Thus de Gaulle was more a horrified witness than a central actor in the final stages of France’s defeat. But these days were pivotal for his future. On three occasions he met Churchill. As a result he was not entirely unknown to the British when he decided to leave France for London. It meant also that he arrived in London not merely as a recently promoted French general but as someone who had been a member – albeit a junior one – of the last regularly constituted government of the Third Republic.
