The Flight of Charles De Gaulle

For eleven grueling months De Gaulle and his 4th Armored Division, with the help of his allies in the North African Bloc, had gone toe to toe against British and Byzantine forces in the sands of Tunisia. While his initial battles were often victorious, the arrival of one Major-General Montgomery proved to knock the younger Colonel off balance, dealing several blows to his ego. As he doggedly pursues his foe in the desert, his military career hangs in the balance, as it is not only the eyes of his enemy that watch him from the shadows.

Operation Ember

It was December of 1939, almost a full year since this desert war had started. De Gaulle was no closer to repelling the enemies of the Communist Internationale. The Colonel produced a small cloth from his front pocket and swept the sand from the glass of his binoculars. Months in the heat had cracked one of the lenses, and the caked in sand made it difficult to see anything in the edges of his vision, save the tan dunes and rocky canyons below where his men cautiously advanced. Despite its flaws, Charles refused to replace the equipment, knowing well that any others the quartermaster could spare were likely in similar disrepair. Through his trusty lenses, the Colonel surveyed the battle taking place ahead of his position. He sat positioned on a ridge in the makeshift forward command base his men had hastily put up for him, overlooking the battlefield. Although most of the 4th were elsewhere, he had men at the ready to support the Legion’s 3rd Armored Division as they engaged British Armor in the canyons below. As he watched, De Gaulle radioed to his men to double check their fuel reserves, to keep an eye out for evaporation. The cracking in his lenses served as a reminder of the treachery of the desert heat and its propensity to degrade his equipment faster than the Commissariat could resupply it. The Colonel was fastidious about fuel evaporation, even in winter, fighting with limited supplies made every drop count. 

De Gaulle smirked as he watched the fighting unfold. Months of working with undertrained and under-equipped units from the North African Bloc had made him miss the cold efficiency of a well-trained, well supplied force such as the 3rd Foreign Legion Armored Division. It also made him proud knowing some of those he trained in the NAB had joined the Foreign Legion, and were serving alongside such an elite few. The British forces they were engaging were poorly positioned compared to his comrades engaging them, with most of their forces trapped on the canyon floor, trapped on all sides by the rocky cliffs, where French armor could fire down on them like fish in a barrel. De Gaulle was pleased to see the Legion making short work of the British armor. He watched as the supporting infantry rounded up the fleeing tank crews for imprisonment and reeducation. It was important to him to capture as many British soldiers as possible, as any intel they could extract could help him in getting an upper hand against Montgomery and his forces.

 As the battle died down, a cold sweat went down the young Colonel's spine as he looked at the smoking embers of the British tanks down below.  Each of the British Tanks felled by the Legion was caked in a very noticeable layer of sand, indicating that they had been sitting in ambush for quite some time. This conflicted with reports that the British tanks were all on the move when the French first engaged them. Although the French might have caught them repositioning, De Gaulle knew that Major-General Montgomery was far too cunning an adversary to let his men get caught out in the open without good reason; a planned ambush in such a compromising position seemed farfetched. After battling Montgomery for months, De Gaulle had come to know the cruelty of his tactics. The sacrifice of his men meant little if Monty could win the day. Like a mouse following the smell of cheese, De Gaulle’s orders for the Legion to engage had sprung Montgomery’s trap. Had he really pulled the same tactic twice?

Before the realization could fully dawn on him, the British counterattack commenced, though different from Monty’s first surprise all those months ago. Aetherpods launched from orbit, rocketed towards the battlefield, and competently entrapped the 3rd Foreign Legion Armored Division in the same bowls that had trapped the British before them. Thousands of capsules were scattered across the battlefield, surrounding the Legion's position. Light tanks, automatons, and Special Forces emerged from the many pods and began wreaking havoc upon the entrapped units. The French Army fought bravely but could do next to nothing against the attack on all sides. De Gaulle knew almost immediately that his operation was doomed and called for a full retreat of his forces before the Aetherborne assault could turn their attention on his own position. His radio calls were all for naught though, as his men in the dunes below fought desperately for any escape. As the smoke cleared, the carnage became apparent to all. The 3rd Armored would soon be no more, annihilated by Montgomery’s cruel plan. Operation Ember, as the British had coined it, was shaping up to be a complete success. 

Handling the Colonel

The loss of the entire regiment in addition to much of his own forces had not escaped the notice of the French High Command. Occupied as they were dealing with the ever growing number of conflicts, the performance of the Colonel was always of interest to the most radical elements that made up the chain of command. De Gaulle’s former Bonapartist ties were enough to have the Commissariat keep close watch on his actions. The decision to assign him to North Africa had been mostly a political one, to get him out of France and away from the primary conflict against the HRE. However, given recent events and the ever growing pressure of the Commissariat to push back against lingering elements from the previous regime, it was decided that something had to be done about the questionable colonel. 

Ever since Major-General Montgomery took command of British forces in North Africa, De Gaulle and his forces had faced defeat after crushing defeat. It was the opinion of the Generals in High Command that the frequency of these defeats against Montgomery was driving the Colonel mad, and compromising his ability to make efficient tactical decisions on the front line. Under De Gaulle’s leadership, French and NAB forces had fallen into Montgomery’s traps numerous times, with the British Operation Ember being only the most recent example, and by far the most devastating. Even after the initial assault, Internationale-aligned troops were unable to regain momentum. While High Command's opinion was that these failures were the result of obsession, the Commissariat maintained that they were willfully malicious, with some representatives going as far as to say that De Gaulle was intentionally compromising the North African front because he wished for the restoration of the Bonapartist regime. Reports from the agents who constantly surveilled De Gaulle conflicted with this conclusion, but it was their opinion nonetheless that his punishment should be an immediate court-martial. The perspective of the generals, however, was different, and they had the final say. Before the events of the last few months, De Gaulle had proven himself an excellent tactician and a competent leader. Furthermore, a court-martial would infuriate the North African Bloc, as the training, guidance, and heroism the Colonel had displayed during his time in North Africa gave him a near folk hero status among men serving the NAB, not to mention the respect he had garnered from the many soldiers serving directly under his command. Ultimately, the decision was made to put the Colonel on leave indefinitely. A full week after the 3rd Foreign Legion Armored Division’s demise, Colonel Charles De Gaulle was on a boat back to France. 

De Gaulle’s Flight

On January 21st, 1940, Charles De Gaulle arrived at his home at La Boisserie in Colombey les Deux Eglises shortly after arriving in France. The two Commissariat agents who accompanied him on his long train ride home, and the entire trip out of Africa, failed to inform him that La Boisserie was no longer standing and that De Gaulle was no longer the owner of that estate. As part of the new government’s experiments to de-commodify housing across France, his holdings were seized and converted into new housing. Where once stood a proud mansion now stood a home for those too old to work. Although this seizure felt deeply personal to the Colonel, it was not unique, with many other holdings deemed too extravagant being torn down and replaced across France. Despite this, it was clear by the chuckling agents that the decision not to inform De Gaulle of the destruction of his home and seizure of his property was quite intentional. 

He was, however, promised compensation as the two men led him back to the train station. De Gaulle was forcibly relocated to a modest apartment in Paris, where the Commissariat could keep a close eye on him until High Command decided that he was fit for redeployment. De Gaulle was right in his assumption that his new apartment was bugged, as he found a wiretap in his telephone on his first day in Paris. He could not even go to the local bakery without being shadowed by an agent. Although they were unable to get him formally punished, the Commissariat was determined to make De Gaulle’s leave as miserable an experience as possible, hoping he would slip up. 

De Gaulle spent months in Paris under the watchful eye of the Commissariat. Although he was in much danger, the Colonel obstinately refused to change much of his behavior, which was quite aggravating to the agents looking after him, who frequently hounded him about his allegiances. While on leave, the Commissariat had made new discoveries concerning his ties with former French Prime Minister Pétain, who had still eluded French custody after fleeing to Spain. To those aware of their relationship, it was known that the two men did not get along well leading up to Petain’s election, but the fact that there were any connections at all was enough for them to order the doubling of their surveillance efforts on De Gaulle, even implanting a fake letter from Petain in his mailbox in hopes he would attempt to write back. None of their efforts worked. After 4 months, the Colonel finally received orders that he had been reassigned to the front lines against the HRE. The Commissariat’s efforts were not totally in vain however, as the day after his reassignment, he boarded a train bound for his post, but never arrived. De Gaulle had managed to slip away from the watchful eye of his escorts by crawling out the bathroom window of the moving train car while it headed towards the front lines. Had the Colonel always been disloyal as the Commissariat presumed, or did they push him into it?

The Commissariat became aware of De Gaulle’s escape too late, as by the time a search was put out for him, he was already aboard a small fishing skiff on the northern coast of France. After his daring escape, the Colonel sailed towards England, trying his best to avoid the notice of any French ships. His fishing vessel was eventually detained by a British Warship patrolling the English Channel. Now in the custody of his enemies, De Gaulle made a desperate plea, telling his captors he wished to serve the true heir to France in exile. 

The French Colonel in London

De Gaulle’s willing capture by British forces was met with extreme distrust. After being relocated to a prison in London, the man was beaten and interrogated multiple times by British agents. Although a number of Bonapartist French officers had successfully defected in the first few months of the Great War, having one defect two years later was an anomaly the G.R.A.I.L. network had not foreseen. Despite his mistreatment in his British cell, De Gaulle stuck to his story, speaking of his disillusionment with the Communist Internationale. After nearly a month in prison, Charles was brought before a military tribunal, where he was allowed to plead his case. After much deliberation and a number of G.R.A.I.L. calculations, it was decided that he was more useful to the British as a propaganda piece than as a prisoner of war. As a result, De Gaulle was granted conditional freedom, provided he was closely monitored by the Watchman state. De Gaulle had traded his freedom from one nation's surveillance state for another. 

Despite his constant monitoring, De Gaulle found some manner of comfort in his new life in London. He was given a luxury apartment above a coffee shop in London's dense urban core. London's population was still decimated from the plague and famine twenty years before, so there was plenty of space for the exiled colonel to live out his days. Although he received many questioning looks due to his thick accent and foreign mannerisms, he was mostly treated kindly by the locals. He found employment at the local newspaper, where he published articles about life in exile and the tyranny of the new “Liberationist” government. These articles were quite popular in London and were published in both French and English. The French versions were intended for Bonapartist exiles living in England, but unbeknownst to De Gaulle, these articles were used as propaganda against the Communist Internationale as they were dropped as pamphlets in rural French villages. De Gaulle continued to enjoy this new lifestyle for the coming months, but a sense of restlessness grew inside him as he kept a close eye on news from the front. With each article De Gaulle became more and more convinced of France’s impending defeat and his potential triumphant return to his homeland. This idea began to consume him, making his leisurely life in London begin to feel like a prison once more. With a resolve to serve in his heart, De Gaulle arrived at a local recruitment office on July 1st, 1940, ready to fight back against the pretenders who forced him to flee his home.