As an ex para (and still reservist) i’ll tell you do yourself what i’m thinking about.
Although i regret these administrative changes, i cant help educating you
Normandy Landings[edit]
By the time of the Normandy Invasion, the Free French forces numbered more than 400,000 strong.[citation needed] 900 Free French paratroopers landed as part of the British Special Air Service (SAS) Brigade; the Free French 2nd Armored Division—under General Leclerc—landed at Utah Beach in Normandy on 1 August 1944, and eventually led the drive toward Paris, while the divisions which had been fighting in Italy became part of the French First Army—under General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny—and joined the U.S. 7th Army in Operation Dragoon. This operation was the Allied invasion of southern France. The Allied forces advanced up the line of the Rhône River to liberate the Vosges and southern Alsace.
(wikipedia)
Oh and btw about Mers el Kebir, from English version….
Before negotiations were formally terminated, British Fairey Swordfish planes escorted by obsolete Blackburn Skuas were dispatched from the Ark Royal to drop magnetic mines in the path of the French ships’ route to sea. This force was intercepted by French Curtiss H-75 fighters. One of the Skuas was shot down by French fighters and crashed into the sea, killing its two-man crew, the only British fatalities in the action.[9]
A short while later, on Churchill’s instructions, the British ships opened fire against the French.[6] The British opened fire at extreme range on 3 July 1940 at 17:54.[10][11] The French eventually replied but ineffectively. The third salvo from the British force and the first to hit resulted in a magazine explosion aboard Bretagne, which sank with 977 of her crew dead at 18:09. After some thirty salvos, the French ships stopped firing. Meanwhile, the British force altered their course to avoid fire from the French coastal forts. Provence, Dunkerque and the destroyer Mogador were damaged and run aground by their crews.
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