Appeal of 18 June

The Appeal of 18 June (French: L'Appel du 18 juin) was the first speech made by Charles de Gaulle after his arrival in London in 1940 following the Battle of France.

[2][3] De Gaulle had recently been promoted to the rank of brigadier general and named as under-secretary of state for national defence and war by Prime Minister Paul Reynaud during the German invasion of France.

[4][5] Reynaud resigned after his proposal for a Franco-British Union was rejected by his cabinet and Marshal Philippe Pétain, a hero of World War I, became the new prime minister, pledging to sign an armistice with Nazi Germany.

De Gaulle opposed any such action and, facing imminent arrest, fled France on 17 June.

Other leading politicians, including Georges Mandel, Léon Blum, Pierre Mendès France, Jean Zay and Édouard Daladier (and separately Reynaud), were arrested while travelling to continue the war from North Africa.

The British prime minister had a good opinion of de Gaulle from their three previous meetings, and gave permission to make a speech to France.

De Gaulle finished his speech on the morning of 18 June, but did not know that the British government almost revoked permission.

[7]: 127 De Gaulle's speech stated that superior German arms and tactics had defeated the French military.

I, General de Gaulle, currently in London, invite the officers and the French soldiers who are located in British territory or who would come there, with their weapons or without their weapons, I invite the engineers and the special workers of armament industries who are located in British territory or who would come there, to put themselves in contact with me.

He was the first French public figure to oppose an armistice with Germany, and the speech gave reasons why continuing to fight the war was not hopeless.

Of the more than 100,000 soldiers temporarily on British soil, most of them recently evacuated from Norway or Dunkirk, only 7,000 stayed on to join de Gaulle.

[15] The 70th anniversary of the speech was marked in 2010 by the issuing of a postage stamp (designed by Georges Mathieu)[16] and a €2 commemorative coin.

While the Appeal's themes are consistent with the quote, it is from a motivational poster featuring de Gaulle, A Tous Les Français, which was distributed all over London on 3 August 1940.