yannis Kadari, " The epic of the Royal Cambouis: The FFL tank company in combat (1040-41 – first part) ", Batailles et Blindés , Caraktère, n o 1,november 2003, pp. 4–15
- ^ Jackson, Julian (2018). De Gaulle. Harvard University Press. p. 155.
- ^ Kennedy, David M. The Library of Congress World War II Companion p. 466
- ^ Reeves 2016, pp. 91–92.
- ^ Reeves 2016, p. 92.
- ^ Jennings 2015, pp. 41–42.
- ^ Jennings 2015, pp. 42, 44.
- ^ Jennings 2015, p. 42.
- ^ a b Jennings 2015, p. 43.
- ^ Ntoma Mengome 2013, pp. 39–40.
- ^ Ntoma Mengome 2013, p. 38.
- ^ a b c d e "The Second World War in the French Overseas Empire". Archived from the original on 11 February 2007. Retrieved 27 February 2007.
- ^ a b c d Jennings 2015, p. 44.
- ^ Hasey, John; Dinneen, Joseph (2017). Yankee Fighter: the Story of an American in the Free French Legion. Arcole Publishing. p. 112.
- ^ "Commander David Corky Corkhill obituary". The Daily Telegraph. London. 13 December 2015. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
- ^ Le Masson, Henri (1969). The French Navy. Navies of the Second World War. Vol. 1. London: MacDonald & Co. (Publishers) Ltd. p. 154. SBN 356-02384-X.
- ^ Stapleton, Timothy J. A military History of Africa p. 225
- ^ Histoires de Français Libres ordinaires. Entrée au Gabon – Octobre 1940 (in French)
- ^ Ordre De La Liberation Georges Thierry d'Argenlieu (in French)
- ^ Helgason, Guðmundur (1995–2012). "FR Bougainville". Allied Warships. Guðmundur Helgason. Retrieved 12 February 2012.
- ^ a b c Jennings 2015.
- ^ G. H. Bennett, The RAF's French Foreign Legion: De Gaulle, the British and the Re-emergence of French Airpower, 1940–45 (London and New York: Continuum, 2011), p. 30.
- ^ Jackson, Julian (2018). De Gaulle. Harvard University Press. p. 155.
- ISBN 9780313316548.
- ^ Jennings 2015, p. 84.
References
- Jennings, Eric T (2015). French Africa in World War II. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1107048485.
- Ntoma Mengome, Barthélémy (2013). La bataille de Libreville: De Gaulle contre Pétain: 50 morts. Paris: L'Harmattan.
- Reeves, Mark (2016). "M'Fam goes home : African soldiers in the Gabon Campaign of 1940". Dissent, Protest and Dispute in Africa. Taylor & Francis. pp. 91–113. ISBN 9781315413082.
Further reading
- Ebako, Éliane. Le ralliement du Gabon à la France libre: Une guerre franco-française, septembre–décembre 1940. PhD thesis. University of Paris IV, 2004.
- Labat, René. Le Gabon devant le Gaullisme. Paris: Delmas, 1941.
- La vérité sur l'affaire du Gabon, Septembre–Octobre–Novembre 1940: Allocutions prononcées à la chambre de commerce de Dakar le 4 avril 1941 par MM. Chamussuy, Aumasson et Boisson. Dakar: Grande imprimerie africaine, 1941.
External links
- Free French order of battle (in French)