te 1931 to receive a post in the Secretarial- General of the Supreme Council for National Defense. In 1937 Charles was promoted to Colonel commanding the 507th Tank Regiment at Metz, this meant that he had to abandon his campaign to create a motorized corps (Ledwidge 43).World War II starts. De Gaulle was posted from Metz to Lower Alsace to take command of the fifth tank army. On May 15 1940, de Gaulle is ordered to stem the German advance and buy time while a defensive position is established to protect Paris. He completed the objective but the Germans moved west toward the coast. On May 28 30 de Gaulle is ordered to reduce the bridgehead across the Somme. De Gaulle attacks late in the afternoon and takes the Germans by surprise. He did not achieve his objective, but captured 500 prisoners and war materials.In 1940 de Gaulle was made Under-Secretary of State for National Defense under the current Prime Minister, Reynaud. The 8th of June, de Gaulle was sent to London to ask Winston Churchill for more aid for France. This visit left an excellent impression on Churchill. When de Gaulle returned to France, he pressed even more urgently for the French government to relocate to Africa but Reynauds defeatist advisors were pushing for an armistice. The pressure of the war forced Reynaud to resign. De Gaulles former friend, Petain took Reynauds position and pushed for an armistice with Germany.After France signed the armistice with the Axis powers, de Gaulle secretly left France to go to London to continue the fight for France. There he was announced as leader of all free Frenchmen. Between 1940 and 1944, de Gaulle worked to gain support from the French colonies around the world. He worked extensively with the British government, and the rest of the Allied nations to preserve Frances good name by using the Free French Forces to help fight the Germans.In June, the Free French Forces went to Dakar in hopes of gaining control of the naval base an...
