The three Old Dean Councillors and the Surrey Heath Museum Officer met with Xavier Rival Air and Space Attache of the French Embassy today to discuss placing a Blue Plaque to commemorate the Free French Army and Air Force and their connection with Old Dean.
In May 1940, Germany invaded France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg as part of the Nazi’s plan to enslave Europe. In a few short weeks, the French Forces were defeated, although many British, French, Belgian, Polish forces escaped via Dunkirk up to the 4th of June. Further evacuations were undertaken from the West Coast of France. An armistice was signed on 22nd of June 1940 between Germany and what remained of the French Government.
However, not every part of the French military gave up the fight, a relatively unknown officer, Charles de Gaulle, became the face of the French resistance. In a BBC broadcast on 18th June 1940, he rallied troops to continue resistance to the Nazis and to return one day to liberate France.
A ‘Provisional Government of the French Republic’ was set up in London and the Free French Forces were asked to volunteer to resume the fight. Many did so and many other volunteers found their way to Britain to join them.
In Old Dean construction of a training camp over the harsh winter of 1940 began. That camp was where French citizens who volunteered came to be trained from 1941 to 1944 and it was where the first units of the Free French Army were raised. General De Gaulle visited the camp and stayed there often with his soldiers. It was also where key members of the SOE and French Resistance were trained and where the British Spymaster Maxwell Knight otherwise known as “M” had his headquarters opposite what is now Caesar’s Camp Road. The camp was handed back by French Forces in May 1945 having been used for a short while by them as a Prisoner of War camp.
Highland Road, Lorraine Road and Lorraine Infants School continue to commemorate that connection today.
- Cllr Trefor Hogg
