Eurostar features in WWII remembrance

[John Ashworth]

Sarkozy in UK to mark de Gaulle historic war broadcast

Page last updated at 07:16 GMT, Friday, 18 June 2010 08:16 UK
BBC

The French president and his wife are visiting the UK to mark the 70th anniversary of Charles de Gaulle's radio appeal to German-occupied France.

Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni will visit the BBC radio studio in London where the general famously urged his compatriots to resist Nazi occupation.

Mr Sarkozy, joined by Prince Charles, will lay a wreath on the Mall at the statue of the Queen's father George VI.

The president and British PM David Cameron will later meet veterans.

Limited audience

The visit is the first by a French president to mark Gen de Gaulle's broadcast on 18 June 1940.

The general had fled his country the day before as a new administration, headed by Philippe Petain, sought an armistice with Hitler.

In the stirring radio appeal Gen de Gaulle declared himself leader of the "Free French", spawning the French Resistance, which went on to play a crucial role in defeating the Germans.

He told his nation that "the flame of the French resistance must not and will not be extinguished".

Posters displaying his words were put up all over London in the days that followed the broadcast, to galvanise French exiles.

During their visit to Broadcasting House, Mr Sarkozy and his wife will unveil a plaque and view a tapestry presented in thanks to the BBC by France after World War II.

The president and Prince Charles will later lay wreaths at the statue of Gen de Gaulle in Carlton Gardens, where he set up his wartime offices.

About 800 people from the Charles de Gaulle Foundation, the Free French Foundation and other groups have been invited to London to join events.

Many will travel across the Channel on a specially chartered Eurostar, which will take them home again for further ceremonies.

The French and UK leaders will later meet resistance fighters and British veterans for a ceremony at the Chelsea Royal Hospital, home of the Chelsea pensioners.

A student from the French lycee in London will read Gen de Gaulle's speech to Mr Sarkozy, the full text of which is inscribed on a bronze plaque at the foot of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

He was given a hero's welcome after the liberation of Paris in August 1944, but historians point out that he was not seen as a saviour in 1940.

They say his now revered broadcast went almost unnoticed at the time, with a very limited audience on the BBC French Service.

Mr Sarkozy's last official visit to the UK was in March 2008, when he was also accompanied by his supermodel-turned-singer wife.

The 36-hour stay was the first full state visit by a French president for 12 years.

DE GAULLE'S HISTORIC BROADCAST

Charles de Gaulle's broadcast on 18 June 1940

* Gen de Gaulle fled France on 17 June 1940 as a new administration sought an armistice with Hitler
* The next evening he urged the French to fight on in a BBC radio address from Broadcasting House
* Britain had turned his request to broadcast down, but the decision was reversed after PM Winston Churchill intervened
* To the general's fury, his speech was not recorded, so he returned four days later to deliver his message again

[Nathan Berelowitz]

There are definately less "rememberance" ceremonies these days on WW2.