Charles de GAULLE urges combat a week after his appeal.

Charles de GAULLE (1890.1970)

Letter signed to Yvonne Salmon.

A typed and signed quarto page in turquoise ink.

London. St Stephen's House. June 27, 1940.

"Those who still have the freedom to do so must unite resolutely to resist and to prevail."

A moving letter from the General in the early hours of his British exile, less than ten days after his appeal of June 18, 1940, receiving the support of Yvonne Salmon to work for the national resistance.

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“Madam, The sentiments expressed in your letter are a precious encouragement to me. I thank you most warmly. In these tragic hours of world history, all those who still have the freedom to do so must unite resolutely to resist and to prevail.   I have taken careful note of your offer of contribution , and I would be pleased if you would come to my office to discuss how you could most usefully contribute to our task. Please accept, Madam, my respectful regards. C. de Gaulle. ”

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Yvonne Salmon (1885-1965), army nurse during the Great War, then professor of French civilization at the University of Reading, offered her services to General de Gaulle the day after the appeal of June 18. An active propagandist for Free France through the Alliance Française, she gave countless conferences and published in 1943, in London, the first biography of the leader of Free France entitled "General de Gaulle", which was republished in Algiers in 1945 and in Paris in 2010. After the war, she remained a convinced Gaullist.