Free French forces under General Jacques Leclerc upheld the honor of France during World War II.
Here's What You Need to Know: After the humiliating fall of France in June 1940, two impassioned patriots—a general and an infantry captain—refused to accept defeat and determined, against all odds, to exact retribution from the German invaders.
The two were Brig. Gen. Charles de Gaulle, an armored warfare visionary of the 1930s who had tried without success to upgrade his country’s defenses, and Captain Jacques-Philippe Leclerc, who had fought Moroccan insurgents and Germans and could not wait to get back into action.