Gabon WW2.

This is coolbert:

FFE = Free French Exterior.

French forces during the Second World War as under command of Charles de Gaulle.

French military units but NOT always consisting of Frenchmen.

During the Second World War [WW2] those forces of what was called the FFE under the command of Charles de Gaulle of dubious validity. FFE as a movement in totality an alternative to Vichy and as a government-in-exile in that period after the Battle of France, 1940, questionable at best.

At least until the Battle of Gabon, November, 1940.

That first instance [with British support] of FFE combat success. The liberation of Libreville and the French African colony of Gabon. Consider the Battle of Gabon. FFE units with augmentation from the British capturing the Vichy controlled French colony of Gabon in Africa..

Demonstrably after Gabon the FFE their validity much less questionable. FFE was a fighting force and alternative French government in exile in opposition to the Axis powers.

"The Battle of Gabon . . . also called the Gabon Campaign . . . or the Battle of Libreville, occurred in November 1940 during World War II. The battle resulted in the Free French Forces [FFE] taking the colony of Gabon and its capital, Libreville, from Vichy French forces."

FFE combat units but not consisting of Frenchmen as that term generally, ordinarily and commonly understood but rather troops of the French Foreign Legion [FFL].

"The 13th Demi-Brigade of Foreign Legion . . . and, with the Senegalese Tirailleur Regiment of Tchad [STRT] . . . one of the two regiments which rallied as a constituted unit of the Free French Forces (FFL)."

Senegalese black African troops of the type as most favored by the French general officer Charles Mangin also their role in the initial states of FFE combat operations and consolidation of a territorial base for further warfare as waged by the French military during WW2  critical.

But again STRT or FFL hardly Frenchmen.

coolbert.