On 18 June French General Charles De Gaulle broadcast an appeal over the radio to his compatriots abroad, calling on them to reject the Vichy regime and join the United Kingdom in its war against Germany and Italy.

He met immediate opposition from much of Libreville's French population and from Gabon's influential, conservative Catholic bishop, Louis Tardy, who favoured Vichy France's anti-Freemason policies.

[7] Free French sympathizers were subsequently arrested by the colonial administration and either imprisoned on board the auxiliary cruiser Cap des Palmes or deported to Dakar, Senegal.

[8] De Gaulle was perturbed by Gabon's refusal to join his cause and described his dilemma in his memoirs: "a hostile enclave, that was hard to reduce because it gave on to the ocean, was created in the heart of our equatorial holdings.

Besson left for Cameroon and the following day, 6 September, Free French forces arrived in Bitam and Oyem with Pierre Roger Martocq as the new administrator of Woleu-Ntem.

On 15 September, the Vichy reinforcements arrived on the Cap des Palmes, escorted by the submarine Poncelet: a troop of marines from the aviso Bougainville and the defence of Port-Gentil.

Meanwhile, the main Free French forces under General Philippe Leclerc and Battalion Chief (major) Marie Pierre Koenig departed from Douala.

[13] The British expressed doubt in De Gaulle's ability to establish control over the Vichy territory, but they eventually agreed to lend naval support to the Free French.

"[15] On 8 November 1940, the Shoreham-class sloop HMS Milford discovered the Vichy Redoutable-class submarine Poncelet shadowing the Anglo-French task force and gave chase.

Free French naval forces consisting of the minesweeper Commandant Dominé and the cargo vessel Casamance[19] were led by Georges Thierry d'Argenlieu aboard the Bougainville-class aviso Savorgnan de Brazza in conducting coastal operations.

[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.

[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.

[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.