On the morning of November 10, 1940, Free French troops entered Libreville, the capital of French Gabon, and the last holdout colony in Equatorial Africa fell into de Gaulle's hands. The Battle of Gabon lasted barely three weeks from its opening moves to the final surrender at Port Gentil, yet its consequences rippled far beyond this corner of the Gulf of Guinea. For the first time since the fall of France five months earlier, the Free French movement controlled a contiguous block of territory -- an entire federation of colonies stretching from the Atlantic coast to the border of Libya. Charles de Gaulle was no longer merely a voice on the radio. He had a country.
When Germany defeated France in June 1940, the colonies were forced to choose. Philippe Petain's collaborationist government in Vichy claimed authority over all French territories, while de Gaulle's June 18 radio appeal urged resistance. In Africa, the choice played out colony by colony across a single extraordinary week. On August 26, French Chad declared for the Free French. The next morning, a small group of Gaullists seized French Cameroon. On August 28, the pro-Vichy governor of French Congo was ousted, and the following day Ubangi-Shari joined de Gaulle. By the end of August, every colony in French Equatorial Africa had rallied to Free France -- except Gabon. Governor Georges Masson had briefly pledged allegiance to de Gaulle on the evening of August 28, but Libreville's French population and the colony's influential Catholic bishop, Louis Tardy, who favored Vichy's anti-Freemason policies, pressured him into reversing course. Free French sympathizers were arrested and deported to Dakar.
De Gaulle described the problem in his memoirs with characteristic precision: Gabon was 'a hostile enclave, that was hard to reduce because it gave on to the ocean, created in the heart of our equatorial holdings.' General Edgard de Larminat warned that failing to take Gabon would threaten 'the very principle of our presence in Africa.' The Free French began chipping away at the edges. In early September, Roger Gardet entered the northern town of Bitam on the pretext of medical necessity and persuaded the local garrison to switch sides. By September 6, Free French forces controlled the Woleu-Ntem district. On September 15, Colonel Andre Parant flew a dozen fighters into Mayumba on a Potez 540 aircraft and secured the southern coast through a combination of bluff and negotiation. On October 7, forces from Moyen-Congo occupied Booue in the interior. The noose was tightening.
De Gaulle arrived in Douala, Cameroon on October 8 and authorized a two-pronged invasion: one force would strike northern Gabon from Cameroon while another pushed into the south from Moyen-Congo, both converging on Libreville. On October 27, Free French forces crossed into Gabon and took the town of Mitzic after an aerial bombardment scattered the European officers. The remaining Gabonese soldiers switched sides. The Vichy garrison at Lambarene capitulated on November 5. The main assault force, led by General Philippe Leclerc and Major Marie Pierre Koenig, departed Douala with a mixed force of French Legionnaires from the 13th Foreign Legion Demi-Brigade, Senegalese tirailleurs, and Cameroonian troops. They landed at the Bay of Mondah on November 7, meeting stiff resistance as they fought toward the aerodrome.
The naval engagement proved equally dramatic. When the Vichy sloop Bougainville ordered a submarine to attack the Anglo-French task force, Admiral John Cunningham's flagship launched a Supermarine Walrus biplane that damaged the submarine with depth charges as it tried to dive. The submarine captain scuttled his vessel off Port Gentil rather than let it be captured. On the Ogooue River, the Free French vessel De Brazza encountered the Bougainville in a point-blank engagement. After Free French aircraft attacked, the Bougainville opened fire, but with a third of its crew ashore countering the land invasion, its gunnery was erratic. Twenty minutes later, the Vichy ship was disabled and ablaze. Libreville fell on November 10. Two days later, the final Vichy forces at Port Gentil surrendered without a fight.
The human cost remains disputed. De Gaulle himself claimed 'some twenty' died. Other accounts range from 33 killed to 'roughly one hundred,' with one source counting 35 Vichy and 8 Free French dead. Governor Masson, the man who had reversed his pledge to de Gaulle under pressure three months earlier, committed suicide upon the colony's fall. On November 15, de Gaulle personally appealed to captured Vichy soldiers to join the Free French, but most refused, including General Marcel Tetu. They were interned as prisoners of war in Brazzaville for the duration of the conflict. The campaign triggered a mass migration of Gabonese civilians to Spanish Guinea and severed French Equatorial Africa's economic ties with Vichy-controlled West Africa. But for de Gaulle, the prize was existential: Free France now governed a sizable territory. The movement born from a single radio broadcast had become a state.
Located at 0.39N, 9.45E near Libreville, Gabon on the Gulf of Guinea coast. Libreville International Airport (FOOL) is the nearest major field. The Bay of Mondah, where Leclerc's forces landed, is visible north of Libreville. The Ogooue River, site of the naval engagement between De Brazza and Bougainville, is a prominent feature winding inland from Port Gentil (FOOG) to the southeast. Port Gentil sits on an island in the river delta. At 5,000-15,000 feet, the coastal topography and river systems that shaped the campaign are clearly visible.