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''Les Forces Navales Françaises Libres'' ("Free French Naval Forces") were the naval arm of the Free French Forces during the Second World War. They were commanded by Admiral Émile Muselier. == History == In the wake of the Armistice and the Appeal of 18 June, Charles de Gaulle founded the Free French Forces (''Forces Françaises Libres'', or FFL), including a naval arm, the "Free French Naval Forces" (''Les Forces Navales Françaises Libres'', or FNFL). On 30 June 1940, De Gaulle was joined by vice-admiral Émile Muselier, who had come from Gibraltar by flying boat. Muselier was the only flag officer of the French Navy to answer the call of De Gaulle. The French fleet was widely dispersed. Some vessels were in port in France; others had escaped from France to British controlled ports, mainly in Britain itself or Alexandria in Egypt. At the first stage of Operation Catapult, the ships in the British ports of Plymouth and Portsmouth were simply boarded on the night of 3 July 1940. The then-largest submarine in the world, the ''Surcouf'', which had sought refuge in Portsmouth in June 1940 following the German invasion of France, resisted the British operation. In capturing the submarine, two British officers and one French sailor were killed. Other ships were the two obsolete battleships ''Paris'' and ''Courbet'', the destroyers ''Triomphant'' and the ''Léopard'', eight torpedo boats, five submarines (the ''Minerve'', ''Junon'') and a number of other ships of lesser importance. As soon as the summer 1940, the submarines ''Minerve'' and ''Junon'', as well as four avisos, departed from Plymouth. Towards the end of 1940, the destroyers ''Le Triomphant'' and ''Léopard'' followed. ''Le Triomphant'' sailed for New Caledonia and spent the rest of the war based there and in Australia. The ship saw action in both the Pacific and Indian Oceans. To distinguish the FNFL from the Vichist forces, vice-admiral Émile Muselier created the bow flag displaying the French colours with a red cross of Lorraine, and a cocarde also featuring the cross of Lorraine for aircraft of the Free French Naval Air Service (''Aéronavale Française Libre'') and the Free French Air Force (''Forces Aériennes Françaises Libres''). A number of ships were leased from the British to compensate for the lack of warships in the FNFL, among them, the Hunt class destroyer ''La Combattante'' and the Flower class corvette ''Aconit''. The FNFL suffered their first loss when the patrol boat ''Poulmic'' hit a mine and sank on 7 November 1940 off Plymouth.〔 (Paul Vibert ) on ordredelaliberation.fr〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Free French Naval Forces」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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